Green hair/thread algae (what will eat it?)

[bairwin]

Hello. My wife and I are relatively new to planted aqauriums. We have a 90gal established for approx 1 year now. I have CO2 injection and the plants are really coming along nicely. When we first established the planted tank we ended up with an infestation of black hair/thread type algae. We ended up purchasing some real Siamese algae eaters and these things ate the black algae like spagetti - it was great. However recently we've come into a smaller infestation of green hair/thread type algae. Unfortunately the SAE don't seem to touch the green stuff. I also have a smaller pleco, chinese algae eater, Otos, mollys, gold tetras, and rosy barbs. However none of these fish seem to eat the stuff at all. I was led to believe the Rosy barbs would work but they turned out to be a bust. I've recently put Fluval Clearmax phosphate removal pillows in my canister filter. The green thread algae seems to slow down now however it would be nice to have some fish that eat the stuff. Any other suggestions about a type of fish that will eat this stuff??? Thank you in advance for any advice. Brian.

[Sharon]

I'm not sure what the solution is but I'll bump this up for you. I would have suggested SAEs as I thought they eat any algae...Hope someone can help!:ssmile:

[PostalPenguin]

http://www.guitarfish.org/algae

Good site with pictures on algae.

[Northernguy]

Maybe do a DIY Co2. That may help out with the algae.
There is also this you may want to read.
http://plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9

Here is a great thread on making a DIY set up for cO2.
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=16485

[Somethings Fishy]

You could try breaking your light cycle into two halves. Lights on for 4-6hrs. Off for 2-4hrs. On again for 4-6hrs. Plants get started with photosynthesis very quickly after the lights come on. Algae on the other hand need extended periods of light in order to photosynthesis properly. Breaking the light cycle will stop the algae growing/spreading by denying it the lighting period it needs to grow. In some cases it may even die back. Your plants on the other hand will remain for the most part unaffected as they can make use of available light much faster & therefore still photosynthisis. As a bonus it means you can have the lights on later at night while you are home because they spend the few hours off in the middle of the day while your at work.

I have the same sort of algae in one tank & the only things I've seen eat it are platies & otocinclus but niether in sufficent quantities to make a dent in it. The lighting method is working quite well at stopping it's spread though.

[Bur01014]

Got a timer.... doing the light split method....no algae growth at all....last week I had increased algae growth daily.....good advice, thanks!