Green water and Hair algea!!!

[jweintraub]

Well as some of you already know from another post I started yesterday I just got back from a 5 weeks school that the army sent me to, leaving the care of my 2 tanks in my wife's hands. She was very hesitant to do too much with the tanks even though I had showed her how to do EVERYTHING on several occasions on tank maintenance and such.

When I walked in the door yesterday the first thing I see is my 42G tank with a nice green tint in the water and hair algea at least 1/2" long covering the entire back wall of the aquarium. I used my scraper and got off as much as I could but of course it's also all over my amazon swords and anything else it could grip onto.

As of now I've turned off the lights and covered the tank for almost 24 hours. I'm wondering what other steps I can use to get my tank looking somewhat normal again? I'd take pics but for one I'm not planning on uncovering the tank until tomorrow morning and secondly I'm quite embarrased!

Any and all help would be GREATLY appreciated!

[cocoa_pleco]

just have a blackout with the lights, scrape off the current algae, and do some water changes so that the nitrates dont keep the algae going.

What a crappy thing to come home to. My auratus/tetra/brichardi tank has the same wild algae problem too

[hungryhound]

She was very hesitant to do too much with the tanks even though I had showed her how to do EVERYTHING on several occasions on tank maintenance and such.

I hope that you wife does not read the bored as you may be sleeping on the couch if she reads this thread. :wink2:


I do feel for you as I am in the middle of battling a diatom and hair algae pandemic. If I somehow come across a good way to get the hair algae under control I will pass along the information.

[jweintraub]

Thanks so much y'all... This definately isn't fun!

[Chrona]

Blackout(24-72 hours), lots of large water changes, and some Seachem Flourish Excel. Hair algae is readily eaten by many types of fish/inverts, but you probably want to start with other methods than sticking more fish in the tank. Green water will be taken care of after 24-48 hours of blackout.

[blue fin]

Blackout(24-72 hours), lots of large water changes, and some Seachem Flourish Excel. Hair algae is readily eaten by many types of fish/inverts, but you probably want to start with other methods than sticking more fish in the tank. Green water will be taken care of after 24-48 hours of blackout.

I tried that.. never worked, had to resort to a uv lamp, took 5 days and cleared up my tank like I've never seen, I must have tried blackouts water changes and algae treatments 5 times or more.. couldn't stand to keep putting the algae treatment in the tank so I tried the lamp. Worked like a charm.

[cocoa_pleco]

bluefin! glad to see you back!

yeah, i remember you had algae issues.

[blue fin]

bluefin! glad to see you back!

yeah, i remember you had algae issues.

Water is still heavenly.... the fish are still healthy although I cant keep a snail alive.... lost 3 so far, funny thing is I have regular algae now that the green water is gone, I leave it alone to give the fish an alternative food source, ...figures, my girls like snails, most people cant get rid of the little buggers and I can't keep one alive....

Oh.. by the way...thanks for the good word... I'm never far away but I ride my motorcycle, do woodworking and countless other projects and when the weather gets better I tend to be stuck doing all sorts of projects... never get any rest.

[Chrona]

I tried that.. never worked, had to resort to a uv lamp, took 5 days and cleared up my tank like I've never seen, I must have tried blackouts water changes and algae treatments 5 times or more.. couldn't stand to keep putting the algae treatment in the tank so I tried the lamp. Worked like a charm.

Was it a complete blackout? Ie covered the tank with a blanket or something? The UV lamp is definitely one of the best ways, but it's also expensive mind you :)

[cocoa_pleco]

UV's are only about 100$ here.

I want one, they sound good

[blue fin]

Was it a complete blackout? Ie covered the tank with a blanket or something? The UV lamp is definitely one of the best ways, but it's also expensive mind you :)

No blanket, but zero direct sunlight even hit the single window that this room has and I left the heavy winter curtains closed the whole time, I kicked it back a whole lot but never completely got rid of it... extremely frustrating.

[blue fin]

oh and by the way, found petsmart had the least expensive uv lamp at 50 bucks with it's own water pump self contained....no cutting of the hoses to my filter.

[2manyfish]

I'm running the Turbo Twist UV in my saltwater tank after a breakout of green water. I tried everything too but when I got the UV going it only took two days for the water to clear!! I run it contiously now mainly because of the peace of mind it gives me!
But, I gotta say that it hasn't been all peaches and cream! The clip that holds the unit on the tank came apart one night! The return tube ended up flipping out of the tank so that the water was just shooting out. Had about 60 gallons of saltwater all over the floor!! I got a call at work that night from my hubby and I had to rush home...what a mess that was!! Now I got that clip glued together and the tubing has pvc pipe that hangs off the tank so no way in heck is that thing going to move on it's own again!!

[blue fin]

I'm running the Turbo Twist UV in my saltwater tank after a breakout of green water. I tried everything too but when I got the UV going it only took two days for the water to clear!! I run it contiously now mainly because of the peace of mind it gives me!
But, I gotta say that it hasn't been all peaches and cream! The clip that holds the unit on the tank came apart one night! The return tube ended up flipping out of the tank so that the water was just shooting out. Had about 60 gallons of saltwater all over the floor!! I got a call at work that night from my hubby and I had to rush home...what a mess that was!! Now I got that clip glued together and the tubing has pvc pipe that hangs off the tank so no way in heck is that thing going to move on it's own again!!

That's the other reason I like the unit from Petsmart, it's completely in the tank so it can't cause a leak outside