I have this black hair algae

I have a 55 gal freshwater tank. I have semi-agressive fish. I have over my live plants this black hair algae. its also on my plexiglass tank. I would like a fish or something that would eat the stuff.

 

Do you have Plecostomus in your tank? They are good at eating algae since that is their main diet!

 

pulmonate or apple snails will do the trick , bristle nose catfish will too but they grow huge ;D

 

yes i have a Plecostomus but it wont eat this type of black hair algae. my only concern with using snails is that thier population would explode.

 

I also want to make sure they wont eat my plants

 

bristl nose cat fish there cool and they clean up the tank ..they grow big though ..keeper for years

 

How I fixed it

I added some alde deystroyer and covered the tank with a blanket during the daytime. I also limited the light to just 4 or 5 hours a day. Its worked good so far

 

[SIZE=-1]Crossocheilus siamensis and [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]Jordanella floridae are a few of the only fish known to eat BBA. Alternatively you could attack it where it hurts, BBA thrives in low CO2, so manually removing infected leaves along with turning off air stones, lowering surface agitation, dosing Flourish excel, and setting up DIY CO2 will all work in your favor, and your plants will greatly appreciate all of that. IME, fish only keep it knocked down, but you'll never get rid of it without making the tank a less hospitable place for it. Alternatively, you could spot treat it with 1mm squirts of Flourish excel, this will kill it in short time, some people use a daily double overdose of Excel in the water column for about 2 weeks, but many are turning to the spot treatment as it is less wasteful and less likely to cause problems with livestock.
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I gotta agree whole heartedly, this stuff is nasty, but you also may not be talking about BBA you might be talking about the long stringy blue green stuff, once again plecos don't eat it (plecos just FYI eat algae when they are small and because its the only food source available, they would prefer to eat green wood and roots, becoming increasingly omnivorous with size), Siamensis will, so will cherry shrimp, amano shrimp, crystal shrimp, and guppies seem to love it. Most killis will munch on it and mollies will gobble some too.

Great advice jaidexl!!!

The snails that over populate are pond snails, but you can keep them in check, with a little herd of clown loaches.

Mostly though increase your CO2 make sure you have enough potassium, magnesium and iron. Also if your bulbs are tending towards the yellow end of the spectrum this can contribute somewhat to the problem as well. You really want light towards the visible ends of the spectrum reds and blue/violet. Their is a reason those plant grow bulbs are purplish pink. the BBA and the bluegreen stuff really does not grow well under bluer light. Also good pure source water is a must to keep this stuff in check, as is good clean aquarium water, you want your larger plants to out compete the micro plants ie algae.

 

Thanks Charlie

Since my last post, I've been toning down the 'tech' level of my planted tanks, canceling out cO2 injection and heavy dosing, after seeing some of the beautiful scapes done with low light by Oliver Knott and others that actually know how to scape (Dianne's have always been the popular low tech example but I don't feel she is much of a scaper), it's my new opinion that newcomers to the hobby are transforming it into a high light dominated one as it gains popularity, when it's really more than the plants need. I guess it depends on how busy you need to stay and how often you want to dose and trim.

So, my current advice for fighting BBA, along with the Excel spot treatment, is to cut the lighting down, since it's the gas pedal that creates CO2 and nutrient demand. For those injecting CO2, consistency in CO2 ppm seems to be more important for avoiding BBA than a magic number. The right plant species helps here, but after a few years of growing different species, I personally find that most of the plant profiles are exaggerated as far as requirements go. Mrkookm on plantedtank has been growing erios and tonina under 2wpg for some time now, and I'm currently watching erio type 2 grow better than any other plant in my tank with only 39w T5HO over 65gl, no CO2.