I had a hair algae problem that kept getting worse no matter what I did. This method with black out days was effective immediately, like magic, and cost nothing. You solved a lot of peoples' problems with a video that is under 2 minutes. Amazing. Thanks for sharing this!!
@@FishForThought Hey CHRIS..we love your voice.. I just subscribed by listening to your soothing and peaceful voice.. Later became ur FAN❤ (for such informative, genuine and Cool presentations) 😇
I also find tube/straw-cleaning brushes are really useful when trying to remove it manually. Just by swirling around the algae you can get rid of it much more than with your hands.
I used the big tweezer that comes with aquarium tool set. Swirl it around and gently grip and you'll get most of it. But to stop it from growing I replaced sponge defusers and scrubbed down all hardscape with a toothbrush, it seemed to have "roots" in those places.
Chris is so inspirational he through his videos he has contributed to all of my tanks. Thanks to his inspiration all of my tanks look amazing and I go into my room and I am just constantly mesmerized by my tanks. Guest will come to my house and ask questions like how does your tank look lively or why are your fish so interesting and all I can do is point them to your channel thank you so much.
Omg I was about to search for ways to get rid of hair algae and you uploaded at the perfect time! My newly set up planted tank has alot of hair algae... i dont have any shrimps but hopefully this will work🤞
I googled the question, what looks like hair and snot in my aquarium? Lol it started showing me different types of algae. When I saw hair algae, I saw your video. Sooooo helpful! I'm just getting over being sick but come Sunday I'll try and get out as much as I can with a toothbrush. Thanks for the informative help about the lights being on a timer. I KNEW it was too much. My smart alecky kids think they know everything. They said because I have some kind of neon pink and neon yellow fish, that the Blue light has to stay on like 16 hours a day or they will lose their color. I've been too sick to debate it with them. But they need to keep their noses out of my aquarium. If I want their opinion, I will just come back here and ask you! 🥰
Im LUCKY if hair algae is growing in my tank because that means black beard/staghorn algae and cyanobacteria AREN'T growing 😭😭😭😭😭 when I had a green hair algae outbreak in my shrimp tank, I removed most of it manually and intentionally left some for my shrimp..to my dismay it was replaced by staghorn algae. I'm just a girl trying to grow some plants here!!😂
I’m definitely going to try the black out days. Thanks! Floater plants helped for a bit, until they took too much light and nutrients from my other plants, causing them to weaken and almost die out.
I've literally been sitting here for hours watching the aquarium I set up today. Doesn't even have any livestock bc I need to cycle, but it's just so neat to look at! I'll submit for FTR as soon as it's stocked!
All great tips, thank you! I wanted to introduce Amano shrimp, but my zebra danios make their lives impossible. So... dimming the lights. Will nerite snails eat hair algae?
Uuuhhhh, aweeeesssooommeee... I just had a conversation with Chris about teaching me something...... And here is the video..... I am lucky....... Thanks Chris... ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I'm going to try this starting today, as the manual/ brushing and spot H2O2 is just not cutting it either. My plants, fish & shrimp are very happy with a nutritious substrate, I regularly underfeed but the plants growth is best with a good substrate, so not wanting to mess up my bio filter with anymore chemicals, fingers crosses, will update on the result
I'm new to this channel. Hi, I really love watching your videos before I go to bed because your voice is so calming. I prefer them over ASMR 🤭. Love from India 🇮🇳❤️
So having some issues with hair algae myself. This may sound like a dumb question Will the blackout days just destroy my already established plants? Dwarf sag Dwarf hair grass Four leaved clovers that are acting as floaters Crypts (the dwarf and red leaved ones) Amazon sword Java fern
I swirl a toothbrush around mine and manually remove, and suck out as much as I can when I water change. Luckily, it’s only a few clumps and not out of control!
@@kelly-bo-belly best thing I did was get a Siamese flying fox fish because they like eating it. Also start putting seachem flourish excel in daily That really helps believe it or not. !
What I do: 1. manually remove hair algae with an old toothbrush 3. add a few ramshorn snails to completely obliterate the rest i struggled with hair algae for several months but the snails ate all of it within a week. I now have not seen any hair algae since then. another tip is if you have green spot algae, you can scrub off with old toothbrush or add nerites. They’re really good for that.
I have been battling hair algae for about 3 months now. Just got some fancy guppies and a few American Flag fish(or Florida Flag fish) and wow they are mowing right through it. Just fyi if you want some new fish and maybe need some to help with hair algae.
Hello, I am stir-crazy at this very moment I have a planted scape aquarium the plants that are in the substrate don't have any hair algae growing on them. My salvinia and red root duckweed are in a web of hair algae and it smells to high heaven. Also, the salvinia is turning yellow. The red root duckweed roots are no longer red but green. What is going on?
I just go to my LFS and buy a small small siamese algae eater and let he/she eating it all. (There's around like a 70% chance it will eat the hair algae or it will just eat your plants). I've had good luck and had my siamese eat my hair algae. I got hair algae back in my iwagumi shrimp tank and my shrimps aren't even eating it LOL. After the siamese grows a little bigger I usually just donate it back to the LFS since siamese only cost me around $3-$5. Better than buying like 10 amanos. Amanos usually eat hair algae (for ME) if I starve them but my shrimp tanks are always well fed to promote breeding.
I do the same on my tank but I also have Palaemonetes paludosus, Caridina multidentata, Ampullariidae, and Ancistrus in my tanks and I have no algae problem unless I forgot to close the lights.
Thank you! Question to the peeps here: I kinda want to feed my fish twice a day, but I leave home at 6.30 in the morning and won't get home until around 5 in the afternoon... is it ok to have the timer turn the lights off for a few hours during the day, or will that stress the fish? Should i instead just feed once a day...?
it's totally fine some high tech people do it and call it a siesta and say they see better plant health or whatever. But just remember to keep the total lighting period to around 8 hours!!
This might be a silly question... but when you are on the '2 days on, 2 days off' lighting phase - is the light on continuously for 48 hours, then off continuously for 48 hours? Or is it 2 days of lights on for a normal 8 hours, then 2 blackout days? Thanks :)
