The battle with Hair algae/string algae

It all started in the NPT research tank last fall. Despite ripping it off with hands, a bunch of cherry shrimp and trying black outs - it went rampant. Pretty much killing off all of the plant material in that tank by the time the research period ended (Jan) and we broke down the tank and weighed the biomass. We chose to do nothing 'chemically' since the tank was to be purely natural.( On the bright side, the guppies reproduced much more successfully in that tank as compared to the MPT tank.)



Well, as things always end up when you have more than one person working with fish tanks, the algae spread throughout most of my planted tanks. I tried my best to keep it under control with vigorous pulling - but it was horribly invasive and began to seriously hinder the growth of some of my slower growing plants.

Since I'm now into shrimps, algaecides were no longer an option - so I began to surf the web in search of solutions.......

I found mention of MTS controlling this type of algae. So I ordered 50. While they seemed to 'clean out' one of my 10G that sits in a window - they didn't stop the continuing encroachment of string algae in my other 6 tanks. I then found mention of using rapid growing plants such as duckweed to 'starve out' the algae - so I added duckweed to each tank. Without much success against the algae - but a boom for the pond snails!

Ok, though the water tests kept giving levels that were low in all the nutrients this string/hair algae needs - I was still fighting with the continual rise of pH due to algal photosynthesis. No to mention the darned stuff kept multiplying by the hour it seemed! So I hit the internet highway yet again...

This time I found three potential solutions: Barely extract, hydrogen peroxide treatment & CO2 addition.

I first tried the syringe filled with hydrogen peroxide treatment, targeting each bunch of hair/string algae with a few pressurized squirts. Dented the growth but didn't kill the stuff. So I tried dunking all the affected plants from one of the tanks directly into the hydrogen peroxide - then rinse, then replant. Even with an increase in aeriation, I ended up with half my cherry shrimp dead the next morning as well as the anacharus. But it was actually a successful treatment, since I now have no algae in that tank. The mosses made it as did most of the tougher plants. None of the guppies were affected.

Ok, but the shrimp kill took that treatment off the table for my other afflicted shrimp tanks. So I finally located some barley extract (expensive!) and some liquid carbon supplementation. (not terribly bad in price) Started the barley treatment by itself for the first four weeks - the string/hair algae slowed down immediately and no fish/invertebrates died.

So I added the liquid carbon treatment to the plan about two weeks ago. That did it! The string/hair algae is slowly shrinking and disintegrating - and my mosses and plants have gone NUTS! Again, no fish/shrimp issues at all.

So I will always add liquid carbon and barley extract to all of my tanks as a precautionary method. I hope my experience will help some of you.

Thanks for the info. Glad to hear you found a better alternative!

2SciCrazed
First Lieutenant So I will always add liquid carbon and barley extract to all of my tanks as a precautionary method. I hope my experience will help some of you. Where did you find this stuff? Might help others to know.

Petsmart. Looked online first, but shipping negated savings. Petsmart has the liquid CO2 booster for $9 -12 . Petco has the barley extract for $19. Should last several months in my 10G setups - or a year if I had just one tank.