remove hair algae from java moss?
fishwitch2
become a huge mass of java and long fine strands of algae,
intertwined. Manual removal is tedious, ineffective, and just makes
the java look bedraggled. The good thing is this stuff is not rooted,
so I could take it out and treat separately, w/o risking the rest of
the tank. But with what? I'd prefer not to kill off the java moss
since it was very hard to find a local source....
Thanks for any thoughts!
fw
LM
have found the ONLY remedy for hair/thread/beard algae infestation in
my house is siamese algae eater (the true kind.. crossocheilus
siamensis... there are many flying foxes and other false SAEs out
there).
both my 37G and 10G tank gets infested with the fluffy green stuff to
a point that the tank turns into green cotton candy inside within
days. It must be something in the water, and the tanks are in a
pretty bright room. I tried the darkness treatment, daily
toothbrushing, washing, changing water often, etc etc to no avail.
Otocincluses won't even touch them (although they do great things to
brown algae and some green hard stuff that gets on the glass). the
only thing that worked was to put in one SAE in a tank. within a
couple of days, all the fluff was all gone and stays gone... pretty
amazing, actually. They get pretty large tho. the SAEs I have in the
tank are probably closer to 6in from nose to tail. 10G tank is a bit
too small for the lone SAE sharing the tank iwth some neons, and she's
unhappy.. but I can't take her out since as soon as she's out, the
fluff grows back. I have two in my 37G sharing the space with some
small loaches and rasboras, and they seem ok.
I only have Java ferns, anubius, amazon sword... so for the most part
(as long as I keep the SAEs well-fed, that is. they are pigs in the
tank, when in competition with the loaches) they dont damage the
plants. but when I don't feed them for more than a day in the 37G
tank, they start turning all my java fern and amazon sword leaves into
stringy veins. they also strip my rotala indica into sticks routinely
(good thing they grow fast). so I don't know how your java moss would
fare. the lone SAE in the 10G don't damage the java ferns in
there... probably because she's sulking all day long, poor thing :-(
linda
fishwitch2
snails in the substrate). I can't see such a relatively large fish
fitting in well there :( thanks...
LM
out the tank for you. drawback of having small tanks (although your
20G is bigger than my 10G...). they start out small... many of the
books say SAEs only get to about 4in, but mine is clearly longer than
that.. may be it's feeding too well with the algae brew...
may be others have better fish recommendations... (my 2 SAE's n the
37G live pretty peacefully with the zebra loach, chain loach,
harlequins, otos...). but yeah.. if your 20G is well-stocked, adding
SAE might be a bit much of a load.
linda
tr...@io.com
I recently had the same problem. I whipped up a solution of about a
1.5 pints of tank water with about 10 - 15 drops of Cuprex II (a
stabilized copper sulfate solution) and soaked my java moss in that
for about 30 minutes to an hour. I was afraid it would kill the java
moss, but at that point, I didn't really care if it did -- and I have
other java moss in other tanks. Anyway, it seems to have killed the
hair algae and it's about three weeks later and the java moss is still
green and not decaying, so I think it worked.
The one mistake I did make is that I did not rinse the java moss
thoroughly after treatment, and two snails in the (5.5 gallon) tank
died. So beware if you have snails. I don't know if it was copper
solution carried between the moss fibers, or copper absorbed by the
plant tissues and then emitted into the water, or if the snails
browsed on copper contaminated dead algae or living java moss.
You might want to try this with half your java moss and see how it
goes. I'm still pretty surprised that it didn't kill my java moss.
Jeff Walther
Altum
cause issues with hair algae.
--Altum
fishwitch2
> I recently had the same problem. I whipped up a solution of about a
> 1.5 pints of tank water with about 10 - 15 drops of Cuprex II (a
> stabilized copper sulfate solution) and soaked my java moss in that
> for about 30 minutes to an hour. ....snip........
> You might want to try this with half your java moss and see how it
> goes. I'm still pretty surprised that it didn't kill my java moss.
So what happened to the algae? You mentioned the snails might have
eaten some dead stuff, so I assume some of it stuck around, but did
the rest dissolve or? Seems like a big bioload of dead stuff could
cause it's own problems though I love the idea of killing the algae!
fishwitch2
then), and I don't think my light counts as bright, since it's an
Eclipse II with now aging bulbs.... Basically, I can grow crypts
(lots) and java moss. And algae, I guess!
fishwitch2
> Seems like a big bioload of dead stuff could
> cause it's own problems though I love the idea of killing the algae!
bart
tr...@io.com
I didn't examine things closely being busy with several other things
at once and I wasn't too worried about bioload because:
A) I didn't think about it
B) I'm doing 60 - 70% water changes on that tank every other day
because it's 5.5 gallons and has about 130 sword tail babies in it.*
However, from what I remember, I don't recall seeing any obvious dead
algae after the treatment. I suspect the stuff more or less
dissolved into a colorless goo the way dead algae often does.
* Now working quickly to get the other 30 gallon tank established as
a new home for the adult swordtails so that the babies can move into
the sword's old 20 gallon tank as a new grow out tank -- which will
still be inadequate. Sigh.
Jeff Walther