# Attack of the Hair Algae!



## logan84 (Jul 27, 2011)

I've seen and experienced many algaes before. But hair algae is a first for me that I think I acquired from one of my moss purchases. 

I do my water changes of at least 40% each weekend and my microswords are all sending out runners... but this hair algae is blowing up my mosses (assuming cause they are slow growers?). Each night I sit down with my toothbrush and twirl up and out as much as I can. 

My next step is to get some phosphate absorbing media as that worked wonders in my other tank against brown algae. However I'd like a little helping hand with this... as much as I'm against it I'm thinking about waging chemical warfare on the algae just to help me get it under control during my water changes and physical removal. 

It is a planted tank that houses manly inverts. Any suggestions? I feel like a total n00b. A sad total n00b. Water is clean and crystal clear. Shrimp are happy as clams. Assassin snails are assassinating other snails. Plants are growing. But the hair algae! The hair algae!!


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Reduce lighting to half for a week or two. Killing them totally may not be necessary, but may work also. You can't do much with your inverts in there, otherwise Excel may work for you.


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## logan84 (Jul 27, 2011)

jrman83 said:


> Reduce lighting to half for a week or two. Killing them totally may not be necessary, but may work also. You can't do much with your inverts in there, otherwise Excel may work for you.


Tell me more about this Excel... please. 

I read that some people dose Excel for hair algae. And I DO have some Excel on hand. But when it comes to the invert tanks I'm always so skiddish to add any chemicals... but I'd be interested in what you have to say about it.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

Algae never scares me... except when you mix hair algae with moss! I've never worked out how you get rid of it for good without getting rid of the moss. Never tried excel though. In low light the moss grows faster than the algae so no major problem, in higher light the algae starts to win.


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## jbrown5217 (Nov 9, 2011)

I doesed flourish excel for my plants for a small amount of time to help them grow and it killed all the hair algae I had in my tank. 

I also had snails in there and nothing bad happened to them.


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