Freshwater help from my saltwater friends

[casey75]

I know this is a saltwater site but i need desperate help with my fresh water tank. It is a 12 gal eclipse and it has had a green hair algae problem for a while. I have started doing water changes to get rid of it but it keeps coming back. Today i got rid of plants in my tank that had algae on it and i removed and have to clean rocks that have it too. Im going to repace the filter pad in it to. My question is do i have to get every ounce of algae out of my filtration system before i can get rid of the algae(biowheel, etc.). I dont know what to do. Any other suggesetion on how to get rid of it would be great to.
All that is in the tank are some fancy tailed gupies, a cat fish, pleco, and a neon

 

[tizzo]

It is nowhere near sunlight is it?? First off, I would turn off the lights. You can remove the bio-wheel, but there really is no reason to. Can you buy a snail? Or a plucostymus (ooh, I prolly killed that spelling) Do small water changes daily, and stay away from tap water for the time being. HTH
Oh yeah, and I forgot to ask... You aren't running one of those CO2 machines for the plants that you had are you??

 

[tizzo]

oops!! I musta skipped right over that. (placo):thinking: lol

 

[bigarn]

Try cutting back on the length of time you have your lights on.
Is the water circulation good enough? If not, try an airstone.
A couple of Algae Eaters would help out also. I agree about the Pleco.....not good for 12 gallon. Definitely do water changes and check your readings. Hope this helps!

 

[casey75]

thanks for the info guys

 

[h2oengr]

Take out whatever your hair algae is on and scrub it with a toothbrush. Seriously, just scrub it and stick it back in. It worked for me and has for about 2 months now. Of course, you're going to need a clean up crew as mentioned herein by others. A pleco or two should do the trick.

 

[zap800]

ok now i got an area that i am really comforable with. i have been doing freshwater for a long time. there are many products out there that will destroy algea in fw tanks. i prefer the one that is a white bottle with a yellow top.the name escapes me now. sorry a brain lock. since this is a fw tank you can add alot of stuff to it because there are no inverts to worry about, plus you took out the plants.
1. do you use a long air stone? like about 10 or more inches.
2. what do you feed the fish? algea disks for the plecostomus?
3. i take it you use carbon and amo-chips?
4. move it away from any sunlight.
5. you use tap water? if so do you age it and use a conditioner?
6. how much do you vaccume the gravel?

 

[sebae0]

whatever you do make sure the algae you grab is pulled out or it will release th po4's back into the tank. try to limit your feeding and test your tap water. i'll garuantee its high in phospahte and thats whats causing your algae. dont remove the fw plants because they compete with the algae for the same nutrients.