Looking for more plants to keep a lid on hair algae! I do water changes, but I think more plants would help.
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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What are your nitrates? I managed to find the imbalances in my water and go rid of all my algea issues. I run a high light tank. You need one high growth plant like I use hornwort. It keeps everything zeroed nutrients and nitrates zero because it's a fast growing plant. I leave mine looped a strand around the tank heater and it floats. Within 2 weeks. Algea growth stopped and retreated. I had green dust algea. You can have 100 plants but if theur all slow growers and I'm guessing so then it's not gonna make enough difference. Adjust your light schedule I stick to 8 hours on a timer. Feed less. Add less plant nutrients. Once your tank is balanced it feels so dreamy.
Hornwort, eh? Maybe I'll have to give it a shot.
Nitrates are as low as my chemicals will test for, but they aren't terribly high precision. I have small tank, so that is probably a contributing factor. I might try hornwort :)
Algea can't grow if there is no nutrients, and see the goal is to have the plants uptake all the nutrient content so there isn't anything for a 3rd party to consume. Thus you need a plant that is high growth speed which one of the easiest and cheapest to manage and buy is hornwort. Followed by a timed light schedule and I bet your issue will line out. If there is nothing extra for algea to eat it can't survive.