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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #925

> Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 11:54:21 -0600 (CST)
> From: Anton D Solovyov <s691461 at bcm_tmc.edu>
> Subject: Algae growing - please heeeeeelp!!!!!
> 
> Plese help me: I am being overcome with hair algae... It grows everywhere: on
> plants, on the walls, in riccia, just floating on the surface etc... It is a
> 55 gal tank that has 2 GE plant&aquarium lamps, 1 GE sunlight and 1 cool
> white lamp. It has a lot of plants and 6 convicts with babies in it. It also
> has one 5 inch plecostomus. 

The first thing you should do is check your water quality, especially
phosphates and nitrates.  I recently had a green hair algae explosion when
I upgraded my lighting from 1.5W/gal to 3W/gal.  When I tested the water,
I found nearly zero nitrates, but about 2.5ppm of phosphate (must have
been due to overfeeding).  Through several partial water changes and the
addition of a phosphate sponge in my filter, I was able to get the
phosphates down to about .5ppm, and the algae problems have been greatly
reduced (though nothing gets rid of BBA, of course).

Platys will also eat green hair algae to some extent, but usually not
enough to make a serious dent in it (in my experience).

Paul