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Hairy Hornwort?

1K views 16 replies 6 participants last post by  turtle10 
#1 · (Edited)
I have some horn wort in my 10 gallon, and there had been little green 'hairs' growing off of it, what is it?
 
#3 ·
I remember reading somewhere that high nitrate levels in your tanks are breeding grounds for hair algae. Hair algae can spread rapidly if ignored. Make sure you do frequent water changes to lower your nitrate levels. You should give your hornwort a good scrub or just throw it out. Also, snails will help eat the algae.
 
#6 ·
I left mine for two days to take care of school to come back to a ruined tank.
:( take care of it as fast as you can. It will suck up everything and the plants will die.
 
#8 ·
If you have live plants in your tank, you will need some levels of nitrates since it is one of the main macro nutrients plant absorb along with phosphorus and potassium (NPK). Also, limiting nutrients for plants, can cause imbalances that can really give algae a foothold in your tank.

If you can manage to manually remove most of the hair algae, you can purchase some Seachem Excel (if you don't have it already) and squirt it on any remaining algae. This should kill it off, and then you can use the rest of the bottle as a carbon supplement for your plants. Hopefully, once your hornwort starts growing, it will out-compete the algae for nutrients, and you won't see so much of it.
 
#10 ·
Yeah it's fine. I overdose my tanks because I have some faster growing stems in them and my fish haven't suffered any ill effects. You just have to use a syringe or something and really squirt the algae itself. I suppose if the plant isn't too established in the substrate, you could just pull it out and give it a bath in excel. Although I'm not quite sure if you'd need to dilute it or not first.
 
#12 ·
Alright guys, I tested the water with a kit. Suprisingly, everything was low, the ammonia is a bit higher, but I am overdue on a water change. Nitrates and nitrites were really low. I couldn't find any seachem excel. Is Tetra Algae Control any good? I don't want to be poisoning any fish.
 
#16 ·
I heard ya. Cirrus has been in there for a while now, and I don't have any extra QT tanks, excluding the lil' guy's cup. I'm gonna do a 50% change tomorrow.

Oh, and I decided just to throw the hornwort out. I am sticking with silk plants. Plus, I always have my beautiful Java fern and Anubias. :)
 
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