The Puffer Forum

i have hair algae in my tank. my otto and zebra snails wont eat it. my guppys pick at it. my DP iqunor it and i hate it.
how can i solve this problem?

also,
my ph level keeps going to 7.0. this tank has been set up for way over a year now. this just started happening. the water ph out of the tap is at 8.0ph. its weird soon as i treat the tap water i test it. 8.0. then i dump it in. let it sit for 15 minutes and it reads 7.0..i keep using ph hardner and it says i can do something like 50 water changes before having to use the stuff again...well, try more like 2. i have all live plants in there my levels are:
nitrite:0
ammonia:0
nitrate:5

what to do?
my fish dont seem stressed by this at all. its real weird

Don't adjust your pH, the fish will do better if you just let it be.

Get some water out of the tap, treat it as if you were going to do a water change with it, but let it sit for 24 hours and then test the pH. Sometimes pH drops after its been exposed to oxygen, but as long as it stays stable once its dropped, there's nothing to worry about really.

Hair algae is a pain. One thing that helps sometimes is increasing current. Another is growing live plants that outcompete it for nutrients. Some people swear by breaking up the light cycle (6 hours on, 2 off, 6 on or something like that). I've never fully been able to defeat it since I moved, must be something in my tap water...

the only place its growing is where the current is. so i guess i can give it a go. try the light thing as well.

yah it is a pain in the butt