{"id":1962,"date":"2015-05-26T21:31:04","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T21:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/justthesam.com\/?p=1962"},"modified":"2015-05-26T21:31:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T21:31:04","slug":"banishing-black-hair-algae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justthesam.com\/?p=1962","title":{"rendered":"Banishing black hair algae"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tropical<\/a><\/p>\n

Update:<\/strong> Did it work? Better check out my new post with the results<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’ve had a big problem with Black brush\/hair algae<\/a> in my tropical fish tank. It appears as slimy black fur perhaps 5mm long on most\u00a0surfaces: especially the (plastic) plants, bogwood and gravel, though not so much the glass. Sometimes I deep clean the tank and put all the plants and ornaments in a bucket of bleach, which leaves things fairly sparkling, but within just three weeks those items are coated again. Anti-hair algae treatment didn’t seem to work especially well and neither did a special ‘teabag’ in the water. It’s very wearing and I couldn’t go on like that, so time for more definitive understanding and action!<\/p>\n

I took a water sample to my favourite local aquarium, to get it tested for phosphates, and sure enough it registered at the top of the scale. Algae thrive on phosphates so I was advised to tackle this with a two-pronged approach:<\/p>\n