Black hair Algae! Help!!

[Tank Builder]

:HP Help me please! I have been battling black hair algae in my tanks for months and in not getting any closer to deffeting it! :FCG
It started in my 10 gall which was heavly planted with Amazon Swords and Java Fern. It quickly grew and soon every plant and leaf was covered in this stuff which looked horrid. :CY
I added Neritina Natelensis snails, comon snails but they just ate the green algae, not the hair!
I then started my 40 gall. Everything was going fine untill recently I can see hair algae taking hold again! I have everything for plants, CO2 injection, undergravel heating cables, nutrient rich laterite under the gravel so its a real shame to see my plants being overrun again. I have really high phosphates in my area but I cant seem to reduce them. My lights are on 14 hours a day (8-10), is this too much? Is there anything else I can do?
Any suggestions will be apreciated.

[Lucy]

First guess would be that you're doing too much for the plants, leaving nutrients left over for algae to grow. 14 hours is probably too much, try cutting back to 10 if you can. If you give any additives or fertilizer for the plants, try reducing that a little as well.

There are a couple fish that eat hair algae, if you do a search on "hair algae" in the freshwater forums it should turn up the threads. I'm pretty sure one of the fish was cherry barbs.

[aquak]

The fish that eat thread algae are ROSY barbs. They do a good, fast job. Mine died a while ago and I still haven't gotten any more of it, so I can say they are also thorough!
The only thing is, the thread algae I had was green and I don't know if there's a difference as far as the fish eating it.

[Lucy]

I had a feeling I got them mixed up, I was actually going to add that I might have mixed them up with rosy barbs, but thought I was right. :EM

[Tank Builder]

Thanks guys. I have cut the lighting back to 12 1/2 hours now and am going to cut it back to 10 if i can. The problem is that I leave at 8:30 in the morning so it has to come on then so I can give my fish breakfast. When I get home about 4 I still have alot of work to do and I dont usually get to sit down untill 6ish. Some nights im busy untill 9 oclock. This gives me very little time to sit down and watch the fish so Im trying to think of when I can turn them off and still see and feed them in the evenings.
I probably was adding to much plant food aswell so I have cut that down too.
Ive heard that Gouramis and shrimps are good at eating it too. Will my Honey Gourami and Armano Shrimps help?

[aquak]

You can get a timer for the tank. I feed my fish before the aquarium light goes on in the morning. They are awake and don't seem to mind eating in the semi-darkness. Then at night it can be on a bit longer. You can probably leave it on longer once the algae problem settles down. Mine are on from 7:30 to almost 9 and I don't have any algae trouble. I have plants but no CO2and I did have to get rosy barbs to eat the thread algae. It hasn't returned, even though they are gone now.

[Tank Builder]

Thanks for that, I didn't realise that my fish would eat in semi-darkness, ill give it a try.
My lights are on a timmer already so Ill try leaving them to turn on after ive gone and feed them before the lights come on. Thanks.

[Nooboon]

If you are worried about feeding the fish in the dark you can use a automatic feeder too.
Siamese algae eaters target black hair algae. Just be warned that there are a few other species sold under that name at times. Only the true siamese does a proper job.
A product by Seachem, Flourish excell, also seems to eradicate it if used at 2-3 times recommended dose. I don't no how this works (it is just a carbon source) but it does.

[Paidbychrist0825]

i know of one algea eating fish that wont touch hair algae...
I bought a pair of otocinclus cats about a month ago.. the remaining one wont touch it. i had 6 inch colonies before i noticed it... its even covering the amazon sword i bought at same time as the otos. I dont go upstairs often, which is where the tank is. scrubbing that was fun...
long story short, otos are not great algae eaters... i need a pleco and some rosy barbs