The Truth About Hair Algae — Why It’s Not Always Bad

But it's really easy to remove and I can show you guys how much hair algae I let grow for you guys where you could actually see how you remove it. It's about the size of my hand and it hasn't hurt the tank. It looks unsightly. I don't like the way it looks but it hasn't hurt my fish. It hasn't hurt the tank. It's actually probably helped the water parameters because it is a plant still. I mean algae is a type of plant. But there's the main uses that I have for it is to one take it out of the tank and then just throw it in my scuds bucket or throw it in the compost heap. And then you know it still it doesn't go to waste though. It's better than just throwing it into the landfill. Right. But it's really easy to remove. There's three ways you can remove it. If I go to use my hands I need to wash my hands first because I did not use a natural lotion today. I used store-bought store-bought lotions. Big no-no. Don't put your hand in that tank if you've got store-bought lotion on. It needs to be all natural or it will foul your tank. The chemical that's in it is horrible for your fish tank. So I'm going to show you two other ways and then I'll probably go wash my hands and just show you. All you got to do is stick your hand in there, grab it, swish it in the water, pull it up. It's really easy. It's not as hard as what everybody thinks it is. But you know Brenda because you remove it all the time. You're like oh yeah. You just reach in and grab it. I do. Right. That's usually the way I do it which if I go to do that I probably should go wash my hands real quick and just show them how easy it is to do it with your hands because a lot of people are scared to death of putting their hand in the tank. But if you're one of the people that's scared of putting your hand in the tank, I'm not tank shaming you. That's your business. What you can do is you can get a pair of aquarium tweezers. I'll show you how to do it. You just wrap it up, throw it in a bucket, you're good. Or you can get some of those medical gloves. I actually got some down here because I like to use these for when I'm cleaning. That way none of the cleaning chemicals gets on my hands because it breaks me out. You can always use a medical glove. You can put that on if you're worried but really it's not a big deal. You can see that it's a really big piece of hair algae. Now I took out the rest of it pretty much because it was just getting to be too much hair algae. But all you got to do is you want to watch out for the little fish. All right. If you're worried about that you're going to catch the fish, take it. Do that. Just rip a little bit. See how there's snails in there? Take it, swish it, and that'll make sure there's no baby fry hidden in there. You will still have snails in there but that's not a big deal. What I like to do with it to make sure that I've got all the fish and snails out is I'll take the hair algae, pick it up, let it drain, and then I've got a five gallon bucket down here with water that's the same temperature as the tank. I'm like just sit there and swish it for a second if you're worried about the fry getting in there because I'm always worried about my fry. Then just grab it, let it drain, and I'm going to pick out that little piece of grass and then just throw it in the bucket. It's really easy and it's easier to do it with your hands than it is with everything else. Your hands is really the easiest way. Now the next way if I get it in frame is these little aquarium tweezers. You can just pick it, pull it, pick up, but you see it only gives you a little bit when you use the aquarium scissors if you lift straight up. Instead of doing that, the easiest way if you don't have a lot of fry in the tank, which I have a lot of fry in this tank so I'm not going to do it, is to just take it, swish it, and then slowly roll it up. This one piece right here I'm making sure there's no fry. All you have to do is just do that, keep twirling it, and then eventually you'd have the whole mat stuck to this. But it's really just easier to go ahead and get your hands in there, not worry about it, don't overthink it. Yes it's a little bit gross, but guess what? Nature can be. It's not something to be scared of. All you got to do is just swish it around, and you see even with my hands I still get more, but it still is going to come apart. It's because it's terrible. It's got the consistency of really fine wet hair, and yes this is slimy. Anybody that has problems with sliminess, you may not want to use your hands to do this. You may want to use the squeezers, or use a pair of gloves. But just swish it, and pick it up, and then just drop it in the bucket. You've got several uses for this. Some people compost it, some people like to put it in their scud buckets. Funny thing about scuds is if you have them in a dedicated bucket, they will eat this. In the aquarium they still will eat it, but not as much because guess what? They like to eat the fish food and the fish waste. So if they've got a better source like that, that's easier, and they don't have to work for it, and that's what they're going to do. They're going to go after that. You see how these are little tiny pieces here? I've got the main big pieces. That is actually easier to pick up and remove with the squeezers. Well for this tank, I wanted the hair algae to grow where I could show how easy it is to remove, and that it's not something to worry about. So I've left it on a good 12 hours a day, sometimes 16 hours a day. Usually I let it run 10 to 12 depending on the season. In the summer I like to let it run a little bit longer, and if you decrease the lighting, you won't have this problem. I mean you really won't. I actually had to work to get this problem because what causes it is overfeeding or having too many fish, and I don't know if you guys will be able to see this or not. I'm going to try. Can you guys see all those little fry? Yeah, that's just one side of the tank, and these are active because I'm messing with them. They're doing pretty good. I mean if we leave them alone, they do good. We have one tank, well we have this tank here that has a chair here that's got shrimp in it, and we have one of the 10 gallons that we have shrimp in it. So we're trying to multiply them in there, and then there's a couple of tubs in the back. So as long as it's plants and shrimp, we have plecos back there, the little baby plecos. As long as they're left alone, they do pretty good. I would say probably three to four times a week. The maintenance feeding that I do here, which is the once a day just to go through and everybody. I do that Monday through Friday. There are some like the babies that get fed two to three times a day, and that's every day. And Dre's got a really good point. When you deal with the fish tank, definitely use unscented hand soap. Yes, which I did and took off the rings, except for this one. It's just a thin ring, because soap can get under there, so you want to make sure there's no soap. Right. Yeah, so the good thing about eastern musk turtles is they like to stay in more shallow water. They stay small. The female gets up to five inches. The male is between three and four once they're fully grown. They're really easy turtles to keep. They actually go into a hibernation mode in the winter, so you don't really have to worry about bringing them inside, which is nice. That's the ones I would recommend, because that's my favorite type of turtle to keep. That's the smallest that you can give it in really good. And all I have to do, I've got a watering can right here. I just add a little bit of water to it, really about once every two weeks, because I don't want to over saturate it. But yeah, that's the little desert terrarium. And it would be a really nice setup if you had it in like an actual aquarium for like a bearded dragon or really any type of little desert critter that you like. Then over here's the turtles. And this is a 75 gallon tank. I'm not sure if we're going to have any of them out. Yep, we do. There's the little female eastern musk turtle. She's about a year old. Very feisty. I would not recommend putting fish in there with her unless you want because yeah, she is very bitey. The minute you'll see her try to bite me, because she is a little bitey girl. She's coming up. She's going to actually show up for you guys. Yes, yes. Oh look, I'm getting food. Right? She knows that if I get near this tank, it's feeding time. She knows that. The male's more shy. He doesn't really come out very much. But her, she loves to come out. She is about twice as big as the male. That's because she beats him up, takes his food. Oh, she will. I have to feed her on the opposite side because she will latch on to his head. She is a little terror. When I named her war turtle after the Pokemon, she really lives up to her name. You can see how chunky she is. She's a little chunky girl. So I've got where whenever he comes out, I get him up here on the landmass, feed him, then try to lure her over here to this other landmass. Welcome to the tank. It's a world brand new. Aquarium life with a clearer view. From mud and gravel to the plants that grow. We teach the secrets every fish keeper should know. Takes the stress out the hobby for you. Building peace in the glass. Let the calm shine through. Community strong. We're learning side by side with Father Fish as the guide. 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