Let's Get Rid of the Black Algae

[ferret]

The increased lighting seems to have taken a toll on the brown algea, but the black algae has come back in force to take its place.. What can I do really?

I've heard in the past of having the lights off for an hour in the middle of the day helping with algae, opinions?

 

[TankGirl]

That trick has worked for me, and I think BrianNY had luck doing it as well. Does your tap water have high phosphates?

 

[ferret]

My timers are now set to have light from 10:00 to 22:00. At 15:30 the lights go off for an hour, coming back on at 16:30.

I'm probably going to stagger the lights as well, with one starting at 11:00 instead of 10:00, and the other ending at 21:00 instead of 22:00.

 

[TankGirl]

Please let us know how this goes for you with this particular type of algae - this would be an easy fix for folks to keep in their arsenal.

 

[Guest]

Hey ferret,

Have you identified the algae? Is it BBA? Hair algae? The first point of attack to any algae is identifying it first.Let us know what it is.

 

[ferret]

Not sure of how things are going yet. Per my previous post on the brown algae, that problem appears to be mostly gone away. The black algae is shortish, maybe half an inch max, kinda like hair. Its black though, not the dark greyish I'm used to from another tank that had hair algae.