Algae help needed please!

[TheresaM]

16g bowfront, moderately planted (swords, vals, dwarf sag, dwarf water lettuce). ~10 per day with a Flouramax bulb. The tank is directly across from a large window that faces southeast. I use Flourish once a week.

I just noticed this dark algae on one of the swords and a couple of the sags....what is it, why is it there, and how do I get rid of it?

Thank you plant experts

 

[evil Nick]

I get the same thing. Its a pain. My amanos and red rams horn used to attack it but now that they're gone I have to get more.
Could look for them to add to the tank.
Other than that on my val I just cut the blades down with it as it grows really fast.
Its also gotten on one of my Anubis's and I'm thinking of taking it out and cleaning it manually as I'm not clipping those leaves

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[TheresaM]

I get the same thing. Its a pain. My amanos and red rams horn used to attack it but now that they're gone I have to get more.
Could look for them to add to the tank.
Other than that on my val I just cut the blades down with it as it grows really fast.
Its also gotten on one of my Anubis's and I'm thinking of taking it out and cleaning it manually as I'm not clipping those leaves

Guess I'll be doing some trimming tonight. So this isn't something that would take over the entire tank?

 

[wildroseofky]

It will spread. I would say to reduce your lights down to 6-8 hours. 10 hours is too much. You can spot treat it with Excel, or it's equivalent, or hydrogen peroxide. Just squirt some Excel directly on it and let it sit for about 30 minutes with the filter off. Do one area day. To use hydrogen peroxide get a syringe and pull up 3 cc of peroxide, turn off filter, and then slowly squirt the algae. Let that sit for 15 minutes or so and then turn filter back on. I have used as much as three syringe full in a 10 gallon but be careful if you have shrimp. It could hurt them if they swim into it. With reducing light and adding Excel or other CO2 it should start to clear up in a couple of weeks. If not then there is something else off in the tank. Too much nitrate or not enough fertilizer for the amount of light you have. Hope this helps.

 

[TheresaM]

It will spread. I would say to reduce your lights down to 6-8 hours. 10 hours is too much. You can spot treat it with Excel, or it's equivalent, or hydrogen peroxide. Just squirt some Excel directly on it and let it sit for about 30 minutes with the filter off. Do one area day. To use hydrogen peroxide get a syringe and pull up 3 cc of peroxide, turn off filter, and then slowly squirt the algae. Let that sit for 15 minutes or so and then turn filter back on. I have used as much as three syringe full in a 10 gallon but be careful if you have shrimp. It could hurt them if they swim into it. With reducing light and adding Excel or other CO2 it should start to clear up in a couple of weeks. If not then there is something else off in the tank. Too much nitrate or not enough fertilizer for the amount of light you have. Hope this helps.

Thank you so much! I was wondering about the light since the tank gets so much from the window. I only have peroxide in the house so I'll give that a try in addition to cutting back on the tank light.

 

[azmodan]

It's bba. Great advice by wildroseofky already but here's some additional useful info: http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/plan...lic-enemy-1-black-brush-algae-how-fight-2286/

I definitely agree on decreasing your photoperiod to 6-8 hours and beginning some carbon supplementation. Good luck!


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[ImACoolguy]

Moving tanks is a real pain in the butt, but sunlight can and usually will cause algae problems. It would be better if you could move it somewhere it won't get direct sunlight.


Caleb

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[Brookster123]

I had a major issue when my tank was getting natural light. if there is the slightest imbalance that much light will foul it all up.. invest in a quality shade, drop photo period as mentioned, consider dosing carbon and ferts if possible and not already doing so.

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[TheresaM]

Thank you so much for the help!

Moving the tank is definitely not an option.

I use root tabs and Flourish; will be adding API Leaf Zone. Any suggestions about carbon supplementation?

 

[Brookster123]

Flourish excel is fine, metricide 14 is twice as strong and half the price..

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[TheresaM]

Flourish excel is fine, metricide 14 is twice as strong and half the price..

Ok, walk me thru this....should I continue treating with peroxide? I'm using Flourish Comp, would I still use that in addition to Excel or Metricide? And the Leaf Zone?

This is why I try to go simple with plants, darn window and light

 

[Fresh2o]

I usually treat with peroxide 2-3 days consecutively. By day 2 you should see the BBA start to turn red, pink, purple, and eventually white as it dies. This may take several days to a week.
You will continue to add f comp, leaf zone, and excel on whatever schedule you are using. I believe the first two are 1-2x a week. Excel can be 1-2x a week or everyday.


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[TheresaM]

I usually treat with peroxide 2-3 days consecutively. By day 2 you should see the BBA start to turn red, pink, purple, and eventually white as it dies. This may take several days to a week.
You will continue to add f comp, leaf zone, and excel on whatever schedule you are using. I believe the first two are 1-2x a week. Excel can be 1-2x a week or everyday.

Awesome, and thanks for keeping it simple

 

[TheresaM]

Day 2 treating with peroxide and I really cut back on light. I noticed a lot of my dwarf lettuce is yellowing, and there's a bunch of melt on my taller dwarf sags. Fortunately the larger plants all look good. No change in color of the BBA, but it hasn't spread either.

As far as the yellowing and melt, is that something I just have to wait out until this is cleared?

On the plus side at least one of my otos attaches itself to my finger when I'm spot treating

 

[wildroseofky]

THe yellowing of the sag and water lettuce could be a sign of to little light. I have never had it melt with Metricide or any of the fertilizers you use. I started out with all of those and then moved on to EI dosing from Green Leaf Aquariums because I have 5 aquariums right now and the others got too expensive. Do you have a phosphate test kit? It just came to my mind that low phosphate can cause those symptoms too. I was told to get a test kit by another member and once I got that number up to 2 the problem went away. It wouldn't hurt to up the dose of Leaf Zone by half and see if that helps. It won't hurt.

 

[trennamw]

I had a little bit appear and it completely disappeared with just a large water change ...

Always like to throw out an alternative theory ...


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[ScaryFatKidGT]

I have it in my tank but only on older crypt leafes and vals, my common pleco seems to munch it?

I'm currently injecting my Excel directly onto the areas.

 

[ScaryFatKidGT]

From that link

2) Increase or stabilize your co2, thats the biggest thing, if its diy, use two containers and swap em every other week, or use the jello method. If you dose metricide or excel for 'co2' then i would recommend upping the doses to 3x a week. Both light and CO2 utilize nitrates to drive plant growth, if theres an abundance of co2, the plant will spend less nitrogen to get co2, and more to absorb the surrounding light. This will out compete algae. This link goes over co2 and its substitute: http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/plant...on-dioxide-81/

Hmmmmm?

3) If you notice the Algae in only a certain spot, check for plant debris or watch the plant leaves to see if there is even flow there. if there isn't flow in an area, then there isn't as many nutrients and available carbon there for plants to utilize, so algae grows. Sometimes a power head or redirecting the outflow will help ease these issues. Remember that a higher current in your tank will often better a planted tank than keeping the surface completely still to maximize co2 concentration (the gain isn't really that much).

Well I just set up my FX6, hopefully that will help but I will need to unplug it to spot treat

4) Test water parameters at the end of the week before the change and adjust EI regiment as needed. This will help, http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/plant...d-tanks-23940/
if you do not know what EI is, then go here: http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/plant...ated-index-82/

EI?

5) Stock an algae fighting crew, SAE's normally will eat BBA, unless your water hardness is incredibly high. There are other fish, many closely related to the SAE, but some have luck with Mollies, american flag fish, and amano shrimp. Almost always if you overfeed your tank, they wont touch much of the BBA.

What does water hardness have to do with it and what is considered "incredibly high"? I see my Common Plec munching up and down the vals?

6) trim away affected areas on plants, remove as much as possible. If you try plucking little bits off it may float somewhere else.

Just cut the leefs?

 

[TheresaM]

Kind of a catch 22 with the whole lighting thing, you know? Need to find a good balance after this stuff is gone. I did some trimming last night and I'm still treating.

 

[TankinWithUs]

Let us know what you tried!