"Grey mans beard"

[Shanice.2]

Hello! I have a type of algae growing in my tank that is dark grey/black is long almost strand like.. It's infesting my filter and taking over ALL of my plants, I read online it might be called grey mans beard.. Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you!

 

[Caliban07]

"Grey mans beard"

Hello! I have a type of algae growing in my tank that is dark grey/black is long almost strand like.. It's infesting my filter and taking over ALL of my plants, I read online it might be called grey mans beard.. Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you!

Hi Shanice. It's hard to say what kind of algae we could be looking at without pictures. Also a little bit more information about your tank will help too.

Tank size
Stock
Type of plants
Amount of plants
Type of light
Fertiliser regime (if you have one)
Additional carbon source (if required)
Filtration and flow rate

It sounds like it could be hair algae or black beard algae (BBA)

To get rid of it you will need to manually remove it or spot treat it with either glutaradehyde or hydrogen peroxide. I have no experience using the latter so will not comment. But Seachems flourish excel will also work to kill the algae as well as help to grow the plants.

To prevent algae in my experience you need to focus on growing the plants whilst controlling the strength of your light. It will take a bit of time to recover the tank but it can be corrected if the correct steps are taken.

 

[Shanice.2]

I have a 40 gallon breeder with 2 goldfish 2 clown loach 4 khuli loach 2 Siamese flying fox 2 Chinese algae eaters a pleco an algae eater and about 6 ghost shrimp and 4 Cherri shrimp.. I have some wisteria and a couple Lily pads.. I'm not sure what the rest are but I'll attach a picture... There is a decent amount of planta.. (I'm still pretty new to maintaining an aquarium) I use the flourish for fertilizer and I have an aqueon over the back filter. It seams to be mostly on the wisteria, should I try pulling them out and starting over with just them?... Thwyre the plants I see my shrimp on the least...

Hi Shanice. It's hard to say what kind of algae we could be looking at without pictures. Also a little bit more information about your tank will help too.

Tank size
Stock
Type of plants
Amount of plants
Type of light
Fertiliser regime (if you have one)
Additional carbon source (if required)
Filtration and flow rate

It sounds like it could be hair algae or black beard algae (BBA)

To get rid of it you will need to manually remove it or spot treat it with either glutaradehyde or hydrogen peroxide. I have no experience using the latter so will not comment. But Seachems flourish excel will also work to kill the algae as well as help to grow the plants.

To prevent algae in my experience you need to focus on growing the plants whilst controlling the strength of your light. It will take a bit of time to recover the tank but it can be corrected if the correct steps are taken.

It's a 40 gallon bree

Hi Shanice. It's hard to say what kind of algae we could be looking at without pictures. Also a little bit more information about your tank will help too.

Tank size
Stock
Type of plants
Amount of plants
Type of light
Fertiliser regime (if you have one)
Additional carbon source (if required)
Filtration and flow rate

It sounds like it could be hair algae or black beard algae (BBA)

To get rid of it you will need to manually remove it or spot treat it with either glutaradehyde or hydrogen peroxide. I have no experience using the latter so will not comment. But Seachems flourish excel will also work to kill the algae as well as help to grow the plants.

To prevent algae in my experience you need to focus on growing the plants whilst controlling the strength of your light. It will take a bit of time to recover the tank but it can be corrected if the correct steps are taken.

 

[Shanice.2]

Hi Shanice. It's hard to say what kind of algae we could be looking at without pictures. Also a little bit more information about your tank will help too.

Tank size
Stock
Type of plants
Amount of plants
Type of light
Fertiliser regime (if you have one)
Additional carbon source (if required)
Filtration and flow rate

It sounds like it could be hair algae or black beard algae (BBA)

To get rid of it you will need to manually remove it or spot treat it with either glutaradehyde or hydrogen peroxide. I have no experience using the latter so will not comment. But Seachems flourish excel will also work to kill the algae as well as help to grow the plants.

To prevent algae in my experience you need to focus on growing the plants whilst controlling the strength of your light. It will take a bit of time to recover the tank but it can be corrected if the correct steps are taken.

this is the best picture I could get

 

[Reygan2]

If you have true Siamese algae eaters they should be taking care of that black beard algae. I had a bad outbreak a few years ago, added 2 of those and the algae was GONE within 2 weeks, and it never returned. Check your nitrate levels. Low nitrates contributes to BBA.

What type of goldfish do you have? You definitely have a few stocking issues.

 

[Shanice.2]

If you have true Siamese algae eaters they should be taking care of that black beard algae. I had a bad outbreak a few years ago, added 2 of those and the algae was GONE within 2 weeks, and it never returned. Check your nitrate levels. Low nitrates contributes to BBA.

Thank you! Did you have a lot of plants?.. Since I've had them it has decreased 10 fold but is not gone. It keeps ending up in my filter and I think that's why it's returning to my tank..

 

[Reygan2]

Thank you! Did you have a lot of plants?.. Since I've had them it has decreased 10 fold but is not gone. It keeps ending up in my filter and I think that's why it's returning to my tank..

I did, it grew on my plants and driftwood. It was such a pain! It started decreasing with spot treatments of hydrogen peroxide and dosing KNO3, but I was about to give up hope when the owner of my local fish store sold me a couple of Siamese algae eaters. They cleaned my tank of every trace of it.

If you have Chinese algae eaters you're going to want to get those out of your tank asap. They are very territorial as they mature and aren't really algae eaters at all if there is any other source of food in the tank. I should add that they will consider the slime coat of your other fish as a source of food.

What type of goldfish do you have? Goldfish prefer cooler temps and your other fish need warmer temps. Those clown loaches get huge, and they need a group of at least 3-5.

I don't know if BBA would be in your filter. I think it needs light to grow. I never saw it in my filters.

How long has your tank been set up?

 

[Shanice.2]

It's been set up for about a year... It's COMPLERELY infested my filter a few time and is getting pretty expensive to replace... The goldfish will be taken as soon as I get this algae out of the way but I don't want to transfer it out of the tank it's in into any other tank I have.. And I will definitely be ridding my tank of the Chinese algae waters then! Thank you!