Name this algae, and what can I do... LOL

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Ok, is this crazy? I saw a rapid decrease of cladophora when I removed alot of my fast-growing plants. Perhaps they were depleting nutrients in a diffrent ratio than my slower-growing plants? Perhaps the foliage shape was reducing circulation?

I have a lazy medium light setup. I do 50% water changes weekly, and only dose fertilizers at that time. During the winter I run CO2, but when it's too warm in the tank I run an air supply instead.
 
Question. For the cyano, is it Maracyn that I use or Maracyn Two? Or either one? That is for a last effort to get rid of the cyano of course. Not taking that action yet, got a few things to try first.
 
The only time I had problems with cyano was when I wasn't running CO2 and I had nitrate levels that were too high (40ppm). As soon as I got the nitrates down and started CO2, the cyano was gone. I also removed a lot of it manually - I had to throw out some floating plants, but I have to every week.

That's an interesting point about the bunch plants - I have quite a few. I wonder if they deplete some nutrient too quickly and then the algae sets in? I also have a ton of floating plants in both tanks, which practically cover the surface in about a week or two.
 
You have 3-4 species growing in there, that means you have several issues happening.
The brown stuff is diatoms and maybe a green algae, filamentenous diatoms. The hairy stuff is green hair algae and you have some BGA as well.

You need to be agressive and remove as much as you can with your fingers, rub it off etc, prune if you must, disturb the gravel good, vacuum up any left overs, do a large water changes after this.

Make sure you have good CO2, EI will do fine but the CO2 needs to be cranked up and you need to stick with the dosing and CO2 for 2-3 weeks really good.

Attack the algae before it gets worse if it starts to grow back, after a few times of this and staying on top of it, this issue should relent.

Open space not planted is a great place for algae to grow if you are having issues, thin out the weeds later.

Rub off the preen the plants good, followed by large water changes. You might need to do this 2x a week till the algae backs off.
Dose nutrients after.

BGA looks somwhat mild and may not need the blackout of a antibiotic.
Correct conditions and see later if that is needed, with good cleaning, clean the filter as well, net any dead leaves, muck etc, that should take care of things.

Skids,
Folks see Cladophora if they stop dosing, or don't dose enough to a well run tank. Every time I leave and don't dose for a week or more, I have lots of Cladphora when I get back, I clean it out good, stay on top of dosing/CO2, water changes,. it's not an issue.

Over the years I've done this maybe 50X so it's old hat.
You just need to be agressive and manually remove it well, then do the water change and stay on top of things for 1-3 weeks.

Few algae can withstand that.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Also, since I've been adding CO2, my plants are pearling more and more every day. So that means the plants are starting to come back, and will maybe take over and give the algae the fight of a lifetime. And I'm sure, if things start to progress due to adding CO2, the algae will lose in the end. That's what I'm hoping for. And that's my plan Tom, just like you said, be aggressive. And have pulled out my diatom filter as well in the removal of as much in the water column as possible. Thanks again for your input.

Also, not sure if you saw my post in the other thread about the viewtainer. I can see part of how it works, but have a couple questions there. Thanks again. :)
 
Plantbrain said:
Skids,
Folks see Cladophora if they stop dosing, or don't dose enough to a well run tank. Every time I leave and don't dose for a week or more, I have lots of Cladphora when I get back, I clean it out good, stay on top of dosing/CO2, water changes,. it's not an issue.
Perhaps in removing my fast growing stuff, I modified the tank's needs to my dosing schedule instead of the usual other way around.
 
Update:

Here are some more pics after a couple cleanings. Today was the biggest. I totally removed the corkscrew vals, trimmed bad leaves, and replanted only the best plants. Then I tossed the nasty stuff. I trimmed off 2 small branches off the wisteria and replanted them on the right side as well. I hope to get the whole right side covered so I can't see my intake hose, lol. Then I took my 2 pieces of driftwood out and cleaned one of them and put it back in. In the U part of the driftwood I put my little dwarf sag someone sent me. Hope it does better than it has been. It's barely holding on. Then I cleaned up my L. repens on the right side a bit more. And I cut 4 leaves off my sword, the ones that were covered in green filament type of algae. Things are looking better. I also churned the substrate a bit too where the driftwood, corkscrew vals, and in front of the sword. I manually removed as much of the BGA by hand as I could, and scrubbed the glass with the diatom filter running. Got it looking pretty clean. Took over 2 hours. Was quite the workout, lol. But it's better than the Maracyn treatment. But we'll see now with the CO2 going, hopefully I can beat this stuff like in the 75G. When I got done tonight, I turned off my filter and did a good cleaning on it. I rinsed out the sponges well in tank water, as well as my micro-pad. I also replaced the filter floss with new, as the stuff was pretty bad, lol. So all's good there.

As for dosing, not going to dose yet. Tomorrow's my last cleaning day on this tank, and going to do another 50% PWC. This will be the 3rd in 3 days. And going to try and churn a little more substrate, and run the diatom filter once again while I go through my L. repens one more time, kicking out any algae that's still just sitting in the leaves and around the bottom of the plants. So after tomorrow, the tank will be ready for it's first dosing of EI. I think I'll start with half-doses, as it's not really a heavily planted tank, and don't want my parameters getting too far out of whak. Let me know what you think so far.

Oh, and Travis, if you are still checking this thread, what do you think I might be able to do to improve the look of the tank? You have a pretty good eye for detail and would like some input if you think I should do something a little different, like driftwood placement, the dwarf sag, etc. Also trying to get some clover going, but it was just too smothered in BGA, but do have a few small leafes in there still. Any ideas on improving the look? This is also open to others as well. ;)

Oh, and I'm going to be ordering some new plants as well off aquabid. Just haven't decided on what yet. Was thinking of getting that one with the package of red plants, and kind of split them up between both my 29G and my 75G. I need more color in the tanks other than green, lol.

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