the beard of death

[ScotJudd]

Liquid ferts are exactly what they say, the same as adding fertiliser to your house or garden plants, except the tank plants absorb the ferts through the leaves. Some tank plants such as swords and crypts are heavy root feeders and benefit from plant tabs pushed into the substrate.
All plants, terrestrial and aquatic, need a daylight source of carbon. Excel or Glut provides a carbon source. Co2 injection also provides carbon but is more high tech and need careful handling so as not to kill the fish.
In the average planted tank I would recommend some fert tabs, some liquid fert and a carbon source, Excel or Glut being the easiest source.
I use Co2 as well and plant health and growth is impressive. It depends on how 'planted' you want your tank to look. Someone posted that my tank was like a jungle - in a good way. Others thought that the plants had taken over. Horses for courses!


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[livefishguy124]

so what things can i put in the tank to help kill the algae?

 

[Fresh2o]

See post #19.
How many hours per day are the lights on? You said you were going to bring it down to 12.


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[livefishguy124]

i have it on like 6-8 hrs a day for a little.

 

[Autumnsky]

I have used numerous tanks with stock light and my preferred method is on for appx. 12-14 hours, but a break time, aka siesta, turned off for 2-4 hours in between. This has served me well. You can get a $4 timer at the discount mega store for the light and you will see a big help.

For now cutting your light down to a 4 and a 5 hour period might help since you are fighting the BBA.

Higher lighting sources could never be on that long. Old light bulbs can also be a factor. If your bulbs are tubes and you don't know how old they are it might be time to change them. If you do know, they can be changed after 8 or 9 months because you have been running them long days. Even though they aren't burned out.

 

[Finntastic]

I had black beard algae and then I found out that rainbow sharks love it for eating purposes.


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[livefishguy124]

I have used numerous tanks with stock light and my preferred method is on for appx. 12-14 hours, but a break time, aka siesta, turned off for 2-4 hours in between. This has served me well. You can get a $4 timer at the discount mega store for the light and you will see a big help.

For now cutting your light down to a 4 and a 5 hour period might help since you are fighting the BBA.

Higher lighting sources could never be on that long. Old light bulbs can also be a factor. If your bulbs are tubes and you don't know how old they are it might be time to change them. If you do know, they can be changed after 8 or 9 months because you have been running them long days. Even though they aren't burned out.

it is a 4 bulb 24 inch odesea t5 bulbs i was runing 2 at once but i lowerd it down to just one, the bulbs are about 6 months old.

 

[evil Nick]

I had black beard algae and then I found out that rainbow sharks love it for eating purposes.


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Mine did, to bad he was to aggressive and hounded all my favorite fish. Had to get rid of it.
My flying fox did pretty well also. I may get another one down the line.

 

[Autumnsky]

Do you have a pic of your Siamese Algae Eater? Or know positively that is what it is? Many fish stores sell different fish with that name and they aren't algae gobblers like SAE.
here is a pic of ones I used to have, the black line goes into it's tail fin.

 

[jim532]

In my 40 gallon I started to get a little black algae, so before it got out of control I did the following:
5 day blackout with a daily 10 gallon water change, only fed the tank 1 time during the blackout.
After that I kept the lights on only 6 hours a day. ( evenings)
I added 4 Amano shrimp in there and they devoured anything that even resembled algae.
Started dosing my plants with Flourish and Leaf Zone.
I do dose with excel but because it gets expensive, so I've been doing a cycle of dosing for 7 days then no dose of excel for 7 days, etc...





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[Fresh2o]

In my 40 gallon I started to get a little black algae, so before it got out of control I did the following:
5 day blackout with a daily 10 gallon water change, only fed the tank 1 time during the blackout.
After that I kept the lights on only 6 hours a day. ( evenings)
I added 4 Amano shrimp in there and they devoured anything that even resembled algae.
Started dosing my plants with Flourish and Leaf Zone.
I do dose with excel but because it gets expensive, so I've been doing a cycle of dosing for 7 days then no dose of excel for 7 days, etc...





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Sounds like a good plan. Keep up posted on how this holds up.
Metricide 14 is a cost effective alternative for Excel. It contains a more concentrated form of the active ingredient Glutaraldehyde. A gallon of Metricide 14 goes for $20-25 on Amazon.


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[livefishguy124]

will a blackout be safe for live plants? ill be getting flourish excel on thursday, will amino shrimp be safe with angel fish?