What type of algae is this?

[Reygan2]

Any info on the type of algae this is? It's starting to take over the lower half of my tank. It's really dark brown
Details:
40b
Finnex Fugeray fixture on 8 hours.
Dose glut daily
Dose micros/macros 1x wkly
Weekly 40-50% wc's
Ph 7.6
Nitrate 10-20
Kh 4
Gh 4





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[Rivercats]

It looks like the start of some black beard algae around the leaf edges plus some hard green spot algae that has grown together to make patches. Lower your lighting to 6 hours only or run them 3 hours on, 2 hours off, and 3 hours on. Using a siesta period makes it very hard for algae to grow. You can spot treat the algae with Hydrogen Peroxide 3%. Turn off filters, pull up 3ml of peroxide for every 1 gallon of tank water in a syringe, slowly squirt the algae, leave filters off 20 minutes. If there is a lot of algae you will have to treat an area a day. Also the hard GSA probably won't come off BUT if you raise your phosphate levels to at least 3ppm this is generally enough to keep GSA from forming. Also if you don't have any Val's, elodia, anarachis or small delicate shrimp you can up your Glut to 1ml for every 2 gallons of water. All this combined will help greatly on getting your algae problems fixed.

 

[Fishperson]

It looks like the start of some black beard algae around the leaf edges plus some hard green spot algae that has grown together to make patches. Lower your lighting to 6 hours only or run them 3 hours on, 2 hours off, and 3 hours on. Using a siesta period makes it very hard for algae to grow. You can spot treat the algae with Hydrogen Peroxide 3%. Turn off filters, pull up 3ml of peroxide for every 1 gallon of tank water in a syringe, slowly squirt the algae, leave filters off 20 minutes. If there is a lot of algae you will have to treat an area a day. Also the hard GSA probably won't come off BUT if you raise your phosphate levels to at least 3ppm this is generally enough to keep GSA from forming. Also if you don't have any Val's, elodia, anarachis or small delicate shrimp you can up your Glut to 1ml for every 2 gallons of water. All this combined will help greatly on getting your algae problems fixed.

Rivercats!

You're back! Thanks for this. I actually can use this for my own tank and GSA problems as well.

 

[Reygan2]

Thanks for the info!


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[Delapool]

It looks like the start of some black beard algae around the leaf edges plus some hard green spot algae that has grown together to make patches. Lower your lighting to 6 hours only or run them 3 hours on, 2 hours off, and 3 hours on. Using a siesta period makes it very hard for algae to grow. You can spot treat the algae with Hydrogen Peroxide 3%. Turn off filters, pull up 3ml of peroxide for every 1 gallon of tank water in a syringe, slowly squirt the algae, leave filters off 20 minutes. If there is a lot of algae you will have to treat an area a day. Also the hard GSA probably won't come off BUT if you raise your phosphate levels to at least 3ppm this is generally enough to keep GSA from forming. Also if you don't have any Val's, elodia, anarachis or small delicate shrimp you can up your Glut to 1ml for every 2 gallons of water. All this combined will help greatly on getting your algae problems fixed.

Can I quickly ask if phosphate at higher levels is ever a problem at higher ph in general? Say 5 to 10ppm phosphate at ph of 7.5 to 8. A little GSA on tank side and some hair algae but it has been bugging me in general reading that I don't know if low phosphate is preferable in general or high phosphate is ok and plants don't care / it's not toxic. I've seen posts saying high phosphates at 10ppm is fine but not sure if ph makes a difference?

 

[Rivercats]

I've had tanks with a ph of 7.8 with higher phosphate levels without a problem BUT I only keep higher levels, no more than 5ppm anymore, in tanks that contain a lot of non-green plants as those plants need phosphate for the color change. In normal planted tanks I keep phosphates at 1-3ppm depending on light levels, etc. Some plants like Java Ferns actually like phosphates so in tanks that are heavy in them I keep them about 3ppm. In my very high light 220 I used to keep levels around 10ppm but found over time 5ppm was just as good. I really don't suggest levels higher than 5ppm unless you are running high to very high light with a ton of colored plants.

 

[Delapool]

I've had tanks with a ph of 7.8 with higher phosphate levels without a problem BUT I only keep higher levels, no more than 5ppm anymore, in tanks that contain a lot of non-green plants as those plants need phosphate for the color change. In normal planted tanks I keep phosphates at 1-3ppm depending on light levels, etc. Some plants like Java Ferns actually like phosphates so in tanks that are heavy in them I keep them about 3ppm. In my very high light 220 I used to keep levels around 10ppm but found over time 5ppm was just as good. I really don't suggest levels higher than 5ppm unless you are running high to very high light with a ton of colored plants.

Thanks heaps for the reply. I think reassuring - tank ph is 7.4 to 7.6 but phosphate is 5ppm on a good test after pwc, often 10ppm otherwise. It goes dark very quick in the test.

I'm not dosing any phos in dry ferts and have stopped DIY substrate ferts for the moment. I was worried 10ppm phosphate might cause a toxicity problem for plants but sounds not the case?

 

[Rivercats]

Remember that many hobbyist that dose EI have very high levels of phosphates that they dose on purpose. Even tho some even go higher than 10ppm, over the years I have found levels over 5ppm have never had any extra benefit and surely have never hurt.

 

[Delapool]

Remember that many hobbyist that dose EI have very high levels of phosphates that they dose on purpose. Even tho some even go higher than 10ppm, over the years I have found levels over 5ppm have never had any extra benefit and surely have never hurt.

That's a relief. Many thanks for the reply. I'd cleaned 2 of 3 filters recently and was kind of scratching my head on how to reduce phosphate further if I had to. I've got bn catfish fry so was hoping not to disturb the tank.

 

[Rivercats]

If it doesn't lower eventually with WC's you can always use a small amount of phosphate remover in the filter until you reach the ppm's you want. I would wait until the fry are at least an inch, maybe a little less.

 

[Delapool]

If it doesn't lower eventually with WC's you can always use a small amount of phosphate remover in the filter until you reach the ppm's you want. I would wait until the fry are at least an inch, maybe a little less.

Ok, will do. I've looked at phosphate remover but was hoping to get it under control myself. Tested phosphate last night and it was around 5ppm or bit higher (disagreement by family) at end of week before pwc.

I had been worried I might of had an iron deficiency (in link below) with last lot of plants. I've given up adding a kh buffer. It was just a tweak to stabilise kh but the plant base would get brown spots and rot away while leaves dropped off. I've no idea why it was doing that? but I've just finished replacing my plants and was going to keep kh around 4 with water changes only.

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/plant_problems.html

 

[Consultree]

I use SAE and Amano shrimp and my black beard is eliminated


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[Reygan2]

I had stopped dosing glut several months ago and decided to start dosing again about
4 weeks ago. I've been dosing 2 capfuls of glut diluted with water (1/2) every morning faithfully since and I'm confused because the algae has become worse. I also started a fairly regular dry fert dose:
Macros: 1x wk
KN03 - 3/16 tsp
KH2P04 - 1/16 tsp
K2S04 - 1/16 tsp

Micros: 1x wk
Plantex CSM + B - 1/16 tsp

Macros day of water change and micros the following day.

I have a fully stocked tank and fewer plants than I did when I previously used the above dosing. Not
sure if that makes a difference. Things seemed to be much better before I started all this but then the plants looked like they needed something. Oh, I also added API root tabs a month ago.
Hopefully the extra info will help with finding a possible solution. I have already cut back to 6 hours of light daily.




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