White Algae means its dead??

[epjan7]

Question is at bottom this is just an intro lol,
I have a planted tank with two amazon swords, and a java fern.
For three months my tank was completely overtaken with green algae (hairy) covering my plants, killing leaves, covering my tank glass everyday where you couldn't see through it. It would clog my filter all the time with slimy green algae my filter pad would be encrusted with hairy algae every time I scrubbed the glass. Sometimes i'd need to stick my hands to clean the filter intake to allow water to flow.
Anyways, two weeks ago I decided to do a deep clean, I took out filter, cleaned the nasty housing and everything (Kept filter and bio material in old tank water so it wouldn't kill good bacteria. And I removed a floating Brazilian Pennywort which was one hugggge slimy thing. I threw it out because it was so bad... AND THEN THERE WAS LIGHT. I cut the brown and transparent leaves.
Two weeks have passed and my tank has NO ALGAE covering the walls of it anymore. The hair algae on my plants has turned WHITE? And the tank is clearer than ever.
**My questions are:**
1.) Does the change from green to white algae means it's dead?
2.) I have dosed it with excel flourish everyday or every other day, and I see small leaves growing again; Should I cut off all the leaves with the white algae or will it eventually detach?
3.) If I do cut more leaves, will the plant die, and where exactly should I cut?
4.) Was this most likely caused by Pennywort blocking light from bottom?
5.) Will adding more plants help keep algae away?
6.) I haven't used flourish supplement for nutrients only the flourish excel, should I add this or will that cause another algae takeover?

Tank is 20G year old tank, 38W of T5HO light one pink and one light...
[/LIST]

Pictures Show:
-Bad picture of what tank was like before cleaning
-Right after the cleaning (Picture with no floating plant, and green hair algae on leaves
-Today two weeks after cleaning, fuzzy white algae on some leaves, none on others.

 

[Coyne]

I cant answer all of your questions, but I'll throw my 2 cents in.
When my aquarium was overrun with black hair algae, I nuked it with bleach (after re-homing all the fish). This obviously killed all of the BB in my filter, but I was tearing down the tank anyways. All of the algae turned white and looked just like it does in your picture.
However, when I spot treat BBA with Hydrogen Peroxide, it turns red.

If you don't want to spot treat the algae cover leaves, then I would recommend pruning them off. I usually try to trim as close to the stem as I can. If its turned white, then it will likely fall off on its own in a few days.

 

[jehenry89]

1.) Does the change from green to white algae means it's dead? Yes, green algae that has turned white or red means it is dead.

2.) I have dosed it with excel flourish everyday or every other day, and I see small leaves growing again; Should I cut off all the leaves with the white algae or will it eventually detach? Some fish will actually eat algae after it turns white or red. If it were me, I would just cut the leaf off incase there is anything remaining on it.

3.) If I do cut more leaves, will the plant die, and where exactly should I cut? No your plant won't die. You would cut the leaf at the base of the stem where it grows out of the substrate.

4.) Was this most likely caused by Pennywort blocking light from bottom? Lack of nutrients.

5.) Will adding more plants help keep algae away? No, balancing your light and nutrient levels will. Planted tanks are never algae free. It is normal to have small amounts in your tank. The trick is balance to help keep them under control.

6.) I haven't used flourish supplement for nutrients only the flourish excel, should I add this or will that cause another algae takeover? Sword plants are heavy root feeders and would benefit from having a root tab in the substrate near the base of the plant. Tabs generally last about three months before they need to be replaced. Pennyworts are nutrient hogs so you need to make sure you are dosing regularly to keep them healthy as well as other plants. Generally you want to keep nitrates between 10-20ppm and phosphates between 1-3ppm. You will also need to dose micro nutrients and potassium. There are no tests for these to my knowledge so you just need to make sure you are dosing the correct amounts.
You can do a quick google search for a planted tank nutrient calculator which would help you figure out how much.


Hope this helps!

 

[Rivercats]

Since all you have in your tank is Swords and a Java Fern you only need root tabs and Seachem Flourish Comprehensive. As already stated Swords need root tabs and a single Java Fern isn't going to use a lot of nutrients since it is a slow grower. Be sure to do a large weekly WC to keep nutrient levels from getting too high and only run lighting 6ish hours considering you only have 3 plants and you have a good amount of light. How long are you normally running your lights daily? How often were you doing WC's and how much were you changing out weekly when you were having the algae problems?