BLUE algae all over in my tank!!!

[Scottyhorse]

Please help! I have a 2 gallon hex tank with 2 clump of dwarf baby tears and 2 amano shimp. I am hoping to add a few cherry or rili shrimp here soon. ANYWAYS

I turned the lights on this morning, and there is blue hair algae all over! Even the plants! How the heck do I get rid of it? The temp is 79 degrees, and I have a bubbler in there. I do 75% water changes once a week, but sometimes I do smaller water changes a long with that if I have to. At some point I am going to add a small sponge filter. Also I have 2 dwarf Lilly bulbs in there, and I am going to be moving them into my future larger tank (20-25) when they are growing.

Please help me with this!!!

 

[Kepo]

You should identify what kind of algae it is. Different algae grows in different conditions. It sounds like it might be black beard (black bush) algae. If that's the case, the shrimp won't help clear that up. I had a problem with black beard algae growing on my plants and Chinese algae eaters (true CAEs) are the only ones that eat it...and they cleared it all up. However, they can be hard to find and need a bigger tank than 2 gallons.
How many hours are your lights on per day? Do you fertilize the plants? This all comes into play with algae. Too much light and high doses of ferts can cause a big algae bloom.

 

[Scottyhorse]

You should identify what kind of algae it is. Different algae grows in different conditions. It sounds like it might be black beard (black bush) algae. If that's the case, the shrimp won't help clear that up. I had a problem with black beard algae growing on my plants and Chinese algae eaters (true CAEs) are the only ones that eat it...and they cleared it all up. However, they can be hard to find and need a bigger tank than 2 gallons.
How many hours are your lights on per day? Do you fertilize the plants? This all comes into play with algae. Too much light and high doses of ferts can cause a big algae bloom.

It must be the black beard algae, because it is hairy. I don't have a timer for the lights, but I try to have it on 12 hours at the max. But, sometimes I forget, and it's on 14 hours. I do not use ferts. But, about once a week after I do a pwc I'll put some fish food in there.

 

[Kepo]

I have all my lights on for 8-10 hours a day. Some do 10-12 but algae blooms are more common with more light. Also gauging the length of time the lights are on with the intensity of the lamp. If it's super bright for such a small tank, it would have to be on for fewer hours. I have heard of people doing "blackouts" where they leave the lights out for 3-4 days. Not sure how effective this would be for hair algae and you would want to figure out if it could kill off your plants before attempting such a method.

 

[Scottyhorse]

I have all my lights on for 8-10 hours a day. Some do 10-12 but algae blooms are more common with more light. Also gauging the length of time the lights are on with the intensity of the lamp. If it's super bright for such a small tank, it would have to be on for fewer hours. I have heard of people doing "blackouts" where they leave the lights out for 3-4 days. Not sure how effective this would be for hair algae and you would want to figure out if it could kill off your plants before attempting such a method.

It's a ten watt light bulb.

 

[Rivercats]

You only need to run lights 6-8 hours and with that much algae they need to go down to 6 hours and is there any way you can put in a lower wattage bulb? If you do have BBA it can be spot treated with Flourish Excel. Problem is with a tank that small you could only use 1ml tops and that won't cover much. My suggest is to leave the lights off for a few days see if it starts to die back and if so just use your lights a couple hours a day and slowly build back up to about 6 hours with a lower wattage light.

 

[Scottyhorse]

You only need to run lights 6-8 hours and with that much algae they need to go down to 6 hours and is there any way you can put in a lower wattage bulb? If you do have BBA it can be spot treated with Flourish Excel. Problem is with a tank that small you could only use 1ml tops and that won't cover much. My suggest is to leave the lights off for a few days see if it starts to die back and if so just use your lights a couple hours a day and slowly build back up to about 6 hours with a lower wattage light.

I will try that!! Thanks!

 

[Scottyhorse]

Okay, the lights are still off. The BBA seems to be going away a bit, but there is still tons of green stuff.

 

[ktomminello]

if all else fails at least it's only 2 gallons. You can always make a mini set up in a bowl and clean out the tank. Just make sure you keep an eye on things because you will be starting your cycle all over again- does a 2 gallon ever really cycle though? I'm not being facetious, I have heard yes and no for an answer.

 

[Scottyhorse]

if all else fails at least it's only 2 gallons. You can always make a mini set up in a bowl and clean out the tank. Just make sure you keep an eye on things because you will be starting your cycle all over again- does a 2 gallon ever really cycle though? I'm not being facetious, I have heard yes and no for an answer.

Haha I am not sure if it does cycle or not lol. At least for shrimp it's not a huge deal. But I haven't lost a shrimp yet (knock on wood!) so it must be okay!

 

[Borderlesscott]

I'd usually use hydrogen peroxide on BBA, but in a 2G it would be risky - you could remove the fish for an hour or so during the treatment as hydrogen peroxide breaks down to water after a short time.

 

[Scottyhorse]

I'd usually use hydrogen peroxide on BBA, but in a 2G it would be risky - you could remove the fish for an hour or so during the treatment as hydrogen peroxide breaks down to water after a short time.

Would it kill the plants? How do you use it?

 

[Borderlesscott]

I've used it on everything from substrate, bogwood, live plants with never a problem.


http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Hydrogen_peroxide

 

[Scottyhorse]

So just an update

I did a massive water change in the tank. Before I took water out, I used my hands and sifted all the gravel to release all the crap. Then I took all the water out except for about 1 inch. I had some large plastic glow in the dark gravel, and I took that out too because they were covered in algae. Later I am going to to a 50% water change and hopefully get some more crap out. I'll post pics afterwards so you can see!

 

[Rivercats]

I think after doing all that if you keep your lights photoperiod lower you might have the algae eventually go away altogether. It takes alittle time for it to go away and won't happen over night so just keep at it and be patient.

 

[Scottyhorse]

I think after doing all that if you keep your lights photoperiod lower you might have the algae eventually go away altogether. It takes alittle time for it to go away and won't happen over night so just keep at it and be patient.

Well now after the first water change, it looks a lot better. Most of the blue stuff is gone, but there is still tons of green fuzzy algae.. It's basically all on the plants

 

[Rivercats]

Well now after the first water change, it looks a lot better. Most of the blue stuff is gone, but there is still tons of green fuzzy algae.. It's basically all on the plants

Okay what you just said about most of it being gone.... is it blue green in color and coats everything in a sheet like fashion? If so that is Cyanobacteria, which some people call blue-green algae. If this is what you have you need to treat the tank with 5 days of 10mg erythromycin per 10 gallons of water. Remove carbon from your filter, check your nitrates as nitrate levels under 10ppm are associated with cyanobacteria, and cut your lighting photoperiod down to 6-8 hours. The erythromycin will kill the cyano and won't mess with your BB. You may expierence a slight ammonia spike but that is due to dying cyano.

 

[Scottyhorse]

Okay what you just said about most of it being gone.... is it blue green in color and coats everything in a sheet like fashion? If so that is Cyanobacteria, which some people call blue-green algae. If this is what you have you need to treat the tank with 5 days of 10mg erythromycin per 10 gallons of water. Remove carbon from your filter, check your nitrates as nitrate levels under 10ppm are associated with cyanobacteria, and cut your lighting photoperiod down to 6-8 hours. The erythromycin will kill the cyano and won't mess with your BB. You may expierence a slight ammonia spike but that is due to dying cyano.

Um, yeah, kinda. Here is a picture.

and

Okay. I know I am going to get a lot of crap for this, but I don't have a test kit or a filter on this tank

I'm trying to keep this as low tech as possible, but obviously, it's not working!

 

[Rivercats]

Was that blue all up and over the plants? The pic isn't very good but it looks like cyanobacteria. You need to get the 5 days of Erythromycin, 10mg per 10g of water and treat. In the mean time keep as much of the cyano vacuumed up because it can spread so fast. Once the treatment is done the tan will be fine.

 

[Scottyhorse]

Was that blue all up and over the plants? The pic isn't very good but it looks like cyanobacteria. You need to get the 5 days of Erythromycin, 10mg per 10g of water and treat. In the mean time keep as much of the cyano vacuumed up because it can spread so fast. Once the treatment is done the tan will be fine.

Next time were are in town, I'll pick some up and let you guys know who it works!! Thanks! Will it be okay for the shrimp?