Urgent Help Required! Unidentified Pest Algae spreading Fast!

[abhaskar]

Hi,

There was an algae development a few weeks ago. Tank is 25 gallons, freshwater, heater removed since a week, 18w LED white+blue lighting for 5-7 hours a day.
A bunch of live plants and java moss. Tank has tropical fishes such as guppies, green tetra , electric blue ramiz(I'm not sure about this one's name) and a pair black ghost fish.

This algae boom happened 2 weeks ago for the first time (because I overdosed plant food and plant nutrients and liquid CO2 just that week) and I removed them manually. It was stuck to everything around it. Someone suggested to use peroxide, but I'm not sure how.
So after removing most of them by hand, now after 2 weeks it's coming again. It's very thin, hair like green coloured strong threadlike structure. It is mainly growing on java moss and on the floater plants. This is not black beard algae but I'm unaware of this one.

One golden algae eater died after this algae infestation, another one looks like it caught dropsy n it's stomach looks like it's abo to explode.

I feed once a day and twice a day often.
I've a hanging filter setup and it's a fully planted tank.
Please refer the pictures n kindly advise!

I need immediate suggestion/solution folks, please offer your valuable advise!
I have been maintaining the tank since 4-5 years and never I've come across this issue.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Fishingtrees]

Sounds like you are over feeding the fish and the plants. Idk how much you feed each time but twice a day seems a little excessive.

I think algae is opportunistic. If you cut down what it is living off it should die back.

Also, I wouldn't dose the tank with chemicals that could harm your fish. Manually remove is probably best. Partial water changes are probably needed to get extra nitrates out of the water.

 

[gourami-mommy]

I think this is what they call hair/thread algae (refers to a number of different strands of algae that are all similar in look and behavior.)

Causes: A range of causes including low CO2, low nutrient levels and ammonia spikes. Nothing to do with excess iron as commonly thought.

Removal: Can be very difficult to eradicate at times. A high plant mass with good CO2 and a good supply of nutrients along with constantly hassling the algae seems to pay off after a while. Removal by twisting around a toothbrush or similar. Flourish Excel, EasyCarbo or TNC Carbon can help. Amano shrimps, Rosy barbs and mollies will often eat it.

Hope this helps!

 

[abhaskar]

Sounds like you are over feeding the fish and the plants. Idk how much you feed each time but twice a day seems a little excessive.

I think algae is opportunistic. If you cut down what it is living off it should die back.

Also, I wouldn't dose the tank with chemicals that could harm your fish. Manually remove is probably best. Partial water changes are probably needed to get extra nitrates out of the water.

Hi , thank you for the response.
Yes it seems like I overfed plants especially n also fishes may be but I'm not sure.
I'll remove manually but I'm afraid I'll lose some java moss along with it.
I shall do 50% water changes every 20 days or so.

 

[abhaskar]

I think this is what they call hair/thread algae (refers to a number of different strands of algae that are all similar in look and behavior.)

Causes: A range of causes including low CO2, low nutrient levels and ammonia spikes. Nothing to do with excess iron as commonly thought.

Removal: Can be very difficult to eradicate at times. A high plant mass with good CO2 and a good supply of nutrients along with constantly hassling the algae seems to pay off after a while. Removal by twisting around a toothbrush or similar. Flourish Excel, EasyCarbo or TNC Carbon can help. Amano shrimps, Rosy barbs and mollies will often eat it.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for the response, yes all your responses are helping me!
I agree, manually removing the algae often is the only way to eradicate it and seems feasible.
I did dose liquid CO2 like 3-4 times a week (or even more) before this algae infestation.
I hate this because it doesn't allow anything stuck with it to move, all my floater plants are turning brown n dying. I did come across Amano shrimps but unfortunately it's not available here. Other fishes I can't leave them now it'll eat up my others. I shall manually remove carefully, that's the only solution I see.
And a water change after that.

 

[fearlessfisch]

I have battled this. Lost a bunch of plants when it was at its worst, but it seems under control now.

I cut light and feeding drastically and used Flourish Excel daily. I also threw out some heavily compromised plants that I couldn't free of the algae manually. Based on reading posts in this forum, I established a new lighting regimen that I continue to use, in which there is a lights-off period mid-day between light periods. That really does seem to help inhibit growth of new algae.

I had battled this algae once before when I had a spare tank already running, and it was easier and more quickly managed that time. I treated all the plants in a separate tank without fish, doing a full lights out for several days, followed by the lighting regimen described above, while also dosing Flourish Excel at doses much higher than I would have been able to use with fish. Eventually I was able to move the plants (rinsed) back into the regular tank.

I have read that you can also dose a bit of hydrogen peroxide directly onto the affected plants using a syringe, even in a tank with fish. Some people dose Excel directly onto the affected plants, but you can easily overdose Excel and kill your fish, so you have to carefully figure the amount you dose into the total for the day. Look this up to make sure you are doing it safely; I used neither of these methods.

The other thing I did after getting the algae under control was increase my overall load of plants in the tanks to help them outcompete the algae. I planted more heavily, and I also added pothos at the tops of the tanks to consume nitrates. It's attractive and helps keep the algae away:

https://smartaquariumguide.com/pothos-plant-aquariums/
https://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=379578
https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/pothos

Since the outbreaks, I have developed a habit of scanning for new algae every morning, or at least every water change, and removing anything I find manually. That is also my cue to review how much I am feeding and what the light pattern is. So far, so good.