brown hair algae=diatoms? Same thing?

[JackBlasto]

Wondering exactly what this is? Google seems to have a variety of interpretations of it when I look at other pictures. I have a diatom filter if these are diatoms. I hate to break out the diatom filter unless it will actually help as that filter is a HUGE pain to start up (plenty of effort to start siphon correctly)... Anyhow, an even bigger pain is this algae so if someone could let me know if they are diatoms I'd really appreciate it.

 

[20cc]

looks like it..just vacuum some off itll go away in a couple weeks

 

[candymancan]

distoms only put a "dust" layer on stuff.. they don't make fuzzy things like in your picture and diatoms are brown.. I dunno what that stuff is... doesn't look like black beard algae either

I think that stuff is because your lights are on too long.. I cant remember the name off hand.. grr

 

[JackBlasto]

distoms only put a "dust" layer on stuff.. they don't make fuzzy things like in your picture and diatoms are brown.. I dunno what that stuff is... doesn't look like black beard algae either

I think that stuff is because your lights are on too long.. I cant remember the name off hand.. grr

Yeah, that's what I thought that worried me... BUT my lights are only on 6 hours a day AND that stuff is only on the left side of my tank... It's primarily on this plant over there... Like that plant is a magnet for algae for some reason.

Plant that it grows on is Crinum calamistratum.

Before that bloomed the Crinum over there was covered in bba that I cut off. Now that's on it. The right side of the tank has never had any of it. Has Crypts that grow higher than the Crinum and the crypts don't get it either.

 

[candymancan]

It almost looks like blue algae or something to me

 

[Mebbid]

It looks like another type of hair algae. What are you doing for carbon in your tanks? What's your lighting situation?

 

[Khuligirl93]

It almost looks like a mold to me. Is it growing on the same spots where you cut off the BBA?

 

[Jkeating8]

It looks like Rhizoclonium to me.

 

[JackBlasto]

--Khuligirl: It's not the same exact spots but that plant was covered in bba at one point and I removed a lot of it. Now, what's left is growing that stuff (bba gone

** Mebbid - Injected CO2 reading 30 ppm for carbon.
Seven T5HO bulbs 26 inches up (not sure exact amount with par meter as I don't have a meter but it's 3 1/2 watts per gallon... I'm sure the height of the tank decreases that by a bit)... Lights are running 6 hours a day.

After plugging through a lot of pictures I found a thread on another website where someone was having blooms of this stuff and no one could quite determine it as well. I personally think it looks closely to Rhizoclonium (Like you said JKeating but it went back and forth on the other forum trying to pinpoint it. One thing I found interesting is the other guy having problems with it was using aquadurt from aquariumplants.com just like my substrate. He said he had multiple tanks and the only tank affected was the one with aquadurt. That substrate is heavy on silica and I've read that silica based substrates can bloom weird stuff. They went through a lot of different routines involving blackouts etc which I really don't want to get into with a stocked discus tank. I'm going to try and just remove it as best as I can and hope it's diatom related meaning it will run it's course.

One thing that I noticed is the root structure of that plant is DEEP! It is rooted very well and the substrate at the back of the tank is proabbly 8 inches. That root goes down all 8 inches. Sooooo, if silica feeds into the plant? I have no idea BUT it's weird that one plant gets algae blooms covering it a LOT.

 

[Rivercats]

It looks like Rhizoclonium to me.

It is absolutely Rhizoclonium algae which can come from low CO2 levels, low flow/current in the tank, low nutrient levels.

It is easily killed by hydrogen peroxide or liquid carbon. Amano shrimp love it.

 

[JackBlasto]

I've read that low flow is an issue but what's weird is the plants literally sway from a powerhead nearby... My drop checker also reads 30 ppm. I also dose ferts daily, and my phosphates at 1.2, nitrate at 12-20, potassiums high but I've been told thats ok... I mean I know something is wrong in this equation but sheesh, it's hard for me to diagnose given what I'm doing.

I dose liquid ferts and just dosed substrate pellets a few days ago. I guess time will tell since I just added the pellets to what I'm doing but it's driving me a little crazy with how closely I monitor everything.

 

[Rivercats]

Personally I would pull off what I could then spot treat it since it's easy to kill. Then see if it comes back or not.

 

[TXaggie]

I'm going to have to try spot treating the stuff then, maybe with the Excel that I dose anyway. I have the exact same type of algae in my 29 gallon, and I can't seem to get rid of it. I keep pulling the stuff off and it always grows back. Mine is also directly under the spillover from my HOB (an AC70, so plenty of flow for that size tank!) It's a pain and unsightly.

Thanks for posting about this, I was getting annoyed with it especially since I switched my lighting to a split 7 hour cycle...

 

[Jkeating8]

Try raising pipes a bit to add more surface agitation and oxygen. This will allow you to bring your co2 levels up VERY slowly.