Can anyone identify this algae?

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hroom88

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Feb 18, 2014
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Kolkata, In
My tank was fine for the last few months until this algae started growing out of nowhere a week ago.
No new plants added:
ferts- neither increased or reduced
dosing- minimum(pps-pro)
Co2- 2bps
lighting- 3x t5ho
photoperiod- currently 7hrs/day
water changes- every 10 days


Is this clado? Any idea if glut/excel will work. it seems to like the carpeting plants(DHG) and HM.
posting some pics
 

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Hair Algae

It's a bit of a nightmare to have growing in your tank. It grows because of an imbalance between ferts, CO2, and light.

What lights do you have over your tank?
How large is your tank?
How long do you run your lights daily?
What do you use for fertilizers?
What do you use for carbon supplementation?
 
Yup its hair algae like Mebbid said. I had it before in my high tech tank. But I found out my co2 was not enough so when I raised it, it disappeared.
 
Hair Algae

It's a bit of a nightmare to have growing in your tank. It grows because of an imbalance between ferts, CO2, and light.

What lights do you have over your tank?
How large is your tank?
How long do you run your lights daily?
What do you use for fertilizers?
What do you use for carbon supplementation?

What lights do you have over your tank? > 3 x t5ho
How large is your tank? > 75g
How long do you run your lights daily? > 7hrs
What do you use for fertilizers? > pps-pro
What do you use for carbon supplementation? > press. co2 @ 3bps with co2 diffuser

Hope this helps. Thanks
 
Question is, if its hair algae, then why does my amanos/or any other shrimp not munch on it?
 
Actually it is thread algae, which grows in long strings unlike hair algae. The only thing I have seen that consumes it is gammarus shrimp, sometimes called a scud.
 
scuds vs thread/hair algae? Thanks, I think Ill settle for the latter if thats the option. In any case, I doubt they'l survive 100-106°f where I'm from.
 
I would suggest dropping your lights down to 6 hours a day and investing in a decent drop checker to make sure your CO2 levels are up high enough. That should help take care of your algae problem.
 
Kinda looks like Clado to me. Very resistant stuff like spiro in that it loves what your plants do (light, nutrients, etc). Does it feel slimy? Or moss like? If it were hair algae, you're right, the amanos would be all over it. As Mebbid suggested, try increasing CO2 and reduce photoperiod. But I think what should work is to manually remove as much as possible. Then turn off your filter and anything creating a current. Spot treat with excel or H2O2. Let it sit for like 10 to 15 minutes before turning on the filter. Repeat the process for several days if needed.

If it's still persistent, you can remove the affected plants and try treating them in a bucket blackout with algaefix (since Algaefix isn't shrimp safe) for a few days.
 
Kinda looks like Clado to me. Very resistant stuff like spiro in that it loves what your plants do (light, nutrients, etc). Does it feel slimy? Or moss like? If it were hair algae, you're right, the amanos would be all over it. As Mebbid suggested, try increasing CO2 and reduce photoperiod. But I think what should work is to manually remove as much as possible. Then turn off your filter and anything creating a current. Spot treat with excel or H2O2. Let it sit for like 10 to 15 minutes before turning on the filter. Repeat the process for several days if needed.

If it's still persistent, you can remove the affected plants and try treating them in a bucket blackout with algaefix (since Algaefix isn't shrimp safe) for a few days.

Its quite tough and thread-like, feels like cotton wool. Definitely not slimy. Been manually removing them every alt days for the last 2 weeks now.
 
I would suggest dropping your lights down to 6 hours a day and investing in a decent drop checker to make sure your CO2 levels are up high enough. That should help take care of your algae problem.

Upped my co2 to 5bps. Not sure if that would help since most escape as bubbles. Thinking of an atomizer to ensure maximum solubility in the water column.
Also reduced photoperiod to 6 hrs since yesterday. Could have sworn I saw a slight difference today, but that could've been only my imagination.
 
Its quite tough and thread-like, feels like cotton wool. Definitely not slimy. Been manually removing them every alt days for the last 2 weeks now.

It's sounding more like spiro to me. In my experience, it responds excellently to spot treating H2O2, marked less so with glut. I agree with all of the other advice listed (reduce light period, increase CO2). You may also look at decreasing light intensity if practical.
 
Clado or Spiro... both are terrible stubborn algae. If the latter, the only way I got rid of mine completely was with algaefix. It loves whatever your plants do: lights, CO2, and ferts. If you exhaust all options, try algaefix as a last option. Just rehome the shrimp prior while in treatment.
 
Clado or Spiro... both are terrible stubborn algae. If the latter, the only way I got rid of mine completely was with algaefix. It loves whatever your plants do: lights, CO2, and ferts. If you exhaust all options, try algaefix as a last option. Just rehome the shrimp prior while in treatment.

rehome my shrimps from here? :confused::(
 

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There's no way on earth I can find even half the shrimps I have without tearing the tank apart. I'll keep my fingers crossed on the h2o2 and glut.
 
Going through various threads, I came across siesta photo periods. Has anybody achieved any substantial success with it? Especially since the debate seems to be equally poised at the moment, for and against it.

Also introduction to MTS and Nerite/Ramshorns has yielded positive results for a good number of people. Again, I would want members sharing their experience on this. Of course, my Assassins would take care of a potential outbreak of snails.
 
Update: Something terrible just happened. I added about 5ml excel[spot treatment] to the algae. Within 10-15 mins I returned and saw all my yellows and amanos lying motionless-dead, the fish(threadfin and serpaes) are stressed out with what appeared NH3 burns, their gills flared up and red. Dunno what went wrong, I had added the excel before...[feeling sick]
 
Sorry to hear that. 5ml of excel shouldn't do that in a 75g. Are you using excel or glut (i.e. metricide 14)?

Shrimp are sensitive to CO2. Is it possible you accidentally gassed them? You have a drop checker to monitor the CO2 levels? What regulator are you using? In some cases, if you're using a single stage regulator or a cheap second stage, EOTD can occur and wipe out your stock.
 
I'm in agreement with Brian on this one. 5ml of glut isn't going to do that to your fish and inverts. Co2 levels are far more likely culprit.
 
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