Dwarf Sagittaria Loaded with Black Hair Algae

[LindaC]

Is there anything I can do to get rid of this algea on my dwarf sags? I love this plant and it's growing very well, sending up daughter plants all over the place but a lot of the ends of some of the leaves have short black hair algae which makes them look terrible!

It's really lousy when a plant is growing so well and you have to rip off leaves because of this algae. Anyone else have this problem and if so, what do you do? I really don't want to have to rip this plant out of my tank, it's bad enough that I've had to cut a lot of leaves off of it.

These sags are in my 29 gallon tank, with pressurized CO2 at approximately 30 ppms and my lighting is 1x55 watts retro-fit from AH Supply. I am still playing around with my ferts and mostly dosing potassium every other day at 1/8th tsp and CSM+B on alternate days at 1 tsp of mixture made up at 1 tablespoon per 500 mil of distilled water. My fish and plants seem to take care of the nitrates, they are usually at 10ppms but if lower, I add KNO3 and I add phosphated via Fleet approximately once a week at 6 drops. It's been taking me quite a while to get this tank under control and I'm still having a hard time.

Many thanks!
Linda

 

[Purrbox]

Once you get your dosing under control, this algae will go away. In the mean time your options are to live with it, remove the affected leaves, or to try dips and other treatments to temporarily remove the algae. Some common dip treatments include bleach (1 part bleach to 19 water, rinse thoroughly afterwards), H202 (not sure of the specifics on this one, but again rinse thoroughly afterwards), or spot treatment with Flourish Excel.

I find that using Excel is one of the better options though it often takes more than a single treatment. You can apply it by squirting the dose directly on the affected leaves or removing the plant from the tank and brushing it directly on the leaves. I have found this to be a highly effective means of temporarily removing algae from Anubias leaves. These are always the first to get hit in my tanks since they are so slow growing, and end up being an early indicator if something is getting out of balance.

 

[LindaC]

Yes, my anubias isn't looking well either, although I did remove it from my 29 gallon and it's now in my 10 gallon with no CO2 injection and 2 15 watt compact flourescent light bulbs. With the anubias, I tried a bleach dip but that was only yesterday evening, so it will be interesting to see what happens when I get home tonight.

Thanks for the response, it's very much appreciated.