How to prevent this?

[MojoDaRott]

I have a brown algae growing on my vine plants. Not sure of the name but it seems to be getting worse. It is on old growth and following new growth. I use flourish comprehensive for fertilizer. When I try to rub off with fingers it usually rips leaves before coming off. Any advice appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Cactuspixie]

Snip off the worst affected leaves and reduce the time your lights are on. Is it only on your floating plants?

 

[aqua_chem]

What's your current lighting time and what kind of lights do you have? It looks like the startings of BBA, which can be quite troublesome indeed to deal with. It's normally caused by a CO2/lighting imbalance issue, although not exclusively. I didn't see that you were dosing CO2 or a carbon supplement. Have you considered adding that?

 

[MojoDaRott]

What's your current lighting time and what kind of lights do you have? It looks like the startings of BBA, which can be quite troublesome indeed to deal with. It's normally caused by a CO2/lighting imbalance issue, although not exclusively. I didn't see that you were dosing CO2 or a carbon supplement. Have you considered adding that?

My lights are on for 10.5 hours with I think 20 or 30 watt florescent tube light. I used DIY co2 until couple of weeks ago. Does co2 help or hurt. I use flourish comprehensive 2 times a week with half capful as directed. Any suggestions to correct are welcome.

 

[eAts]

My lights are on for 10.5 hours with I think 20 or 30 watt florescent tube light. I used DIY co2 until couple of weeks ago. Does co2 help or hurt. I use flourish comprehensive 2 times a week with half capful as directed. Any suggestions to correct are welcome.

Co2 helps! I would reduce the lights to 8 hours max and maybe even further until balanced.

 

[MojoDaRott]

Ok I will start co2 back up but is it necessary to cut off affected leaves. If I cut them off the plants will look bare and if that is the case then I should just remove the plants or can I keep them attached and the algae will go away eventually. Thank you for the advice.

 

[Rivercats]

You can spot treat the algae with either a liquid carbon such as Excel or Hydrogen Peroxide 3%. Pull up 1ml of either for every 1 gallon of tank water in a syringe, turn off your filters, hold syringe as close as you can to the algae and slowly squirt it. Leave filters off 20 minutes. Usually within 24 hours the algae will begin to die off. As with any chemical be careful with dosing.