I hate this stuff

[Etunes]

Ok, well my 75g has been established for a while and i have this stuff in my tank. It is algae but it is red and fuzzy, and REALLY hard to get rid off. What is my embalince. I know there is 1 but i cant find it. Should i step up on water changes. I am doing water changes once every 3 weeks (A combanation of being really busy and was lightly stocked for a long time). I cant figure it out. Any ideas? I have 2x t5hos for lighting.

 

[Ilikefishes]

More water changes could help. At least one a week my friend.

 

[Ilikefishes]

Also, I'd suggest some Otocinclus catfish, and Siamese Algae Eaters. Are you using CO2? Fluorish Excel? Those act as natural algicides.

 

[Etunes]

Either of those fish would be consumed in my tank and i am not dosing as i have vals. The Co2 is a no. I just want low to medium light plants with no Co2, i can handle dosing but dosing with no Co2 is asking for trouble.

 

[DragonFish71]

Vals don't melt with the use of Excel. I have different types of Vals in most of our tanks and dose Excel.

 

[HN1]

I've actually seen some vals melt because of excel. E- How often and how much water do you change? What is your stocking? This may be one of the very few cases where reducing PWCs may be called for along with reduced lighting, manual removal, and maybe up to a 3 day blackout.

BBA is a tough one to crack. We have tanks side by side, under the same lighting, identical parameters, fed equally, yada yada where one is immaculate and the other is full of it. If the tank did not have vals or crypts, I'd probably recommend Glutaraldehyde treatment.

 

[Etunes]

Ya, this crap is all over the place. I will list my current stock below. My only question is how do i reduce lighting? Remove 1 of the bulbs? Dont tell me i bought this light and need a weaker 1? Cause if that is the case then i might have to start to save up for a Co2 system or maybe a sw even. Either way i do a 25% water change every time i do a water change. I am tired of this stuff.

 

[kaiofcanada]

I highly recommend rosy barbs....but only for a limited time. My friend told me that rosy barbs like hair algae and stringy algae growth...so I bought a trio. They cleared my tank of hair algae in a day. I have never seen anything so diligent. However, the drawback...they do NOT have gentle mouths. There were holes in almost everything by day three. I threw in a piece of zuchini and some seaweed, and they could have cared less. They munched and then wait for more to grow...by day 6 My lovely planted tank had been excessively pruned. I returned them to the store and got my money back .

They can grow fairly large, and are REALLY lovely fish. If they had been less eager, I would have liked to have kept them.

 

[Etunes]

Plants:
big portion, java moss
1 java fern
1 anubias hastifolia
1 melon sword
2 bunches hygrophila corymbosa
1 small Madagascar lace
3 Wendtii green
corkscrew vals

Fish
3 Angelfish
1 Festivum
4 skunk cories
2 bronze cories
4 Guppies
1 cacellian worm

 

[Etunes]

I highly recommend rosy barbs....but only for a limited time. My friend told me that rosy barbs like hair algae and stringy algae growth...so I bought a trio. They cleared my tank of hair algae in a day. I have never seen anything so diligent. However, the drawback...they do NOT have gentle mouths. There were holes in almost everything by day three. I threw in a piece of zuchini and some seaweed, and they could have cared less. They munched and then wait for more to grow...by day 6 My lovely planted tank had been excessively pruned. I returned them to the store and got my money back .

They can grow fairly large, and are REALLY lovely fish. If they had been less eager, I would have liked to have kept them.

lol, thats funny. But if i buy a fish for it i would buy some florida flag fish. But i would prefer not to add unnecessary fish as my end goal for this tank is to breed the cacellian worm.

 

[kaiofcanada]

On the CO2 setup....you can make your own DIU setup super easy until you save up to get an injected system.

I use bakers yeast, sugar and baking soda set up with tubing and a lightfree 1liter bottle. I exchange the culture every three weeks to keep the CO2 steady and have not had any trouble with algae in my tanks. Costs less than $10 to set up. :0) If you tank is larger than 20g, you can set up a couple bottles with tubing to different parts of the tank. You can buy a couple of these diffusers to maximize the CO2 diffusion into your water.

co2 aquarium bubble diffuser - Google Product Search

 

[Etunes]

Problem is that is only effective in a smaller tank, this is a 75g.

 

[kaiofcanada]

The recipe I use for the CO2 DIY setup is 1 cup of granulated sugar, a pinch of baking soda, and a teaspoon of bakers yeast. per 750 ml of water.

Add the sugar to room temp water and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add the baking soda, stir, add the yeast, stir. Connect all the tubing airtight and connect to the diffuser. Voila!

After a while you get a sense for how much to add and how long it lasts. This varies by temp, how much yeast, and how much food (sugar). CO2 is a product of the yeast respiration. Natural CO2 ! No high tech, but it will tie you over until you get a super duper high tech setup.

Cheap and easy to do. You can find numerous DIY instructions/options for the container. You can use any clean plastic bottle. Use normal aquarium airtubing to connect the bottle to the diffuser. You can use silicone sealant to seal the tubing to the bottle top.

 

[kaiofcanada]

Problem is that is only effective in a smaller tank, this is a 75g.

Nah...my friend has an 80g and has 4 2L canisters set up for it. He changes the culture every two weeks. He is also saving for an injection system. He has a lovely planted tank and no algae probs. It must be a pain to keep up with, but you do what you must, right?

 

[HN1]

Ya, this crap is all over the place. I will list my current stock below. My only question is how do i reduce lighting? Remove 1 of the bulbs? Dont tell me i bought this light and need a weaker 1? Cause if that is the case then i might have to start to save up for a Co2 system or maybe a sw even. Either way i do a 25% water change every time i do a water change. I am tired of this stuff.

Just reduce the duration a bit or you can remove 1 bulb. It's a trial and error thing. BBA sucks no doubt, but don't give up. Learn from it. It
is ugly, but every tank that I've seen it in has been pretty healthy. There's always bryopsis to look forward to.

 

[Etunes]

So what do you suggest? What you said before? Reduce lights, and a black out?

 

[HN1]

I would. Not saying that I've had amazing luck at eliminating it lol, but it does seem to at least cut in down some.

 

[kaiofcanada]

I found these articles very useful.

Nature Aquariums & Aquascapes of Samit Roy: Black Beard Algae

http://www.aquariumslife.com/algae-control/brushalga/

 

[WhiteDevil]

Problem is that is only effective in a smaller tank, this is a 75g.

thats horse poo.


A guy in houston has a 5g DIY co2 set up on a 100g tank, he holds a constant 30ppm of Co2 in that tank, it can be done the size of the rig though increases with tank size.

SAE's worked for me on my hair algae issues, maybe "unnecessary" but they leave well enough alone and do whatever it is they do together. They have yet to remotely bother a discus pair on their eggs, rather they just graze.

Also Kai, try brewers yeast instead, it lasts alot longer then bakers does. Binny's might have it.

 

[kaiofcanada]

thats horse poo.


A guy in houston has a 5g DIY co2 set up on a 100g tank, he holds a constant 30ppm of Co2 in that tank, it can be done the size of the rig though increases with tank size.

SAE's worked for me on my hair algae issues, maybe "unnecessary" but they leave well enough alone and do whatever it is they do together. They have yet to remotely bother a discus pair on their eggs, rather they just graze.

Also Kai, try brewers yeast instead, it lasts alot longer then bakers does. Binny's might have it.

Oh sweet. I will look for it. Thanks for the tip my friend