Weird algae/plant prob questions

[Allivymar]

Hiya folks!

2 question:

1) I have this weird algae starting to grow on one side of my tank. Its a flourescent green; not one I've seen in my tanks before. I've tried to ID it, but can't find anything that matches. Pic below. Its growing over the brown (diatom) algae. The angelfish fry pick at the brown algae, but won't touch the green stuff. Its only on that side of the tank in thatv area, although I have brown algae on all sides of the tank (cept the front; I do scrape it so I can see in LOL).

2) The plant in the pic is acting weird. Notice how curled the leaves are; whats that about? There are 2 of those plants in the tank, and both have started with the curly leaves at the same height. It looks like they just never completely opened, although the leaves below are fine (you can see a couple of em at the bottom of the page; they're all from the same plant) I'm not 100% sure what sort of plant it is anyway, but the hygro and the amazon swords are acting normal.

The tank itself is my angelfish baby tank, with the mated pair of angels and 4 rams in it. 25g, only 30 watts of light, no CO2 or ferts. Nitrates run around 20-30ppm due to the frequent feedings of the fry.

 

[betowess]

I'm guessing BGA. Do you know the name of the plant, Ali?

 

[lmw80]

It sure does look like Blue Green Algae (aka Cyanobacteria)....does it have a smell yet? I had a terrible fight with it a couple months ago.

The plant, I have no idea, sorry Alli...but the algae, I would definitly say cyanobacteria. :?

 

[Allivymar]

D*mn. I was afraid it might be. I've been googling blue-green algae, and cynobacteria, but all the pics that came up didn't match, so I was kinda hoping it was something else. The problem is, that's the angelfish baby tank (you can see one of the lil buggers real well in the pic) and I'm uncomfortable treating the tank with meds with them in there.

Aaauuggghh!

I just set up the 15g for the breeding rams and they were to move in this weekend. I guess I could put the babies in there temp, but its a fairly sterile tank in terms of microorganisms (the babies chow on the diatoms and other stuff in the 25g). Maybe I'll just scrape it off for now, and hope it remains minimally invasive till they're a bit bigger and I can sell some/move some into the main angel tank. Erythromycin is the recommended tx yes? Isn't that one of the antibiotics in Maracyn2? Hope so; otherwise I have to go shopping.

And I haven't the vaguest idea what that stupid plant is betowess LOL It was sold to me as some sort of anubias, but its definitely not. Madasafish id'd it for me a while back, but I can't remember what he thought it was; I'll PM him and see if HE remembers LOL

 

[betowess]

Yeah, I thought maybe it was one of those twisted Vals, for a second. Probably not.

 

[smilla4]

[No message]

 

[Allivymar]

I checked and we think its some sort of broad leaf hygro. The original leaves are flat, wider and not twisted. Coupla thoughts on whats affecting it, although I can't imagine how. The plant is (obviously) pretty close to the suspected cynobacteria. Could that be causing the twisting? Also, the mated angels in that tank HATE that plant, and ever since they went in they have been tearing at it. Could the leaves be twisting in response to that?

Its only the new leaves and only that type of plant. There is an amazon right in front of it in the tank that is absolutely fine, but it hasn't touched the wall with the cyno; the possible hygro has and the angels leave the amazons alone.

I have some pics of the tank so you can see what the tank and specifically the plant looked like just over a month ago, and what it looks like now. Its obvious that plant is growing REALLY fast; maybe thats the issue? Heh, and if you look real careful, you can see some of the angelfish fry in the most recent pic.

 

[Fruitbat]

Personally I wouldn't put money on the it being a blue-green (Cyanobacterium) and it certainly isn't the usual Oscillatoria type of BGA. It COULD be a different blue-green, Anabaena possibly. Alli....you might want to consider putting some Otocinclus in the tank to see if they'll eat the stuff. They won't be any threat to your youngsters (VERY cute, by the way!) and, if nothing else, will help take care of some of the diatoms that you're having such success growing!!

 

[Allivymar]

I have a coupla otos in the planted 10g. Thing is, they never touch the green algae. When they went in I had tons of brown (diatoms) which they chowed on, but they ignore anything green. Go figure. Plus, the fry are eating the brown algae (sort of a algae buffet thing LOL); I'd rather the otos didn't since it seems to be an important part of the fry's diet.

 

[fishluvr]

The plant definitely looks like some form of hygro...

BTW...Is that direct sunlight on the left side of the tank???

From what I've seen, the distorted leaf growth and algae probs are gonna stem from a nutrient imbalance (calcium or boron)...
I'm currently getting much experience in growing algae, so if you want to grow more, I might be able to help you!

 

[Allivymar]

Heh no its not sunlight fishluvr. My eclipse hood blew a connection, and for a little while there I only had one 15 watt bulb that worked. I stuck another 15g fixture up against the side so all the plants wouldn't die while I waited for the replacement fixture to be shipped.

LOL You and I could be the royal family of algae then. I have every type possible in that tank; hair, brown, spot, plain old green and even the mystery algae. Turns out the angelfish fry do great in a tank with lotsa algae; they browse on it (well, mostly the brown algae) and the microorganisms that grow on it supplement the feedings I give em.

Hmmm. Calcium or boron imbalance. Interesting. Wouldn't the angelfish fry also show probs if the tank was lacking in those? Or does the plant only pull it up by the roots? I don't fertilize that tank; its main purpose isn't plants but the angelfish fry, but I do have some plant tabs I can stick in the sand. Or, did you mean theres too much?

 

[medge00]

naw, i think he meant too little. i've only run across it when my plants were growing really fast but I don't quite remember what I did to fix it... (that doesn't help you does it?)

 

[betowess]

Boron is taken up by the water column and is found in Flourish and in Plantex + B (boron) or added as boric acid powder. I don't know if that twisting is related, however.

Could the algae be a regular "film" algae? My otos don't touch mine which looks similar and I just scrape it off with the razor... But then I don't know exactly what my little otos are munching on. But all eight of them are kind of fat so their gorging on something.

Ps... Ali, I don't think you two can claim the royal algae title. It belongs to all the proletariate, unfortunately. not LOL

 

[Allivymar]

*giggles* Darn. I thought with 4 types of algae in one tank, 2 of them making that lovely collage, made me speshul

I wonder if it is a film type algae; it certainly hasn't spread thru the entire tank; just that one wall which is no longer getting direct light from the temp fixture. Its flat, no bits swaying off of it like the hair algae and it IS green. Its just flourescent green LOL and thats what threw me. All the algae I've had has been fairly deep green except the spot.

Ok it gets weirder. The plants is throwing off new leaves, and they look normal. I'm utterly confused now. I've avoided putting in any liquid ferts because of the babies; would the plant tabs be a prob for em? Or do I even need to bother now?

*puzzled*

 

[fishluvr]

Alli...

Did the distorted leaf growth come after the probs with the hood? The leaves might have grown a little odd due to the side lighting, or a temporary nutrient imbalance...Ditto for the algae (which, IMHO, just happens to still be growing because we can never clean it completely off...

If everything seems okay now (except for the algae), I'd not change anything, really...As the plants keep growing, they may be enough to battle the algae for you, and your fish seem to be happy...

Just for fun, Ive attached a pic of my favorite algae...I call it "Green Pearls"...[/i]

 

[madasafish]

Tush, tush, Alli. I told you what that plant is a couple of weeks ago--for shame!

It's Nomaphila Strictap://images.google.com/images?hl=en&[acronym="Live rock"]lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Nomaphila+stricta%22&sa=N&tab=wi

Here's one of the pics enlarged: http://akvarium.aktualne.cz/foto/nomaphila.jpg and another one: http://www.plantedtank.net/images/plants/gianthygro.jpg

For others' reference, Alli gave me cuttings of this plant a few months ago, and it's gotten huge in my tank--quite a nice species IMO.

HTH; sorry I can't advise on that crazy algae!

 

[madasafish]

ARG! Something went seriously wrong with that link and my typing. Let's try this again...

It's called Nomaphila stricta... giant hygro

And the link is: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Nomaphila+stricta%22

Sigh.

Oh, and I have plenty of those "green pearls" myself, fishluvr!

 

[madasafish]

Haha, live rock foils me again. Less ugly this time, though. HTH if you can cut and paste the link.

 

[Allivymar]

Hygro, anubias; I knew it was a plant! Do I get partial credit?

And yeah fishluvr, it did happen after the hood blew, but I still can't figure out why the leaves would have twisted instead of simply growing to the side...weirdness.

Heh, I can see why it would be your fav; thats actually very cool looking algae. I kinda like my flourescent green stuff mixed with the brown. Theres a 3rd algae starting to grow on that area thats a bit darker green; the combo of the 3 look like some sort of impressionist painting LOL

 

[Allivymar]

*slaps head*

I think I have figured out the twisted plant prob.

The first 3-4 weeks of having angelfish fry in the tank, I never turned that side light off (to prevent the lil guys from being eaten). Some plants don't do well with 24 hrs of light; they need that dark time to do the CO2 thing. I'll bet, by keeping the lights directly on that plant 24/7, it messed the plant up. Especially since, now that I have the new hood, and the fry are big enough that I have the lights on a timer and they go OFF at night, the new leaves are coming in fine.

Duh! LOL