B/GA or hair algea

[blazeyreef]

uggggg, my 10gall, soon to be planted is getting either BGA or hair algea...( I think its BGA) and ugggg, its annoying! I know everyone warned me it would happen if I diddnt get plants in their...its just I havnt found any GOOD plants yet, the LFS's plants all looked blahhh my anubis is COVERED in it

 

[7Enigma]

Very easy to tell. If its BGA, it should look slimy and if you take it out of the water it should stink something awful. If its hair algae, it should look look either brown, green, or grey, and looks very soft because each of the hairs are so close together they form a mat. BGA is normally caused by very low (or no) nitrAtes, hair algae (if you mean BBA) can be caused by several things but normally results in low/fluctuating CO2 levels.

I would wager a guess if you have fish in there and small/low numbers of plants but good water circulation its probably NOT BGA (since there are probably nitrAtes) and more likely BBA, but without pictures we're guessing. Either way you need to fix the fert issues.

 

[blazeyreef]

it sounds like hair algea (BBA), ugggg, I do have CO2, fish, and very few plants....just havnt found any that looked good to me also im waiting till after thanksgiving as some said they would have some clippings then!

 

[7Enigma]

If you have good current in there it is very unlikely then that its BGA. Both are a pain, but at least the BBA doesn't stink!

 

[Purrbox]

When first starting a tank it is much more important to get some fast growing stem plants in there than to get plants you like. Buy some inexpensive stems that you can get locally like Anacharis, WaterSprite, Rotala Rotundifolia (often mislabelled Rotala Indica at LFS), or Wisteria. Get these in the tank now to keep things under control and help with the breaking in phase. Then as you find plants that you actually like, you can slowly work on switching the original stems out.