Freshwater algae help

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rmiller88

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Aug 8, 2013
Messages
36
Location
Ohio
Hello all,
As you can see from the pictures (I know they aren't great, but it's the best I could get) I have been developing what appears to be a reddish tint algae. I started this problem about 2 months ago and some otos did the trick for me but now they stopped eating it and it's getting out of hand. Every Red or brown algae I've looked up doesn't really match the image. The algae isn't on my sand, it's mainly on the glass, plants, and the filter. I would appreciate any help in identifying this algae and how to nip it in the butt. The only thing I can think of that I'm doing wrong is leaving my light on too long per day (about 15 hours)
 

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Yeah, that's way too much light. I'd bring it back to about 6-8 hours. You may not have enough plants to compete with the algae.

You can scrub it off the glass and other surfaces, of course. To remove it from plants I put some hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle and spray the algae-covered areas of the plant with it. It's ok if a little bit gets into your water. Some people actually dose the whole tank with peroxide to kill algae, but since you have otos I wouldn't do that.
 
I have 8 different types of plants in a 29gal as well as about 25 various community fish so I don't think I'll go the peroxide route. I've scrubbed it off everything but the plants before but I want to get rid of it completely for good without having to keep buying otos that may or may not do their job haha
 
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