Green slime alge--how do you kill it?---PLEASE HELP!

[DavidG]

I have a 40G plant tank with 4in substrate, JBJ retrofit kit with 2x96w bulbs 10k&actinic,and CO2 hooked up with ph monitor set at6.8. The problem I am having is this green slime alge that is coating all of my plants and blocking the light. I have tried sucking it out but it grows way to fast. What can I do? Turn off light for a week? I plan to brake it down and reset the hole tank in a different room. Is it a waste problem Or to much light?

 

[EMS503]

Green Slime Algae

It is a Bacterial type of Algae. im not quite sure how it arrives, We had the same problem in my son's planted tank. Take out as much as you can by hand or net and then treat the tank once with a half dose of Maracyn.
And follow up a week later with a normal size water change and new carbon. This is what our LFS advised and it cleared the tank about 80% and the rest dimminished a few weeks later. It only returned one more time but we caught it at the beginning and treated the tank and wiped it out.
Good Luck.

EMS503

 

[EMS503]

I jinxed my sons tank he got hit with the algae again. He took out what he could, Then did a half dose of Maraycn for his 55 gal. tank and then a 5 gal. water change. It's just about all gone.

EMS503

 

[Guest]

Well, I dont know if this will help or not. My 45 gallon has had some green slime, but not a lot. First i saw of it it was on one spot on the glass, about the size of a saucer. I got that off and siphoned it out. then a bit more showed up on some hornwort that had reached the top of the water, again, just scooped it out. right now there is just a bit in my skimmer box. It's not troubling me, and I'm waiting to see if it goes away. Supposedly, if conditions are right, the plants will out-compete the algae for nutrients. I dont like using antibiotics due to the effect on biofiltration, but I would if it explodes out of control.

I've also heard that 4-5 days of total darkness will kill it, but I've never tried it.

 

[EMS503]

The green algae is back again this is really becoming a pain.
One of the LFS I TRUST said maybe Phosphates(I know plant tanks need a certain amount of phosphates but). We did a 10 gal. water change stripped down the filter, cleaned the tank and added a Phosphate pad to the filter, will be doing weekly 5 gal. water changes for a couple of weeks I will let everybody know what happens. Lets hope for the best.

 

[Guest]

Yes, EMS, please keep us updated on this. The cyano has stayed gone for a few weeks now, I'm holding my breath on this one. Having a planted tank, I know I'm going to fight some algae battles but I think the cyano is the one I'm most afraid of. The whole nutrient balance (N,P,K) thing is pretty new to me, hard to get a grip on.