Purple Algae

[Nippyfish]

Can anyone tell me what sort of algae this is on my java moss? Is it too much light perhaps? The parameters aren't bad. I have had some green hair algae over the last couple of months. It started when sunlight started hitting the tank directly. (summer sun)

It popped up in the last couple of days. The tank has been established for a couple of years but recently had a hiccup when I moved some fish out.

10 gal , 1 dwarf puffer
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 8ppm
pH 8.2

I've been pretty lucky to not have to deal with algae problems in the past but that translates to not knowing very much about it.

 

[QTOFFER]

Try to shade the tank during the day. No good can possibly come of any direct sunlight hitting an aquarium. What other plants do you have nesides JAva moss?

I've never seen purple algae before - nice picture, BTW.
My guess is that it's cycnobacteria, aka "blue green algae". It's ususlly bright green - turquoise, but I've heard that it comes in shades of red too. If it comes off in sheets and smells like rotten eggs, it's definitely BGA.

I would remove as much as you can manually and black out the tank for a few days. Keep the light off and cover the tank with a heavy blanket. If you can, increase the water current and add an airstone. Believe me, you don't want BGA to get a foothold. The stuff spreads like wildfire and is a PITA to get rid of.

 

[Purrbox]

I second the vote for BGA. It often gets a foothold due to low Nitrates and or poor water circulation. Make sure that you've corrected both to keep it from coming back after the blackout. Also do a big water change right after the blackout as well.

 

[Devilishturtles]

I agree, it looks like Cyanobacteria. Never quite seen a purple color before either, but read about it.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Now the question still exists, is it kind of slimy and have a strong smell, or is it like strong threads that's hard to remove? I have it in my java moss, it's just as purple as in your tank, and mine is like thread, and really hard to pull off. And doesn't stink at all. It looks like purple from a distance, but is more brownish when you get closer. And a 3 day blackout didn't do anything to it.

 

[Nippyfish]

Now the question still exists, is it kind of slimy and have a strong smell, or is it like strong threads that's hard to remove? I have it in my java moss, it's just as purple as in your tank, and mine is like thread, and really hard to pull off. And doesn't stink at all. It looks like purple from a distance, but is more brownish when you get closer. And a 3 day blackout didn't do anything to it.

It's not super-slimy like they BGA I have seen before (gel like) but I don't know that I would call it stringy. It doesn't really have a smell. It it does, it's very slight. I have a filter and an airstone so I'm not sure what else I can do to improve current other then drop the water level a bit to create a bigger splash by my filter. I can try that later.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I think I conquered my algae problem on the java moss. I stuck the driftwood with the java moss on it into a 5G bucket of water and added a lot of Flourish Excel. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then I just placed it back into the tank, no rinsing. The algae is just about gone. I might try one more dipping this week. It looks like it's been slowly disolving over the last week. Gonna give it a second dose to be sure.

 

[Peyton]

I think it looks like brush algae. Looks the same as the junk that covers my filter intake sometimes. I have to take a scouring pad to get it off.

http://www.plantgeek.net/articles/gg_algae_faq/bba3.jpg

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Try taking a doser and inject Excel on some of the brush algae on the filter. Give it a good dose. See if it will cause it to start to disolve and go away. If what mine is is brush algae, then excel did a great job of getting rid of it.