What's on my plants?!

[Amicus]

I noticed yesterday that on a couple of my plants there are black splotches on the leaves. They are only on the top of the leaves, there is no fillament and they almost seem flush to the leaf. I have several plants and there are three affected. The pics with this thread are of one of my Amazon Swords. One is a full leaf and the other a close up.

 

[bruinsbro1997]

I'm not an expert but it looks like the dreaded black beard algae...

 

[Amicus]

I know that I have brush/bush algae, the little tufts that are dark green and move with the water. When I tried to find black beard algae they had photos of the brush algae and what is in my photos. I'm a little stumped.

 

[Keybler]

I think i have the black beard algae, I just cut those leaves off. I did a 4 day blackout and nothing.

 

[DragonFish71]

For BBA control I've found that doing as much plucking as possible then spot spraying it with Excel or API CO2 booster works great. (also seems to work for some other types of algaes)

I got a clean spray bottle, put in the recommended dosage for either product and sprayed the affected area when I had a low water level while doing a PWC.

You can also use a syringe to spot dose. But I've found that for a larger area the spray bottle works the best.


A few precautions though:

Cory cats ( and other fish) can be affected by this. My albinos started turning red from oxygen loss. Make sure you have an airstone going when you do this and fill the tank up immediately.

Don't breath it in. I don't know if it is dangerous or not, but you'll have that taste in the back of your throat for a few days. Kind of like bleach.


Unfortunately I'm in the process of changing operating systems on my computer and seem to have lost all my bookmarks concerning different algae types and how to control them.

 

[Amicus]

I'm at my lfs and I'll see what they have. I'll post what they tell me.

 

[Hubert90]

I noticed yesterday that on a couple of my plants there are black splotches on the leaves. They are only on the top of the leaves, there is no fillament and they almost seem flush to the leaf. I have several plants and there are three affected. The pics with this thread are of one of my Amazon Swords. One is a full leaf and the other a close up.

Does it come off easily? For me.. It looks like diatom? No? Haha

 

[mfdrookie516]

That's diatoms, not BBA.

 

[thedannyd]

Ive struggled with BBA and that doesnt look quite the same. Mine was more 'fur' like and really loved the stems and the sides of leaves more than the surface of the leaf itself. Hope that helps.

 

[noob2100]

I agree, it looks like brown diatoms. I'm going thru the same issue. High phosphate and silicates can be a cause.

 

[Amicus]

I tested my phosphates and they were zero also I had brown diatoms and they were gone a while ago. I also tested my nitrAte and the API results were 0 - 5 ppm. The nitrAtes have been at that level for quite some time. I took out the amazon leaf and the stuff was black and did not really come off easily. Are there such things as black diatoms?

 

[mfdrookie516]

IME, diatoms just come and go for no apparent reason. They have many shapes and colors. From brown rusty looking to white stringy looking. Really, either having some fish in there (dont get them for that purpose though) that eat diatoms is the only thing I've found to rid them. I have a bristlenose in 2 of my tanks and never see diatoms, gsa, or any other algae aside from BBA (and it's going away)... SAE's eat a lot of algae, but I've never seen anyone say they'll eat diatoms. Otos seem to be recommended. Again, I would caution you not to add fish for this purpose, but if you find any appealing, they might help out some.

 

[Amicus]

IME, diatoms just come and go for no apparent reason. They have many shapes and colors. From brown rusty looking to white stringy looking. Really, either having some fish in there (dont get them for that purpose though) that eat diatoms is the only thing I've found to rid them. I have a bristlenose in 2 of my tanks and never see diatoms, gsa, or any other algae aside from BBA (and it's going away)... SAE's eat a lot of algae, but I've never seen anyone say they'll eat diatoms. Otos seem to be recommended. Again, I would caution you not to add fish for this purpose, but if you find any appealing, they might help out some.

I have a pretty diverse cleaning crew, 2 plecos (1 ABN and a BN), 6 otos, 1 stick catfish, 3 flag fish and 3 wood shrimp (they filter feed and forage). I thougt that these fish covered a wider range of algaes.
It is a 72g planted tank with pressurized CO2 running 3x54w t5 HO 65kK.

 

[thedannyd]

IME, diatoms just come and go for no apparent reason. They have many shapes and colors. From brown rusty looking to white stringy looking. Really, either having some fish in there (dont get them for that purpose though) that eat diatoms is the only thing I've found to rid them. I have a bristlenose in 2 of my tanks and never see diatoms, gsa, or any other algae aside from BBA (and it's going away)... SAE's eat a lot of algae, but I've never seen anyone say they'll eat diatoms. Otos seem to be recommended. Again, I would caution you not to add fish for this purpose, but if you find any appealing, they might help out some.

I have all three in mine...and when i put them in thats when my troubles went away.
1 bristle nose
5(now2) otocinclus
6 SAE from liveaquaria.com
My SAE are crazy fish. They chace eacg other bad but dont bother anything else.