Algae

Maybe your nitrates got a little high and that encouraged the algae to grow, now your back doing water changes hopefully it'll die back a bit.

Hope your hip is ok now, I'm going in on the 8th to get my left hip done and I'm feeling a tad nervous about it

Algae like this Sanjo?

It's all the same stuff and I was told by someone here that its a bacterial growth. I lost my hair grass because of the darned stuff.

It commonly occurs in new fish tanks and will eventually go, although not long after I noticed it growing I added some more fish to the tank along with a course of eSHa 2000 and it disappeared.

From the pic it looks like black beard algae to me. It's caused by a combination of factors, but most commonly occurs with high light levels and low CO2, low light and fluctuating CO2 and poor water quality due to lack of water changes. This algae made an appearance in my tank after I went on holiday for two weeks. I wasn't here to add liquid CO2 or change water.

I've search far and wide for a solution to get rid of it. It appears that double dosing liquid CO2 like Seachem Flourish Excel or Easycarbo will kill it off, but be careful not to raise the dose too high too quickly as your fish may struggle. Keep an eye on them gasping at the top of the tank. If its working then you'll see the BBA change colour to either red or grey. Once this happens the algae can be mechanically removed or left for your fish or invertebrates to clear.

Some fish will eat this algae, namely SAE, Flying Fox, American Flagfish and Black Mollies. Amano shrimp may also eat it, though most most livestock will only go for it when other food is scarce. You're best off treating the symptoms and not the problems, so keep up the water changes and dose with liquid carbon (I've read that Seachem is more effective than Easycarbo if you can get your hands on it).

I'm pretty sure Richard will be on here advocating that the algae is good for the tank, doesn't harm the fish and you shouldn't add anything unnecessary to the tank. However, I hate the look of this stuff and it seems to suffocate some plants. Follow the tips above and you'll will be rid of it, though don't expect miracles overnight! Good luck!

Hi Sanjo,
If you don't want to add CO2, drop your lighting by a couple of hours and see how it goes. From what I've read its very difficult to get rid of the BBA without overdosing liquid CO2, and then it goes bright red or grey and doesn't look great. Shrimp and fish are more likely to eat it once it's dead though...

The growth in the piccies isn't blackbeard algae (my son had that in the gobie/puffer tank). This growth looks furry but its actually a white/cream jelly.  If you've got the same Sanjo it will just eventually die off, it was just chance that I happened to be dosing the tank with eSHa. I think it was Steve that recognised it as a bacterial bloom.

Sanjo in my fishie first aid kit I have eSHa 2000, eSHa exit,  eSHa Gdex and epsom salts. I wouldnt be without them I have to say

I've also found that floating plants, particularly Amazon Frogbit, are good competitors which tend to inhibit algae.

They're also amazing nitrate absorbers. Richard I had a ring of plastic tubing attached to the side of the tank and floated the frogbit in there as I know it doesn't enjoy being disturbed too much but I've found that the lights in the tank hood 'burns' the frogbit and it dies off.