Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: jesnon on April 27, 2015, 05:43:38 PM
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Hi everyone! It's been a little while since I posted, hope you're all well! :wave:
Unfortunately I'm just recovering from another hip op myself. Since going into hospital and then being away from my flat the algae situation in my tank has gotten worse and I have no idea at all what to do!
There appears to be two different types:
1. A really thick furry almost purpley black algae that has covered my heater and a few rocks and my fake plant. It seems impossible to remove and is very unsightly! I don't have a spare heater so can't remove to do anything other than scrub it
2. A stringy green algae - I'm less worried about this as it doesn't look too bad.
I haven't been overfeeding if anything the opposite. I hadn't done a water change for about 3 weeks while not here but I've done one now. All fish look happy but I haven't tested the water
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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
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Hope you are recovering well Jesnon and good luck Fiona.
My husband had his done a couple of years ago and it made a world of difference to him, No more pain for a start.
I'll be interested in the algae answers as I have some in my big tank which I cannot find online. Greyish and sort of furry
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Algae like this Sanjo?
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Just like the algae on your moss on the left of the 2nd picture.
Greyish and it's mainly on my Christmas moss too.
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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.
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So Esha2000 would rid me of it then? and be treatment for fish ailments?
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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!
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Thanks cod. I'm sure it's not lack of water changes, I've been doing those.
I'd go with high light levels, low CO2. I've moved the little tree away from the lighter end of the tank and have swapped that for an artificial plant that was at the other end.
I've not ventured into CO2 and suchlike as I was trying to keep everything simple.
I might have to remove all the Christmas fern, just leaving the wood.
Strangely though, I had a load of the Christmas moss left over and until I decided what to do with it I dumped it in a food tray of tap water and left it in the conservatory where it remain green and healthy looking until I used it.
Hmmmm.
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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...
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I found that I had the black beard algae soon after setting up my tanks when they were lightly stocked After increasing my fish to the full load this algae largely disappeared. Where it had grown over Amazon Sword leaves, I gradually cut off the old leaves which were covered with it and the new ones which grew were clean and have remained so.
A couple of my tanks have growths of loose bright green filamentous algae attached to bogwood etc. I tend to leave this as it's quite attractive, after all "moss balls" are actually balls of similar algae. Every so often I pull a handful of it out, which is very easy, taking nitrates with it.
Exposure to direct window light will almost certainly encourage algae, they are essentially the same as other plants in their requirements. I've also found that floating plants, particularly Amazon Frogbit, are good competitors which tend to inhibit algae.
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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 :)
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Hi everyone! This is the algae I have
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/jessboon/Mobile%20Uploads/20150429_161059_zps13gw3q5i.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jessboon/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150429_161059_zps13gw3q5i.jpg.html)
as you can see it's quite ugly!
Thank you for the well wishes and best of luck for your hip op Fiona. Know what you mean about the nerves, I was the same right up until the op. I hope yours goes well and there's nothing to worry about really but easier said than done i know! . I didn't have a hip replacement but something called surgical hip dislocation. I'm off work at the minute and it's driving me mad so if I can sort out my tank during that time that would be good! It's tricky though as I'm non weight bearing and on crutches so the last water change I did was interesting!!
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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. :(