Had an outbreak...Best way to clear it up?

[Little-AL]

Hi Guys,

I've been away from home for another week and come back to a pretty nasty algae outbreak I've had a bit of BBA for a while but this is all new - Appears to have mainly affected plants that were trimmed last week (vallis and java fern) and the BBA has worsened noticeably...

Lighting is only on for 6-7 hours a day (twin t5's), have CO2 on the tank, no fish loss etc and keep up regular water changes with RO.

I am going to do a big water change tomorrow - is it best to remove any affected leaves then dose Easy Carbo or similar?

Thanks

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

Canasten duo

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
The long bits are "Staghorn". I'd try a filter clean and try and reduce the photo-period and or light intensity.

cheers Darrel

 

[mlgt]

Just trim the leaves. Best way and encourages growth as well. Win win. Then I would say try and balance the co2 vs lighting vs ferts.

 

[AndrewH]

I'd try a filter clean....

This did wonders for my outbreak before Christmas, which looked very very similar to your pics actually!
I trimmed off all infected leaves, scraped away anything on the glass, then did a 50% water change and full filter clean (new pads and rinsed the filter material)

Its not gone completely, but definitely made a big improvement and its coming back alot slower than before.

PS. read in PFK about brushing Liquid CO2 onto the affected areas, but this just killed the leaves of my anubias, and wilted them on my Java fern

 

[Little-AL]

Thanks guys... I picked up some liquid carbon and dosed that, removed the vallis entirely and trimmed most of the other leaves.
Did also do a complete filter clean (first one since installing the FX5) - was seriously mucky in there so suspect I may have had a slight spike in my phos levels. Will see how it looks when I get back home this week!

 

[ceg4048]

Spike in PO4 levels cannot possibly be responsible for any of the issues depicted in these images. These are all CO2 issues, however you also likely don't have enough PO4 or enough NO3 from what I can see from the images.

Cheers,

 

[Marcel G]

What´s your dosing regime? Are you adding some ferts to your tank? As ceg says, it seems from some pictures that there are yellow leaves (maybe nitrogen deficiency) + green dots on anubias leaves (maybe too little PO4). So it could be that the nutrients are depleted in your tank. Also if you have stronger light, the CO2 could be in non sufficient amount for some plants. It´s hard to say if you did not tell us the parameters of your tank, dosing, and maintenance schedule.

 

[Pinkmummy79]

Hi Little-AL any update on your staghorn issue?
I have a small problem of my own but as yet not as bad as in your initial pics and would be interested in knowing if you managed to get things under control and if so what you have done since your last post to change things.
I don't wish to highjack your thread, so at the moment won't detail my tank parameters, dosing and maintenance schedule, apart from saying i'm not being lazy over things and maybe just need to balance my c02 and ei ferts etc, this is where I may need help but firstly would like to hear how you got on mate.
cheers
Clive