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I have the same 'issue' however my oto's love the stuff so I tend to leave it there mostly :) If I ever scrape it off, I'll most likely do this whilst siphoning away the scraped material to reduce how much spreads into the water column.

Re: Algae and java moss won't grow What fertiliser are you adding and what is your light/CO2 timing like?

No need for CO2 to be on after lights off, however it is best left on until the lights go off. I was trying to get to James Planted Tank guide on the Interweb but it doesn't want to load for me, the algae guide is superb: http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

Is yours the tank I have seen in front of the window in your room? First off, drop the lights to 6hrs. There's no need for CO2 after lights off (which I can't see would cause the algae).

How long ago did the new filter go in? When I put a Koralia in my tank, it took a few weeks before the algae on the glass cleared up, each week still needed scraped. 3 weeks in and gone, never came back. That aside the CO2 and fertilising are worth checking as above :)

The yellow patches, I think, suggest a nutrient deficiency - if I'm correct, then that leaves them more prone to algae than a healthy plant.

This is the one I have: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CO2-regulator ... 3a5e701777

There's your fluctuating CO2, though generally it is advised to put the CO2 on an hour or two before the lights to ensure the levels are sufficient as soon as the lights come on as CO2 takes a while to build up in the water column. Cheapest way for CO2 is generally to use CO2 fire extinguishers...

Black brush/beard algae by the looks of things. This is a good read: http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm Generally down to poor water circulation or fluctuating CO2 levels - how do you run your CO2?

Can you get any photo's? Most likely algae, though that in itself won't kill plants. Are you using the lights supplied with the tank? Do you know what level of CO2 you are achieving with the AquaGro kit?

Well, either way, it is MUCH cheaper to buy elsewhere...£1 for 200ml for instance via Google.

So, err, bleach then :) Or are they different?

Nothing else I can think of suggesting - once the silicone is stained, it is nigh-on impossible to clean, as the stain embeds into the silicone and isn't just on the surface.

Personally, I reckon you'll never manage - I gave up in our kitchen where have we have clear silicone between the worktop and tiles - only way I can come up with now is to remove and replace the seal, which is easier on a kitchen top than an aquarium.

That's the problem with clear silicone, once it is stained it is almost impossible to make clean again. We have some near our kitchen sink - I've sprayed it with bleach and left it for days with no change, I'll be stripping it off and re-sealing next.

I doubt you'd need to worry about cleaning the filter at all, the bacteria level should build up and there will be little to no physical muck in the filter to clean out as there are no fish.

I may re-look at the TetraTec pipes, if nothing else I'd be less scared of breaking them for a good clean :)

Are there any 'nicer' intakes? The TetraTec one is rather bulky and doesn't fit through the lid which is already hacked to bits for the lily pipes and lights :) CO2 was as high as I could get it without the fish gasping.

I do feel that BBA got worse after adding the Koralia, however the diatoms on the glass stopped instantly. Light wise, the taller tank will reduce levels at the substrate level a little. Lighting was 6 hours already and I'll be sticking with that. I had looked at upgrading the filter though...

I can't due to the starter unit being a dual-one, a single T8 would also drop the light below 1wpg too...which may not be good for the hair grass I'm planning?

I'm back :) To the point - I don't think I've ever managed to keep my tank algae free, or at least with minimal issues, in all the times it has been re-scaped. I'm going to re-scape again in the next week or two - I always regretted buying the 30cm height (54L) Juwel Rekord tank instead of the...

Still going :) The BBA is now confined to a 3"x3" patch of florabase which is the last bit to cover with HC. It is in a darker corner at the front of the tank. Everywhere else I have 100% plant cover now, this is the last area that the HC is taking to most likely as it is a bit darker. In...

I do wonder if the BBA kicked off on the substrate after I moved the Koralia to give a more downward flow to get to the substrate now you make me think about it...

And here's me trying to get bubbles everywhere! I can't see the video at work but I'll take a look tonight, cheers :)

I have no idea but this was the idea behind the CO2 being on for so much longer than the aquarium lighting. All I know is that the BBA is growing as fast as it did before I vacuumed the substrate up, another few weeks and I will be stripping it I think...

I vacuumed up all affected areas of substrate, and will re-plant the carpet ASAP - I'm going to double-dose with liquid carbon as well, with luck I can knock this on the head once and for all! Off shopping for some HC and stem plants now :)

Seconding the credit card tip, works lovely :)

If using tapwater you are often off to a bad start straight away, as this is full of fertilisers like nitrate and phosphate that will fuel algae growth from the second you put it in. Phosphate build-up in anything but a heavy planted tank will fuel algae growth and phosphate remover is well...

Ok, I've put the lighting and CO2 back to perhaps 'normal' settings: Lighting 7hr stint CO2 on 2hrs before lighting Let's see how things go, cheers for the help :)

Both move the flow the same way around the tank, they're at opposite diagonals but I'll take a further look at this again to ensure it isn't giving any obvious dead spots or collisions.

My bad on the 'nutrients' front, at least that rules out the need to play around with dosing. If I can get the carpet sorted out then assuming flow is sufficient that may be the key - I'll see if I can find any other options for placing the Koralia. I've tried it on the same side/direction of...

I originally made the CO2 start time earlier as I was querying the amount of sunlight the tank was getting but it hasn't made any difference so far as I can tell. I'd not considered pushing the affected granules beneath the surface though...once the glosso has really covered things, I wonder if...

Plants are 99% free of BBA, the older crypt leaves get a touch sometimes but nothing worth worrying about. Excel/Liquid Carbon appears to have no effect at all - I went through a whole 250ml bottle and it stayed throughout. Varying the position of the Koralia made no difference (a period of at...

Has anyone else had issues with what I can only determine is BBA growing on FloraBase granules? For months now I've being trying to eradicate the stuff with no joy at all - it grows a little bit on a single granule, like a tiny mini beard really, like a little tuft of fine grass. However many...

I had constant algae build up on my glass until I put a Koralia in - two weeks in and it almost stopped, glass only needs scraped every 3-4 weeks now and even that is just to remove a few sparse patches. I also get some degree of sunlight although not often direct, normally diffused through a...

I'd expect the lighting reduction to have more impact than lack of nitrAte? Good that it has gone, I ended up using a UV filter for a fortnight to get rid of mine which was 100% down to an ammonia spike due to a filter problem.

As above - the CO2 has increased the uptake of nutrients to levels way beyond what he fish stock would have produced which was sufficient pre-CO2.

Shifted the Koralia last night to blast down the front of the tank and over the HC, then it flows up over the stems/rear of the planting. Started with 5ml of AquaCarbon after the water change and I'll add 2ml a day (15UKG) and see how it goes :)

CO2 is on solenoid as above, kicks in at 10am, then the lights kick in at 4pm - sounds like a long interval, but I figured in my infinite wisdom that as the tank is getting natural light from sunrise (not direct sun) then CO2 would be a benefit - the plants do begin to lean towards the windows...

Okie dokie, 15UK gallon, 2x18w T8's on 6hrs per day (4-10pm). FloraBase substrate. Pressurised CO2 as high as the fish will let me (on from 10am in the morning until lights off), and full dosage EI using TPN as trace. TetraTec EX600 alongside Koralia Nano - all observations show the CO2...

BBA. Usually suggests the CO2 levels are not high enough and/or stable enough.

Lighting - tick CO2 - tick Additional fertilsers - cross You've got the plants wanting to grow, but by not adding N,P and K to the CO2 and decent lighting, they're starving and the algae is loving you :)

CO2 is nothing more than a fire extinguisher - I suspect your parents would be happy to have one of those in the house! Going for e.g. the AquaEssentials liquid carbon wouldn't work out too expensive if you get the lighting levels right, and dropping your EI dosing as suggested above may well...

You own the forum at this point :) I didn't expect this to happen but I can see why, it's on the move now, daily removal of any I spot and I'm not getting any major new growth any more.

Any reason why stopping liquid carbon and adding a Koralia would bring on a staghorn infestation? I upped CO2 a few days after the Koralia went in, though I'll admit to not owning or using a drop checker, I've always just turned CO2 up to the level just before the fish begin to gasp. BBA...

Got BBA on the wood in my 'high tech' and little sprigs of it on a small number the florabase 'spheres' but I'm hoping the Koralia has improved the flow enough to let me remove the affected substrate and see an end to it. I've also wondered if there's a correlation between wood and algae, as it...

Water changes won't affect filter bacteria...

Excel or equivalent will make short work of staghorn, even if just dosed normally to the tank - double dosing will help make it go a little quicker. Once the staghorn starts to turn a reddy-pink colour, it's on the way out.

> sebado: EasyCarbo is the same as Flourish Excel, just a different brand. The EX1200 is listed at 1200 litres per hour. If you're lucky you'll get half that, so you're just about managing 2 times turnover per hour for 300 litres. The Koralia Nano is also quite small for your tank so will...

Liquid Carbon will kill this stuff off well enough even if dosed normally - double dosing for a week will give it a serious kicking, however if the root cause of the algae is not addressed it may well just return.

How long is your lighting period and is the tank getting any sunlight?

Knocking the lighting period down would be a good start too - 9 hours is pretty long, 7-8 is fine, even 6 is manageable. How long has the tank been setup for? I had similar issues myself with a newly setup tank - once my filter matured the algae disappeared very quickly.

Sort the CO2 out as above, turn it on 2 hours before lights on and stick to a single lighting period. If you still have issues then it could be down to poor flow.

Snail tracks? Not sure beyond that, not ever seen a snail leave tracks inside the tank!

Ditto on the old store/credit card, useful tool! Some here also suggest using some black tape up to the height of the substrate on the front/side glass to reduce the light to these areas and hence reduce the algae growth.

All I know is that up until I did the EasyCarbo/serious trim I would see new algae growth within a day. I've seen no spirogyra in 10 days now and I have been very careful to check the whole tank over.

I gave all affected plants a serious trim back, the gravel got a serious clean and I double-dosed EasyCarbo for a week. Fingers crossed, a week after stopping the EasyCarbo I've not seen anymore algae :)

Pah...I might try a good prune of affected plants first tomorrow - if that doesn't work then blackout it will have to be!

This stuff is starting to annoy me now. I ripped out any I saw for days on end, but it seems rather rampant now. I ripped some out yesterday and by tonight a good few plants have long strings of it back again. I'm going to do a major trim of any affected plants tomorrow and give the gravel a...

I've got one patch of the tank where spirogyra loves to grow - it is quite a small amount, but it grows quite quickly. If I remove the 2 or 3 threads I can see at the water change each week then within a few days you can see it growing back again. I think it reared its head when I ran out of...

I've seen enough scientific evidence from Tom Barr to know that excess nutrients (at least the ones we add to the tank) do not cause or trigger algae. Tom dosed all the EI nutrients to very very high levels and never once triggered algae. I have something similar in my tank - a small patch of...

EasyCarbo (or others) will melt the vallis, it's a common issue. EasyCarbo has a half-life of 24hours....this doesn't mean it is all gone after 24hours, just that the amount left in the tank is half of what you dosed... 2 months of a tank is still early days, so keep going :)

Hmm...generally linked with low nitrAtes, poor flow and often sunlight - the sunlight doesn't have to be direct though, it can be through a blind/curtain. I only ever get this beneath the substrate at the front of the tank - I just push it down with an old store card each week with the water...

EasyCarbo/Excel etc does kill off Staghorn very quickly - it seems to start going a red/brown colour then slowly die back. The only time I've ever had it was with DIY CO2, too much lighting for the CO2 levels, and bad filter maintenance and/or an under-rated filter.

An old credit/debit card is excellent for soft and tough algae on removal from glass, not worth buying anything if you have one of these - even and old store gift card or savings card etc will do, I use an ASDA one :)

Fair enough on the TPN :) I've only ever found staghorn an issue with poor CO2 stability - I switched to pressurised CO2 purely because I could not get rid of staghorn and BBA when using DIY even if I rigorously changed the two yeast bottles on the right days, though a clean filter does have...

You don't need TPN and TPN+ unless I'm missing something - TPN+ contains everything in TPN but also has N P and K in too...

I tried my diffuser under the intake for my EX600 and all it did was give me massively unstable CO2 - the gas would build up in the filter until there was enough to suddenly release a huge load of it into the impleller/outlet tube. I'd get masses of tiny bubbles then, but nothing more for ages...

I've not tested anything in my aquarium for about 1 year now. No ammonia tests, no nitrate, nothing, not even pH, only thing I have is a 4dkh drop checker. Oh, I do check the thermometer but that is it. Problems? None. Shrimp breeding like rabbits, plants growing like mad, and no algae...

You know he'll say try it yourself don't you?! :)

Water changes to remove ammonia? If you get any build of ammonia in your tank then something is wrong that water changes alone will not combat. Add more filtration, more plants, whatever, but any ammonia level is surely indicating something other than the need for changing water. Oh, and if...

Any oto in there? They keep my wide leafed plants very clean and tidy.