It was all going quite well until I returned home from a weekend away to find this thread like algae around. Any ideas what it is and how to get rid of it? Cheers.[/code]
Hi gt568, Welcome to the forum! From what I can tell, you pretty much hit the nail on the head because it looks like hair algae. There are probably hundreds of individual species but this is a general category. There are a variety of indirect causes all which lead to the direct cause which is poor nutrition. To get a better handle on the specific cause in this case could you give us an idea of your tank specifications such as size, lighting, substrate,water KH/GH? We need also to get an idea of what nutrients you are dosing, what quantities and with what frequency you are dosing. How long has the tank been running? From the looks of the growth and the amount of aerial roots it seems that it's not a brand new setup. Could you also tell us what kind of filtration you have and how often you change water and clean the filter? Is this a CO2 injected tank? Hair/thread algae is a tough customer so it's better if you immediately remove any infected leaves. If you can answer the questions posed above we will have a better chance of diagnosing. Cheers,
That is staghorn algae you have there. It is a member of the 'red algae' family which also includes black brush algae. Poor CO2 levels are the main reason but also overfeeding the fish, mulm buidup and dirty filters can cause it. It seems not too bad at the mo so cut out as much as possible. Look at your CO2 and also the other reasons I gave above. Flourish excel works pretty well at clearing it. James
Thanks. Tank is a Rio 240L with standard internal filter. 40% water changes weekly. 10ml Tropical Plant Nutrition Plus 3 times a week. Pressurised CO2, drop checker is green at all times. Lighting is 1.1wpg plus reflectors. The tank has been going for about 2-3 months since it was totally rebuilt.
James is right! That is staghorn, not hair. The dosing seems OK per Tropica recommendations and although you verify that the drop checker is green there may be a problem with getting the CO2 to the plants. You should be using 4dkh water in the drop checker and you may want to think about carefully increasing the bubble rate. If you're sure that you have the right bubble rate then you may want to think about thinning and clipping to get better flow distribution. Stronger filtration can help with the flow distribution. As plants grow in flow is often disrupted due to blockage as a result of thicker stems and more leaves. Each plant's demand for nutrients and CO2 increases as well so keeping the layout neat and untangled helps. As James stated a reliable way to treat is with Excel or it's less expensive equivalent (I believe it's Easy Life Carbo?). Cheers,
Okay. Already using 4dkh solution. Unfortunately increasing filtration at the minute isn't an option. However I'll look at flow issues, it's funny all the algae is on the far side of the tank opposite some good sized plant mass. I've given it a good trim now, hopefully that will help. Will increasing the co2 help? I'd rather not buy flourish excell if I can avoid it as I've heard it's harmfull to anachris and I'm skint.
Hi mate Good to see you on here. Staghorn is super common after a tank re-do, like yours. I'd remove the worst leaves. Keep up your routine and it should clear once the tank becomes established and the plants mature. IME a stable CO2 is more important than 30ppm CO2 with lower light and nutrient levels. As you're injecting 24/7 I think the advice re. CO2 distribution is more relevant in your case. Good luck!
If I wasn't so annoyed, I'd have laughed. Especially after telling you on Sunday how I'd had no real problems.
