Black Beard Algae Keeps Coming Back!

[MichaelJ]

he fish you have are big, boisterous (high metabolism) and messy eaters,

Right on! @sparkyweasel They are - thats why I recommend BIG WCs - in addition to all the things already mentioned.

 

[MichaelJ]

Hi @Zervais ,

I can’t manage floating plants in this tank due to the surface agitation.

Fair enough.

Perhaps I’ll just remove the anubias and Java fern;

You could put those in a separate tank to recover, but it wont solve your underlying problem with the main tank.

I was just looking at a co2 kit, an inline one. Would you recommend? Do you think this would help my issue? Whilst I’m not sure what I’m looking at, I’m sure I can learn. Currently I’m having a look at co2art complete kits, but I’d have to find the cylinders from somewhere too?

Personally, I am not going to recommend implementing CO2 with all it takes in terms of money and learning curve to anyone for the sake of combatting an algae problem. It is perfectly possibly to obtain a lush planted tank without algae without injecting CO2 - growth will be much, much slower for sure and certain plants might struggle more in a non-injected tank and some might not grow at all, but by far most plants will be fine in a non-injected environment - just slower growth and for some less spectacular and colorful.

Regards the algae you really need to wage war on it, clean any diatoms off the plants, gently wipe them with your fingers, wipe or scrub it off the hardscape. Spot dose any bba with the carbo, and if any leaves are rotting or badly effected by bba remove them. Inspect the tank daily and at the first sign of algae reappearing, remove it. Do more water changes 2/3 x 50% if needed until you start winning the algae battle.

Stay focused and try not to let all the differing advice melt your head.

I am repeating this, because its such good advice!

Well the absolute worst thing to do if you're fighting algae would be to increase the light imo.

Strongly agree!

Lower the light intensity (perhaps not much more than you already did), up the ferts, and do some massive 70-80% WC's weekly (some might even say 2 times 70-80% a week) for a while at least. Get rid of debris, decay, uneaten food etc. cut off leaves that are already dying or if death seems inevitable - they won't recover and will just be algae magnets.

You have 17,787 members here rooting for you!

Cheers,
Michael

 

[erwin123]

water changes are great!

you could move some of the Anubias to the side/corner of the tank where the lighting level is the lowest. If light intensity is the cause of the problem, then you would expect to see less algae on Anubias planted in areas of less light vs Anubias in areas with more light.

if the Anubias can't be moved, then move a plant to provide the Anubias some shade. Then check whether the Anubias under shade have less algae than Anubias that are not under shade.

 

[Zervais]

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate the advice. You guys are so much more knowledgeable than some of the groups on a certain social media website. I’m constantly seeing people say that changing more than 20% of water each week is ‘overkill’ or even ‘dangerous’. What a load of junk! I do at least 50% weekly on all my tanks. I’ll up this to 75% with the ferts, and see what I can do about moving the anubias and Java fern. I might just put these in my hospital tank for a bit and see if they recover. Do you think a filter is necessary on a hospital tank if just plants are in there?

 

[MichaelJ]

I might just put these in my hospital tank for a bit and see if they recover. Do you think a filter is necessary on a hospital tank if just plants are in there?

Yes, your "hospital" tank should be setup with all the pampering you would expect from a "hospital" - balanced (low) light, good filtration/flow, heating, frequent WC's and fertilization - you dont want your plants recovery tank to be death row
Cheers,
Michael

 

[Wolf6]

Grab a plastic lid with a broad 'edge', remove the inner plastic, attach a suction cup and you have a makeshift floating 'holder' for floating plants, that can really help in this stage of your battle. Its not the prettiest solution but it has helped me a lot.