Staghorn algae.

[Fish are friends]

I’ve had a bit of an outbreak of staghorn algae. I have heard that treating the tank with some like flourish excel will help but I have cherry shrimp in the tank and I don’t want to remove all the algae on which they feed. What would be the best course of action. I probably will have to do a heavy trimming session to remove effected plants.

 

[ceg4048]

I’ve had a bit of an outbreak of staghorn algae. I have heard that treating the tank with some like flourish excel will help but I have cherry shrimp in the tank and I don’t want to remove all the algae on which they feed. What would be the best course of action. I probably will have to do a heavy trimming session to remove effected plants.

Hello,
My suggestion is that we avoid thinking of algae as some sort of disease to be eradicated, such as "outbreak of smallpox". Algae actually own the tank and the plants are merely renting the space. When the plants become weak it is the role of algae to clean the space by consuming the dead and dying plant tissue. The appearance of algae is an indicator that the plants have become weak due to malnutrition. The species of algae provides insight into what element is missing in the plants diet. In this case, staghorn is generally a CO2 related algae. "Treating the tank with Excel" is less medicinal and is more nutritional since Excel=CO2. If you cease the application of Excel without fixing the root cause of CO2 deficiency then the staghorn will simply reappear.
Without having specific details of the tank and specifically the CO2/flow/distribution technique being used it's difficult to analyze.

Cheers,

 

[Fish are friends]

Thanks for the reply. It does make perfect sense. It is a non co2 tank but heavily planted and haven’t quite got the lighting right yet. In addition to the staghorn some of the plants have become leggy so it is looking more and more likely that co2 injection is becoming a necessity. The tank has got good flow with movement all over the tank. I havent used any excel yet because of the shrimp and would prefer to find another “solution“ first.

 

[ceg4048]

Hi,
Yes, non-CO2 users have only the control of lighting as an option. In the old days we would use T8 lights which were not very powerful at all. Low tech tanks were easier with those lights, but now we live in a world controlled by the Klingons who sell us particle beam weapons of mass destruction.

The plants that are leggy can be moved to other areas where perhaps the flow is better. Legginess usually can indicate a flow problem as well as a CO2 problem.

Cheers,