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What algae is this?

J

Jayouz

Member
Joined
4 Jan 2017
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30
Location
UK
Hello everyone, I could use some help with identifying this problem!

I looked at my buce earlier and realised some dreaded algae has appeared! It wasn't there yesterday when I did the water change, the tank is just about cycled nitrite had dropped to 0.25ppm before the water change yesterday.

Tank is running pressurised CO2, drop checker is lime green at lights on, I've placed in in various places and always goes lime green, dosing EI daily, plants are nicely swaying in the current.

It's weird it looks like it's glowing a bit!

Thank you for the help! :D
 

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Jayouz said:
Hello everyone, I could use some help with identifying this problem!

I looked at my buce earlier and realised some dreaded algae has appeared! It wasn't there yesterday when I did the water change, the tank is just about cycled nitrite had dropped to 0.25ppm before the water change yesterday.

Tank is running pressurised CO2, drop checker is lime green at lights on, I've placed in in various places and always goes lime green, dosing EI daily, plants are nicely swaying in the current.

It's weird it looks like it's glowing a bit!

Thank you for the help! :D
Click to expand...

Looks like BGA (blue green algae/Cyanobacteria) to me.


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Deffo looks like BGA to me. Manual removal with a siphon is pretty effective. But you need to do this quite often to get on top of it.
 
Jayouz said:
I was hoping you wouldn't say that :(
Click to expand...

It’s only a bugger if you don’t address the cause(s). Usually down to very low/non existent levels of nitrates. I would also say due to spikes/outbreaks of ammonia. It can also appear on the front glass above the substrate line on most tanks which isn’t much of a problem as it stays localised. Do a 3 day blackout with guidelines on this forum and address the cause(s).


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Get in there with a small wire tooth brush sized tool and clean it all off just before water change time. As big as you can.. don’t be afraid to do do 80%+.

Think about more removal of waste organics at water change time (turkey baster method and wire brush on hardscape).

Big and more often water changes after doing maintenance. Don’t just change the water! That algae is feeding on waste organics.

If it then still continues to appear then look at different causes of it.

Hope my thoughts help!
 
The ammonia has dropped off to zero now and nitrites are nearly zero, I did have to up the macro not long ago as even with the correct dose and 40ppm from the tap it had dropped to 10ppm!

I do waft my hand around the plants to help bring up any bits of plants, the day before maintenance I normally have a good look at everything to look for the problem areas.

At the moment I'm doing two changes a week of around 60%.

Luckily the buce hasn't been in there long enough to attach itself so drained some tank water, removed it and gave it all a rub off, removed some old roots that didn't look great along with the flower ( I'm wondering if that helped the algae problem, the flower started to decay today ) what came off looked more like black threads.
 
Matty123 said:
Cyanobacteria
Click to expand...

Dont think it is, I have Cyanobacteria/BGA in my tank had it well over a year and I get it at at the base of my carpet and just about the substrate level on one side of the tank clean it up with credit card occasionally it has never been a issue and only in small area where flow isnt the best due to think carpet, think its because the light reflects back off the glass at the substrate level and detritus build up and lack of flow.

But from the pic it is hard to tell but flow appears to good for Cyanobacteria IMO I would go for BBA Buces are a little prone to it with there slow growth - have BBA on mine on tips of leaves plus rocks covered in it gives the natural look again its under control IMO on the rocks
 
Thank you for your advice everyone! Thinking on it a number of things probably contributed to it, you mention waste organics,
The Murdannia keisak and Hottonia palustris both had a rough start, especially the Murdannia which was probably adding a whole load of waste organics into the tank,
fortunately it seems to finally be recovering after I left it floating until it started rooting, now it's started growing pretty well!

Onto the next worry, going away on Saturday for a week..... It's going to be a stressful time :nailbiting:
 
Zeus. said:
Dont think it is, I have Cyanobacteria/BGA in my tank had it well over a year and I get it at at the base of my carpet and just about the substrate level on one side of the tank clean it up with credit card occasionally it has never been a issue and only in small area where flow isnt the best due to think carpet, think its because the light reflects back off the glass at the substrate level and detritus build up and lack of flow.

But from the pic it is hard to tell but flow appears to good for Cyanobacteria IMO I would go for BBA Buces are a little prone to it with there slow growth - have BBA on mine on tips of leaves plus rocks covered in it gives the natural look again its under control IMO on the rocks
Click to expand...

Looks like it to me going on from the edges of the leaves (picture 1) where you can see the stuff producing it’s own gases...yeah my buces had BBA due to my medium to high light and them being slow growers.


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