black algae

[Shell]

AAARGGG! It is driving me mad. I have a 4 foot tank with some driftwood gardens of different types of anubia and some wisteria. I have no green algae at all thanks to the BN and Otos, but the plants and fibreglass backdrop are covered in the black hairy algae. I have stopped fertilising the plants (was only lightly feeding anyway due to slow growing anubias) and have kept the lights off for over a week now but no change. It is too hard to try to scrape off the leaves and no algicide I use will budge it.

I could remove and bleach the driftwood and plants but am very reluctant to add any to the tank as I have some delicate fishies in there that I don't want to lose.

Any ideas??

[Bijengum]

Reduce feeding, reduce hours of light and increase water changes. True SAE's should help control it. Nothing else seems to eat it.

[punie]

Err, there's a couple types of black algae but i'm assuming you're referring to BBA (Black Beard Algae)

Technically nothing will eat BBA except perhaps the occasional Cigar Fish, but you can only get the Giant versions around here. Even so, they don't come cheap. SAEs look like they're doing the job, but according to many, not a clean one.

The best way is to remove it manually, cut away the leaves that are infected. You can try to bleach the wood but make sure none of the bleach gets into the tank. Anyway after you bleach it, you still have to remove it manually. (It'll just turn white. WBA - White Beard Algae? )

The thing abour BBA is unlike BGA (Blue Green Algae) no amount of blackout works to rid it. That just Stops it from growing and spreading so you still have to rid it manually.

I suggest you monitor you NO2, NO3, Fe etc levels in your tank, there's probably an inbalance somewhere causing it.

Cheers,

Jerome

[Clarkey]

What the other guys said...

Its not just light that makes it grow, its also excess nutrients in the water so less feeding and more water changes will help it somewhat.

I've got a small case of it in one of my tanks and it just won't go away. I know this is from slight overfeeding - i removed a few fish and kept giving the same amount of food...

Thats been rectified though.

I found some Azoo Hair Algae killer which i'm waiting on pricing from AoA. Sheesh thats two plugs for AoA in one day... You reading Ben?

The importer didn't have stock when i asked about it. Its adsvertised locally by another online store who is not a sponsor - if you're desperate PM me and I'll tell you who it is don't know if they have stock though...

I'm going to give the Azoo a try when it comes into stock and the price is right - fingers crossed it works.

Alex

[AndrewP]

Guys if you want to control algae I have found over many years of experience that there is one really good way to do it. Hygrophylia is a common plant that grows like wild fire. The tank i presently have set up is a 3 foot standard size with 6 anubias on wood and a heap of Hygro growing. The tank has beeen running for just on 12 months. The tank is largley overstocksed and gets a third water change every 3 weeks or so. I have NEVER had to clean any algae from any surface or plant in the tank. I have used this same method on a number of occasions in the past. Put the Hygro in as your first plant, get it growing like wild fire using a good fert and then after a month or so when the phosphate cycles have settled add your anubias. The Hygro sucks out whatever the algae likes and it does not get a chance to grow.

AndrewP

[AndrewP]

Guys if you want to control algae I have found over many years of experience that there is one really good way to do it. Hygrophylia is a common plant that grows like wild fire. The tank i presently have set up is a 3 foot standard size with 6 anubias on wood and a heap of Hygro growing. The tank has beeen running for just on 12 months. The tank is largley overstocksed and gets a third water change every 3 weeks or so. I have NEVER had to clean any algae from any surface or plant in the tank, there is only one little spot on the heater that has some small traces of algae (plus the odd small traces of green hair algae in the hygro at the top of the water directly under the light). I have used this same method on a number of occasions in the past. Put the Hygro in as your first plant, get it growing like wild fire using a good fert and then after a month or so when the phosphate cycles have settled add your anubias. The Hygro sucks out whatever the algae likes and it does not get a chance to grow. Plus putting your anubias under the shading hygro gives them the low light they like and further inhibbits algae.

AndrewP