fuzz algae on plants

[patchy]

Well the fuzz algae's been slowly accumilating for 1-2 months now and i think it's reached the point where it's starving the plants of their light.

Initially i found some on some fake plants and i left them there hoping they'll disappear by themselves. THen it spread to a think layer over most of my plants and the glass, stragely it's not on the rocks a drift wood. I've kept the glass free by mechanically scrubbing it but it seems impossible to get it off my plants! I've tried rubbing it until the slimy feeling was gone and scratching it off with my finger nailto no anvil. I'm going to try a tooth brush tonight.

The tank is 100gal with nitrates around 10. However for the past two weeks it's been up around 20-30. I dont have a phosphate tester but i cant imagine it can be too high, i dont add any and the food dosent have any in it's ingredients. i used to use plant food but i tried with and without it, both the plants and the algae are not affected by the presence of it. In total i have 130watt of light.

I'm thinking that there's not enough co2 in the tank and a build up of nutrients as well as excess light hence allowing the algae to grow while the plants dont. Is this feasible or is there a better answer out there? i've been reading that co2 will only work well if the tank's already going well.

[BlackGhost]

If your fish arent to big try an otto they stop alot of hair algea. Or leave lights off for a couple of days (or less hours a day). Lower nutrients. Or go manually and scrap of with razor blade. And most of all good luck. Youll need it lol

[[RK]]

Ottos wont eat hair algae. The only fish that will are Siamese Algae Eaters (SAE).

There are few fake SAEs going around too, so be sure to get a true SAE. You can get ones that are quite large too, if youre worried about it getting eaten. I had hair algae in my tank, bought an SAE and just over 24hours later, every strand of hair algae was gone.

[Brett4Perth]

Hi Patchy,

At 130W over 100 gallons, that is only 1.3 W/gallon, this is low light.

With low light levels adding CO2 is unlikely to be that helpful, more light would be better.

Not quite sure what type of algea you are refering to. Is it like a thick fur or pelt growing on the leaves, or a slimy coating over the plants. The former is a form of green, thread algea that you often see when iron is excessive. Did you say you had been fertilising your plants. If so with what?

Type of plants you are growing can make a big difference as well, as can other water parameters (pH, hardness, etc)

Cheers

Brett

[Ged]

Merjo wrote a really good article on algae and how to control it. It can be found on the Sydney Cichlid Page.

Algae: description and control in freshwater Aquaria

[patchy]

umm my algae isnt there?!

Well i guess it's abit hard to tell, the closest one in description is "Green encrustations" and under "fuzzy algae" but it's a bit hard to tell from those pictures. My algae kinda looks like the one on the snail but it dosent grow in clumps, rather it spreads everywhere and gets thicker and thicker if left unchecked. If it helps when i skip a water change (two weeks without new water) sometimes spot algae grows, this hasent occurred lately though however there is some which i cant (or not game enough) remove on the leaves of my amazon sword.

the tank also gets a quite a bit of sunlight, especially in the summer and is evident by the extra growth of algae where the sun's rays hit the glass. i'm using the product "flourish excel" by seachem to try upping the co2, i thought there was enough light especially with the sun comming in. Well i guess it's just excess nutrients and not enough light to use it al up. I'll try a phosphate tester soon.

I'm not too sure what i've got in there...

amazon sword

echinodorus(sp?) something the round leaf that has red bady leaves

anubias nana

anubias batari

2 differnt types of stem plants one with small round leaves the other with long leaves that have a pale purple colour under the leaves

Ther fertiliser i used was a one of them liquid ones, i think it's wardley's plant food but i've stopped using this a while back.

So whats the plan of attack? if it is excess nutrients well i'm not too apt to do more water changes but i will temporarily if needed. My tank has one of them metal inbuilt light hoods which cant handle more then 130W (3 4ft fluos and 1 1 ft fluro) so extra light is out of the question. I'll post how the co2 works.

[shovely]

umm my algae isnt there?!

Well i guess it's abit hard to tell, the closest one in description is "Green encrustations" and under "fuzzy algae" but it's a bit hard to tell from those pictures. My algae kinda looks like the one on the snail but it dosent grow in clumps, rather it spreads everywhere and gets thicker and thicker if left unchecked. If it helps when i skip a water change (two weeks without new water) sometimes spot algae grows, this hasent occurred lately though however there is some which i cant (or not game enough) remove on the leaves of my amazon sword.

the tank also gets a quite a bit of sunlight, especially in the summer and is evident by the extra growth of algae where the sun's rays hit the glass. i'm using the product "flourish excel" by seachem to try upping the co2, i thought there was enough light especially with the sun comming in. Well i guess it's just excess nutrients and not enough light to use it al up. I'll try a phosphate tester soon.

I'm not too sure what i've got in there...

amazon sword

echinodorus(sp?) something the round leaf that has red bady leaves

anubias nana

anubias batari

2 differnt types of stem plants one with small round leaves the other with long leaves that have a pale purple colour under the leaves

Ther fertiliser i used was a one of them liquid ones, i think it's wardley's plant food but i've stopped using this a while back.

So whats the plan of attack? if it is excess nutrients well i'm not too apt to do more water changes but i will temporarily if needed. My tank has one of them metal inbuilt light hoods which cant handle more then 130W (3 4ft fluos and 1 1 ft fluro) so extra light is out of the question. I'll post how the co2 works.

←

are you using warm tap water

[patchy]

with water changes yeah...is there a problem? I flush the pipes to get rid of any metal build up in the pipes.

the flourish is kinda working. the stem plants are starting to grow alittle faster but nothing else is really happening. The algae growth as also slowed down.... i think it's because i'm feeiding alittle less now however i have heared of this 'flourish' actually working against algae.