AdamR Posted November 20, 2005 Share Posted November 20, 2005 I have a tank which algae is going nuts in. Its long green and stringy. When you take it out of the water it just looks like slime. It grows really fast. Ive tried adding a flying fox, algae fix stuff, phosphate removers. Im out of ideas and im losing this battle. Its so bad its killing my java fern. Anyone got any ideas? Im sick of it and would be close to throwing all the plants out but theres so much fern and i dont wanna waste it. Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wui39 Posted November 20, 2005 Share Posted November 20, 2005 does it get natural light? I find the 2ft tank that is outside in the full sun grows algae like there is not tomorrow. I generally just try and take it out with my hand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted November 20, 2005 Share Posted November 20, 2005 Bristlenose? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR Posted November 20, 2005 Author Share Posted November 20, 2005 I have a peppermint in there. He doesnt eat anything, I dont think the algae is very accessable to a bristlenose as its at the tips of leaves and on the surface. Id take a photo but only thought to ask after cleaning the tank. And no direct sunlight. Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wui39 Posted November 20, 2005 Share Posted November 20, 2005 maybe a couple of normal bns will clean it up, not sure about the algae cleaning properties of the peppermint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[RK] Posted November 20, 2005 Share Posted November 20, 2005 young Siamese Algae Eaters will eat it right up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trofius Posted November 20, 2005 Share Posted November 20, 2005 Sounds like beard algae, really dark stuf grows everywere normal algae isnt, you can probably also notice it floating in fine threads in the water. Well firstly had this before, and it aint algae, not really, its a type of blue green algae, which is actaully a type of cyanobacteria. I had nothing even attempt to eat this stuff. Solution i pulled down the tank, i removed everything!, rocks were bleached for 1 week, sand substrate was donated to the garden, the tank was bleached, filters aswell new media added, Yes it was a pain in the buM but i had 2 foot strands of this crap growing in the current , and it looked like a sheet hanging from my ac500, pretty gross stuff.. Have fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patchy Posted November 20, 2005 Share Posted November 20, 2005 i had a 2 ft cube with a pair of discus in them with HEAPS of algae that you discribed, green, long stringy and when pulled out of the water it's like slime. Anyway i had the cube in heaps of direct sunlight and it wasnt uncommon for the tank to reach 32deg. I tried stripping it down but the algae just grew back over a week. I moved the tank and gave it a good scrub and a 'black out' for a week and how there's no hint of algae. how much light/light duration do you have over the tank?, i know it's not in direct sunlight but that was my problem with the same algae so maybe it's light related. Scrubbing some of the stuff out and blacking it out will help but if it's a light problem then the tank will have to me moved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzFish Posted November 20, 2005 Share Posted November 20, 2005 don't you think you should be looking at the cause rather than the problem? Test your nitrate and phosphate levels both in the tank and your tap water. Algae needs nutrients to survive so there is something in your water that is causing this. If there is no natural sunlight what sort of lights are you using on your tank? How long are they on for each day? what do you feed your fish? How often do you feed them? Over feeding seems to be the no#1 cause of Alage, that and nitrate in the tap water. If you are after a "quick fix" Use some Kent Cyno killer, this clears most alage blooms and diatom blooms. you could also try a UV filter but this will only get water born particles not what is on your rocks and glass. HTH Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTR73 Posted November 21, 2005 Share Posted November 21, 2005 I had the same stuff, green and stringy, in my 4ft. So I increased the frequency of my water changes, 30% once a week, added two 5" bristlenoses, and about 3-4 months later the stuff is all but gone. Didn't happen overnight, but the tank is looking good now, and I didn't need to strip it all down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youngy_11 Posted November 21, 2005 Share Posted November 21, 2005 I had the same problem with a 2fter, That had direct sunlight on it. I think its commmonly called "hair algea" The LFS gave me some triple sulpha tablets (i think thats what they were) and they told me to only feed the fish half as much and get the sunlight off the tank. The hair algea did die off after a week but the whole tank still had a tough layer of green all over most things. Which i had to scrub off. Good luck ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTR73 Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 Further to my previous comments - I just added 5 x Bristlenoses, 12 x E.yellows and 5 x P.acei, all juveniles, to my 3 ft breeding tank(plan to extract colonies from the Mbuna). The tank gets exposed to sunlight in the arvos and had loads of green algae in there - basically I would only worry about cleaning the front panel. In just 5 days all fish have combined to make very short work of the algae as I would estimate only half of it is now remaining. So excuse the pun, but there's food for thought! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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