azzazal

I give up!
I am being attacked with Algea when the only thing that has changed is I added catfish.
I don't mind it on the wood, but my plants!

Any ideas what to do?
I tried a few days with no light.
The levels are normal, no spikes in anything.
No excess feeding, at least I don't think so.

I added some SAE last week, i watched them, they seem to like the glass better then the plants.

I'm such a newbie so sorry if i left anything out.

Zapins

That stuff is blackbeard algae (BBA). You can kill it off slowly by increasing the CO2 levels in the water.

Or a quicker fix is to buy flourish excel and squirt it directly onto the algae with a syringe with x2 recommended dose. So follow the directions for the initial dose and then every other day add x2 or x3 recommended maintenance dose. Excel is really the only thing that works well for this stuff in my experience. It also kills off other types of algae and nourishes your plants so its pretty good stuff.

azzazal

Thanks! ok, newbie question, since i don't have a co2 tank...i guess i can only do the flourish?

ok, stupid question...do i take the plants out and squirt and then replant? i usually drop a capful into the entire tank. or do i put the syringe into the water and try my best? and if it's on every plant, how many syringe fulls can i do?

THANKS!!!

Tex Gal

Keep plants in tank. If it's all over you can just do 2X dosage in entire tank. It's not going away in a couple of days. Sometimes it take 3 weeks. Up your CO2 and use excell. I have taken plants out and used peroxide. That works too but it disrupts roots. It works fast but I don't like to uproot my whole tank. I may tank the worst offenders out and do it. It turns pink, then gray and the fish eat it when it's dead. Here is a link about the peroixde. http://www.gpodio.com/h2o2.asp


Good luck. I'm fighting the beginnings of the same thing since gone for 2 weeks and things got out of balance.

hoppycalif

You didn't say how much light you use, nor how big the tank is, nor how you fertilize the plants. That information is very important. Once you get past 2 watts per gallon on tanks bigger than 15-20 gallons you almost have to use pressurized CO2 in order to maintain the concentration of CO2 uniform enough not to trigger algae attacks. And, healthy, growing plants are the best defense against algae, which means a good fertilizing program.

azzazal

It's a 25 gallon tank. It's deeper then it is wide.
I have a Coralife light with 65W bulb in it. for the back
and a Lifeglow2 15W for the front.
No algea problems for the year it's been un and running.

There's about 3 inches of Eco-Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate

I used the Flourish once a week.

Homer_Simpson

How long do you leave the lights on for?

It is difficult to make generalization as algae may have more than one cause and what works for one person may not work for another, so this may or may not work for you but at this point you have nothing to lose by trying.

Lately I have been testing different photoperiods, and noon burst lighting on different tanks to see if they assist in preventing algae outbreaks and their effectiveness in treating existing algae issues. So, far I have had the best results with a split photoperiod. Lights on from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. off from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and then back on from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. for a total of 7 hours. This may or may not work for you, but it may be worth a try combined with the other redemial actions posted by others. While you are at it, also add some floating plants. I have had great success getting a algae breakout under control by using floating plants.

Good luck.

azzazal

since i started the tank, i've had the lights on from 9am to 6pm.
i just went to the fish store and bought 4 more SAE and 9 flag fish
rumor has it those eat this type of algea
the guy thought i was nuts
so, i have a separate tank of goldfish so i put some "hairy" plants in there with some flag fish and SAE.
we shall see what helps.
i put the rest in the main tank
oh, and i got some duck weed

i have had the lights turned off now for two days.

MatPat

Leaving the lights off will not kill your BGA, at least until you have already killed your plants and that is not the goal. You have too much light over the tank in my opinion. You have about 3wpg of light on the tank with minimal fertilization and are not giving the plants a carbon source. If it were me I would (at a minimum) start using some Flourish Excel as a carbon source for the plants. If you start using Excel, you will also need to increase your usage of Flourish. The plants will need more Flourish (their food source) as they begin to grow faster.

To kill off the BBA, you can do as Zapins recommended and spot treat with Excel. The spot treating method using a syringe is meant to be done with the plants in the tank. You could remove them from the tank and put them in a concentrated solution of Excel and water also. I don't have a recommendation as to the strength of this solution...I have always just eyeballed it Anubias species will be OK in a stronger solution but other plants may not tolerate the Excel bath, so be warned.

The BBA will come back until you address the lighting issue or start adding a carbon source to the tank. I would try adding some Excel to the tank and cutting back your lighting period to 6 hours and see how this does. I'd do away with the extra 15w of light until you get the algae under control, then you can experiment with more light. 65w should be plenty for a non-CO2 injected tank.

I've never had much luck with fish or shrimp controlling algae. I honestly think by the time we can see algae in our tanks, it has already progressed past the point of fish or shrimp being able to control it. SAEs seem to prefer regular fish food over algae in my experience. Maybe if you don't feed any fish food you will have better luck with them than I did

azzazal

thank you everyone for your help.
i did a 50% water change.
i tested the water in the tank for phosphorus, which i have never done.
eekkk!!! over 10!!!
i tested the tap water, there is no phosphorus in that
so, i did the 50% change
vacuumed as best i could

still over 10 for the levels
geez!!!