Juwel 180, Long'ish Brown Aglae Threads. Inc Photos

[Tron]

Originally Posted by OTPT

That looks like a type of Cyanobacteria. Red brown in color (redder than diatom).
Soft & slimy, very easy to pluck off. Can be 4 inches long if the condition is right.

I've found high DOC (dissolved organic matter) causes it.
Frequent water change, clean filter help. Some of the strands will turn pale or white
when it's receding.

BBA is strongly attached to the surface, not slimy and not that long.

I don't think it is cyanobateria as mine it is not that easy to remove as cyanobateria (also cyanobateria is meant to just peel off) and is meant to smell real foul.

But from what I have read yes BBA is meant to be shorter in length than what I have.

But i guess BBA is a very general term?.

[OTPT]

Originally Posted by Tron

I don't think it is cyanobateria as mine it is not that easy to remove as cyanobateria (also cyanobateria is meant to just peel off) and is meant to smell real foul.

But from what I have read yes BBA is meant to be shorter in length than what I have.

But i guess BBA is a very general term?.

If it's not easy then it's probably not it.

But there are many species of cyanobacteria in filamentous form.
And not all smell bad.

This one in the picture is marine Lyngbya, but there are freshwater species too.
http://eol.org/data_objects/8979402

BBA is real algae (Rhodophyta). But I've never seen it to be as long as yours in freshwater aquariums.

[Tron]

OTPT I did not know that, cyanobacteria could also be filamentous.


Well I did a blackout on the background for 4 day using part of a pond liner hanging over it ..........

And it did nouthing!

But at least the blackout did not affect the other plants so it was still worth a try.

[OTPT]

The filamentous cyano I got (which looked like yours) did well both in high and very low light.
I don't expect black-out will work, unlike "standard" BGA. I had tried erythromycin.
It died but came back. H2O2 will kill it too. But the thing that truly solved it
was large/frequent water change (2-3x a week). After that you can revert back
to normal schedule. But keep an eye on organic load.

In case it's BBA (which I still don't think yours is). High DOC plays a role too.
So clean water helps both way.

[Tron]

Thanks for you reply OTPT and everyone’s elses help/advice

Well what I have done now is, I have removed the juwel background from the tank which has now removed maybe 99.8% of the BBA (let it try to grow now out of water..ha…ha ) and the rest can be spot treated with excel.

I loved the background and what it did to my tank looks wise. But it is just an algae magnet, and is either attracting algae with its make up or it just makes it real hard to kill it by not making it very cleanable.
I have read other forums where people are having the same problem with this background. And just thought to myself enough is enough.

With the back ground gone it has given me an extra 13% water in the tank and more swimming space for the fish, better flow and I think in the end it was going to be my only solution.