H E L P - my tank keeps getting this hard dotty algae its every where. I had to through away all my rocks. I even tried water blasting them! Does anyone no how to get rid of it for good!

Thanks for your help(in advance)

I get it on the glass sometimes and have to scrape it off - its hard work

Wish I could use the boiling water trick on the glass :lol: :lol: :lol:

Yeah it is hard work! I will try boiling water (thx mysticvampyre). Is there anything i can do to stop this algae coming back?

Feel your pain, I get this too, I guess it's worse if your balance of nutrients is wrong, if it's all finely tuned the plants will outcompete the algae for the nutrients. Scrubbing weekly will keep them from getting so set.

Apparently, if its the same stuff which I had in my 6fter, Dark told me about it, its actually tiny shelled creatures(name escapes me) which have algae growing on their shells, iirc the shells are used for very fine filtration, best way to remove them from Glass is with a razor / stanley Knife blade, works a treat. From rock / wood, could try the boiling water, obviously take rock / wood out of tank first...

they also seem to be so prevalent in your tank as i understand because you are removing the other algae and thus making the conditions easier for the spot algae to grow. if you left the tank alone, the other algae will outcompete the spot algae and your problem wouldn't exist but that wont really help in viewing the fish. algae scrapers will do the job though.

I noticed when i used flourish excell to get rid of BBA all the other algae around the fittings diappeared to, may be worth a go.

one thing that worked for me on the rocks not the glass

is to put the rocks outside for a few days

it seems drying them out or the rain water not sure which is really quite good at getting rid of the dreaded green spot alge

worth a try anyway worked for me :-?

ive given up. EVen my 10cm+ bristlenoses carnt get it off

We got a tank cleaning tool from the pet shop, about $10, consists of a long (30ish cm) handle with 3 attachments, one of which was a hard blade and removed all the hard-dot algae with ease.

Recommend having a look for a similar tool. If its on rocks etc then out with the old toothbrush I'm affraid

I get a wallpaper scraper from the $2 Shop. They are wide and have a large blade.

what does this hard dot algae look like? i get this brown-red coloured algae normally on the side edge of the tank, gravel, and on some plant leaves etc.

Its bright green and solid. It doesn't have any height to it, almost like tiny paint drops.

brown/red stuff is normal, we get it whereever the pleco can't get to it, and he can clean it off no worries by himself.