purplecatfish Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 Blue/green algae is an older term for photosynthetic bacteria. There are at least five groups including purple sulphur bacteria and cyanobacteria. Most obvious aquarium cases of blue/green algae are cyanobacteria which are killed by antibiotics. Amongst the divisions of algae there are diatoms, red, brown and green algae (there are others). Brown algae (Phaeophyta) are almost all marine and flourish in cold oceans. (Thus why we can probably exclude it as being the problem.) Or in simple terms, Alan is right. When you get technical there are a few holes in my comments regarding Spidersweb quote (ie. damn I forgot about chlorophyll c :oops: ) in that diatoms are photosynthetic although they don't produce starch. (apologies to spidersweb ). But I'll stand by them when you consider the quote from the krib: Usually indicates a lack of light Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jn Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 Would an algaecide kill it? I know that if the cause isn't cured it will come back but if the tank was immature might things have stabilized enough for it not to come back? (ie: drop in nutrients and plants settled in enough to keep on top of it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplecatfish Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 From the photos it looks like the algae is on the older leaves and you have some nice fresh growth. Is it possible for you to prune most/all the problem leaves off. You may be in the process of having corrected most of the imbalance, but be unable to see that because of the dead/dying/starving algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 I am curious as to why the algae is on the plant and not the gravel. Light gravel is usually covered in algae. The suggestion to remove the old leaves may be a good one as the plant looks like it has been grown emersed and the existing leaves will be struggling. Try rubbing the algae off if you can and remove some infested leaves. leave enough to support the plant while it grows roots and gets new leaves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted February 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 Thanks for the replies. I will prune the dead leaves, the tall plants are gonna be a bit funny looking though, I assume it will grow more leaves to replace the ones I cut off?? That tall plant I have, don't know what its called, is doing extremely well otherwise. I bought 1 bunch of it from the LFS and have had to cut it several times, and planted the cuttings in other locations in the tank, and I see it needs chopped off at the top again. Guess I must be doing something right! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiuh Posted February 1, 2007 Report Share Posted February 1, 2007 i have this algae too 2 weeks ago when i set up my 100L. it was mainly on my indian stargrass and ambulia. then thread algae started developing like crazy on my swords and hairgrass. i empty the tank to about a quarter of water. and double dose with flourish excel everyday. now it is all green and algae free! flourish excel would work..you just gotta have patience.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted February 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 I still have my algae problem, but I have $$ now so am off to the LFS to check out new lightbulbs and see if I can get this Flourish stuff AND as someone suggested, get a phosphate test kit. I then should be closer to solving the problem right?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpidersWeb Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 Remember Flourish and Flourish Excel are very different products. Phosphates shouldn't be a problem if you're doing weekly partial water changes. Feeding stuff like frozen bloodworms can raise it though. Some young bristlenose might be the answer. I've got a Jebo R338 and it was developing the brown algae near the bottom of the tank, put in some baby bristlenose and viola no algae Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted February 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 Ok, so its Flourish Excel I'm wanting?? Well it could be phosphate problems then because despite all my good intentions, there has been several ocassions where its been bi-weekly water changes instead of weekly.. :oops: I haven't fed any bloodworm for quite some time so its probably not that. I think I'm totally stocked in the tank now.. probably overstocked in fact. I have small schools of 4 different kinds of tetra, 3 corys, 2 zebra loaches and a largish rainbow shark. I don't think I can add anymore. Although I am in the process of setting up one of my old AR380's, so I suppose I could transfer a school of tetras to that one.. but I really wanted gourami's for that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpidersWeb Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 If its highly stocked, and you've slipped on doing water changes, its probably nitrates You can buy a test kit if you want a definate answer but I'd say its a fairly good educated guess. I've got an overstocked slightly neglected 3ft tank here, and I do it on purpose to get the high nitrates because it makes my java moss grow like crazy It wont grow at all in my clean tanks Using Flourish Excel or CO2 etc will certainly work (until you stop using it) by making the plants use the nitrates up faster. Both my Jebo tank and the 3ft started getting algae when I stopped religously doing weekly 25% changes. My solution was to add bristlenose just to clean up the algae and leave the ntirates for my plants. My only gripe with Excel is the cost and how much you have to use. Certainly a fantastic product though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted February 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2007 Don't think its the nitrates, I've checked and they're within acceptable levels. Got myself a phosphate testkit and some Flourish Excel though.. you're right, it is expensive, for that tiny little bottle. Also checked out lightbulbs... yeah that one confused me... what exactly am I looking for again?? Someone previously posted that I should get 6500-8000K?? What does that mean exactly? cos the tank that I have at the moment has 20W 10000k ones?? Does that mean they are brighter than the 6500-8000K ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpidersWeb Posted February 28, 2007 Report Share Posted February 28, 2007 The 'K' rating (kelvins) is the colour temperature. 2700-3100K is normal indoor (yellow bulbs) 6500K-8000K is daylight (nice bright white) 10,000K is a very sharp white Over 10,000K and it gets a blue tinge. Not sure about all these "LifeGlo" and "PowerGlo" tubes though. I had to get one for my Jebo, apparently its 18,000K :roll: :roll: looks to be more like 7000K. I didn't find 10,000K tubes produced algae any worse than 6500K, and my plants seem to do equally well in anything 6500-10,000K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted February 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2007 On checking my tank I have: 2 x 25W 10000K bulbs and 1 x 20W 15000K. That is surely enough?? Although it could be time for new ones? The phosphate test shows atleast 2ppm. The instructions say it's best if its 0ppm.. now what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpidersWeb Posted February 28, 2007 Report Share Posted February 28, 2007 Test your tap water too. I'm not sure if 2ppm is bad or not but your LFS should stock a product called PhosZorb, which will remove phosphates from the water, goes in the filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted February 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2007 Oh.. cool. thanks so much for your help! Guess I'll go do a water change, add that flourish stuff then play the waiting game again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted April 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2007 Ok so I've been doing the whole flourish Excell thing for like a month now... with no change. This brown algae stuff is EVERYWHERE, and i've also noticed an increase in the black beard algae I think it is?? The fluffy stuff. Its growing partiularly well on the filter outlet. I've been adding the Flourish excell everyday, and i got some new plants, but they just seem to have been covered by this damn algae. I'm getting so frustrated now.. even considering removing everything from the tank, giving it a damn good scrub and starting over, new plants, gravel the whole lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted April 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2007 Well I did it. Pulled the tank apart completely! I actually had another reason for doing it, I wanted to remove the gravel I originally put down, in favour of some finer more natural looking gravel. At the same time ripped all plants out, and only put a few nearly algae-free ones back in. Gave the glass a damn good scrub, and now looks a little bare, but a thousand times better than it did before. And all fish survived the ordeal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me love fishy Posted April 11, 2007 Report Share Posted April 11, 2007 I have the same thing as you Southerrrngirl and have read that some siamese algae eaters will make a meal of brown algae, so I think I will give that a go, when I can find some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted April 11, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2007 Yeah I was told the same thing, along with Oto's etc but I just don't have any more room in my tank for more fish... nevermind. My tank is much cleaner now and I'm going to do everything I can to keep it that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted April 11, 2007 Report Share Posted April 11, 2007 Not sure if this has already been asked, but how old are your light bulbs? after they get over a year old they're not good for growing much more than algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted April 11, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2007 Yep, we've looked at lightbulbs. The aren't over a year old yet but will be soon. The LFS doesn't have the right kind of light bulbs at the moment, so I have to wait until they arrive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted August 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2007 Revisiting this yet again.. the brown algae is not so bad now.. in comparison to the black beard algae I now have growing on everything in the tank! I did a little bit of research into what causes this type of algae and found that it can be caused by high phosphate?? How is this happening.. I have a phos-zorb bag in the filter! Ugh this is just a constant battle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Rimbauer Posted August 1, 2007 Report Share Posted August 1, 2007 I'm not sure how relevant this is to your tank, but I triggered a brown algae outbreak in my tank by using rainwater for water changes. On my voyage to figure out why I eventually found that having a layer of very small leaves and branches in the guttering was somehow to blame. Once I cleaned the guttering and my rain barrel, the problem went away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jn Posted August 1, 2007 Report Share Posted August 1, 2007 I was curious about phos-zorb as I've never used ot before.. says you should replace it every 1-3 months depending on the 'load' in yuor tank. Personally I bet you can get by without using it...better to not depend on these things (cheaper too!!) You also have carbon right? Are you using any fertilisers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted August 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2007 I'm not sure how relevant this is to your tank, but I triggered a brown algae outbreak in my tank by using rainwater for water changes. On my voyage to figure out why I eventually found that having a layer of very small leaves and branches in the guttering was somehow to blame. Once I cleaned the guttering and my rain barrel, the problem went away. Not really relevant, we're on a chlorinated town supply. I was curious about phos-zorb as I've never used ot before.. says you should replace it every 1-3 months depending on the 'load' in yuor tank. Personally I bet you can get by without using it...better to not depend on these things (cheaper too!!) You also have carbon right? Are you using any fertilisers? Yep, got carbon. And phos-zorb, to be honest I don't even know if it is working, as I can recall doing a phosphate test in the water after a few days of the phos-zorb being in there and the results were positive for phosphate so.. maybe thats still my problem. I haven't tested for phosphate for some time. I was using Leaf Zone fert a while ago but then the LFS ran out of stock and it took a while before they got more back in, so I'd switched to another brand which was doing nothing. I've also used Flourish Excell until recently cos I didn't think it was doing anything. There are also JBL fert balls in the gravel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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