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Algae


gunnstack

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When I lived in L.Hutt I never had any problems with algae apart from the green form and every plant thrived without the addition of nutrients. Since moving to Foxton and until recently, no plants survived more than a few weeks (I use rain water from the tank, Ph neutral to slightly acidic). The worst problem I had was with the black algae which tends to attach itself to the edges of the plant leaves and over rocks. I re-sited the tank to cut down outside light, planted densely and started using a plant nutrient called Aqua Master Plant Food on the assumption that rain water would be mineral defficient. Well I have no problem with plant growth now, they are growing out of the tank and I take cuttings to keep the density up. The problem is the black algae has raised it's ugly head again!! Does anyone know of any product which will kill off this type of algae without affecting the plants or the fish, or is there something lacking in the water? Bearing in mind that this tank, gravel etc. has been disinfected prior to re-siting it's surprising the curse has come back only couple of weeks after. Any suggestions gratefully received!

Regards Gordon

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It's probably due to having heaps of organics in the water. Have you looked in your rainwater tank recently? You'll probably never want to drink your water again.:) Clean your gutters, get your tank cleaned might help.

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Flourish Excel did the trick for me too. Black beard algae firstly turned red and then died away in about a week. Hasn't been back since. The odd thing is that this algicidal property is a just a side-effect, Excel is primarily a plant fert or, as Rob points out, a carbon supplement. Anyway, its great stuff. Good luck.

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Thanks for the tips about Flourish Excel. As a next question- why does the carbon have the desired effect? Why could you not put the (I presume it's activated carbon?) into the filter to achieve the same effect therefore the effect would be costant -so long as you monitored the carbon content in the water regurarly? No, I'm not a novice but on tank water I am on a steep learning curve. I always believed that tank (rain water) was ideal for fish of all types- aside from tweeking ph etc. This is obviously not the case! As regards the rainwater tank It's clean, apart from a little sand- and a little Pine pollen which floats on the surface at this time of the year and goes out out over the overflow. Anyway I will try the Flourish Excel and post the results for all of us using tank water. Something worth looking at is that concrete tank water tends to give a neutral ph whereas plastic tanks alwyas give a negative ph down as low as 6.2. I suspect it has something to do with the plastic curing agent as the ph seems to come up the older the tank is- just a thought.

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Regarding your tank water pH - I'd expect rain water to have a pH less than seven - aside from things like acid rain, when CO2 dissolves in water there is a drop in pH (forms carbonic acid or something along those lines) and it can pick up the CO2 from the atmosphere. As for the concrete tank - it may still be leaching out some of the lime from the cement and thus giving that slight boost to the pH (since the pH isn't sky high I assume the tank's been in use for a while now).

Has as been mentioned Flourish excel isn't a liquid activated carbon. Activated carbon is generally used to absorb bits and pieces out of the water, not to release carbon into the water - to the best of my knowledge activated carbon doesn't dissolve to any great extent. I presume the carbon in flourish excel is in the form of simple organic compounds that plants can metabolise so that the carbon can be used during photosynthesis inplace of CO2. I have no idea why we see this side affect of killing black beard algae.

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Well I have a Seachem phamplet in front of me and this is what it says about Flourish Excel:

Is a simple source of readily available organic carbon. One can derive a substantial benefit with the use of Flourish Excel either alone or in conjunction with CO2 injection. Also has iron reducing properties which promote the ferrous state of iron (Fe+2) which is more easily utilized by plants than ferric iron (Fe+3).

Hope that is of use.

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As far as I can see, Seachem themselves don't know how or why Excel has this effect on BBA although I think I remember reading somewhere that it somehow interferes with the wavelength at which BBA absorbs light (but this might have been somebody chancing their arm...). Certainly the BBA dramatically changes colour, turning a bright red just before it dies off, so the Excel is doing something to it.

I bought it for its algicidal properties rather than as a plant fert (for which I'm using Flourish). Seachem have a very informative website...

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Hi again- just thought I would let you know about the early results using Flourish Excel. I bought a bottle on Fri and dosed the tank at 2X the normal level as recommended, doubled the daily dose on Sat and saw a change from black to brown and this morning the BBA has turned a nice shade of red. I didn't expect it to work as fast but I presume I wil have to keep up the effort to contain the pest. I can't assume that the little b*****s won't be back between water changes but at least now I know how to control it!! Thanks for the info.:)

Regards Gordon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

just realised that guppies eat black beard. yep its true, have a tank of guppies and a few swords. but mostly guppies, i watch the babies pick at the black beard too. and noticed that one bid of bb patch is getting smaller.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Thanks for the useful information and the follow-ups gunnstack.

I always hear livebearers eat this and that but in my experience they are less than effective at controlling any type of algae. Apparently the American Flag Fish is good at controlling hair algae - I think I should get one!

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