Cath Posted October 8, 2005 Report Share Posted October 8, 2005 Hi there, Friends of mine have a tank which looks stunning - well planted, lots of fish, clear water etc but they are plagued by a black hairy algae. They do frequent water changes - as they are in the country they use well water. Any ideas what it might be and how they can get rid of it short of using chemicals or emptying the whole tank and steralising it? Any fish eat this stuff? Cheers Cath Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted October 8, 2005 Report Share Posted October 8, 2005 The well water might have phosphate and other chemicals leaching into it from farm fertilizers etc, they should get the the water tested. They could try collecting rain water or getting water from a town supply. It is possible to use chemicals (chem-sorb phos-sorb etc) but depending on how much is in the water it might not be enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorknMindy Posted October 8, 2005 Report Share Posted October 8, 2005 I had the same problem in two of my tanks. I can't remember what the algae was called but I was told to get a Siamese Algae Eater as it was the only fish that would eat this particular type of algae. It seems to have work quite well and although there is still a small amount in the large tank I just scoop that out when I gravel vac. http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/sae.htm The only other way to get rid of it is to remove everything from the tank and boil the gravel rocks wood etc throw away the plants and start all over again. If it is the same black algae that I had in my tanks there isn't a chemical that will kill it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua Posted October 8, 2005 Report Share Posted October 8, 2005 they are plagued by a black hairy algae. Hi Cath - you may want to take a look at a post of mine from a few years back HERE. I had a battle with black hair algae, and Crossocheilus siamensis did the trick pretty quickly - just make sure the tank is covered, as my fish attempted fishicide! -Nik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cath Posted October 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2005 You guys are so great thank you so much for your time in replying! I will tell my firends about this, as I share the same water system I am interested in the in the possible leaching of fertiliser - hadn't thought of that, I've just set up my tank so will be keeping a good eye on this to see if I get it too. Tell me, where can I get the siamese algae eaters? Sounds like one of my cats except he's a siamese rabbit eater. Cheers Cath Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jude Posted October 9, 2005 Report Share Posted October 9, 2005 LOL about the cat, Cath. There are several fish sold as either Siamese Algae Eaters or Flying Foxes or Colourful flying foxes and they don't all eat algae. To check you have the correct SAE you need to look at the black line that runs down the side and make sure it goes right to the fork of the tail. Animates down here sell Siamese Algae Eaters under the name of Flying Foxes - it all gets a bit confusing. I found a good page which helped to ID them so will have a look and post it here if I find it Found some - try these links http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/ http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/sae.htm http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/gsae.html Cheers Jude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus Posted October 9, 2005 Report Share Posted October 9, 2005 if someone wants a quick fix, i've had success with double and even triple dosing with Fluorish Excel. It kills the bba pretty quickly.... careful about over dosing though. Seachem don't advertise this as a property of the product but they are aware of it ........and of course it treats the symptom and not the cause....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 And watch out, I double dosed with Flourish Excel in my WCMM fry tanks and they all died : / Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 I have doube dosed with a tetra and clown loach tank with no side effects other than it did kill the bba, it does take a while to work tho and depending on the size of the tank you made a few bottles which are relatively expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnbo Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 Yes the Flourish excel does work well at double dose certainly no probs with the fish ( I have yoyo loaches amoung other things). Takes about a week to 10 days to start hitting the bba...starts going red and then disappears . However as Luke pointed out it does become expensive...I have found treating it hard for a couple of weeks and then getting a couple of black line flying foxes seems to manage it quite well( and the plants grow well too as they are getting a nice source of carbon). The only disadvantage is that the flying foxes grow to be quite large eventually and they can be quite "busy" in the community. Sure you can boil everything and start again but chances are you will get spores when you buy more plants or fish...often you can see it in the "display" tanks at the LFS... Thats my two p's worth!! lol Hope it is of some help!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 Yeah, I've double dosed it with Oscars, Clown Loaches, Adult and baby (1cm!) GBA, Cardinal Tetras, Guppies, Swords, Adult WCMM's and lots of other fish and it's been fine. It's just the baby WCMM's who died randomly. It was in two tanks too so it wasn't just a random crash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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