vickih Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 I have black furry growth in my seahorse tank. What causes it and how do I get rid of it???????????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 Vicki is there any way you could post a reasonable quality pic of it. Without that it is quite hard to advise what to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vickih Posted May 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 Just tried taking pics.......can't get any good ones at all...stuff isn't showing up. It's soft slimey black stuff....grows really fast. Doesn't seem to worry my horses but looks damn awful. It grows quite long.....say 3 to 4 inchs.....on the plants (they aren't real) and on the bottom of the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghostface Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 do you have test kits for nitrate and phosphate? if either are present in significant amounts in the system you will get algae growth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 i have had this before, kind of like a black version of green hair algae (in fact, i have about 3 very small patches of it still, comes off the rocks very easily) are you overfeeding by any chance? how old are your lights? have you checked for nitrates/phosphates? do you top up with tap water? go buy a nitrate and phosphate test kit from your lfs and test first. personally i never bothered working out what it was, since i had so little of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie extreme Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 cyno! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 yeah come to think about it, it is definately cyano, just a variation of the usual blue/green you get. the fix for this is, well, from experience a combination of things. mainly overfeeding contributes to it (leading to high DOC's or dissolved organics) but also poor lighting, bad water conditions and low water movement all contribute to it as well. fix all these (most especially, dont overfeed!) and it will go away. the best way is to keep manually removing it for now and keep doing water changes. upgrade to a decent skimmer if you can as this removes doc's. have a look at the cyanobacteria link i posted under the algae section of the sticky at the top of the page. its a good read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cracker Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 if it has bubbles hanging off it it will more than likely be cyano. triple distilled SMIRNOV vodka will nail it quick smart along with decent skimming. Make sure you have no stagnant areas in the tank also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 if it has bubbles hanging off it it will more than likely be cyano but not a definate sign. there are a considerable number of variations of cyano, all sorts of shapes and sizes. make sure that you physically remove as much as possible otherwise as the cyano dies off, it adds more nutrients to the water causing more growth. i would try the vodka dosing as cracker says, i think it's 1ml per 100 litres twice a day from memory. this is only a workaround, you need to reduce feeding though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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