Dreaded black beard algae.....

[Namn8r]

How do you get rid of it? I have two siamese algae eaters in my aquaone ar850 which have gotn lazy and wont eat algae anymore. It is mainly on the driftwood but some has started growing on my anubias..what to do??

The tank is full of plants including wisteria, barclaya, crypts, tiger lotus, blyxxa, anubias & hygro, plants are growing well under the standard lighting ( i think 3 30wt tubes). Using dino poo for substrate fert & sera florena once a week.

Filtration is the standard ar850 filter unit above the tank. I loaded the filter with about 2lts of seachem matrix to increase the surface area for filtration.

Any suggestions?

[fish_r]

i think it's from lack of Co2 from memory ? i have the same problem on my driftwood in one section, but if i try to crank up my Co2 in my discus tank they dont like it :(
i would like to know how to get rid of it also, without putting more Co2 in ?
maybe could give excel a go ?

[ILLUSN]

A double dose of excell works well, double the daily dose, not the inital, keep it up for a few days and it will receed. if not remove old leaves with BBA or try bleaching or scrubbing drift wood.

[Namn8r]

Thanks guys...very interesting ...will look into it. Terrible stuff it is...Ive even seen it in some local SA lfs and they even have trouble managing it.

[AussieStar]

well i got a tank full of it, was going to completey restart my tank.

So increasing the co2 with kill it off?

[ILLUSN]

it wont kill it as such it will let your other plants grow faster, starving it of nutrients which will make it die off.

[Robdog]

I'm considering getting some Otto's or some glass shrimp to see if I can get rid of mine. It's probably better to look at the WHY it is there rather than getting something to keep it suppressed but that sounds like a lot of hard work.
I think it's to do with excess phosphates.

[Noddy65]

The theory is that it has to do with low CO2. However if you have it already increasing the CO2 wont get rid of it.

I got rid of it by increasing CO2 in the tank and double dosing excell, the excell kills it off and the increased CO2 stops it from coming back.

Mike

[AussieStar]

k well i havnt had my co2 setup due to work commitsand a empty bottle, but i got a full bottle and its finally setup. See how it goes

[Davo]

Seachem Excel is the best way to get rid of it. Double to triple dose will kill in 3-7 days.

[Nathan]

hygrogen peroxide, squirt some of that on some areas an a few days its gooone.

more a quick sorta spot fix rather then a big solution, but handy none the less

[Noddy65]

Oh yeh....I forgot about the H2O2 (Hydrigen peroxide) treatment.
Works best if you turn off your filters, power heads etc for a short period while your squirting it directly on the BBA.
Its all but contact time and reducung water flow increases the contact time.

Mke

[nicholas76]

After seeing some amazing results in a friends tank I have given "Apple or mystery" snails ago.

they have eatan all the hairy loose stuff and have now reduced by more than 80 % the stained ugly crap off my back wall. Im very very impressed and its a natural and easy way to deal with algae im finding.
A first for everything!