Algae ID please?

[Dave001]

Hey Everyone,

This algae appeared in the tank a couple of months ago, when I first added CO2 to the tank. I had some trouble getting the CO2 levels high enough due to the wet/dry filter, so I suspect it's BBA. I have since fixed the filter problem and now have the CO2 at 15 ppm with a bubble rate of 4bps.

Tank specs are:

2.1 wpg
125g + 20g Sump
Temp 28.5 C
Ph: 6.9
Gh: 6 ppm
Kh: 4 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 15 ppm
Phosphate: 1.5 ppm
Potassium: 20 ppm
Calcium: 20 ppm
Iron: 0.125 ppm

Any info would be appreciated.
Thanking you,
Dave

[Scotty Bils]

Hi Dave,

I have had it in my tank too. Do you have any Siamensis cats? They normally like to eat the hair kind of alges.

I bought a couple just for this reason, they do get lazy though.

I would cut off the leaves and throw them away. Maybee a little too much light possibly? Be carefull reducing light as it will afferct all plants. How long are you lights on and how strong are they? I.e. how many tubes? T3 or T5's? What spectrums?

Cheers.

[Dave001]

Thanks for the reply Scotty.

I had a couple of Siamese algae eaters, but removed them a few months ago as they had given up eating algae and they spooked the discus a lot.
I'd prefer not to put any more fish in the tank though, been having a bad run with disease when adding new fish lately. I'll try to manually remove it all first.

Lighting is on 9 hrs, 6 x T5 6000k bulbs.

Thanks again,
Dave

[Noddy65]

Hmm...could be BBA but looks more like a hair/staghorn type of algae.
Your CO2 levels look ok, however keep in mind that CO2 wont kill it once its there but will slow it down/prevent it from coming back.
In the meant time Id cut off the offending leaves.

Mike

[OscarManAlpha]

It also maybe worth getting a bottle of Flourish Excel.

Use it as directed on the bottle. Get enough to last you at least 6 weeks.

Cheers,

Mark

[DiscusEden]

Hi Dave,

I have no idea what this is, but I had some that looked the same. As Mark suggested, I use Excel 2 - 5 times a week as suggested (normal Flourish 1 - 2x a week as well & iron every day - or when I remember).

The excel seems to have reduced it on the leaves it was on & stopped it from spreading.

HTH

[ILLUSN]

Mate thats stag horn algae, i have it in my tanks with 4wpg light and 40ppm co2, double doseing with excell will only slow it's growth & make your plants happier (so they grow new leaves faster), remove old affeted leaves and you should keep it under control, my SAE's when small did eat it (not now that they are 4 -5" long) the only fish that eats it now are my Gibbiceps and common plec (each bout 18-20"). however once they're done with the algae there isn't any leaf left.

[Dave001]

Thanks for all the replies. :)

Last week, I removed the majority manually, and started dosing Excel, at the standard dosage.

Tonight when doing the water change, I only found it on a few leaves, so I seem to be on top of it.

Thanks again,
Dave