Algae! Help!

[kazkirk]

I dont quite know where this should have gone, so here goes!

I have this evil algae taking over my drift wood. Its not on the plants or the glass, just the wood. My stupid pleco used to do his job, now he is just a big fat lazy good for nothing! Who can I hire next to sort this issue out for me, any suggestions (enter question mark here, I dont have one!)

Its a 120 gallon tank
Temp 85
Ammonia 0
Minimal nitrates
gh and kh hover around 3 or 4
ph 6.9
average about two 25% water changes every 3 days

Thanks for any and all help :)

Karen

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v309/kazkirkpatrick/algae001.jpg

[kalebjarrod]

you can hire a good old vat of bleach

take out the log

bleach it

leave it in the sun

bleach it again

that MAY get rid of black hair algee

but having said that i tried it last week and it has grow back again

hard stuff to kill :cry:

not many fish will eat it and if they do they won't do it for long

[anti-generic]

do u add fertisers into your tank?

the only way i have sucessfully gotten rid of black algea is to promote plant growth after bleaching.

also try to reduce fish waste. By that i mean feed them less and do higher volume water changes.

And try and hire some young siamese algea eaters. Remember siamese. Not Chinese algea eaters or Flying fox.

Give this a good read
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Eric

[Davo]

Buy a bottle of Seachem Flourish Excel. Double the recommended dosage and the algae will be gone in 4 to 7 days. I had a huge outbreak of bba in my 4x2x2 tank and it completely disappeared.

Doubling the dosage does not harm your fish.

Dave.

[sammigold]

More plants will 'eat up' more nitrates and then the algae will not have anything to "feed" on. I have read that Sometimes this works to stop algae from growing as it has to compete with the plants.HTH :)

[revkev]

Seachem Flourish Excel works got rid of my algae :lol:
Revkev

[kazkirk]

Ok! so I have some excel now! let the algae slaughter begin!

[Fishpimpin73]

BBA has also been linked to an upswing in phosphates.

You won't ever "get rid of" the BBA.

But you can control it.

[duck]

you can hire a good old vat of bleach

take out the log

bleach it

leave it in the sun

bleach it again

that MAY get rid of black hair algee

but having said that i tried it last week and it has grow back again

hard stuff to kill :cry:

not many fish will eat it and if they do they won't do it for long

Do this

[duck]

BBA has also been linked to an upswing in phosphates.

You won't ever "get rid of" the BBA.

But you can control it.
Then check PO4.
Then keep PO4 and NO3 in some sort of balance.

[kazkirk]

ok, update
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v309/kazkirkpatrick/july30002.jpg

yep, its still there, sloooowly going away, my new baby oto's seem to live on the log (do they usually eat this stuff!)

I started using flourish, but I couldnt afford the massive amounts needed as my darn dog now needs $3000 surgery so money is on the lockdown.

Here is the rest of the tank,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v309/kazkirkpatrick/aug3002.jpg
as you can see, its not rampant, it just really likes growing on that log. Im still trying to get something to soak up the phosphate, but I havent really tried hard enough :)

[Proteus]

Karen, maybe try using some of the HBH Phosphate sponges (they are only a couple of dollars).

BTW, your tank looks great

[kalebjarrod]

yeah very nice

[Nat]

Once you hae cleaned your wood off, get a hold of some bristlenose of any variety.......orangespot, peppermints or commons and they love munching on wood and thrive in discus water conditions, and will get along great with your pleco.