horrible furry black/greenish algae

[Woll]

We have this furry looking blackish greenish algae growing on the plants and the wood. Its starting to take over the leaves and will kill the plants soon. Doea anyone know what it is (sorry no photo) and how to get rid of it? THe BN's wont touch the stuff and its really hard to scrape it off and just comes back.

[Edit]
ok, i have found a pic of it on the net:
http://www.floridadriftwood.com/brush_algae.jpg

Thanks, Woll.

[Merrilyn]

Ahhhh yes that sounds like black beard algae. Very difficult to get rid of, and you're right, the bristlenose won't touch it. The only way I got rid of it was to strip down the whole tank, and toss out all the plants.

[Woll]

i had a felling that would be the only way. I really dont want to do that because there are several large bits of drift wood with large anubis on them... pretty pricey....
are there any fish that will eat it or is there any chemical that will control it?

[duck]

I say that your nitrate's are nearly or zero ppm and Phosphate around the 10+ppm mark.

[Merrilyn]

Duck, have you got any suggestions for Woll, so he can save his planted driftwood ?

[revkev]

Hi try Seachem Flourish Excel it has an extra plus to it (gets rid of algae)

Can algae feed on Excel?
No. I'm sure this may raise a few eyebrows ;-) since at face value
this would be a reasonable expectation. But, for reasons Uncle Sam
won't let us discuss, all I can say is that algae can't feed on Excel
and I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to deduce why this
is the case (big picture folks, no chemistry involved ;-).
I didn't have any algae problems. In fact the tank had quit a bit of BBA
in it before the test, and that was mostly gone at the end of the test.
Some tufts of well-attached hair alge appeared in the tank, but didn't
become noticable until after the Excel ran out.
Flourish Excel™ Support
Q:Love your plant products and am using all five of them. I do have a rather interesting question for you concerning these products and Hair Alage. When I first dosed my tank with all the Flourish products I was experienceing quite a bit of hair alage. (125gal plants/fish) Within three days the hair alage had turned a reddish orange and about four days after that it had completely disappeared. Do you have any idea just which of these products could have caused this? (Flourish-Trace-Excell-Fe- Potassium?) I would be most interested in the answer as I am again have a small alage problem and would like to know if I am perhaps using too much/little of any one thing. I must admit that I have never seen such a dramatic change with the alage when I first used the Flourish products, and I would really like to be able to repeat the experience when ever the alage re-appears. The plants themselves are doing quite well and I have some of them growing out of the tank.
Please let me know about this.
A: The experience you had was due to using the Flourish Excel. We found that to be an added perk of the product. We do not recommend to overdose the product but you can adjust the amount dosed and frequency of dosing based on your personal results.
Revkev

[pitchblack]

I agree with duck. Your phosphate levels are sky high. Have you tested for phosphate in your tank. If you can isolate the plants and driftwood in another tank, and do a total blackout for a week. It worked for me same problem I had a while ago. Are you adding any ph or kh buffers they also contrbute to the rise of your phosphate levels. You need to do a big water change, and gravel clean.

[Merrilyn]

Great input. Thanks guys :P

[duck]

For starter's if you wan to keep plant's and discus you need to tend the need for both plant's and discus, which can be done.
Test your water for nitrate and Phosphate.
Then get your phosphate down your nitrate's up a bit this should stabilize the BBA so it keep's it in check.
As for Excel it suppose to work,But i have not had any success with it myself.
Becareful when using excel it can wipe out your good bacteria.

[jim from sydney]

i had similar problems a little milder perhaps.......a UV Steriliser made a lot of difference...Jim

[AussieStar]

yea i had it on my driftwood with plants, i just remove the effect leaves and keep an eye on thge levels and in 3 weeks got regrowth

[Woll]

i will admit we have been very slack with the water changes the last few weeks, both been working or sick. I am considering getting a UV sterilizer but money is a problem atm.

If i pick all the affected leaves off the poor plant will be bald and its all over the wood :(

What is this "Seachem Flourish Excel "??

And thanks for all the advice guys.. :)

[Davo]

Seachem Flourish excel is a organic carbon (from the Seachem website). I used it when I had a bad case of black beard algae and added twice to three times the recommended dosage of Seachem Flourish excel and it completely killed the bba.

The bba not only died but disappeared in about 4-5 days. It was amazing.

Obviously as Duck stated you have an imbalance in your nutrients and using the Seachem Flourish excel is only a stop gap solution.

I learnt about the Flourish excel method on the Planted tank forum.

Dave.

[Woll]

Will the seachem stuff be ok with discus, BN's and clown loaches?

[jim from sydney]

I am considering getting a UV sterilizer but money is a problem atm.

:)

Ben has them on special........ worth staying home for.........Jim

[Woll]

OK, well i bought some phosphate removers and put them in the filter on the weekend and i also bought some true flying foxes to eat the BBA, so hopefully it should start to disappear.

[skoom]

I tried adding a siamese flying fox before but it didn't seem to work. It preferred to eat the leftovers from the discus. Others have succeeded with it so good luck.


Is seachem flourish excel widely available? Never noticed it in shops....? so it is a fertiliser or an algae killer or both?

[Merrilyn]

Woll, just interested. Did you manage to get hold of some of the Seachem Flourish to try?

[Woll]

no ladyred, i havent been able to find it in the shops. Will let you all know how the flying foxes and reduced phosphates go.