Something is wrong with plants

[williamvo]

For some reason, my plants are growing some fuzzy things on its leaves and other areas as well. Does anyone know what this is and how can I resolve this problem?

[Nathan]

i used to get that aswel, do u use liquid fertilisers and also how long do you leave the lights on and how often do u do water changes? all of those things will determine extra algea sort of growths, i now do 3 water changes a week and have also cut back on my lights by about hour and also changed the dosing of my liquid ferts and now i dont really get that jmuch algea anymore.

HTH

[williamvo]

I do use a liquid fertilizer but I probably use it about 3 times a month with a cap full dosage. I leave the light on about 12 hours a day and I do water change twice a week.

[Nathan]

try cutting back on the lights to about 10 hours a day and instead of big doses try more frequent smaller doses, say 6 times a month and half caps each time. see if that helps

HTH

[williamvo]

I'll try cutting back on the lighting and see what happen. Do you think buying those Algea tablet would fix my problem for now?

[Noddy65]

As Nathan said a good start is to cut the lighting, it may also be worth not fertilising for a few weeks. If your plants are slow growers and your not using CO2 or have high light then over fertilising can cause algae problems, the ferts are not used by the plants because they are growing slowly so it becomes available to the algae.
Another option is to double dose with Flourish excell, do a google search and youll find out heaps on the double excell dosing regime. be warned it can kill some plants (ie Vallis) and may be harmful to inverts but it really works a treat. A nice side effect is that it introduces axtra carbon for the plants and they often have an enormpus growth spurt.
Another option is to rub the algae off with your fingers/remove the worst leaves just before a water change, if you keep on doing this the algae will gradually disappear/become more controlled. This can take some time.
You could try the anti-algae treatments but Ive always had very poor results and have found the above regimes to work the best.

Good luck
Mike

[RichVic]

HI just wanted to add
that a few flying foxes might be the go.
I added a pair to my 6ft tank and they cleaned up the leaves (they eat up the algae) they also school with the Emperor tetra's and look very cute. My husband has added four to his "aquatic garden" tank now as well - and they're cleaning up nicely!
Vicki

[Noddy65]

Be sure to get the genuine Siamese Algae Eaters (SAE) and not the true Flying Fox...the LFS is often confused and sell one as the other and the other as one...
Check out his link for a positive id:
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/cyprinid.html

Mike

[williamvo]

I have a common pleco right now, does that help?

[Noddy65]

It does help but SAE are better known as fuzz/hair algae eaters...

Mike

[rytis]

For some reason, my plants are growing some fuzzy things on its leaves and other areas as well. Does anyone know what this is and how can I resolve this problem?
looks like dirt to me, plants like to attract fish waste etc for nutrients. i wouldnt worry about it.