# BBA, Staghorn & Hair/Spirogyra



## chrisjj (Dec 14, 2009)

My tank has been running for about 4 months & I am beginning to get the above algae.

It only seems to have appeared since I started adding liquid fertilizer for my plants about 1 month ago. I'd say it's medium planted.

It's not major at the moment, but does seem to be increasing.

The algae is generally appearing on the following:
The bba on the slate.
Staghorn on vallis / some other plants.
Hair on java moss - nightmare!

I have approx 3wpg lighting - 8.5 hours a day.
I feed once a day (occasionally missing the odd day).
No CO2.
I've reduced the fetilizer dose.

I generally remove the worst of it during my weekly water changes to keep it under control.

My cardinal shrimp don't seem to be interested in any of it.

I've been reseasrching but thought I'd get some thoughts - So what can I do?????

I've seen that reducing the light intensity to 2wpg would help - but I'd rather not if pos (or is that a must?). 

So what can I do?

What about:

getting a few amano shrimp
dosing with flourish excel

As long as this is OK for my other inhabitants

Many thanks


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## rjfurbank (Jan 21, 2008)

Sorry about your algae issues. . . I think 3wpg is too much light for not having CO2 or using another source of carbon. I'm assuming this is a small tank so you could probably get by w/ DIY CO2 or just using Excel.


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## chrisjj (Dec 14, 2009)

Yep - about 65ltr of water.

So excel it is then.

Is it worth getting some amano shrimp?
I was thinking of a SAE but my tank isn't big enough.


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## cichlidkeeper (Feb 3, 2010)

DIY CO2 AND Excel. you have a large amount of light, but the plants need CO2 to be able to use all the nutrients, so all that light and no CO2/carbon source just gives algae a chance to take over.....


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

CO2 will help but not solve the issue magically.

Excel works very well against BBA or Cladophora. But if you dose above a certain level all the shrimp will die. Cardinal shrimp? Expensive to experiment with.

Scrubbing manually + spot treating with Excel is the best approach. That allows the min. amount of Excel to be used + the best results.

Overall - your tank has some organics issues. Organics accumulate in some way. Until you resolve that issue you will be using Excel all the time. First try changing water 10% of the tank volume every other day until you see an improvement.

--Nikolay


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## chrisjj (Dec 14, 2009)

Thanks guys,

This is what I did - 

algae infested plant leaves removed, most bits of affected decor removed - slate chippings have simply been replaced.
3 amano shrimp added.
Excel (Easycarbo) being used daily (started off with low dose & slowly increased to 1ml daily so as not to stress inhabitants). All inhabitants fine. It's only a 60ltr (of water) tank so is doesn't work out too expensive.
Liquid ferts added daily.
Lighting still 8.5hrs
Light reduced by 1/2. (was 3.5wpg, now 1.75wpg)

I haven't spot treated anything yet - to be honest, I'm not sure how to! I presume you take the affected item out & treat? Affected decor was mostly slate chippings which I've just replaced anyway. I have 2 pieces of mopani wood which if removed, would wreck my scape so I haven't touched them, but they only have a tiny bit of BBA at present, it was mainly the slate chippings.

So far the above seems to be working. Whilst still there in some areas, the growth rate of all the algae has reduced significantly.

Cheers


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## boink (Nov 29, 2006)

So did any of this help with the spiro?


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## chrisjj (Dec 14, 2009)

The above has helped significantly with BBA & spiro, but there is still some present.

I'm still having a bit of an issue with staghorn.


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## Christian_rubilar (Jul 21, 2005)

I suggest you take a look at this thread since post 214, regards
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...-controlled-imbalances-gda-22.html#post525564


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## chrisjj (Dec 14, 2009)

All algae seems to have disappeared, or at least not reproducing .

I removed most of the leaves, slate, decor etc affected by BBA - and it has not reappeared. There are a few tiny "tufts" on my bogwood that I can't get to without wrecking my scape.
Same with the staghorn - and it has not reappeared.
I removed as much hair algae as pos during water changes - and it has not reappeared for a few weeks.

This has been achieved by:

Reducing light from 48W to 24. I have also replaced the bulb with a power Glo 24w 18000k.
Adding 1ml Easycarbo per day.
Adding 1ml TPN+ per day.
Adding 3 amano shrimp (don't know if they helped much - no evidence of eating the algae in question).
No real change to water change routine - once weekly - 15%ish.
My filter has two sponges in it. I lightly rinse one of the sponges every 2 weeks alternating between sponges.

Cheers guys


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