# Thread Algae - any ideas?



## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

So, I'm probably the 4 millionth person to ask about this, but I'm in the market for good ideas today.

My aquarium has been up for about 6 months now. I had devastating BBA for the longest time, got CO2, and it slowly gave way to staghorn and green dust. I finally got that figured out and I was blissfully nearly algae-free for 2 months or so.

I then started to notice some long thread-type algae near the filter return where current was high. I picked it off as soon as I saw it, but alas, it has settled into my HC and moss. I'm not sure what type of moss I have, but I've been growing it for almost a year from a few strands that came in accidentaly from an internet order. I suspect it's Christmas moss by the slow growth and branching, but I'm not sure. I was finally starting to get a good mass of it, but then this thread stuff showed up everywhere.

The strands are very strong and tend to pull up the HC when I try to pick it out. They wrap up around a brush easily, but the nature of moss & HC make it difficult to remove from these locations. Incedentaly I noted a swarm of hydra about the same time the thread stuff showed up.

Any ideas? I've pushed my CO2 as far as I can without stressing the fish - down to about 6.2-6.3 by evening with a degassed pH of 7.4 or so. I'm keeping NO3 about 10-20 ppm and PO4 about 1.5-2.5 as checked by Lamotte. I dose traces with Flourish 40 ml/week and Flourish Fe 15 ml/week. I tried Excel overdose for 2 weeks with no apparent change.

Bladderwort? Cladophora? Something else? Pics below:

Pay no attention to the Mad Lace with the ugly brown leaf (unless you know how to keep these guys happy).


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

I'd break out the old toothbrush and start harassing the algae daily or twice daily. I'd probably toss the moss too unless you are really attached to it. It looks like hair or thread algae to me. I get it occasionally and usually it affects one plant initially and then moves on to more if I don't get on top of it. It usually comes after I slack on my dosing and my assumption is that it is brought on by low CO2, NO3 or a combination of both. 

When I had Myriophyllum mattogrossense it was usually the first plant to get hair algae and yours looks to be clean. Try using an old toothbrush like you would a fork in spaghetti. Twirl the algae up in it and replant the HC that comes up with it. In my experience, the algae usually doesn't pull the plants up but I have not had much luck with HC. If you keep after the algae with the toothbrush, the upper parts of the plants will outgrow it and you can trim and replant the healthy tops.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

hhhmmm... some of that may look like thread algae but given that some of it seems curly and you say that the strands are pretty strong... I'd guess Cladophora. Thread algae strands tend to be very weak.

And I still haven't figured out how to get rid of this stuff. I've got some of it in one of my tanks and need ideas too.

If it is Cladophora, here's a thread that talks about it and some potential remedies:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...claudophora-aarrghh.html?highlight=Cladophora


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