# Help ident this algae PLEASE!



## hiyamoose (Nov 27, 2010)

Ayayayay...

Came back from vacation and found this growing on my rotala wallichii. I suspect friends over-fed the fish. Despite trimming back plants with it, pulling it off where possible and hoping, it keeps coming back. The rotala tops sit in the path of water pouring back into the tank from the hob filter. Dosing CO2 @ 2-3 bubbles per sec on timer with lighting @ 40 w (2 T8sx20) in 20 gallon long. Lighting is couple of inches from algae, which has not really spread from a central area, but I can see glimmers in spots.

What is it? Clado or staghorn? Another type?

Do I black out? OD with Excel? Use hydrogen peroxide? Buy a troop of amanos?

LOTS of plants that are doing really well in here and I don't want to have to pull everything out.


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## hiyamoose (Nov 27, 2010)

Another pic


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## hiyamoose (Nov 27, 2010)

1 more


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

It's hair algae. Check out these threads.

http://www.gwapa.org/articles/algae/

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm


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## hiyamoose (Nov 27, 2010)

Thanks! I'm dosing Fe along with micros. One of those sites says Fe is the cause, while the other says exactly to the contrary. I'm trying to figure out what causes it so I can avoid it in the future. Any ideas? 

Going to do water change, trim plants (which is easier than pulling it off the plants), change out filter pads, and pick up some amanos. My son will love them. 

I will check the sticky on the Excel ODing. Got some here that I stopped using once I picked up a CO2 canister. 

Any other advice?


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

hiyamoose said:


> Thanks! I'm dosing Fe along with micros. One of those sites says Fe is the cause, while the other says exactly to the contrary. I'm trying to figure out what causes it so I can avoid it in the future. Any ideas?
> 
> Going to do water change, trim plants (which is easier than pulling it off the plants), change out filter pads, and pick up some amanos. My son will love them.
> 
> ...


Cutting back on the amount of light helps a lot. Also make sure you have a really clean tank. I don't really believe it's too much iron. I dose iron in each my tanks. I only had this in the one where I brought it in from plants in the wild.


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## hiyamoose (Nov 27, 2010)

Will a complete black out for a few days help at all?


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Yes, it does. It weakens it considerably and then you can hit it over and over again with peroxide. Amano shrimp will eat it but you have to have a lot of Amanos.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

What you might have is staghorn algae, a type of red alga that branches. The central stem is thicker than the branches. Our AlgaeFinder has a couple of good pictures of it:


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## chrisjj (Dec 14, 2009)

It is staghorn algae.

Causes include dirty filter & CO2 fluctuations. Some say lack of water movement also, but not in my experience.

Remove any seriously affected leaves.
Clean your filter sponges (not too much) at the next water change.
Make sure CO2 is stable.

Not convinced a black out has much effect on this one.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

One of the major causes of staghorn algae is introducing a plant that has it attached. I recommend examining new plant acquisitions carefully and giving them the bleach treatment if you see any attached algae.


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