# Cannot nuke tank - have Cladophora. Help me nuke it.



## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

125 gallon tank. Fully planted (the dwarf hairgrass is sooo nice and lush). about 10 kuhli loaches, 10 spotted corys, a few glass shrimp, various small inverts, and ramshorn and trumpet snails. 

I have peacock moss, some anubias, eleocharis, myriophyllum, marsilea, cabomba, and some other unknown plants. I'm mostly worried about the peacock moss (same genus as java moss I think). 

Oh, and lots of Cladophora. I MUST NUKE THIS SOMEHOW. Its in everything. I pull up 95% of it, but 2.5% gets broken up and drifts everywhere else. 

How much Amano shrimp do I need (I'd rather get cherry red or crystal red shrimp - will they eat it?)
How much glutaraldehyde?
How much H2O2? 
I'll be dimming my lights too until I nuke it. 
What else can I do?

It has always grown well. I recently changed the filters from some sponge to basket pickups which stirred up a lot more sediment and lead to a green algae bloom - honestly I'm not worried about that and it'll go away soon. I just want to kill the Cladophora!


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

It doesn't sound like shrimp will make an impact, if the clado is taking over your 125 gallon tank. You'll need an army of 60+ shrimp to make a dent. I suggest going the glutaraldehyde (Excel) method. I haven't used the pure form of glutaraldehyde, but for Seachem Excel try daily double doses of the recommended amount for a few weeks. 

-John N.


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## ryzilla (Feb 3, 2007)

I did a month or so long test on TPT photos and all about amanos as effective algae eaters. I had a 2.5g INFESTED with clado. I added 5 amanos and it took them about a month to eat about a baseball size amount of clado. I didnt feed them anything this was only accomplished through starvation. You would need an absolute army. SInce you have other fish in your tank they would probably feed on their food rather then clado. I would go the excel nuke route or complete brake donw if you are to infested.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Clado is one of the tougher ones to get rid of. I had a small amount of it a while ago and the Excel route did the trick for me. I used 2X label recommendations for 2-3 weeks. Mind you, OD'ing it will cause some cloudiness to the tank, or at least it did on mine (hard well water here). Good luck.


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## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

has anyone tried the H2O2 route? That's a hell of a lot easier to find around here than glutaraldehyde.
Has the clado come back since you nuked it? I assume that any algae treatment that long and intense will also nuke all other algaes


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

I experimented with H202 in great depth for about a year. Good news - it kills algae. Bad news: it kills everything else as well. Your good bacteria and shrimp will be the first to go. The problem the the amount you need to add to kill algae is very close to the concentration that just plain kills everything else. Even at safe levels that do hurt algae you tend to get "new tank syndome" because the stuff has killed your good bacteria.

I conclude now H202 has no place in an aquarium.

Excel should kill it in the regular dose on the label. The manufacturor reports there is a large safety margin with the concentration so 2X or 3X is merley expensive but not dangerous, but try a couple of weeks on regular dose first.

An ultraviolet sterilizer will also help a lot by killing the suspended stuff.

Also shocking the algae by doing 80% water changes two days in a row then 50% water changes daily for as long as you can stand it. Algae needs a very stable environment and can be weakened if not killed by doing this.


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## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

I actually report that I've been combating the algae decently well with H2O2. I've been dosing 1.5ml/gallon to 2ml/gallon. I remove the biowheels first, and place into a bucket with a lid to prevent them from drying out, and replace after an hour. Doing this twice a day seems to be making an impact on weakening the cladophora, and in one tank a total bleaching of it, even when it was completely intertwined with peacock moss - the moss is now held together in a clump by white strings rather than green strings. It also does not seem to have affected the fissidens or pelia in the same tank. In another tank that also had recently contracted cladophora (told the GF I was going to move a fish, but then she did it for me... with clado) and had green water, it has now killed the green water and clado, and it does not seem to be suffering from "new tank syndrome." I'm going to continue with the H2O2 for a few more days, and then stop, and possibly switch over to GA. 
The snails in the tanks are fine, although yes... my ghost shrimp do seem to be missing in action.


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## JamesC (Jul 26, 2005)

After returning from vacation a while ago I had a bad infestation of cladophora. I tried treating with overdosing excel which did seem to slow it a bit. I found that a combination of good ferts, lots of fast growing stems, large water chages and overdosing excel did clear it.

James


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

Uh huh. I head great luck with h202 as well. Till it killed all of my shrimp. It's a really lame way to kill the stuff. Activiley growing plants will outcompete algae - just feed them.

I know it seems counter intuitive to be adding nitrate and phosphate to stop algae but it really really does work.

Remove all you can manually.

Change 80% of the water two days in a row.

Dose with KNO3 and flourish excel.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Clado is a slow growing algae that usually doesn't take over quickly. Why not simply manually remove it 1-2 times a month rather than try drastic methods of H2O2ing your tank//vast water changes. Seems like the 5 minutes spent each month removing it manually is more time effective than some other methods. 

I haven't had good luck with excel killing clado. I keep 2-3x normal dose concentration and it doesn't make much of a difference.


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