# EWWW, what is this?



## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Hey, I've had my tank set up for a couple months, starting with gsa, but now it turned to this. I don't know which is worse, but this is uglier. I dose PPS pro daily, and occasionally excel(expensive!). I have 2x 55 watt ah supply and a hob filter(upgrading to xp3 once I work things out). The stuff in the marcanda(which is dying  ) doesn't even look like algae, so I'm confused xD
Oh, I have 2 otos in there that don't seem to do their job xD I'm also getting shrimp, so I'll try throw some in there, but hopefully they don't get eaten xD

























Sorry for the bad focusingxD


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

lol, not sure what I'm looking at in the photos. All I see is green haha.

Is the algae on the glass and on surfaces or is it floating in the water (like pea soup)?


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

Looks like thread algae to me. I'm fighting the same thing in my home tank, so i'll be waiting to see how u solve this


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Zapins said:


> lol, not sure what I'm looking at in the photos. All I see is green haha.
> 
> Is the algae on the glass and on surfaces or is it floating in the water (like pea soup)?


Lol, it's all on the surface, and long long strands of algae xD I dunno whats in the marcanda though (goldfish poo?)



Muirner said:


> Looks like thread algae to me. I'm fighting the same thing in my home tank, so i'll be waiting to see how u solve this


I'm gonna stop dosing for a while, or maybe just dose higher potassium. I'm am SO tempted to throw in my plecos from my cichilid tankk (i have 2 small ones and a decent sized one) but so scared they'd hide away  They won't hurt my fishes though right?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

If its a fine dust like coating on all surfaces that wipes off easily then its green dust algae which is a PITA to get rid of. 

The recommended treatment is let it sit for 15 or so days without being cleaned and it apparently runs through its life cycle. This treatment never worked for me, so I reduced lighting time from 10 hrs to about 5 and added a fleet of otto cats, after it died off I raised lighting period to 8 hours and it seemed to be ok.

The hair algae is easy to get rid of, basically just pull it out and make sure your fertilizers are within normal parameters (10-20 ppm NO3, 1-3 ppm PO4, micros etc...).

Best thing to do in my opinion, is siphon out all the mulm, or other organic stuff that gets trapped in the corners and under ornaments in the tank. Once these organics are gone, they can't decompose and release ammonia, so you get less algae.

You can probably just transfer your plecos directly from your other tank into the new one. I do it all the time with my fish, they don't need to be acclimated if the tank conditions are similar.


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Thanks for the info. I would siphon out the mulm, but the problem is that I'm using oil dri, and there's lots of small particles. But it would be nice to have some of them gone I guess.

And I'm just afraid I won't be able to find the plecos after I transfer them. Lots of hiding spots in the plants xD


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## dawntwister (Sep 29, 2007)

gotcheaprice said:


> Hey, I've had my tank set up for a couple months, starting with gsa, but now it turned to this. I don't know which is worse, but this is uglier. I dose PPS pro daily, and occasionally excel(expensive!). I have 2x 55 watt ah supply and a hob filter(upgrading to xp3 once I work things out). The stuff in the marcanda(which is dying  ) doesn't even look like algae, so I'm confused xD
> Oh, I have 2 otos in there that don't seem to do their job xD I'm also getting shrimp, so I'll try throw some in there, but hopefully they don't get eaten xD
> 
> 
> ...


Looks like staghorn algae I saw at http://www.aquaticscape.com.


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Ah, I see, thanks. 

I just did a major trim on all my plants since it was getting overgrown anyways, and just took the parts that weren't heavily affected by the algae. So far everything looks farily clean compared to before, but still long strangs off some plants, and the algae on the glass is growing back. I'm gonna continue dosing daily, 2 capfuls of excel(55 gallon), and scrub!

Thanks for the help.


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## Bill Weber (Jul 17, 2005)

You may want to check your phosphate levels. I had a major blume of algae and found that the levels were greater than 5mg. I went ahead and purchased a phos ban reactor along with the phosphate remover. It did the trick in reducing the phospates back down to near zero. The algae blume has subsided. I manually removed several handfuls of algae which was easy to do. I'll let the tank stabalize for a week or two. So far the problem is clearing.


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## Chris Stewart (Sep 13, 2007)

Just thought I would mention too that an old toothbrush works awesome for getting rid of that hair algae. Twirl it up and slowly pull it out.

Rosey Barbs will eat it up too, at least in my experience. I found my SAE's wouldn't touch it, but my Amano's will, but not very successfully.


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## Bill Weber (Jul 17, 2005)

The toothbrush or manually removing the algae does work at clearing the existing algae but you will SOON find out that unless you correct the cause the algae will return. Kinda reminds me of a famous quote: I'LL BE BACK......


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## Chris Stewart (Sep 13, 2007)

Of course Bill, I agree!


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Phosphates don't really cause algae blooms on their own. Its most likely another variable in the tank thats causing the algae. Just make sure all values are within normal ranges and that there are enough water changes to remove all the mulm that builds up at the bottom of the tank. PO4 levels of 2-3 ppm and even up to 5 are routinely kept by many members of APC. In fact, it wards off spot algae that sticks to anubias leaves and glass.

But I do agree that manual removal of the hair algae is a good way to get rid of it. It seems once you pull it out it usually dies off and doesn't come back easily.


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