# GETTING DESPERATE (pics)



## dodgefreak8

alright guys I can't seem to get rid of this stuff!! I remove it and it keeps coming back!! first of all what is it??

















second How do I get rid of it??

water parameters: 29gal

ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-10ppm
phosphate-1.5ppm
co2-30ppm
Light- 65 watts for 10hrs with a 3hr burst of additional 65 watts
dosing-EI

this stuff grows on anything substrate included and its slimey and easy to remove

help me out here people


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## dodgefreak8

I also have 3 ottos, 2 SAE, and 3 amano shrimp in this tank


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## Rob Tetrazona

Add more plants or be patient and let the ones you have now really grow in densly. The algae will slowly subside or go away completely eventually. In the meantime, you could spot dose Excel or H2O2 with a syringe.


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## dapellegrini

Depending on the types of plants you have - you could do a 2x Excel Overdose for 1 week... Spot treating it in your fissiden for example will kill spots of the plant... I just decimated staghorm, BBA and Hair Algae in a small tank using this method...


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## dodgefreak8

I also have HC that I don't want to kill. Any idea what the heck it is???


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## dapellegrini

HC should survive an Excel OD... Mine did.

Looks kinda like staghorn, but check out this site:

http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/


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## SuRje1976

That looks very much like diatomes to me. They're very typical of newly setup tanks. Usually show up around the 2nd to 3rd week, subside usually by the 3rd month. Oto's will eat it. I'd go with 5 or 6 in a 29G.


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## BryceM

How old is your setup? It looks like brown slime algae to me, but could just be diatoms. I had a horrific attack of this when I set up my big tank last year. Manual removal, patience, good CO2, and appropriate fertilizers should take care of it. What are your other tank parameters? Unlike most forms of algae, brown slime can actually just "go away" once things aren't to its liking anymore. Patience is the biggest key.


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## dodgefreak8

setup is about 5weeks old. This stuff is just really ugly and all my other parameters are right on..


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## Muirner

Dodge, any luck with yours residing? I'm having tghe same issue in my 55gal that i have, and it's driving me nuts. I dont know even where to begin. I do a manual removal of the stuff, gravel vac it off the ground. And a few days later it's back bigger then ever. I have 2 (maybe 3) otos in the tank with the stuff and well they dont touch it. So does anyone have any advice?


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## Homer_Simpson

Okay, perhaps I am way off base here, but is there a possiblity that this stuff could be some kind of fungal growth and not algae at all. I mean if it is diatoms, the otos would feast on it.  Something similiar appeared in my 55 gallon tank and it went away on its own. I have no idea what gave rise to it as I read that it seems to appear when there is any kind of decaying matter around. All my fish were accounted for and I was doing weekly water changes. The tank had been running without incident for 7 years and it just appeared out of the blue. I did not do anything to treat it and it seems that it dissappeared as quickly as it appeared. If it is a type of fungus, I heard that it will not normally harm fish but if the fish get any kind of cuts, scrapes, or ulcers and their slime coat is compromised the fungal spores will target the fish and infect them.


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## dodgefreak8

actually on my rotala and fissiden it's getting worse. it grows at least 2" a day and has to be removed. On my Hc it's gone!. I think the amano shrimp are eating some of it. I can't figure it out. My parameters are fine. I am going to try increasing the flow and see if that helps. after that I am going to start dosing excel.


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## BryceM

This really looks identical to the grey slime that I had. Several people offered their advice in a thread I started here.

This algae has a good and bad side. First the bad - it looks truly horrific and can last for quite a while. In my case it was about 6 weeks as I recall. I tried blackouts, massive manual removal, upping CO2, excel, and just about everything.

Next the good - when it goes away it can completely disapear in about 48 to 72 hours. I've never seen anything like it. The key in my case was addressing the needs of the plants. I had been dosing macros very sparsely and likely the plants weren't getting enough for their needs. I upped my doisng of NO3 and PO4 considerably. Once the plants finally started growing the algae went away immediately - no manual removal required.

Hopefully you're gaining on it. Good luck.


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## dodgefreak8

heres a pic from todaynow I have BBA and another weird one starting!! I'm thinking clado!!


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## DonaldmBoyer

You need fire, and lots of it!! 

Seriously, though, what remedies have you already tried? I'm thinking that a massive water change followed by a three day blackout, followed by another massive water change is required. However, you have yet to really say anything about what you have tried to do, or if you have changed any of your parameters, lighting, etc. Do you have too much light? Any increase in CO2? Give us more info on the current situation!

Personally, I would do as I mentioned above. Also, manual removal before and after the two water changes would help. Possibly a cut in the lighting intensity or a short photoperiod.....and a spot treatment using hydrogen peroxide. No "bursts" and cut the lighting down after the blackout to about 7 hours, and then slowly raise it.


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## dodgefreak8

I haven't tampered to much because people keep telling me to let my setup mature but it's getting out of control now. I am running my c02 at what I think is 30ppm (drop checker) I stopped adding nitrates because my fish are keeping it at 10ppm but I am still doing EI dosing. I am going to try cutting down the "burst" in the after noon to 2 hrs and see if that helps but I think it's just going to worsen the problem due to my plants not using the nutrients as fast. any idea what the long algea is??


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## DonaldmBoyer

Looks like good ol' fashion hair algae.

No, you don't need the tank to mature in any way that is going to effect it negatively. Turn off your lights, cover with an old blanket to block out any ambient light, and keep it that way for three days. You are just feeding algae, and you need to get rid of it! Follow the procedure I mentioned above with water changes, and only keep your lights on for 7-8 hours.....gradually increase that time to 10-12 over a few weeks, and then add your "burst" if everything's ok still. Same with your ferts....cut your dosing by half, and gradually work it back up to normal amounts over a few weeks. Treat any hair algae by using hydrogen peroxide in a medicine dropper, and squirt it over the hair algae. Treat the tank in different areas every day until it is gone. It WILL die, I promise! 

But do the blackout and corresponding water changes first! You have to get rid of excess nutrients from your water column, and a blackout isn't going to effect your bacteria that you want to keep.


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## BryceM

I agree with everything above with one notable exception. dodge tells us that his NO3 is 10ppm without adding any. How do you know it's 10 ppm? Test kits are notoriously unreliable, even the Lamotte ones if you haven't calibrated them against a known solution. If your water-column nitrates are too low you can't expect the plants to be doing well unless you have an enriched substrate. I would NOT recommend skimping on ferts during an algae attack. Don't over-do it, but you always need to consider the needs of the plants. Once the plants are happy the algae will be GONE!


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## Laith

I agree with guaiac_boy: double check your nitrate levels... 10mg/l is within the +/- error range of some test kits as well.


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## Freemann

How can you dose EI and have 10 ppm NO3?
For me that is impossible, I bet you have a ton of NO3 and your test fools you (except if you make make WC every day). Is your water hazy? In how many days does your glass start to get covered with green spot or whatever green algae? Does lots of dirt gets accumulated in the surface of your substrate fast? What I am trying to say is your water "dirty"? In my opinion plants need lean but always present macros in balanced ratios, and in many cases more than usually suggested micros, some things like daily additions of Mg for example can make a difference in many cases, it all depends on your initial water. I would suggest to try PPS pro instead of EI it can make all the difference you need.


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## houseofcards

I would tend to agree with Freeman on this one. Not only is he dosing EI, but he is using Aquasoil and the tank is only 5 weeks old. I would really like to know what exactly is going into the water column. Everything, fish, food, ferts. Having the lights on for 10 hours is a big no, no in the setup phase. Have you stirred up the aquasoil alot? That could cause problems as well, especially in a highlight tank with a 10 hour light duration.


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## NEKvt

I had one small tuft of this stuff appear twice in my tank, here is the situation that made it appear. I was attempting to switch my photoperiod from 12hrs to 10hrs but switched to 14hrs instead. I did not notice until that evening when the lights were on when I was going to bed, at this point I switched it to 10hrs. Next morning when I was dosing PPS tuft number one was hanging from a leaf of watersprite, I cut off the leaf and removed the tuft. The next morning when I was dosing I noticed a tuft in a similar spot, this time I just removed the tuft. Haven't seen the stuff since. 

So the short of it is that I added some light to a stable sytem, got the algae, backed the light off and it has yet to return. Just my experience


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## dodgefreak8

well I am going to try a 3 day blackout and switch to pps-pro dosing. I am going to also check my nitrate kit and see where its at. Couple qustions just so I am sure. I don't dose any ferts or co2 on a blackout right? After blackout I am going to reduce my light period back to 8 hrs and loose the blast for a while. I am also going to dose excel to try and get rid of the BBA and the clado/staghorn???? that is growing.


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## Muirner

let me know how you make out, i'll be watching this thread. I'm having similar problems, and it's ugly. It only occured after i did a big trim, so i'm trying to increase the plant load. If that dosent work i'm going the same way you did if it works for ya.


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## dodgefreak8

well I tested my nitrate kit and it's dead on. I also tested my tank water befor my massive waterchange today and it was right at 10ppm. phosphate was 1ppm


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## enzo

Hi, I found a brilliant way to remove the algae.

Get some regular airline tubing and a bucket. Then set the top part of the tubing in the aquarium, and use a syringe on the other end to create a quick suction to get the water flowing out of the aquarium. Then set that end in the bucket and use the end thats in the aquarium to suck up the algae.

Has better suction than a python and doesn't drain your tank very fast.


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## dodgefreak8

I'll have to give that a try if the blackout doesn't take care of it. thanks for the tip


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## dodgefreak8

Well I wouldn't waist your time with a blackout!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would have rather jreked the plants that had this stuff than deal with what I lost!! All of my beautiful HC is now DEAD!! I had an awesome amount of this stuff starting to fill in and it's DEAD! damnit and this crap is still everywhere. what a waist of time and plants


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## Muirner

Yikes, sorry to hear about your losses, I'm going to avoid that route for now, and keep filtration up, co2 up, and maybe take my lighting down 32 watts (1 bulb)


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## Squawkbert

If the dark stuff is really well attached to leaves, it's BBA (black beard algae, a rhodophyta species). Dilute bleach dips (2-5%, ~30 sec leaf dip w/ some light rubbing) will help kill it, remember to rinse thoroughly! Increasing my ferts, adding a 2d DIY CO2 and letting time pass helped eliminate it in my 46g. Also - I gave up trying to grow Cabomba in there - that was the plant it always started on for me... Hair algae too. If I have any more BBA, it hasn't been anything my DG can't keep up w/.

I still have hair algae, but it just grows in a clump on the highest segment of my driftwood, so I just yank it periodically.


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## Muirner

DG??? Dwarf Gramaui? (sp?)


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## enzo

try the vacuum with the airline tubing thing. i'll post a photo when i get back. mine is definitely going away


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## dodgefreak8

I'm going to do that this weekend!! thanks for the tip


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## IbnOzn

Get a black molly and/or american flagfish. Don't feed them and they'll eat the algae. I had that stuff and nothing made a dent in it until I got a black molly. He'd yank whole clumps out of the leaves and suck it down like spaghetti.


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## Muirner

are there any real colorful fish that do that? I cant seem to find any places to get molly's or flagfish online, or locally


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## DVS

Maybe I missed something in all the posts, but I believe you said you were dosing EI, then stopped dosing nitrates because the fish provided enough. Are you dosing pottassium? If you were dosing KNO3 and stopped, you are probably low on pottassium. Its been my experience that in a planted tank, if a macro is not beng consumed its usually because some other nutrient has bottomed out.


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## dodgefreak8

I added more pottassium to compensate. I still haven't figured it out.


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## dodgefreak8

well just an update. Most of the weird brown algea has disappeared and my anubias has really cleaned up. Almost all of the BBA and staghorn is now gone off of it. Now I am wondering when or if I should start increasing light levels by an hour a day or not??


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## Muirner

What did you do to achieve this


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## dodgefreak8

well I'm thinking just reducing the photo period to 7 hrs with one light running did most of it. The blackout probably helped and I spot treated the BBA with peroxide. Also it was brought to my attention that the nitrate levels in my tank were not the right kind of nitrate for plants and that I should start dosing nitrate again.


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## SnakeIce

I had almost the same battle, although not nearly for as long and not as bad. I am still not sure what I did that made it disapear so quickly, but it just seems that once things do not favor this algae it leaves in a hurry.


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## Muirner

Crud, if anyone knows how to rid it, or GSA i'll take all the advice i can get. The only thing i have found that helps is my 10 gallon tank, but i dont know what it is that is helping...


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## Muirner

Dodge - How you doing in your battle against the brown slime? Mine seems to be lifting, but after some serious remedies. I'll post them to hopefully aid in others getting rid of this "crud"

1) I assumed that like all other algae that it was caused by an excess in nutrience. So to combat this i did 2 things. First i stopped dosing for the past week. Secondly i added a handfull of S. Minima and let it take over the top of the tank. I also let all the plants grow out of control with no trimming, more plants = better at least in my thinking.

2) I added bio-media to my filter, this is in an effort to hopefully remove the excess nutrience that the plants didnt get to. Along with brand new polyfill for filter floss, and rinsed out my sponges (they were NASTY!

After a week of these two remedys slowly but surely i can see my GSA disappearing (boy this is like the 3rd visit of it) and you can also see the brown stuff is not so prevalant. The good news only came after i started to use water from a stable 10gallon tank (that when moss infested with the brown slime was introduced the slime disappeared) to top off my 55 gallon. 

Worries- I'm worried that when i pull the S. Minima off the top of the tank i'll end up with a disaster, i'm going to end up having this whole adventure again because everything is so far overgrown that when i trim the tank will be "shocked" and back comes the algae. 

All the while i have been keeping with the CO2, and full lighting just as a note


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## rs79

Guys, bleach and h202 just address a symnptom, the don't fix the problem. I spent year playing with that crap.

Change 80% of the water two days in a row, change 50% of the water daily, dose all ferts properly, use flourish excel.

Bye bye crud.

This has never failed me, ever.

Frankly just changing a lot of water and dosing ferts will get rid of it, the excel just makes it go away quicker.


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## Muirner

It may be easy to change those two amounts, but with my 55, changing 40Gallons of water and then 27 gal daily would take well way way to much time. I work ~75 hours a week, so time is of the essence. More ferts just caused more problems, and it was only cleared up by pulling nutrience from the WC with bio media and new filter media, along with TONS of plants have helped me it seems


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## Squawkbert

Muirner said:


> DG??? Dwarf Gramaui? (sp?)


Yes, DG=Dwarf Gourami (sorry I lost track of this thread).


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## rs79

You don't have a python I take it? They make life worth living again and while expesnive are worth twice the price.

Excessive correct ferts cannot cause this. Something is wrong with your fertilization regime.

BTW it's staghorn algae, it goes through a phase where it's all fluffy before becoming branched. I used to have tons of the stuff.

It's the most succeptible to Excel poisoning of any algae I've seen.


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## Muirner

Mine didnt go all the way to branched. It stayed fluffy and brown and very thick. It's now receding. The only thing i did was add bio media to my filter, and clean the filter. And let S. minima take over the top.


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## dodgefreak8

all of my algea is gone. I'm not sure if it was the blackout of the lower light levels but it got rid of it what ever it was. I just replanted HC this week so I am hoping it doesn't come back after disturbing the aquasoil....


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## Muirner

Let us know how you make out, i seem to have gotten mine to receed, but still my light levels are an hr short of my normal time, and i still have a ton of floating plants. I'm trying to reduce the floating plants and go more to plants plants, but it's taking time. 

With a new fiasco going on i may have a big java fern


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## jdmstop

hey guys, I came across this thread during Christmas day because it is going to be my wish to try and get rid of this brown fluffy slimy algae, green spot algae and some minor hair algae, but mostly, it is filled with this brown slimy algae everywhere.

My tank is a 50gal
rena xp3
AH supply 6700k 95watt
Eco complete
pressurized co2 at 30ppm
no dosing of any ferts for now
both GH/KH is consider very high as the water in my city is very hard.
20 rasbora, 5 clown loaches, 3 glass fish,2 tetra, and 2 chinese algae eater, (I really don't want to use the overdose excel method just because of the livestock.

I have tried manually remove as much slime algae as i could, however, they just keep coming back. I see some of you mention to spot treat with peroxide, how do I suppose to do this? by sticking a baxer directly into the water and spray across the plants that are infected with algae? And also I constantly get this what it appeared as a oily film on the top of my water no matter how many times I change my water.

Here is a awesome picture of it









Any pointers??? this will be my best Christmas gift ever if I can get rid of this stuff for good!!!


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## Homer_Simpson

jdmstop said:


> hey guys, I came across this thread during Christmas day because it is going to be my wish to try and get rid of this brown fluffy slimy algae, green spot algae and some minor hair algae, but mostly, it is filled with this brown slimy algae everywhere.
> 
> My tank is a 50gal
> rena xp3
> AH supply 6700k 95watt
> Eco complete
> pressurized co2 at 30ppm
> no dosing of any ferts for now
> both GH/KH is consider very high as the water in my city is very hard.
> 20 rasbora, 5 clown loaches, 3 glass fish,2 tetra, and 2 chinese algae eater, (I really don't want to use the overdose excel method just because of the livestock.
> 
> I have tried manually remove as much slime algae as i could, however, they just keep coming back. I see some of you mention to spot treat with peroxide, how do I suppose to do this? by sticking a baxer directly into the water and spray across the plants that are infected with algae? And also I constantly get this what it appeared as a oily film on the top of my water no matter how many times I change my water.
> 
> Here is a awesome picture of it
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Any pointers??? this will be my best Christmas gift ever if I can get rid of this stuff for good!!!


The Brown Stuff looks like diatoms. This usually happens with a new tank setup up(planted or unplanted) after 4 weeks. It is due to excess silicates and some say low light(I am not convinced as I had it appear in a high light tank). Once the silicates in the water are used up or exhausted it is said to go away on its own, unless you have tap water with very high silicates. A couple of otocinlus should take care of it. My 40 gallon had similiar problems as yours. Here is what I did and it worked. Things are not 100% as I am still battling some green spot algae but they are 90% improved. I am not sure if what I had were diatoms as it does not fit with what is known to cause it. My tank was not just set up. It was 9+ years old, and it had high light. For you that may or may not be true. I suspect my stuff was more due to a build up organic waste in the tank.

(1) Got a Bristlenose Pleco, Siamese Algae Eater(This is a true algae eater that will eat all kinds of algae. The Chinese Algae Eater is not the same and may attack other fish as it gets older), and an otocinlus. These guys made a huge dent in the brown algae and worked 24/7 to tackle the problem.

(2) Manually removed as much algae as I could and increase water changes to 2 times a week adding a double dose of Fluorish Excel with every water change and a double dose on those days where I did not do water changes. I know you are afraid to use excel, but I have not had any fish deaths at double the dose.

(3) Ensured 30 ppm C02 via drop checker, which it always was, so no adjustment was necessary. Are you using a drop checker to measure your c02 levels. If not, it would be a good idea to do so to ensure that you have 30 PPM c02 and not less.

(4) I reduced feeding to every other day as I also suspect that excessive feeding and build up of organic waste was fueling the algae. I also placed Seachem Purigen in my filter to get rid of excess organic waste in the water. The Seachem Purigen filter may help eliminate your oily film problem.

(5) Reduced lighting period from 10 hours to 8 hours.

(6) Continued with Tom Barr's Estimative Index Fertilization for 40 Gallon. I know that you don't want to use ferts, but I found that it did no harm and may have helped.

After doing the above, it too 2 months to see a noticeable improvement and 3 months to see a major improvement. I have gone to noon burst lighting with my AH Supply Kit. I burn one bulb for approximately 3.5 hours and both bulbs or a total of 7.5 hours with the other bulb coming on after 3 hours and staying on for 4 hours so both bulbs burn 7.5 hours. I am doing this to see if I can get rid of the Green Spot Algae.


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## HTN86

wow that's the worst I've ever seen. Why don't you just use a net and scoop em out? Several of my previous tanks had this problem, but I simply removed it with a net.


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