# How do I get rid of the thread algae in my moss??



## Scouter (Mar 3, 2008)

I have a thread algae problem. At least that's what I think it is. It grows into long strands (sometimes up to 10 inches) and its green. I'm wondering if there's anything that will eat it, or how to get it out of my moss. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Scouter


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Any pictures for an ID? Siamese Algae Eaters will eat thread algae, as will Black Mollies (at least mine will). You can also use a syringe and squirt some excel on it and that will kill it.


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## Rattail (Aug 21, 2006)

I had BBA but after I bought sx moonlight gouramis it was sorted out!


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## Scouter (Mar 3, 2008)

Here's the direct link so you can get a close look.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t157/muel4068/P1020835.jpg

Thanks,
Scouter


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## Scouter (Mar 3, 2008)

I'm having a difficult time figuring out how to exactly kill it with excell. Its all over so I really don't know where to begin. I'm wondering if I should just tear the tank down and start over. 


Scouter


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## Jeff.:P:. (Nov 20, 2007)

How much light do you have on that tank? 
I'd be careful of heavy excel overdosing with moss's.

With excel you can dose the tank, and overtime the algae will go away. Also SAE's do eat some moss too.



> I'm wondering if I should just tear the tank down and start over.


You should try to solve the problem or it'll come when you start over anyways.


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## Jareardy (Feb 14, 2008)

You know I've head that dipping all of the affected plants into a mixture of bleach does work well in getting rid of thread algae. You might want to look in to this.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Try amano shrimp. You have such a bad case all mixed into your algae. Amano's in mass are amazing! They did wonders for me. (I had too much light and lean dosing - a bad combination).


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## Scouter (Mar 3, 2008)

Well, when I said that I was thinking about re-starting fresh, what I meant, was that I would replace everything. Over the summer, I took all of my clippings of my plants and just stuck them into a planter outside and I now have an overflowing container of emerged plants in my house(it started getting cold). I was thinking of taking everything out, bleaching the hardware, and replacing everything, but I really don't want to b/c I'd need to wait longer to put some fish into the tank. 

So I guess its up to an algae eater and excel. How many amano's would you think I need? I think that shrimp would be the only animal I could use because it's only a 20 gallon and I want a pair of rams and not too many other fish (I don't care for overstocked tanks).

In the meantime, I think I'll heavily prune the infected moss and use some excel. 
Thanks for your help,
Scouter


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## David Hui (Dec 10, 2004)

Get a hungry black molly, it would clean it right up.


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## Idiopathogen (Aug 27, 2008)

American-flag fish would be good too.


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## Felf808 (Mar 21, 2006)

I only have that problem when my moss is filled with organic debris. Use an airline tube to suck out anything that might be lodged in your moss and it should help at least a little in addition to making sure your lighting, ferts, and co2 are in check.


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## Scouter (Mar 3, 2008)

Don't mollies need a little bit of salt in the water? I thought that that was bad for planted tanks. Please correct me if wrong- I'm really new to aquariums. 
Thanks,
Scouter


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

A lot of people have varying degrees of success using critters for algae control. Siamese Algae Eaters, Florida Flag Fish, Mollies, Amano Shrimp, etc can all be beneficial but usually need to be kept hungry to eat algae. Amano Shrimp would be my preferred method and for the best algae control it seems that one shrimp per gallon works the best. Most critters that will pick at algae will also pick at moss when hungry so you may need to remove them later. Shrimp are always picking at the plants and you can keep them happy by adding some type of sinking food or even greens (Green Beans, Spinach, Lettuce, etc) after the algae is gone. Bleach can be affective at killing algae but it can kill plants just as easily if not done properly. 

It is always best to learn what causes the algae and to prevent it from appearing than to treat it after it has appeared. Answering a few questions will be a start at helping us give you some better answers to your question...How much light do you have over your tank and are you adding fertilizers and CO2?


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Scouter said:


> So I guess its up to an algae eater and excel. How many amano's would you think I need? I think that shrimp would be the only animal I could use because it's only a 20 gallon and I want a pair of rams and not too many other fish (I don't care for overstocked tanks).
> 
> In the meantime, I think I'll heavily prune the infected moss and use some excel.
> Thanks for your help,
> Scouter


I had a 10g that I brought in hair algae from an LFS. I had too much light and too little ferts in that tank (shrimp in there) and it took off. I cut back on my lighting and I added 16 amanos. In 2 weeks I couldn't find a shred of hair algae. I have since moved many many of them to my big tank but they were amazing. You need to put enough of them in to eradicate the algae entirely. They will find every shred which is something I could not do. I left about 5 in there to make sure every bit was eaten. I will take them out eventually. I think if you skimp on the number of amanos you will just keep the algae at bay.


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## Scouter (Mar 3, 2008)

Yhea, the same thing happened to me. I got it from some infected java moss. I have a DIY C02, I do NPK, and I do a 5 gallon water change biweekly or weekly. I normally fertilize once every three days or so, but I only use about a 3rd of a capful of each. I also have a 2x24wt. t5HO fixture, but only one of the bulbs is working (I haven't ordered another yet) I'm also running a t8 15 watt fixture. My running times are about 12 hrs for the t8 and 8 for the t5. What am I doing wrong? I don't have any test kits, so I really can't give you any other info. I do know that I should probably be dosing a little iron b/c my plants don't look as red but other than that, I really don't know.
Thanks,
Scouter


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

T5's are supposed to put out a lot more light than regular bulbs. Sounds like you have high light. If your dosing lean with high light that is probably your issue. (It's what happened to me too!). I ended up cutting down my light. I did have 50 CF watts in my tank. I went back to 24 CF watts. My algae is gone but now my downoi is melting and my UG that was left is going bye bye. I am going to get about 36 CF watts and see what happens. I need to find the right lighting to match the lower dosing I need to do for my CRS. 

Why are you dosing lean? You need to make sure you have 
1. enough consistent CO2
2. enough ferts
3. enough light

All these need to be in balance. That's the part that will take some tweaking on your part. (mine too, but I'm halfway there! )


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Scouter said:


> I have a DIY C02...


That could be part of the problem if you don't make sure you have consistent production from your DIY CO2.



Scouter said:


> I normally fertilize once every three days or so, but I only use about a 3rd of a capful of each.


This could be another problem...since you are using 1/3 capful of each , I assume you are using Seachem's line of ferts? Seachem's recommended dosing levels are low for a high light, CO2 tank so you should be adding at least the recommended amount for your size tank and probably even more. Try following the recommended dosages for a while and see if the plants don't look better. It may take a week or two to notice any changes in the plants. It won't cure your current algae problem but may stop it from reappearing in the future.

Are you adding any macros...Seachem Comprehensive (I think they still call it that), Tropica Master Grow (or whatever the new name is) or CSM+B? Plants need micros as well and all of these contain iron also.



Scouter said:


> I also have a 2x24wt. t5HO fixture, but only one of the bulbs is working (I haven't ordered another yet) I'm also running a t8 15 watt fixture. My running times are about 12 hrs for the t8 and 8 for the t5.


Since your bulbs usually come in either a 24" fixture or 30" fixture so I would assume you have either a 20/29g tank or a 20g long tank. I think you have higher light than you think but that depends on the height of your tank. If it is a 20 long, you definitely have high light since the plants are closer to the light source than they would be in a 20/29g tank. What size tank do you have?



Scouter said:


> What am I doing wrong?


It looks like you have too much light for your CO2 and/or dosing routine. Either increase your CO2 production and fertilizers or reduce your light. To remove the algae, try your preferred algae eater or remove the moss to another container and try using some Excel or Gluteraldehyde. If the moss doesn't make it, just get some more. Most mosses are fairly easily found these days


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## Scouter (Mar 3, 2008)

Ok, well I guess the first thing I'll do is start dosing ferts more, second I'll probably go ahead and remove the main moss that's infected and dose excel on it in a different tank, and third, I'm going to get some algae eaters. Did I miss anything? Thanks for all the help guys! Oh, also- MatPat, I have a 20 gal high. 
thanks again, I'll keep you posted.
Scouter


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## Scouter (Mar 3, 2008)

Well, I've been dosing with excell and that is seeming to slow it down. I acquired some new plants and I built a new stand, so I plan on doing an entire re-scape and I don't think I'll keep the moss so I'm going to move it to a low-light nano that I can dose with excel. As for the rest of the plants, I'm going to keep dosing with excel and hope for the best right now. I don't have the $ to upgrade the CO2, but I will keep NPK ferts daily.
Thanks guys
Scouter


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## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

Ok, now take the excel and do this. 
About 2-3 ml/gallon will kill it (depending on the particular species you have). Just slightly less than what will kill most mosses (willow moss is really susceptible to it but java is not so much). Test on a small piece of moss, but mix up 2 ml/gallon in a bucket of water. take a piece of moss, drain it and stick it into the water and swish it around. Leave it for a few hours and then return to the tank. If the thread algae dies and the moss doesn't die after a week then remove any inverts from the tank and then treat the whole tank in this manner. Make sure that you drain and then dip the moss in so that the glutaraldehyde can get everywhere into the moss. Repeat every other day 2 or 3 times just to make sure.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Fortuna Wolf said:


> Ok, now take the excel and do this.
> About 2-3 ml/gallon will kill it


Wow, that is a high dose of Excel/gluteraldehyde. I've always had luck eliminating hair, thread, and BBA at the rate of about 1/2-1ml per gallon. I add 30ml to my 75g for two days then cut back to 15ml for the next 7-8 days and always have an algae free tank after about 10 days. I'm not debating whether your method will work, it just seems a bit high on the Excel/gluteraldehyde overdosage given my experience with it.


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## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

Well, I had some of the most chemical resistant hair algae around. I've had two types that have appeared in my tank actually. One was a spirogea I believe. Easy to deal with at low 1ml/gallon doses. The other was the one that required the stupidly high doses.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

This thread was made for your problem.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/algae/56101-new-algae-killer.html


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## Sunstar (Sep 17, 2008)

I have been using just under 1 ml for a gallon in my tank. Its killing through spot treating. there are still inverts in it. remarkably still alive. I am doing this treatment for 8 days.


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