# What is this covering my plants?



## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Ok, I've had this problem for a while, and it's been killing my plants slowly, especially my HC and cabomba. I don't remember when it started, but it's gotten a lot worse over the hc.

It's basically a brown cloud of my plants. All this gunk or something. I'm going to get a powerhead soon, so hopefully that help it, but is there anything else I can do? I really want my hc to grow, but it can't get light through the stuff xD


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

It is always helpful to tell us the tank size, light wattage and type, fertilizing method being used, and if CO2 is being used and how. With all of that it is much easier to guess at what causes an algae problem.


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Ah, woops, forgot:
55 gallon
2x 55 ah supply kit CFL
XP3 filtration 
PPS Pro daily dosed with iron(cause my marcanda is never red on the bottom xD)
Co2 diffused through a rhinox 5000(gonna make my reactor really soon) on 30 mins before lights on on and 30 mins before it goes of
Photoperiod from 11:30 am - 10 pm


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Do you use a drop checker to make sure you have enough CO2 dissolved into the water?


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Yep, drop checker with 4 dKH from billionz is used and I get lots of pearling from my plants(but now the plants are sorta overgrown, need to trim really soon). It's just this stuff on it. I think it might be dead plants or maybe rotting food.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

It looks like algae to me. Once the plants get overgrown I know from my own experience that preventing algae gets to be very difficult. You need to have enough water movement throughout the tank to keep supplying nutrients to all of the plant leaves, and that is difficult with an overgrown tank. In fact, I am learning that keeping up with pruning, substrate cleaning, and removing every single plant leaf that you see algae on is essential for maintaining a no-algae tank. When you do weekly water changes, be sure to do the needed pruning and tank cleaning at the same time. (This is my lecture to myself.)


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## Missy B (Jul 8, 2007)

I've had this same problem in my tank for about a month now. It started on my HC and cabomba and slowly spread from there. I talked to the LFS and they recommended 50-100% water changes every other day, as well as over-fertilizing. I guess that theory was that the over supply of nutrients would burn the algae out. I'm going to try it over the next couple weeks, and let you know how it goes. Good luck!


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Alright, thanks for the help! I'm gonna order the hydor power head right now(the 800 gph one) and hope that that'll help. My flow rate did go down, and I guess that's why it got even worse. I'm also doing WC every other week, so I guess I might have to up it to every week xD.
Thanks for the input. Never thought it'd be algae... I'll dose excel too now(stopped it thinking it was melting my plants)

Yep yep... I just twirled some off and put it in my rcs tank and it was gone 30 minutes later. I guess I'll throw some into my tank now...

Also ordered my pump off ebay. $40 shipped with insurace via usps priority isn't bad considering most sites sell it $42 w/o shipping.


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Alright, so I decided to pull the thing that was covered the most, which was cabomba out of my tank. I threw most of it in my shrimp tank as I've had them eaten 2 of the cabomba plants CLEAN in one day. I threw in about 10 pieces, and they went crazy over them since I never fed them today yet. I also cleaned my filter and the flow went up a lot. The power head should be here tomorrow.
I hope the other plants get clean!
Marcanda was the only one safe for now -_-


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## jaidexl (Jan 20, 2007)

Could this be the snotty looking stuff Tom was talking about.? I'm going to try and find that thread, wherever it is.

Edit: I don't know, I can't seem to find a reference image so I don't know if it's the same stuff, this looks like it might just be some kind of hair algae holding tons of detritus. But Tom has a thread on PT call "Grey snot" algae identified, with this link, and says, _"A nasty diatom filamentous grey to white snotty thing.

http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=775&fr=1&sts

This looks like the bugger.

I think Cavan Allen had the first pesky run in with this species and had a heck of time trying to beat it, thinkng it might be bacteria or BGA.

Turns out it's a diatom from hell"_


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Haha, well, my RCS LOVES it whenever I remove plants into the RCS tank, but problem is theres snails so I don't want to do it for all of them xD

Also, I've been dosing 4x suggested excel, and also cut down the lighting period by 3 hrs i think to 8 hrs. The algae is starting to turn white on one side of the tank while the other side seems to be growing strong... 

Hopefully it goes away soon  I hate the look a lot.


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## Missy B (Jul 8, 2007)

I might have to have to try the RCS in my tank as well if your having good results with them...


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Lol, only good results if I throw the plants into the RCS, but RCS into my 55 gallon = eaten. Was so tempted to hold the GBR outside for a couple days, but decided not to xD

Oh, also, I threw some in my endler tank and they seemed to love to nibble on it and eat it, so I'm gonna throw maybe 4 males in my tank temporarily.


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## Missy B (Jul 8, 2007)

I've also found out that Wisteria is awesome for absorbing excess nutrients in your tank that this type of algae thrives off of. I put some in about 3-4 days ago, and I've already noticed that my algae is turning white and starting to die off


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Haha, well, the brownish algae is gone on the side it was taking over and now hair algae is taking over. I'm gonna do a WC and then a blackout tomorrow. My xp3s flow went down a lot again today, so I bought a sponge at my LFS to cover it(one of the aquaclear ones). 

3 day black out


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