# Dealing with cladophora and staghorn algae



## poissonkimbo (Dec 21, 2010)

Hi all. I have a 20 gal Natural Style Tank that is almost a year old. I have noticed a problem with both clado and staghorn algae. I am attaching pictures in case I am wrong with the identification. My questions are twofold since I understand the staghorn to be a problem of nutrients and the clado is well just a big pain in the rear.

Manual removal of the clado is not working as I sent pieces all over the place making it worse. I have read that others have had success using hydrogen peroxide in addition to manual removal. Has anyone here had experience with that? I am on summer break and have plenty of time to patiently work on ealing with this problem.

On the other hand, I read that clado grows when the plants are happy but staghorn grows in nutrient problems. Is it perhaps my lighting? I run an actinic bulb (for color purposes and I have read mnay people on this forum don't agree with this choice) and a coralife HO 10,000K Daylight. The guy at my LFS said that they weren't making non-HO bulbs anymore and I have had a hard time finding them online. I run my bulbs on a 5-4-5 photoperiod.

Just a few more specs, the water parameters of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all 0. It is very lightly stocked with three neon tetras, one siamese algae eater, 4 RCS, and various snails. My tap water is very soft.

I'll be happy to provide more information if it helps and would appreciate advice as I am a newbie and still learning. Thanks!


----------



## _chicken_ (Oct 7, 2007)

I've never kept a Natural Style Tank, so my experience may not be helpful to you. Staghorn algae in one of my tanks went away when I switched from a HOB filter to a canister filter. I don't know if this was due to less loss of co2 or better circulation (perhaps leading to better distribution of nutrients throughout the tank?) or both.

With a Natural Style Tank, I assume that you are not using co2, and probably not a filter either. Are you using a powerhead to provide circulation? If not, it might be worth a try. I know I heard somewhere that poor circulation was a factor with staghorn algae.

As far as clado, I have used hydrogen peroxide to eliminate it. However, I think I overdid it, because it melted my vallisneria, and it never came back. But about a year later, the clado returned. :-x I have no idea if it was just lying in wait, waiting for the right moment to return, or if it was reintroduced with some plants. 

My most recent strategy was to remove as much as I could manually, disposing of plants if necessary, and add a couple Amano shrimp to the tank (it's a 10 gallon). That was a few months ago, and it seems to be working. I have since done the same thing to a couple other tanks.

However, I can't promise that will work for you. Just the other day I was telling someone about this, and she said her Amanos never touched clado.


----------



## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Clado is nasty and very hard to get rid of. I finally did it by giving all the infested plants a strong bleach treatment and then moving them to another tank free of Clado. With stem plants that can be grown emersed, I have been able to cut off emersed growth and return it to submersed in an uncontaminated tank. That also works. I have been able to keep it out by giving all new plants the bleach treatment. Sometimes this gives the plants a severe set-back, but in most cases they have recovered. 

Once you have gotten your tanks free of clado, it is not too hard to keep it out. I examine all new plants with a magnifying glass. If I see any clado. the plant has to get a four minute bleach treatment. Fortunately, I find clado. attached to plants with thick rhizomes or to the older parts of crown plants. These kinds of plants can survive 4 minutes easily. With stem plants it may be attached to very old stems, which can be removed and thrown away, but never to newer, recently grown stems. Any other kind of hair algae found on new plants can be eliminated with a 2 minute treatment.


----------



## poissonkimbo (Dec 21, 2010)

Thanks everyone for the replies. I upped the flow on my HOB Aquaclear and am waiting to see if that has an effect on the staghorn. I also went to the vet and got a syringe to try hydrogen peroxide on the worst of the clado. I don't have the luxury of bleaching and moving plants to another tank.

Help me out. I don't necessarily mind the clado and my shrimps love it! I just want to keep it contained. However, I am going to have to dose my tank with fertilizer/nutrients because I depleted them with several R/O water changes. Can y'all offer any suggestions that I might need to consider in regards to dosing while also battling an algae problem?


----------

