# Green thread algae



## freshyleif (Jan 9, 2008)

I have been having a problem with thread algae lately. It started a bout a month ago and I was wondering if any one had some good suggestions on how to get rid of it?


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

have you determined the cause?


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

Excess nutrients and low CO2


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## gitusukka (Jun 29, 2007)

Hate the stuff.


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## flwrbed (Jul 3, 2009)

mine went away when i cut back on the light and raised the co2. 
gone like someone flipped a switch. 

i don't think its nutrients, i have increased mine and slowly upping my light and no algae. i think co2 is the main key.
but im a rookie, im still learning.


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## freshyleif (Jan 9, 2008)

I think it is low CO2. I have been having trouble with it since I changed my flow direction in the tank a while ago. My PH was at 6.8 before the change and after I can't seem to get it down below 7, it usually is at7.1 I know the nutrients are pretty good. Thank you all for the comments and tips.


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## inkslinger (Jan 1, 2005)

Same problem as freshyleif

I got 2 male/female American Flag-Fish an they started attacking it like crazy.


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## Emily6 (Feb 14, 2006)

I just got the stuff about a month ago after I re-scaped. After reading someone's post on over-dosing ferts and nothing bad happening, I resumed my normal fert routine (previously halved because of the much smaller plant load). Didn't change the algae one way or the other. I tried dosing Excel- still nothing. I just did a 3-day black out and folks, I'm going to say that didn't do much either.

I cut three hours off the lighting and put a 2-hour siesta in the middle of the day. Nothing.

The funny thing is that it's only growing on the peacock moss and driftwood. There are tiny amounts on the grasses but it's negligible. Hand removal works for a bit but by the end of the week, the moss looks like a muppet again. I just removed the moss- maybe cleaning it alone and returning some of it will help.

In the mean time, I cleaned out the filter- tons growing in my near-black out canister filter! So no wonder the black-out didn't touch it...

I re-calibrated my pH meter (figuring it might be a CO2 thing)- it was reading 7.5 at 7. This means my CO2 is very high (a number of shrimp died during the black-out). So I'll let you folks know if this kicks it.


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## freshyleif (Jan 9, 2008)

Ok so now I have lost 2 of my boesemani rainbows due to the CO2 fluctuations. I am going to check my PH to see if my meter is off calibration. I have been dosing excel at 5mil. a day for aweek in my 10g and it has been slowly getting it to go away. i will post my PH results when I have tested.


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

5 mls per day of Excel in a 10 gal tank :jaw::faint:


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## Crispino Ramos (Mar 21, 2008)

I think you'll have to enforce a multiple regimen - lower lighting, water change, canister filter cleaning, flagfish, excel, check nitrates, optimal CO2 and good water circulation.


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## freshyleif (Jan 9, 2008)

WOW was my meter off. It was showing a PH 0f 7 when it was actually around 6. I had to recalibrate it, we shall see how things go from here.


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## Emily6 (Feb 14, 2006)

Ha! Same thing that happened to me. Still no real report on it, though- seems like it took a few days to recover, then grew quickly thereafter. Maybe by tomorrow I'll know if the pH probe was the answer.

What probe do you have? I have a Milwaukee. Seems to routinely fall out of calibration every other month.


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## freshyleif (Jan 9, 2008)

SO I think that I need a new probe. I can't get it to calibrate properly. I can get it set at 7 but when I put it in my solution of 4 the meter only goes down from 7 to like 6.4 and stops. (its' a milwaukee sms 122) If anyone has some ideas on that please let me know.

NEWT- Yes 5ml (daily) on a 10g tank is a lot but the tank is thriving and looks better than it has in months. On top of that I had put 10 CRS or RCS shrimp, whichever one is the easy beginner one, in the tank and now I am seeing baby shrimp so I think the tank is doing great.

CRISPINO- I have actually been only dosing micros, K2SO4, and KH2PO4 on a E.I. dosing schedule. I stopped dosing KNO3 a while ago because it was getting way to high and all my red plants were green or even showing nitrate overdose (twisted leaves at the tips). I did test and it was at around 40ppm after a WC and only got higher from there.
I have 2 canister filters that are filled with lava rock for bio-media and they are very clean. I also have 2 koralis in the tank for circulation, 1 is a #1 400GPH approximately and the other one I don't know the # but it is 1050GPH so I think it can't be flow. I fact I really think the bigger koralia is to much and am thinking of switching it for a smaller one.

INKSLINGER-You said that the flag fish went right for the algae. Have they eaten it all? If so I am getting some right away. 

Thanks all for the help and input.


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## Emily6 (Feb 14, 2006)

That sounds like the same probe I have- maybe the screw isn't really twisting as you calibrate it. Or your buffer solution is dilute. Are you rinsing between checks?


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## freshyleif (Jan 9, 2008)

Yes I am rinsing between checks. I forgot to mention that for some reason my rinse solution has a lower PH than my 4 PH solution. IT almost make me think that the labels are wrong but have no idea. As far as the screw not turning, the one in the front is definitely turning, the one in the back I can't tell if it is or not. Does anyone know if you can have to much CO2 for plants or would that be so high that there is no way my fish could live through it.


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## Emily6 (Feb 14, 2006)

Your fish/inverts would die first for sure. I'm not sure when the plants would become unhappy but if you're using CO2 gas (as opposed to Excel), your water would become too acidic at some point to sustain them. I'm not sure what that threshold would be, though.


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## freshyleif (Jan 9, 2008)

Thanks Emily6 That is a good point. I kind knew that, but it does make sense about the water getting acidic I have noticed for some time that my MTS snail's shells are always melting at the top.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

You can repeat this cycle if you need to. Hair algae is hard to get rid of but this will kill it. Excel doesn't seem to have much effect on hair algae, IMO. I second the opinion that you probably have too much light for your tank. Cut back on your photo period if you can. Try the steps below. The idea is that the black out knocks back the hair algae and weakens it. The peroxide then will have a better chance at killing it. Make sure to do the w/c after the H2O2. You can repeat this cycle.

1. clean all detritus out of your tank, stuff on gravel
2. make sure filter is relatively clean.
3. 3 -5 day blackout, make sure CO2 is off at this time, if you have any. NO peeking.
4. peroxide the spots where you see any clado left. 3 ml/10 gals, turn off water flow for at least 10 minutes for peroxide to work.
5. turn back on filter, make sure light is on. You will see bubbling from peroxide. Light is the catalyst for peroxide.
6. after all bubbling stops do a 50% water change.
7. repeat daily peroxide treatments on all hair algae areas until it's dead.


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## Emily6 (Feb 14, 2006)

That sounds like a promising regime, Tex Gal- will peroxide kill mosses? This is my issue- I can't find something to spot treat with that won't hurt the moss (or hasn't already).


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

H2O2 at too high a level will kill all plants. I have dosed it directly on mosses to get rid of the clado and it only killed the clado. The idea is to keep the dose low at 3ml/10gallons, dosing directly on clado areas. Then do your water change.


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## Emily6 (Feb 14, 2006)

So I started this regime yesterday but I just read several articles all but saying I have to bleach my ENTIRE tank to get rid of this stuff! I don't really have the ability to set up another vessel to bleach everything in plus I'm only around my tank on weekends. So I can't really set up something for a few days straight. 

My biggest issue is getting it off the cyperus helferi and other grasses now- it's spread out so spot treating is tricky. And it's not really long enough to remove by hand. I might try removing those plants and bleaching them but I'm always nervous to do that.

Thoughts?


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## hieu (May 23, 2011)

I spot treated my tank with H2O2 about a month ago and pretty much all algae (bba) was killed. Did a couple spots per day with no water change in between. Algae in the treated spots turned white and was then eaten by my snails over a couple weeks. I also cut back on the lighting period from 10 hrs to 8 and so far it seems to have gotten rid of the algae. I only recently started injecting CO2 (2 months) and noticed that as soon as I started the bba would "melt" but never really disappeared. H2O2 is the only thing that I've tried that has been effective without killing all my fish. I did lose my shrimp because I didn't have any way (or know how) to keep them from crawling over the treated areas. Maybe a water change 30 mins after treatment would have saved the shrimp but overall the treatment had very minimum impact on my fish.


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## Emily6 (Feb 14, 2006)

Somewhere in this thread I realized I was dealing with clado AND thread algae and started referring to my clado treatments instead-

Anyway, the clado seems to be gone (tons of bleaching etc- see my other posts) and now I'm left with a thread here and there of thread algae. Oddly, the tougher of the two in my case. Probably because unlike clado, this needs a root cause addressed.

I've reduced the lighting period significantly- I'm down to 156w over 2" deep for 10 hours. I can't tell if it's my war on clado that really knocked back the thread algae or if this helped.

I noticed my CO2 is on the lower side at the moment. It seems the acidity isn't being neutralized so the pH meter isn't turning the CO2 on. Maybe time for another calibration...


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## sketch804 (May 27, 2007)

ya i am having the same trouble with that dreaded green string algae..it seems like most people are saying the if you increase the co2 levels a little it will help it go away a little. but i am just like you i cant seem to get this stuff to go away! theres only so much co2 i can add because i only have co2 by fermentation. and im running close to 3.3 wats/gal and i have the 2hr sestia in the middle of the day, but to no avail my algae just keeps coming back. and I'm not sure i want to do the H2O2 treatment because i have shrimp and other sensitive fish. but i still cant find a way to get rid of it.


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## Emily6 (Feb 14, 2006)

Seems like a fermentation system might never really be able to keep up with that much light. Have you tried Excel?

I have pressurized in mine and the problem I have is that the water becomes too acidic too quickly. The CO2 indicator is not very green- mostly blue, really.

I just re calibrated my pH meter and it was actually reading too high (at least on the 4 solution). So that's not it. Thankfully we have really alkaline water here so the next water change will send it back to almost 8. 

H2O2 didn't bother my shrimp and such but it does beat on mosses. I didn't find it to have any impact on the thread algae- there's just not enough surface area for the algae to stay in contact with it for very long unless you still have wads of the stuff.

I hand removed most of mine thinking it was the clado- something got twisted in my brain and I stopped noticing that there were two algaes in the tank- and right now, I only have one tiny thread left to kill, right next to another tiny tuft of clado. Kind of funny.

I question why hand removal would have worked on thread algae unless it coincided with a bigger change. I did reduce the light period- maybe that's really what's helping. I'm down to about 10 hours.


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