# how much algae can you grow



## grim (Mar 13, 2008)

so i wasn't able to use my left arm for a little over a month made things with the fish tank very difficult so i basically let all four of my tanks go only one really suffered and as the title says how much algae can you grow so far this is what i got i also don't know what will eat this stuff 
























believe it or not there is a small amount of moss under neath that nice clump of algae


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## NeonFlux (May 15, 2008)

True siamese algae eaters, rosy barbs, Flourish excel, water changes, water siphon


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Kinda look neat - like a volcanic eruption with smoke. Wonder what excel squirted on it would do?


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## tex627 (Nov 2, 2008)

i think you should just toss the moss or if you want to save the moss, the it out and rinse it, then put it in a quick bath of water with 5% bleach for 5-10 seconds


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## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

I know this will be very difficult one handed (maybe) but try to gently pull the algae off. Or try the reverse of very gently pulling the Java Moss out of the Algae. So far, I think Java Moss grows pretty easily. I am also discovering some very nice uses for it with baby fish and shrimp. (I still have a lot to learn about shrimp after all these years.)

I would go very, very gently with Excel or any chemicals. I like Excel but I think it is very easy to overdose it. And the last time I tried doing a spot dose - I paid a very high price. Took forever to get the leaves to grow back on one of my Anubias.



> True siamese algae eaters, rosy barbs, Flourish excel, water changes, water siphon


I am curious how the SAE or Rosy Barbs would do. That would be interesting.

(I like the photos of your tank.)

Jimbo205


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## dawntwister (Sep 29, 2007)

NeonFlux you said rosy barbs eat algae. How about cherry barbs?


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## jtburf (Jul 23, 2008)

It is far from neat when your brand new setup is completely covered in it I feel your pain brother.


Cleaning up my big tank now, thankfully the tank is still void enough I could pull all my wood and plants out to do a mojor clean.


John


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## grim (Mar 13, 2008)

since this is the main type of algae that i deal with it will take me no more than five minutes to pull all the algae off the moss so to me this is not that big of a hassle just thought some of you might like to see what happens when you don't touch your tank for over month as i said in my twenty nine gallon post i wont be able to get to the mess until x mass ill take a pic before i get rid of it


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## dawntwister (Sep 29, 2007)

I have java fern that get BBA on it occasional. I just take it out and spritz it with flourish excel. Why not try that with the moss. Most it would die off in a few days.


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## goldfishes (Nov 26, 2008)

dawntwister said:


> I have java fern that get BBA on it occasional. I just take it out and spritz it with flourish excel. Why not try that with the moss. Most it would die off in a few days.


I second dawntwister. This should definitely help get rid of the algae.


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## josh1604 (May 7, 2008)

rosy barbs and sae's will eat the moss along with the algae in my experience


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

Geezes, your tank can't be that bad. One month and I expect overgrow plants, not like what you got. Well you must have high maintenance tank. Well on 2nd look looks like the main algae are the things growing on the moss. Everything else looks good? Your water looks kind of grainy not sure it that's your camera or the water.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

*sigh* if only that algae bloom was a money tree...

I haven't really seen any "algae eaters" really do any serious harm to algae of any kind. Sure some species pick at it... but at the end of the day it grows too fast for their occasional browsing palate to do much harm.

Better off waging chemical/mechanical warfare against it with your undamaged hand. After all... working 2 handed in a fishtank and seeing what you are doing from the top of the water is far more difficult than working with 1 hand and looking through the side of the tank.

You might also try reducing the light to 7 hours a day, or removing some of the bulbs if the timer is already at 7 hours.


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

I don't know about you guys but I only clean with one arm. I rather stick one arm into the wet and cold aquarium(winter) than both my arms. You can do a lot with one hand. I don't see any hindrance whatsoever using one arm to do maintenance. It may be more trouble but should not stop maintenance. As for getting rid of algae, i would do a 4-5 day blackout. It seems to cure many types of algae problems don't seem to cause permanent harm to the plant. In fact, the plants are slightly weaken from the blackout that they will grow more during and post blackout to out compete the remaining algae.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

4-5 days of blackout is risky business. If you choose to go this way make sure you have aeration in the tank or your risk losing all your fish. I once did a 3 day blackout and lost all my fish this way.


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## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

I love Java Moss, and I also get this hair algae from time to time. 

What weirds me out is that it is in tanks that have CO2 going. 

But not in my tank where I don't. 

What gives?


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## grim (Mar 13, 2008)

the algae is all gone excel and a peacock eel actually took care of it i will post pics of it later jim the moss came from your tank i new i was gonna have algae on it so honestly i enjoyed watching it grow


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## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

Okay, so now I don't want to dose Excel to accelerate plant growth but only to retard the algae. 

Dosing my 10 gallon for this is easy. 

But how much should I dose my 75 gallon for this? Again, I only want enough to get rid of the algae. I think my plants grow just fine with just the CO2.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Excel doesn't accelerate the growth that much. Just apply it directly to affected spots of algae with a syringe. The algae affected most is BBA which just turns red and dies withing a day or two.


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