# Never seen that before



## vlada (Jun 21, 2004)

A week ago I saw this kind of "gray algae" in my tank. It's quite decorative, at first I thought that these are roots of althernatea but they are not. Now I have seen it on several other places in the tank - it's spreading, however it doesn't seem it might be a problem to destroy it mechanicaly. I am also afraid it is some kind of parazite which is going to kill other plants - seems that it likes echinodurus also. Any description/information related to this will be helpful.










Vlada

The tank is a new setup (month old), 112l, CO2 produced by yast, I have measured concentration of 22mg/l. Almost daily fertilization with Serra Florena, Lighting: fluorescent tubes, 2x25W. Never changed water since setup. Filtering system: external Fluval 404 (manufacturer claims it is 1300l/hour, I think it is much less)


----------



## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

_Compsopogon_, it's a red alga. Common name is Staghorn.
Induced by rearranging the tank a lot, NH4, too many fish/over feeding etcm and organic build up(probably from no water changes).

Nothing eats it and it'll hang on for quite a while.Remove all you can asap and do a water change and keep things in good shape.

If you use CO2, you will need to do regular water changes.
This will allow you to add KNO3, KH2PO4, and more traces.

Your plants will grow and look dramatically better if you do this.

The water change prevents anything from building up and the regular dosing prevents anything from running out.

No water changes works well for non CO2 enriched tank.

A routine would be for your tank: change 50-70 liters a week. 
Add 1/4 treaspoon of KNO3 2-3x a week
Add a rice grain's worth of KH2PO4 or two drops of fleet enema the same time and frequency as the KNO3.

Add 5mls of Sera trace(this is a good brand seldom used in the USA, cost a lot here) 2-3x a week

Keep CO2 at 20-30ppm all the time when the lights are on.

That will dramatically help your tank.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


----------



## vlada (Jun 21, 2004)

Thanks a lot, I am going to follow your advice, however the water changes will be quite painfull for me (Vlada is a lazy boy ) because I have the aquarium at the office which is ~100m from the closest water source (I initialy thought that I will reduce the water changes because of the heavy external filtering)

Vlada



plantbrain said:


> _Compsopogon_, it's a red alga. Common name is Staghorn.
> Induced by rearranging the tank a lot, NH4, too many fish/over feeding etcm and organic build up(probably from no water changes).
> 
> Nothing eats it and it'll hang on for quite a while.Remove all you can asap and do a water change and keep things in good shape.
> ...


----------



## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Yes, staghorn... Here's my experience:

First, mechanically remove the algae as good as you can. A toothbrush works well.

Then reduce your N to undetectable levels - using a Nitrate absorbing chemicals, sponges, or resins is not a bad idea. Keep the N at 0 for a few days and the algae will disappear very quickly.

...But if you have trouble with the water changes then it will be a hard battle.

--Nikolay


----------

