# Cladophora Algae



## NursePlaty

Oh my god. I hate cladophora algae. I am removing a patch of my hairgrass each time I am manually removing this stuff... I may switch to a different foreground like Staurogyne Porto just because of this stuff........ It is the ONLY algae im battling in my tank.


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## Zapins

Hydrogen peroxide kills it. Spot treat the clado with a syringe and it should start to bubble vigorously. Then it dies over the next few days.


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## emersed

I've used both HP and excel and both work wonders, like Zapins said just spot treat and it'll go away.


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## NursePlaty

Do I have to dilute the HP with water or 100% HP. Also does it hurt the plants and livestock? Because I will be spraying it directly into the hairgrass.


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## Zapins

The peroxide is already diluted to 3-4% in the bottle that you buy from the pharmacy. Getting higher % peroxide is quite hard. So, don't dilute it, just dose straight out of the bottle. 

It won't hurt the plants. Don't dose more then 3 mL per 10 gallons of tank water though because it can hurt animals if it gets too concentrated, particularly shrimp. So for a 10g tank don't add more then 30 mL for 1 day. If you dose below 3 mL/10g you shouldn't hurt your fauna.


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## MKD

will HP hurt small fish and bio bed?


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## Zapins

Zapins said:


> Don't dose more then 3 mL per 10 gallons of tank water though because it can hurt animals if it gets too concentrated, particularly shrimp. So for a 10g tank don't add more then 30 mL for 1 day. *If you dose below 3 mL/10g you shouldn't hurt your fauna*.


This applies for small fish and the bio bed too.


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## emersed

It oxidizes quickly too, providing oxygen in the water column, I think.


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## ObiQuiet

Speculation: Marimo balls (an easily controlled variant of clado) should consume the same nutrients as the bad clado, limiting though not eliminating its growth. [smilie=q:


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## Zapins

Clado isn't controlled by nutrient management. It must be physically or chemically removed unfortunately.


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## NursePlaty

Thanks for all the replies. I dosed a 15ml total of HP in my 55g tank with a syringe directly into the clado. It is bubbling a lot. Do I dose the same amount the next day? Or do I just wait?


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## emersed

I don't remember the dosage per gallon rate, but you're supposed to turn off the filter, spot treat. Just wait to make sure you don't overdose.


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## NursePlaty

emersed said:


> I don't remember the dosage per gallon rate, but you're supposed to turn off the filter, spot treat. Just wait to make sure you don't overdose.


Yea, I did that to make sure the current doesnt blow it all way during spraying. Just curious if I should redose agian the same amount the next day because I read H2O2 is very soluble in water. Also because I have a 55g tank and the Clado is all over my hairgrass foreground. 15ml a day doesnt allow me to treat a large area.


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## NursePlaty

The Clado doesnt seem to be dieing. It is the same color as it always been. Seems to me it has no effect. This is after a 2nd treatment.


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## EdCal

NursePlaty said:


> The Clado doesnt seem to be dieing. It is the same color as it always been. Seems to me it has no effect. This is after a 2nd treatment.


curious on hows your battle with Clado going


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## sub-80

I heard that h2o2 does work but clado is cancer, it reappears if a strand still exists. So should i tear my aquarium down and start with new plants or just tear everything and dip the plants in h2o2 dilute and reuse them or use h2o2? Is it really that successful?


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## niko

Cladophora is the worst algae by far. Worst than BBA.

To get rid of Cladophora you need to maintain the tank in a pristine shape for a long time. Plants growing well, nothing weird happening all of a sudden. If those pictures show your plants than it is obvious that they do not grow well. Something is way off actually.

The problem with Cladophora is that it likes very much exactly what the plants like. Supply all nutrients, use good light, change water often and Cladophora will be as happy as the plants.

One thing that stops Cladophora from growing is water void of nutrients. But that stops the plant growth too. Even if your tank is heavily stocked with fish you can do enough frequent and small water changes to where you stop the Cladophora from growing. But as soon as there is something to eat in the water again Cladophora will outcompete the plants before they grow larger and stronger. 

The only practical way to combat Cladophora is to supply food for the plants but not for the Clado. How do you do that? Rich substrate, good light for 1-3 hours in the middle of the day, and very lean water column except for a tiny addition of nutrients daily (so they get consumed in a day). Not all plants will like such an environment. What I described to you is the very basics of what Takashi Amano's ADA does in every single tank. Note that the tanks are pristinely clean but ADA does not use many of the plants that we try to grow. 

In the USA many people use EI and claim it works. Simply put it supplies everything that the plants need by adding fertilizers to the water. It does work except it does not provide an answer to issues like Cladophora. A bunch of food floating in the water is a daily risk no matter how we look at it. Long story short - before you tear down your tank try to follow EI. That's the easiest, no-brainer advice before you tear the tank down but it is a shot in the dark. There is enough info on the forums how to start doing EI. Keep in mind that different people use the term "EI" for different things and there is no clarity of who does what. Follow the original articles. They suggest starting off by dumping a good amount of all fertilizers in your tank at once. If dumping a bunch of fertilizers in your tank seems crazy don't analize it - try it anyway. Then see if you agree with ADA or not. Hopefully you won't and your tank will turn into a plant-only environment. I personally do not believe it will work but why not try it?

If you decide to follow EI please note that it does not say anything about the tank as a system (biofiltration, tank aging, water flow and so on). It assumes you got all the details right. What is "right" is a wild guess. Keep that in mind.


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## sub-80

First am not sure what am doing wrong with the plants. The background plants seem to be fine and grow fast. I have wisteria, cabomba and another which I dont know its name. It is just the foreground plants that seem to grow at a snail pace.

I have 125 Liter (33 us gal) tank, which is 3/4 planted used to be all planted but removed the carpet plants that was infected. 3x 39W High Output T5 @6500k and 1x 39W High Output T5 @8000k, on from 10 am to 6pm. Co2 1bps from 9 am to 5pm (Drop checker purplish green).

For fertilizing, I use liquid fertilizers: Seachem Flourish, Easy-Life Ferro (Fe), Easy-Life Nitro (NO3) and Easy-Life Kalium-Pottasium (K). I used the "yet another nutrient calculator" (http://calc.petalphile.com/) for weekly dosage, which has a premixed category. That resulting dosage 
Seachem Flourish: 2.5ml
Fe: 3ml
K:11ml
no3: 12ml

Can you indicate what am doing wrong??

I noticed that the clado grew faster with fertilizer so I really think its a bad idea to put extra fertilizer.

I do not know what EL is or what it stands for.

Please help me, if you can figure why my foreground plants are not growing well.


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