# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Hair algae/Cladophora...



## tsunami06 (Feb 6, 2003)

Hey everyone,

My tank has been going through
all sorts of ups downs this past month.
The person who took care of my tank during
vacation forgot to dose the Fe/traces... ouch.
Then, when I came back, my CO2 reactor
broke -- no good CO2 levels for a week.
Things went well for a few days after that,
then a tetra got ich, and it spread
like wildfire through the tetras and cichlids.
Treated the tank for nearly two weeks,
losing none of the fish that had visible
ich spots but killing the seemingly
healthy ottos on day one and four out of
six amano shrimp. Plant growth was fine
for the first week, before declining and distorting until it came to a halt.
Flushed out all the ich treatment, and now
I have some sort of dark, green, filamentous
algae tangling itself in my marsilea foreground
and my christmas moss. Grows in clumps, and
it has a really tight grip on the gravel/moss.
I think it is Cladophora, although I have
never had this kind of algae or seen it before.
I know the cause must be the incredibly
unstable conditions in my tank... but what
would be the solution? Is the moss
permanently infected?
Currently, I'm just mechanically
removing it and keeping nutrients/CO2 stable. I don't see my two amano shrimp ever picking at it. 

Carlos


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## tsunami06 (Feb 6, 2003)

Hey everyone,

My tank has been going through
all sorts of ups downs this past month.
The person who took care of my tank during
vacation forgot to dose the Fe/traces... ouch.
Then, when I came back, my CO2 reactor
broke -- no good CO2 levels for a week.
Things went well for a few days after that,
then a tetra got ich, and it spread
like wildfire through the tetras and cichlids.
Treated the tank for nearly two weeks,
losing none of the fish that had visible
ich spots but killing the seemingly
healthy ottos on day one and four out of
six amano shrimp. Plant growth was fine
for the first week, before declining and distorting until it came to a halt.
Flushed out all the ich treatment, and now
I have some sort of dark, green, filamentous
algae tangling itself in my marsilea foreground
and my christmas moss. Grows in clumps, and
it has a really tight grip on the gravel/moss.
I think it is Cladophora, although I have
never had this kind of algae or seen it before.
I know the cause must be the incredibly
unstable conditions in my tank... but what
would be the solution? Is the moss
permanently infected?
Currently, I'm just mechanically
removing it and keeping nutrients/CO2 stable. I don't see my two amano shrimp ever picking at it. 

Carlos


----------

