# Help IDing Algae - What to do?



## mattmathis (Dec 13, 2008)

Can someone please tell me which algae this is and what to do about it?

I got some excel the other day but havn't used it yet because I heard it was bad for corys, anyone had experience with excel/corys?

The first pic is a plastic plant that has been in the tank for 3 or 4 months, and the second is a hygro that has only been in there a couple of weeks. My wisteria has the algae too and once the algae starts growing on the leaves the leaves die.

Tank:
75 Gallon
1.4 WPG
PH 7.2
KH 3
Nitrate 40
1 dose of flourish comp. so far


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

You have high nitrates for a tank with 1.4 wpg. If you have plastic plants and moderately planted that may be your problem. Take the plastic plant out and bleach it. 

Excel will not hurt corys. I use it from time to time and they are fine. I've spot treated at 2Xs dose and they are fine.

Flourish comprehensive is your macros right? What about traces? You might only need plant tabs with such low light. I think you are dosing too much for your light.


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## mattmathis (Dec 13, 2008)

I have only dosed 1 time and that was yesterday with regular flourish that I just finally got in the mail. The nitrates were there before dosing anything. They are from the fish.

The plants plastic and real had the algae before I dosed anything.....


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

How long have you had the tank up? How heavily planted are you? Can you post a full tank shot so we can see how many plants? Are your other plants growing with so little light? Are these wpg from a T5? 

Before I know the answers to these I would guess that all the ferts, tabs and all are just too much for the plants to use with such low light... That's my best guess.


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## mattmathis (Dec 13, 2008)

When these photos were taken I had *NOT *dosed anything. And I don't have any "tabs".

The WPG is from 1 40 watt T-10 and 2 32 watt t-8's.

After all I have read and everyone telling me to start dosing dry ferts. ..

Are you telling me I shouldn't dose?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I think what Tex_Gal means is we need to know more information about your tank setup and water before we can give you good advice. 

Adding more fertilizers to the tank right now might make the problem worse without knowing what is in the water already.

With the current level of information I can comment on two things I see so far. The first is that 40ppm nitrate is a bit on the high side if it all comes from fish waste. A few large water changes might be in order before adding any more fertilizers to the tank. Aim for 10-15 ppm nitrate.

The second thing I can comment on without additional information is that there seems to be a few different kinds of algae on the plastic plant in the first picture. I can make out what looks to be black beard algae on the far right side. This algae comes in many forms, but the one you have originates from a point and has many spiky strands that point outwards. Something like a sea urchin. This will be killed by direct application of Flourish Excel. Try take a syringe and squirt it directly on the algae. Within 48 hours it should go bright red and then grey after that, ultimately rotting away withing a week or so. Add 2 times the recommended initial dose, and there after add 2 or 3 times the daily dose every second day to the tank until the black beard algae is gone (just double or triple the dosage directions on the label).

Flourish excel is a carbon dioxide substitute so it will be safe to add it to your water without risking further algae growth.


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