# Most horrific algae contest - Congratulations Zapins!



## BryceM

A few months ago, someone started an informal contest about finding the tank in the worst need of a trim. It got me thinking.......

I've managed some impressive-looking algae from time to time and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. 

So break out the cameras and show everyone what a real alage attack looks like. Just promise me you won't go inducing one. I couldn't handle the guilt.

If it makes it any more interesting, I'll volunteer a nice plant assortment with free shipping to the winner.


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## dukydaf

Should we post the pics here? Any time limit or number of pictures?

Anyway here's mine : A snail was here


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## BryceM

Yes, you can either post stuff here or just provide a link.

Nice start dukydaf!


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## Faruk Gençöz

Blue-green:


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## trenac

This is a older pic of a thread & greenspot algae outbreak I had in a divided tank...


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## Chris S

This is BGA in a non-CO2, 4wpg, low circulation, nutrient defficient.


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## jeff63851

Blah...I hate to think of the worst algae invasion I ever had. The whole tank was covered with brown algae, BBA, and others I can't remember. It was so bad that I didn't want photograph it (so I would never be reminded of it). 

Anyways, good luck with the contest!


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## Chris S

Frank Gencoz! Yours is absolutely Horrible!


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## Faruk Gençöz

Yours is also horrible. Thanks. I took the shot in a period while I was combating. I used PMDD formula and the algae disappeared in one or two month and it did not come back.


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## Chris S

Trenac a Dukydaf! You algae attacks are also making me cringe ! haha!


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## erijnal

HAHAHAHHAHAHAH 

i don't know why but this thread is really funny


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## Zapins

My algae from a while ago... came back after vacation and


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## Sherri W

Thanks for starting the thread! Suddenly, my current (moderate) outbreak doesn't seem so bad.


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## Craig Tarvin

Faruk Gençöz said:


> Yours is also horrible. Thanks.


haha


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## Faruk Gençöz

erijnal said:


> HAHAHAHHAHAHAH


James,
Don't laugh at our algae. They are the abstract way of aquascaping in themselves. If you are laughing at us then it is OK.


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## BryceM

WOW!!!!!

I'm already impressed.

More!! More!!!


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## dogdoc

Here's what I'm battling right now.


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## Chris S

Dog doc that is what happened to my cryps also


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## John P.

Wow, and here I get bummed if I get a little greenspot on the glass after 2 weeks!


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## BryceM

OK, the deadline for entry is June 14th. I'll then add a poll to this thread so people can vote on the most impressive photo. I'll be taking my tank down on June 18th for our move across the country, so a big bunch of trimmings will go out sometime around then. If you live outside of the US, I'll provide something of random value instead.


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## neonfish3

Hows this one?
How about worst algae *and* Butt Ugly Tank Contest?
This was spose to be my inexpensive aquarium entry. So far I've spent $0.00. Tank I found in the garbage, Substrate is crushed red granite and gravel I got for free from a friendly Garden center employee, and lit from the sun.
It has hair grass I found at a local pond, with fish eggs attached that hatched. Don't know what the fish are. The egg crate I also found in the garbage.
Anyway, it's an experiment gone wrong! The hair grass is still alive under the algae, and if you look you can see the fish fry in there.








My next goal with this tank is to turn it around to look good. "Ya Right"


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## heidisue

This thread is hilarious AND I had no idea algae could look this disgusting. I was screaming while scrolling. Faruk's looks like Swamp Thing, and that's a huge compliment - he was always my favorite comic book hero. 

Great idea, GB. Wish I could steal some of your plants but I'm an algae virgin. So far.

p.s. if the winner is outside the U.S. the prize should be the unveiling of how you got that name. No doubt it's a story as gross as all this green slime


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## Chris S

Zapins said:


> My algae from a while ago... came back after vacation and


 Yours is an interesting shot if 2 diff species of algae huh?


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## Faruk Gençöz

It seems both thread and red algae live in peace. There seems to be no allelopathy between them.



Chris S said:


> Yours is an interesting shot if 2 diff species of algae huh?


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## Zapins

Actually i think there are 3 species in that photo, though i may be wrong. The short stubby dark green stuff along the edges is the red, and the short fuzzy stuff on top is fuzz algae, then the longer strands are thread. There was also some blue green algae elsewhere in the tank at the time, i have sooo many other horrific pics of the tank during this time, it was really kinda cool to see the algae all over everything, it almost looks uniform in the way the short/long algae grows on the different parts of the leaves. :-D

Faruk  allelopathy o

Thought i would add some other pics from the same episode... They are almost artistic in a sick way


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## Chris S

eww! that is what the places i go fishing in look like every spring before plants kick in.


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## Faruk Gençöz

Zapins said:


> Actually i think there are 3 species in that photo


Hımmm. This gives an idea about the theme of the next algae contest: At most, how many different algae species can you have in one photo?

In other words who is the best algae collectoritis?


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## Zapins

Haha, i agree with that  seems like a great idea. Though i have seen some people that grow algae like we grow plants and scape with it. Sooo they might have the last laugh on this "show us your bad times'' algae contest


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## Faruk Gençöz

Have you ever seen an Amano tank which is full of algae? Or some other gurus' algae tanks?


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## Chris S

Faruk I don't think gurus get algae.


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## Zapins

Nah gurus do get algae, they just hide it better then us 

What i meant with my post, was that some people use algae instead of plants to scape. So they might automatically win this sort of competition if we held one.


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## Chris S

This a tank of my friend's son. Another buddy down the street wishes he could grow "NICE" algae growth like this tank. I used to think algae was cool cause fish could eat it and stuff, however, now with a mostly plant tank and ferts algae is dreaded to me . Funny how things can turn around like that.


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## Dewmazz

Chris, do you know what kind of algae that is? It looks similar to my problem


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## RoseHawke

Faruk Gençöz said:


> Have you ever seen an Amano tank which is full of algae? Or some other gurus' algae tanks?


Not allowed . I should've taken a pic of my tank a couple of days ago before I pulled and/or severely pruned about half the plants in it. Although it was nowhere near this bad! Makes me feel better at least.


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## Faruk Gençöz

Perfectionism is sometimes useful but many times irrational and makes people dysfunctional. Algae is the natural part of aquatic ecology. Sometimes it dominates the tank or the aquatic environment. Taking the shots of these moments and organize a contest for these photos is a very creative way of breaking down the perfectionism.

Send a horrific photo and kill your perfectionism


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## Chris S

Dewmazz said:


> Chris, do you know what kind of algae that is? It looks similar to my problem


 Only a guess that it is thread algae. that small 10 gallon has alot of detritus in it cause my friends 14 year old son does not enjoy working on it too much. no lighting schedule. no ferts,incandescent lights, etc...


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## pacolopezmujica

*This was my green floor!*

Hi just to share my green velvet rug.
We don't give up! DON'T LOOSE FAITH!
Green, green, green AFTER ALL... green is beautiful
paco


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## 247Plants

wow paco.....in the right instance that might be a very nice algae to scape with.....


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## heidisue

I agree that Paco's algae is so vibrant it's pretty. Something about the sickliness of most algaes is what throws me off but this looks like accents on everything except the leaves.


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## BryceM

Only 4 more days.................. Good work so far. I know there are a few more entries "out there".


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## CrayfishAssociation

Does this one count as scaping lol it is practically landscaping at this rate...

While we are there - I cant remember the name of this stuff, any ideas?


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## GekkoGeck0

pacolopezmujica said:


> Green, green, green AFTER ALL... green is beautiful


Green, yes. Your green looks an awful lot better than that blue-green algae. I'd take your green over the slimeball BGA.


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## Faruk Gençöz

I have entered this contest in to our Aquapalooza, contest section.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/local_links.php?catid=11


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## wiste

Here is mine: Glass algae art


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## Faruk Gençöz

By now we have 15 horrific entries. If you haven't post your horrific pic yet, please be quick to post it.



guaiac_boy said:


> OK, the deadline for entry is June 14th. I'll then add a poll to this thread so people can vote on the most impressive photo.


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## frozenoak

This is my tank shortly after setup. You can see that I tried the willow branch method to reduce the algae. Unfortanatly I dont have any pics of the mess that appeared after the green watter left.

dale


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## Faruk Gençöz

frozenoak said:


> Unfortanatly I dont have any pics of the mess that appeared after the green watter left.


This is a terrific pic Dale. It is more than enough.


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## BryceM

The contest is now closed for entries. After a careful review of the photos, I've determined that some of you have reached a level that I can only hope to achieve someday. 

The original plan was to add a poll to this thread to tally votes for a winner. Since the software limits the maximum number of choices for a poll to 10, there are too many entries for this to work. Hmmmm. I think what I'll do is copy these a section in the photo album to allow for more formal voting, but I won't be able to do it for a day or two. Please stay tuned.............


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## czado

I missed this thread and the contest, but here's one for the algae fans.










Good luck to everyone!


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## BryceM

So, since there were only 10 tanks submitted before the deadline, a poll is now open for voting!

I intend no offense at all to Crayfish for his entry or to czado for his. I like Crayfish's photo, but it isn't of an aquarium after all. Czado has some very impressive GW, but didn't make it before the deadline. If I've missed anyone, please let me know.

The poll will close in 10 days, during which time I'll be away from my computer due to a move across the country. The person with the most votes will then be coronated as the king or queen of slime and receive a prize worthy of their disgusting tank.


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## BryceM

Bump, please vote


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## Faruk Gençöz

Congratulations Zapin. The most horrific picture is yours.:scared:


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## JERP

Here's an pic from a tank I had many years ago. It was too tall for me to clean, so I didn't. I also accidently left the light on 24hrs/day for two weeks. I made an avatar from it somewhere.

Too bad i missed the deadline.


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## Zapins

Sweet! Glad I could show off the nasty algae I had 

Its kind of funny to think I won a prize, especially since prizes are given for good performances or beautiful things...

I like JERP's algae O.O pretty horrific.


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## Faruk Gençöz

It would be a good idea to write an article about this interesting contest. We can publish the article in Aquarium World Journal (Turkish). What we need are higher resolution files of the pics you posted (2 mega bytes or higher), short descriptions of how the algae appeared in the tank, how you could turn the tank to normal conditions AND the permissions from Art, guaiac_boy and the contestants who are able to send higher resolution pics. What the participants can get is a copy of the magazine. 

What would you all say?


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## Zapins

Sure, I am in


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## Faruk Gençöz

Zapins and all the other participants;

Please send your descriptions about how the algae appeared in the tank and how you could/not manage it, here. You can send the high resolution files to my e-mail address ([email protected]). If you have more than one pic, send them one by one. I'll translate and edit the materials and submit to the magazine.


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## BryceM

Congratulations Zapins!!!!

Nice idea on the article Faruk. Sounds good to me. Zapins will be receiving a PM from me in the near future so that we can decide on a good prize. I'll put together a plant package for him.

JERP, too bad you didn't enter your shot earlier. It would have done quite well.


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## erijnal

Dude JERP........ you made my day! Something about horribly algae-infested aquariums makes me laugh really hard. I agree, too bad you missed the deadline, you would have given everyone a run for their money


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## John N.

*YUCK! But Very Cool!*

All Looks HORRIBLE!  Congrats to Zapins for having one of the worsts!

If you guys are emailing Faruk about how to solve your algae issues, you could also add your algae solutions to your specific algae case in the algae finder to help others too.

Also, thanks for hosting the contest guaiac_boy. We could use some of these algae photos to fill in the missing photos in APC's Algae Finder. I tried, but I couldn't figure out how to add a photo to the algae entries. I think there could be an error. Maybe you'll have better luck than I.

-John N.


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## Faruk Gençöz

John N. said:


> If you guys are emailing Faruk about how to solve your algae issues, you could also add your algae solutions to your specific algae case in the algae finder to help others too.


John, 
I strongly agree with your point and requested the participants to post their solutions here, not to my e-mail address.


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## Chris S

Chris S said:


> This is BGA in a non-CO2, 4wpg, low circulation, nutrient defficient.


 This algae appeared in a 30 gallon super flat 6 inch tall tank. Nitrate and CO2 where later increased and it became "more" (but not totally) under control. Now adding increased intensity of light by lowering the open top 120 Watt hood to bring it closer to the water and increasing partial water changes. BGA has been trouble for this tank since early start-up. Toughest algae to get rid of that i have experienced so far.

This algae gained a foothold at 1st before I added DIY CO2 to this tank.


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## Faruk Gençöz

That's it Chris, thanks. Waiting for your bigger pictures at my e-mail address.


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## Chris S

Faruk Gençöz said:


> That's it Chris, thanks. Waiting for your bigger pictures at my e-mail address.


 Sent bigger pic to that adress you gave us. Good idear haha!


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## JERP

Faruk,
The pic I linked is all I have. I no longer have the tank and the pic was taken about five years ago.. To get rid of the algae, I went with the nuclear option. I broke down the tank and got rid of it. My problem was that the tank was 30" tall. It was just too tall for me to work on, so I didn't. That didn't work out too well when I tried hooking up CO2 and 220W of CF lighting. I already had algae problems, but my tank turned into what you see in the picture when I accidentally left the light on for 24 hours a day for almost a week.

I was really disappointed that I had to break down the tank because I love tall tanks. The tank looked really nice when I had a bit less light, but I just didn't enjoy working on it. I now have a 50 gallon tall tank and I'm much happier. A 50T has the same footprint as a forty gallon but is taller, 48"x16"x24. The real lesson here is to make sure you have a tank setup that you are both able and willing to maintain.


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