# New Type of Black Hair Algea in Tank



## LindaC (Nov 7, 2005)

I have been seeing some bizarre looking algea in my tank lately, it seems to mostly attach itself to pieces of subtrate, with the piece in question being covered with black hair type algea that's long and sticks straight up in the air. It wasn't a problem at first, I could just reach in and pull out the piece of subtrate with the algea attached to it, but yesterday I noticed that it's attached to one of the leaves on my giant Hygro. When I tried to remove it from the leave, it came off fairly easy, not like Black Brush Algea that I have had in the past, that wasn't as long as this stuff is. 

Can anyone tell me what type of algea it is, the cause, and how I would go about removing it from my tank?

Many thanks!
Linda

My tank is 29 gallon with 65 watts of light that runs approximately 8 hours a day and I dose PPS-Pro every morning before the lights go on. I also run pressurized CO2, which I turned up a little bit last night in hopes that this might help the problem, although I was told that when dosing PPS-Pro, you don't need to run CO2 at a high level.


----------



## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

_Can you get a picture?..._ To me it sounds like bba.


----------



## Aen (Jul 24, 2007)

Maybe a long hair algae that turned black?


----------



## LindaC (Nov 7, 2005)

Trenac, I will try to get a photo but my camera hasn't been working well lately. It is like BBA only it's longer then any I've had in the past and it pulls off a little bit easier. It doesn't come off completely though. When I've had BBA in the past, especially on my sags, I couldn't remove any of it, that's what makes me think this is a different type. Another thought is, I've recently purchased a new house so the water here is different then it was at my old place, I'm wondering if that might have something to do with the algae appearing to be different and that's it's really BBA.

It's not that long, it's about a third of an inch, if that, on some of the subtrate pieces. The BBA I had in the past, wasn't long at all, it would just cover some of the leaf tips but not stick out. I've got to get a new camera.


----------



## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

BBA does get pretty long on flat surfaces, probably up to a half inch or so. See the photo in this website: http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/


----------



## LindaC (Nov 7, 2005)

That's it in the photo Hoppy, the Brush Algae, only it's not green, it's black and looks just like the photo. I find little clumps on my coconut hut, pieces of my subtrate and once in a while on the tips of a val or leaves of a plant, more so on the subtrate and hut though. I'm at a loss as to why I have it, I am currently dosing PPS-Pro, plants are growing at an amazing rate, my CO2 seems to be at a decent rate. I also have a lot of green spot algae on my glass that I cannot seem to get rid of and I thought would go away once PPS-Pro was dosed on a regular basis. If my plants weren't growing so well I would be a lot more worried but I do want to get rid of both algaes.


----------



## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I know Edward doesn't agree that lots of CO2 is desirable, but BBA does seem to start more often when you don't have much CO2 than when you do. If you get a drop checker and run it with 2-4 dKH distilled water in it, you will know how much CO2 is in the water so you can decide for yourself whether you want more or less. I am now using 15 ppm with the CO2 going 24 hours a day - no algae problems after 2 weeks, and I used to use 30 ppm but with it shut off at night. 2 dKH water will be green in the drop checker at 15 ppm ( approx. ) of CO2 and 4 dKH will be green at 30 ppm.


----------



## LindaC (Nov 7, 2005)

I did have a drop check in my tank but lost it when I moved to the new house I recently purchased in July. I have been looking everywhere for it, I know I packed it but yet I still can't seem to find it. I supposed I'm going to have bite the bullet and purchase another one, after all I do have a large bottle of the KH Regency that I purchased around the same time. 

Hoppy, do you think that running your CO2 24/7 is part of the reason why you have no algea? I hate to run mine all the time, it runs out too fast as it is but if that's a huge contributer to the no algea factor, I'm willing to do so. 

I do find that I'm doing a lot less water changes, I think I've done one 50% water change since July and that's when I returned from vacation. The rest of the time I'm either doing a 10% water change or just replacing water that's evaporated. I do like the ease of the PPS-Pro and thing that it would be truely awesome if the green spot algea and the black brush algea would disapear.


----------



## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

It looks like algae is more likely to start up if the amount of CO2 in the water is not kept constant during the lights on period, day after day. You can do this by starting the CO2 flow about an hour before the lights come on, if your method of diffusing CO2 into the water works well. And, if you are using near the maximum amount of CO2 that the fish can tolerate, you need to shut off the CO2 at night to give the fish a break. I decided to try 15 ppm of CO2, but kept going continuously, to see if the lower amount would be as effective as twice that amount, but running constantly so the amount in the water fluctuates a lot less. After about 23 days of this I do have a little BBA here and there, so I am about ready to decide that I need more than 15 ppm, and may increase it to 20-25 ppm, but shut it off at night.

CO2 is very cheap to buy. I pay about $15 for 5 pounds, which lasts 6 to 12 months, so I don't mind wasting some. In fact, when I find I am using too much CO2, and it runs out too fast, I know I have leaks to fix.

Here is a source of very cheap, but good quality drop checkers: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/sale-trade/38553-fs-co2-drop-checkers.html


----------

