# from your expirience - what is the worse algae?



## freshreef (May 14, 2004)

i find the thread algae (green long threads)as the worse algae ever. when it apears its very difficult to battle it.
the easiest on, in my opinion, is the bga - a few days of full darkness and a bit more KNO3 and CO2 and voila - no ciano


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

Staghorn ...perhaps cause it is so damn ugly LOL


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Oedogonium. It spreads rapidly and covers leaves with a dense coating of 1/4 to 1/2 inch hairs (around .5 to 1.5 cm.). The hairs collect debris, and the plants can be killed because so little light reaches the leaves. The hairs are too tough for ramshorn snails or most fish to eat, and blackouts do not work. I once tried a 6 month blackout, and the Oedogonium was all still alive when the light was returned, and started growing immediately. 

Cladophora is a close second. It is bushy, it sticks to the gravel, and, if not pulled out weekly, can cover the plants and stop their growth, probably mostly due to nutrient depletion. It also smells bad. It is tolerant of low light. To kill it with a blackout, you would probably have to have it in total darkness for a year or two.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

BBA (Oedogonium). Comes when it pleases, goes when it pleases. Impossible to remove from leaves unless you cut the leaf. 

Cladophora is the next worst, yes.

BGA or Green Water are the best algae, haha

--Nikolay


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Brush algae in the Mbuna tank.


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

I think I may be the only one but I feel green spot is my worst enemy, specially the darker/harder type. In the past the classic BBA and thread algae gave me lots of headaches but I no longer have problems beating those, green spot on the other hand is always there, not a big problem but it's the one algae I haven't found a clear solution for. It's certainly not a problematic algae but the one I'm left with 

Giancarlo


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

Giancarlo, I have your solution.

PO4 and more of it along with good CO2.
See Carlos's Green spot issue with high light+ Anubias.

I hated that algae but seldom had it in my tanks.
When I did not dose PO4 later, it appeared.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## JLudwig (Feb 16, 2004)

In shrimpless tanks that catch BBA I find a little algaefix does the trick, only plant its ever knocked out is stargrass. One application, goes away for about a year, usually comes back in fall at least the last 3 years it has. One more application, away it goes for another year.... *shrug*

Jeff


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

I'm with you Mor b


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

plantbrain said:


> Giancarlo, I have your solution.
> 
> PO4 and more of it along with good CO2.
> See Carlos's Green spot issue with high light+ Anubias.
> ...


You've told me this before but I'm already dosing 2ppm each week and CO2 levels are 30ppm. I guess I can try dosing 2ppm twice a week, see if that helps.

Thanks
Giancarlo


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## aquaverde (Feb 9, 2004)

Thread, fuzz, staghorn, brown and BBA came and went (thread still comes and goes occasionally), never had green water or BGA, hair made me lose mine. Green spot gives a fit from time to time, dust on the glass continues to be a maintentance item every few weeks.

I'd really like to see a resource that identified algae better than what I've been able to find so far.


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## ShaneSmith (Feb 15, 2004)

BBA is a pain if you cannot get SAE's. It is the only algae i have in my 50... and i think it grows because of rotting leaves floating around that get stuck in the filter.


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## vancat (Nov 5, 2004)

I vote BBA. When my SAE went into retirement, it invaded even the gravel. Now I have young SAEs working on it for me.

Shee-ut, I've got to go in there & pick out individual pieces of bearded substrate (gravel + fluorite). And it's almost impossible to scrape it off round things, like filter tubes, heaters & CO2 tubing.

With God as my witness, I'll never go without SAEs again.


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

vancat said:


> I vote BBA. When my SAE went into retirement, it invaded even the gravel. Now I have young SAEs working on it for me.
> 
> Shee-ut, I've got to go in there & pick out individual pieces of bearded substrate (gravel + fluorite). And it's almost impossible to scrape it off round things, like filter tubes, heaters & CO2 tubing.
> 
> With God as my witness, I'll never go without SAEs again.


Sounds like you need a big cleanup.... time to get all those things out of the tank and into a bucket of H2O2. It works quite well on items that are hard to scrape, specially items that can be removed from the tank.

Giancarlo


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## vancat (Nov 5, 2004)

D-uh...excuse my ignorance, but you mean peroxide, right? I have always been leery of using bleach, so peroxide sounds good to me.
thanks for the tip!


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

Yep, peroxide. It's a very good cleaner/oxydizer and you don't need to worry about carefully rinsing the equipment after soaking it. If it's equipment in a bucket then you can go 50:50 water:H2O2, that should do the trick. In tank it's a different story though, I don't suggest more than 1ml per gallon:

http://www.gpodio.com/h2o2.asp (images are missing, I'm still recovering those)

Giancarlo


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## vancat (Nov 5, 2004)

Thanks Giancarlo,
I will attempt an out-of-tank once the holiday hoopla fades......
penny


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## darkswan (Nov 13, 2004)

Any guess about my response?!? The bastXXX BBA of course!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: 


Giancarlo: mi spiegherai in separata sede come fai a non averne più da anni!
P.S. Aspettavo una tua risposta alla mail che ti ho mandato qualche settimana fa...


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