# Beautiful algae??



## AndyT. (Jun 28, 2006)

I think I have Hurriken's beautiful algae, Cladophora, growing in my aquarium. It started on some driftwood and has migrated to the substrate. Interestingly, it is not growing anywhere close to the driftwood, rather it found bare spots on the substrate which used to house _ Eleocharis acicularis_ before hair algae killed it. Here are some photos:





I want to get rid of it on my substrate; I really don't like it there. But do I have to get rid of it on my driftwood? It actually looks kinda cool there and I hate to go bleach it. If I leave it, am I inviting it to smother all of my plants?

It seems like this is a very slow growing algae on the driftwood, but it sure appeared rapidly on the substrate.


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## ShortFin (Jan 13, 2006)

No algae is beautiful in my eyes.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Uh, is that clado??


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Does it look like these up-close?


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## AndyT. (Jun 28, 2006)

Hi epicfish,

In a word, no. I'm assuming your photos were of clado? I looked at the ones in Hurriken's thread and thought mine were similar but did not research further. Here are some better photos which illustrate the differences:







This last is a clickable thumbnail to a fullsize version of the image above.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

What's the consistency of it? When you pick it up, is it kinda thick and abrasive? Someone here affectionately described it as the consistency of a brillo pad.

In your larger picture, near the top middle and top right corners, you can see the branching of the algae...looks like haystack clado to me...but again, what's the consistency of the algae 'threads'?


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## AndyT. (Jun 28, 2006)

The ends of it are softer than the main body mass. The brillo description would fit that main mass.


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## oblongshrimp (Aug 8, 2006)

I have had that crap also....I dont know what is but it started growing on all my plants. Some of the stuff is got pretty thick but it grow almost like hair or thread algae just that grey color and a LOT thicker strands.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

The ends are probably dying. It's cladophora algae. Beast of a problem.

Get Amano shrimp...I got a bunch specifically for my clado problem and they eat away at it. Just make sure you pick out the larger clumps all the time, or it'll just come back.


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## AndyT. (Jun 28, 2006)

Thanks epicfish. I picked up a bunch of Amano from Freshwaterinverts.com and between them and manual harvesting, it is starting to go away.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Sounds good. Let us know how it goes and whether it disappears completely or not. =)


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