# Algae and plants....HELP!!!!



## Guest (Nov 18, 2007)

Okay, so, ever since I set my 10 gallon up, I've had HORRIBLE problems with brown algae. I'll scrub the tank, and it's back within days. NOTHING will kill this stuff. It's on the rocks, it's on the plants, it's on the glass, and not even my ottos will eat all of it, and trust me, there's enough of it. And now, what's worse, now all my fish have ich and guess what else has decided to grow on all my plants and glass.....HAIR ALGAE AND BEARD ALGAE I think I have all the algaes possible in this tank. :chair: :chair: :chair: . So now, I've decided to take drastic measures......

Last night, I took all my fish out, and put them in a 5.5 gallon with some fake plants, a "cave" ornament, which is actually a castle, an air stone, and a water pump from one of my fountains out doors. So they're all good, and being treated for ich. 

The rest of the tank, I took ALL of the water out, and most of the gravel. Most of the gravel is currently outside, being bleached, yes, I know, bad idea, but I am PISSED OFF. I kept some of the gravel aside to keep the bacteria alive so I don't end up cycling the tank again...lol That's me, always thinhing ahead...lol Today, I'm scrubbing off the actual tank, drying it out, lemon juice bath, all the good stuff. The filter is also running on the bucket my plants are in, so that's staying alive as well.

So, as far as algae on my glass and gravel goes, I've got that covered, it's with the plants that I'm having trouble. In my 20 gallon, I just take them out of the water, and scrub the hell out of them with a scrub brush every 2-3 months. Well, I can't do that with live plants. You can't even see the leaves there's so much black, fuzzy, green, WHATEVER algae on them. I've tried using RO/DI water in the tank, I've tried a 5 day blackout, I've tried those stupid algae destroyer tablets that never worked for me anyway, we just had some extras, so I decided to throw them in the tank. NOTHING WILL KILL THIS STUFF.

Some people suggest my stocking, well, I have 6 ottos, and 6 cherry barbs, yes, I know it's over stocked, but it's nothing like my 20 gallon. I have 5 harlies, 4 black skirts, 1 head and tail light, 1 x-ray, 1 black neon, 2 swordtails, 1 kuhli loach, 1 SAE, 1 green cory, 1 gold barb, and 3 male feeder guppies. Talk about over stocked, and that tank had an algae outbreak ONE TIME in the 3 or 4 years it's been set up. I do a 50-75% water change every month with that tank. 

For planyts in my tank, I have mostly crypts, 4 narrow leaf sags, and a bunch of dwarf sags, and an ozelot sword. I dose flourish once weekly, anfter doing a 30-40 % water change. I have a penguin 100 as filteration, and I took the carbon out of the filterpad. I also hava an air stone. For lighting, I have 2, 15 watt bulbs. Maybe too much, but like I've said before, I've always had algae in this tank.


I AM NOT DONE TYPING THIS..I JUST HAVE TO GO TO CHURCH I"LL FINISH LATER!!!!!!!!!

thanks

Andrew


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## ikermalli (Sep 23, 2007)

It may be because of too much lighting or is your tank getting hit by a lot of natural sunlight?


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## neilfishguy (Oct 7, 2007)

taking your tank down really wont stop algea. because unless you can solve the cause it will keep recuring plus whts the point of bleaching some of your gravel and not all LOL? Anyway I think maybe the cause could be too much light and no co2 if some natural sunlight is hitting it.


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## Guest (Nov 18, 2007)

There is no natural sun light. It is in front of a window, but it has a back ground, AND, I keep my shade closed most of the time. maybe 5 out of 7 days a week, my shade is closed. 

Like I said before, I have had algea since BEFORE I got plants. The plants are maybe 2 months old. I've ALWAYS had algae, and only had 1, 15 watt bulb before that, what came with the tank. 

Anyway, the whole post of this question, is what can I use to kill the algae on my live plants. If I put the plants back into the tank with the algae on them, it'll all just come back...so what can I use, that will kill the algea but not the plants?

btw, I dose once weekly with flourish, after doing a 20 %water change. I believe that this might have *some* of the reason that I have so much algae.


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## ikermalli (Sep 23, 2007)

What about this http://www.petsmart.com/product/ind...gkw=Algae&kw=algae&parentPage=search&keepsr=1


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## Guest (Nov 18, 2007)

I have also been told that maybe I'm feeding too much. I odn't think I am. Every morning, I feed a few tetra color flakes. And 1-3 nights a week, frozen bloodworms. Also, they get live black worms 3-4 nights a week. I feed these with an eye dropper, only dropping a few at a time into the tank, making sure they eat the ones that I dropped in before I feed more.

P.S. I'm taking the gravel I saved for the bacteria and bleaching that too 

edit: I'll look for stuff at work today, the head of the fish deparment there told me to use something called "algone" or something like that.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

CO2, Co2, Co2. That is the answer.


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## neilfishguy (Oct 7, 2007)

I thinkk damon is right because algrea will come back if u dont solve the problem


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## Guest (Nov 18, 2007)

So I need to add Co2?

That's is what I was thinking. Does it need to be constant, or can I do a DIY thing once or twice a month? I'm not sure how long a DIY lasts, but I have to go to a thanksgiving dinner now, so I'll research later.

But I still need something that will kill the algae on the plants before I put them back into the tank.


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## shade2dope (Jan 21, 2007)

http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/DIY-Yeast-CO2/7/
Here andrew hope it helps


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## Guest (Nov 19, 2007)

yup...thanks Ruben....I'm going to learn how to do the DIY Co2 thing over the next 2 days or so, then actually set it up over Thanksgiving break.

In the mean time, I'm going to throw some fake plants in my tank with the filter and a few goldies and make sure I got all the blaech out of the rocks....I rinsed them for about 30-45 minutes so it should all be good, but you never know.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Hm, what do you plant people think of trying the opposite and adding more light? ottos don't like brown algae (diatoms) but if he could get it replaced with green algae his fish might eat it.


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## Guest (Nov 19, 2007)

Well.....I lost one female cherry barb last night 

I also put 6 goldies in the tank last night, around 8, and this morning at around 6, they were all still alive and kicking, no gasping for breath, laying on the bottom, etc. So that must be a good sign, I'll up-date when I get home from school, Hopefully, I'll have my Co2, plants, and fish back in by Wednesday...

I'm thinking about scrubbing my plants with a soft bristled tooth brush to get most of the algae off, not hard enough to rip the leaves, but not soft enough not to do anything....any other suggestions?


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/maintenance1/p/algaebrown.htm


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## Guest (Nov 19, 2007)

I was on plantgeek.net looking at different algas, and I also have some staghorn algae on my largest crypt, but this is the last of my worries, seeing as how it's long, but it's not overtaking the tank.

Also from that site, I seem to have alot of brusk algae on my sags, espacially my narrow leaf sags where they bend at the surface, as well as on most of my dwarf sags. Unfortunantly, it says the only way to get rid of it is to soak in bleach, or to removes the leaves, which mean that all of my plants are gonners  But I'ma gonna try the Co2 stuff and try to get rid of it before I throw all that money down the drain.


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## Sowilu (Jul 16, 2007)

Try the CO2 it will work really well because the plants will fight the algea for the CO2 or something like that.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

EMC7, adding more light will not solve them problem. You cannot outcompete staghorn or bba very easily and I know of no algae that can do this. Increasing the co2 will halt the growth of the algae you already have and allow the plants to use more nutrients in the tank, starving the algae out. In short, plants win and algae loses. Flourish excel is a very good algaecide. Be careful when overdosing it. It can kill weaker fish and inverts but does kill all algae i've seen in planted tank. A google search will lead you to directions (probably find my post).


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## Guest (Nov 20, 2007)

Andrew, you might also consider getting some faster growing plants like Anacharis and Hornwort to take in some of the extra nutrients. The plants you have now aren't particularly fast growing.

Brown algae (diatoms) is pretty common in new tanks. Cleaning everything and starting over isn't really the answer to this type, but can't change what has already happened.  Just FYI for the future, I suppose.


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## Guest (Nov 20, 2007)

I lost 2 ottos as well, but I blame all my fish loss to the tank they were in....long story, and I don't feel like sharing, irresponible fish keeping on my part. 

I was thinking about using flourish excel, but I've heard that it can "melt" some plants, but I will deffaintly consider it.

Now that I have re-arranged the tank, I have room for a few new plants, and was thinking about anacharis, but I don't want to pa 2.99 for it. I don't have that much room...lol I'll prolly get some anyway because the stuff we have now is really good looking. It has really long leaves and is a dark, but light, green color, really pretty.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

fishbguy:

I have not posted in this tread as you have received "plenty good advice" in other posts!



fishbguy said:


> I lost 2 ottos as well, but I blame all my fish loss to the tank they were in....long story, and I don't feel like sharing, irresponible fish keeping on my part.


Yep. I know. You are not the only one! I have had my own adventures in fish keeping and it does not make feel very good. 


The following is the reason behind my post.


fishbguy said:


> I was thinking about using flourish excel, but I've heard that it can "melt" some plants ...


I have never experienced the above referenced condition with Flourish or Flourish Excel or even heard of it.
Please note that I have dosed with twice the recommended dosage of Flourish and Florish Excel when algae was appearing in my tank without problems that I am aware of.

TR


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## Guest (Nov 20, 2007)

The plants that are susceptible to melting from Excel are Vals, Blyxa, and I Anacharis (could be more...). If you keep any of these plants, you might consider using Excel every other day and not daily, just to be sure.


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## Guest (Nov 21, 2007)

your supposed to fetalize daily? I've been doing it every week, after a water change...


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## Guest (Nov 21, 2007)

Depends on how the tank is setup, which plants you have, and what you are using as fertilizer. Flourish Excel is a carbon supplement, not a fertlizer. Plants are taking in carbon during the day (photosynthesis) so its good to use it every day or every other day.

Micro nutrient fertilizers like Flourish can be used every other day, to around once a week depending on what lighting level you have and what plants you have. If you dose this too often, you could end up with algae.

Nutrients like nitrates can be dosed every other day for high light tanks with fast growing plants or as needed.

Potassium can be dosed every other day.

Just depends on what you're talking about. In a tank with medium lighting and mostly slow growing plants, I'd recommend using Flourish weekly.


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## Guest (Nov 21, 2007)

okay...good...that's what I do...

I lost another female cherry abrb last night


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