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Help to identify this algae and ways to get rid if it

6K views 72 replies 20 participants last post by  Flear 
#1 ·
Hi, i am fairly new to fishtanks, we had it for 2 years, tried all types of light and plants and nothing seems to work. I have ordered Finnex Ray after i read some advise here, and the algae started to grow even faster. Please help, any advise is highly appreciated. Thank you!
 

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#4 ·
We got the light last week and have it on for approx 12 hours a day and will turn it off for the night. We do have co2 for 12 hours too, i just happened to turn it off when i took the picture. The tank is the front bow tank and approx 15 gallons. I am attaching a picture with co2 on.
We also got some plants as you see but fish is eating everything unfortunately.
 
#7 ·
As mentioned, you have blue green algae (cyanobacteria).

Your photoperiod can be reduced to 8 hours.

You seem to have a lot of CO2 being injected (the bubbles seem very large), so I would check (i.e. with a drop checker containing 4 dkH reference solution) to see how much dissolution of CO2 you are actually getting.

Are you dosing any fertilizers? BGA can be caused by low nitrates.
 
#8 ·
Thanks for your replies. We are using air bar (not sure if that is the right name). I used fertilizers before only once. A week ago but algae was already there. Also before Finnex we had regular fluorescent 15 w light. No plant has ever lived in this tank for more than 2 weeks: it was either eaten by fish or will just die.... As you also see we have some plastic artificial plants, should i get rid of those and get some real ones? If yes, please let me know which ones will survive in my tank and will not die b/c of algae,fish, etc. Thanks again.
 
#10 ·
We are using an air pump connected to the bar on the floor of the fish tank and the bubbles are coming out of that bar. I thought it was co2....As for fish we have neons, a silver dollar (looks like he is eating most of my plants), a clown loach, 2 columbian. Thanks for your help!
 
#11 ·
I think the OP is saying they are injecting CO2 through an air stone strip (correct me if I'm wrong). It will be quite difficult for plants to survive if you have herbivorous fish. It's what they eat naturally and will continue to do so. You will have healthy fish, just no plants (or not very long, anyway). You have two choices: A) Rehome the fish eating the plants, or B) Don't keep live plants.

I agree that you seem to be injecting A LOT of CO2 in your tank, and depending on your bpm, could be unhealthy for your fish. I would reduce your photoperiod and be sure to not overfeed. How are your water parameters? What's your maintenance schedule?
 
#13 ·
Just to clear up the confusion, this tank does not have CO2. The air stone is connected to an air pump.

There is CO2 in air, and that may be what Svitlana is referring to. But it's too little to make any difference in an aquarium. It's also possible she confused CO2 (carbon dioxide) with O2 (oxygen).

About that large plant on the left with white-trimmed leaves. If it's real (and not one of the plastic ones), it's not an aquatic plant and will eventually die, regardless of what you do. Some fish stores are bad about misrepresenting plants this way, and some of the others plants you've had might have died for the same reason. Write down plant names at the store, then check them out online before making purchases.

Blue Green Algae (BGA) isn't algae at all, but bacteria that uses light to grow, as if it were a plant or algae. So antibiotics, like the Maracyn (erythromycin) Tetrameck mentioned, will kill it. That's the easiest and most reliable way to get rid of it, though it's not the only way, nor is it the cheapest. Should you try it, remove as much as possible of the BGA before adding the Maracyn. A lot of BGA dying off at once can be toxic. Once eliminated, it normally won't come back unless reintroduced from another aquarium. That can be one of yours (if you have more than one), or even from the fish store. Checking their tanks to see if they have BGA before you buy will help to avoid it in the future.
 
#14 ·
Just to clear up the confusion, this tank does not have CO2. The air stone is connected to an air pump.

There is CO2 in air, and that may be what Svitlana is referring to. But it's too little to make any difference in an aquarium. It's also possible she confused CO2 (carbon dioxide) with O2 (oxygen).
That is also what I suspected, but I wanted to be certain.

In any case, try to remove as much of the cyanobacteria as possible, and then possibly use erythromycin to eliminate the remaining cyanobacteria. Once this is done, you will need to address the root cause of the BGA in order to prevent it from coming back in the future.
 
#15 ·
The bulbs need to be in the 6500k -6700k spectrum or you will never get rid of that stuff. I had it festering in my tank for 3 months & I almost gave up!
What got rid of it was making sure the bulb spectrum was in that range & a host of other things, like increasing filtration, adding carbon to lower DOC's, increasing flow, increased CO2 , EI dosing, Flagil antbiotic, 24 hour black out, switching to 100% remineralized R/O water was huge as well.
I feel it took many things not just 1 thing killed it off.
Im still waiting to see if it comes back this summer when my tank overheats at 80 degrees. But I feel I have it beat down as long as I continue on stated road.
Not to over state it but BGA cannot use 6500k-6700k as well as plants so if you increase your bio mass & run proper bulbs + add carbon during this period only & do all stated above you should be able to beat it , but BGA is not to be taken lightly , it can kill everything in your tank & make you very sick as well so try to wash hands carefully after being in the tank! INCREASE FLOW & FILTRATION!, Use medication at the end when all other improvements are in place. What Anthony said is very important, KEEP NITRATES ABOVE 10PPM OR HIGHER! Go ahead & do a 24 hour black out on the tank when all improvements are done & add the antibiotic of choice. The R/O watre is very important because your distribution like mine has spores in it so it could come back again so the R/O should filter out the spores, R/O's are not expensive but the water needs tp be remineralized. Hope that helps!
 
#16 ·
the plant is not real, should I remove it?
Please let me know what CO2 is and where can I get it and also parameters, I will check online, i am relly confused about it and now after reading all of your replies I realised that we have air (O2) and not CO2 in the tank.
 
#17 ·
hi, where can I get antibiotic? Also how do I increase plant mass? Please advise what will be the best plants to get? Your response is highly appreciated. As for the light I have Finnex Ray 24", got it on Amazon, should I keep it? Not sure what spectrum it has
 
#18 ·
If you are willing to invest in a Co2 system, that would be the best. Don't worry about the spectrum of light. I think you have enough.

You can get the antibiotic at any fish store.

To increase plant mass, simply buy more plants. You have the finnex ray so you can pretty much grow everything in your tank, of course with Co2 and ferts.

Hope that will have
 
#19 ·
Couple of thoughts... excuse me if they are way off.

I think there are no real aquatic plants in this tank. So the whole discussion about light color, CO2, fertilizers and such is interesting, but doesn't really apply to this specific situation.

A clown loach in a 15gal tank does not work. Please return it to where you bought it from. Clown loaches grow easily over 10 inches, and really need a well filtered 100+ gallon tank, along with some like friends.

Silver Dollars need bigger tanks too, and will eat all your plants. Keeping "one of each" community fish makes them lonely and angry.

You could do some reading here at the website to learn about the basics. Somewhere you have to decide if you want live plants, then learn about their needs. Otherwise you will be wasting a lot of money.

There is no need to worry about the "spectrum" of your bulbs. There is no need to worry about CO2 in this aquarium. No need to increase plant mass at this time.

If you want a planted tank, first get rid of your over-sized fish. Then wash the whole tank incl substrate to get rid of most of the cyanobacteria. Buy a lot of aquatic plants (look for beginners package, hard to kill etc).

Before you do all of that, read up about substrates and fertilization. With lots of light plants will grow fast and need lots of fertilizer. Now "lots" can be very specific quantities, so don't ever think more is better.

Before you do that, decide if you want a high-tech tank (your light fixture points that way) which requires CO2 injection and NPK and micro dosing. Or sell the fixture and go with a less intense one for a lower tech tank.

Anyway, excuse the lecture. ;) You have come to the right place, but keep in mind to take all advice with a grain of salt or two. Listen to all opinions, but draw your own conclusions.
 
#20 ·
Thanks for your thoughts and advise. We wanted to keep the fish and plants if possible, we had the fish for a while now and my daughter likes it (might sound selfish) but I also want to have a healthy tank.
So taking all of the above, should I get CO2 and plants or just forget it.
 
#21 ·
I lived in the next town over. Avoid animal kingdom. Their plants carry all sorts of stuff and since you are a beginner avoid that. Go to petco in dabury and buy the plants found in tubes. Try swords first. They are hardy and easy to grow.

I encourage you to read about co2. It's expensive to start up and it's not something you set up in an hour. It's complicated. There's a sticky under equipment threads on the topic. Unless you have specific questions, the topic is too extensive to put in your thread. So you won't get much answers on that topic. You can buy liquid co2. The only place I found it was petco - API co2 boost. Follow the directions on the bottle for plant growth.

The biggest problem....you fish are not appropriate for plants. Unless you change your fish, plants will not make it in the tank. Please be aware as your fish grow they will die from not being in an appropriate sized tank/environment. Try guppies....your daughter will love them.

So if you keep your fish...plants are out. Then co2 is not nessecary. Co2 will not cure your algae problem. You can find the meds at pet land by traders joe.

If you want to grow plants, please do a lot of reading. It's not something where you plant a plant and that's it.
 
#22 ·
thank you Sajacobs, unfortunately I got my plants from Animal Kingdom and I also got neons from Petco in Danbury, and a plant from Petco that was eaten that very night( So now I think I will try to get rid of bacteria, I am going to clean the thing, turn off the lights for 24 hours (I hope fish will be ok) and use antibiotics (probably will go to AK in Brewster again after work), I will hold off buying plants now unless I can get something that fish will not touch
 
#23 ·
Yeah our local pet stores are the pits. Every fish I bought from animal kingdom either dies or needs medications. I've started driving to Mohegan lake to petsmart. They have an outstanding snail and fish selection. Not many plants, but 3 isles of fish stuff. They have everything.
 
#25 ·
Ok here is the update, i have cleaned the algae with a sponge, added T. C. Tetracycline to the water today, turned off the air pump and i want to turn off the lights for 24 hours as recommended. My concern is fish-will they be fine without light for 24 hours? Also i noticed that some of them got ick, i have bought ick guard (Jungle brand) and i am wondering if i should add it to the water now or should i do the antibiotics first and do ick guard after? As always all of your comments are highly appreciated. Thank you.
 
#26 ·
I am not sure why you added tetracycline, as it will likely cause your aquarium to cycle again.

Your fish will be fine for 24 hours without light.

I believe Jungle Ick Guard uses Victoria Green - this will likely stain everything in your aquarium, so I would use it with caution. Rather than using medication however, it may be wiser to increase the temperature (ensure that there is sufficient surface agitation) to combat the parasite.
 
#28 ·
+1. Not all antibiotics are the same, or have the same effects. From the same manufacturer, EM Erythromycin would be the proper choice.

You're literally getting bombarded at this point with advice, ranging from beginner level to very advanced. Some of this advice is useless by itself - for example, upgrading the light without also upgrading fertilization, and possibly adding CO2, can easily cause more problems than it solves. And even if you did all of that, it may be massive overkill for what you're trying to achieve.

So my advice to you is - for the most part, stop listening to our advice. :) Tolerate the BGA for now and plant problems for now. Deal only with the most immediate threats to your fish, one being the ick. The other is possible damage to your biofilter/cycle from the tetracycline, so test for ammonia levels daily over the next few days. If you detect any, and aren't sure what to do about it, let us know - because it needs to be dealt with quickly.

And while you're doing that, read everything you can about planted tanks. With the info you gain, you'll be able to better sort out advice in the future.
 
#30 ·
I have used a similar ick medication along with antibiotics, no problem. But never that particular antibiotic.

And since the tetracycline is really the wrong antibiotic anyway, it's probably best to remove some of it. Do you perform regular water changes on that tank? If so, I'd go ahead and do a normal water change, including the water conditioner. If not, or you don't have a water conditioner, or anything else seems wrong or questionable - stop and let us know what the situation is.

As Darkblade said, the ick guard can cause some minor staining, nothing that's ever been enough to bug me though. And there are other ways to treat ick too. But let's keep it simple and go with the medication you've already got for now.
 
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