[dbrown17]

My tank is fairly established - 15+ years now. I some had algae issues years ago but nothing in the past 4-5 years, just a weekly cleaning of the glass and occasional scrubbing the fluval ladder and big rocks. I'm running a fluval ladder co2 system (home measurements - 1/8 tsp yeast, 1tsp baking powder, 1/2 cup sugar in the reactor), finnex planted+ 24/7 on auto and a 65w cfl retrofit in the canopy running 8 hours per day. I haven't measured anything (ph, kh, co2 etc) in years. The thing has just been running smooth. We went out of town for our anniversary (25th!) and I came home to this. I must admit that I didn't pay much attention to know if it started before we left for the week. There is a hair like algae on the anacharis and wisteria and on the leaves of the swords. Also a bright green grasslike growing from the base of the swords. Most of it is on the plants toward the front of the aquarium.

I would appreciate help with identification and suggestions for treatment. I guess I should also mention that the only changes in the tank in the past month or so is the red lugia in the front right (from petco) and I quit adding Flourish Excel, only dosing weekly with Flourish now. I had heard that the excel could be causing the black stems on the anacharis. Based on some reading that I've done in the past two days, I've cut off the effected stalks, scrubbed some of the rock and turned off the 65w light completely. I'm not sure what else to try so again, thank you in advance for any direction you all can provide.

 

[Plinkploop]

Spot treat with excel and manually remove with filters off along with water changes. Looks like hair algae maybe bba...

 

[rzn7z7]

Looks like staghorn algae....in addition to manual removal and excel spot treating I'd do some large water changes to help with fert imbalances and ammonia buildup

 

[minorhero]

+ for staghorn. Nasty nasty stuff. Manually remove as much as you can with toothbrush and tweezers. spot treat what remains with excel. Restore your routine for water changes, fertilizer, etc. Hopefully that works for it but... I've had some bad luck with it and it doesn't always do a thing to it. In which case you may need to go more severe on excel and/or hydrogen peroxide spot treatments.

 

[Stan510]

Organics..the usual gang of algae fed by excess. You might go over the substrate with the vacuum hose..I would bet its just near black in organics by now after all these years. You could also see an improvement with only six hour days..for the short term until you get things under control.

 

[dbrown17]

Thank you all for the comments and direction. I do vacuum the tank once a month or so but not as thoroughly as I probably should - it's hard getting around the plants . I've done a 50% change and will follow up with another tomorrow. I've dosed with Flourish excel once and will do that after the water change again. Again, I appreciate the info and will see what it brings.

 

[Plinkploop]

Good luck!!