Pictures would help. What's your tank set up? What kind of light do you have? How long does it run per day? Do you dose fertilizers? What kind of CO2 are you using? Do you know your water parameters? We need those questions answered to help you. Otherwise it's like shooting in the dark.
slime alge
how the hell do i get rid of it? iv been adding lots of more plants but its not helping too much. i never tied a black out because im scared about my fish and plants. will they die? if not, how long do i have to do it?
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tank: 20g tall
livestock: 3 baby angels, 3 cardinal tetras 1 ottocinclus
filteration: aqueon quiet flow 50
light: aqueon modular lighting system with 1 led light strip
time: 8am to 5pm
fertilizers: sechem flourish
c02: no c02 system
parameters: idk
the algae: http://imgur.com/vO8IyQu
the tank: http://imgur.com/ZUEEuGh
i did a water change today and managed to most of the algae out but it will still come back
livestock: 3 baby angels, 3 cardinal tetras 1 ottocinclus
filteration: aqueon quiet flow 50
light: aqueon modular lighting system with 1 led light strip
time: 8am to 5pm
fertilizers: sechem flourish
c02: no c02 system
parameters: idk
the algae: http://imgur.com/vO8IyQu
the tank: http://imgur.com/ZUEEuGh
i did a water change today and managed to most of the algae out but it will still come back
Hydrogen peroxide administered via spray bottle or syringe. I've read to do it in 5ml increments. I'm dealing with it in one of my tanks right now and am slowly winning the fight. I cut back on my light time adding a longer off time in the middle of the day. Good luck, I know how utterly frustrating it can be.
I am just going to go out on a limb on this, someone correct me if I am wrong.
One, your lighting time is prob too long. Try 8 or even 7 hours with a 2 hour break in between.
Two, get a gravel siphon and such that stuff up.
Three, you need more plants.
Four, I do not see why a blackout for 3 or 4 days would hurt anything in your tank. You need to clean out the majority of that first though.
Five, you need to know your water params. BGA is caused by poor water/tank management if I recall. I am battling a bout of what I think is BGA slime because my tank had to go three weeks without a real water change and my bioload is too big to do something like that. Get your water in check or it will just return.
Speaking of which, and not to thread hijack, but does BGA/slime (side note, it is not actually an algae) look more black on plants? I thought I had BBA but everyone elses BBA I see look hairy and mine is just a black slime coat on things.
One, your lighting time is prob too long. Try 8 or even 7 hours with a 2 hour break in between.
Two, get a gravel siphon and such that stuff up.
Three, you need more plants.
Four, I do not see why a blackout for 3 or 4 days would hurt anything in your tank. You need to clean out the majority of that first though.
Five, you need to know your water params. BGA is caused by poor water/tank management if I recall. I am battling a bout of what I think is BGA slime because my tank had to go three weeks without a real water change and my bioload is too big to do something like that. Get your water in check or it will just return.
Speaking of which, and not to thread hijack, but does BGA/slime (side note, it is not actually an algae) look more black on plants? I thought I had BBA but everyone elses BBA I see look hairy and mine is just a black slime coat on things.
I've had bga before and it was from a build up in organics. I had 27 white clouds in a 10 gallon tank. I was feeding the 17 babies Hikari baby food and I wasn't able to clean the tank but once a week and poof... Bga. I cleaned more often, removed the babies to a new home (neighbors pond) and black out for 3 days. That put a dent in it and I treated hydrogen peroxide whole tank treatment. That got 90 percent. I did a single treatment of EM and kept doing water changes and good gravel vacs and I've never had it return. It was a wake up call. I realized then that I wasn't keeping good care of my tank. I was only running the 2 cfl bulb economy hood (8 hours) so my lighting wasn't an issue.
Tldr: gravel vac is your friend
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
Tldr: gravel vac is your friend
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
Here's what I think. Looks like BGA a photosynthetic bacteria. BGA tends to find dead spots to colonizes so making sure you have good flow is important. An extra powerhead goes a long way. Your only dosing micro ferts, you need macro's as well. BGA can make its own nitrates, so a lack in macro ferts will give it an advantage over plants. I agree your photo period is too long, especially if your not running CO2. Maybe try 5 to 6 hours? If that was my tank I'd clean clean clean, do a blackout for 3 to 5 days, reevaluate my photo period and CO2, throw in an extra power head, add some macro ferts to my dosing schedule.
my tank is across a window but it does have a blind and some light does go through but it doesn't get light directly. will that effect the growth of the algae? and when ever i clean the tank, some of the algae gets buried under the sand. Will the algae that gets buried come back or just die off?
I would clean out as much of the bga as you can and dose with erythromycin. It worked really well for me. H202 has not worked for me and adversely affected (killed) 2 of my otos.
+1 on erythromycin its an antibiotic. If you get an antibiotic I'd dose the water column and the substrate with a syringe to kill the bga that's buried. How long and how intensity is the indirect sun light? Does it make the room hot?I would clean out as much of the bga as you can and dose with erythromycin. It worked really well for me. H202 has not worked for me and adversely affected (killed) 2 of my otos.
BGA for sure. It comes in all different colors including red and black. Not an algae technically it is actually cyano bacteria. Check your phosphate levels you want 1-2 ppm. I would avoid hydrogen peroxide and any other chemicals since you have young fish and you haven't solved the problem so you will dump a bunch of chemicals in your tank only to see the algae come back in next week.
A blackout will not harm the fish. Plants will bounce back in a few days. Blackouts work because plants can store nutrients and algae cant. Again no point doing this until you find the cause.
Read here for an intro to ferts
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/2819-EI-light-for-those-less-techy-folks
A blackout will not harm the fish. Plants will bounce back in a few days. Blackouts work because plants can store nutrients and algae cant. Again no point doing this until you find the cause.
Read here for an intro to ferts
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/2819-EI-light-for-those-less-techy-folks
I will say that even with rinsing my driftwood after taking it out of the tank, treating it with H2O2, and rinsing rinsing rinsing, I lost an Oto as well.I would clean out as much of the bga as you can and dose with erythromycin. It worked really well for me. H202 has not worked for me and adversely affected (killed) 2 of my otos.
The slime algae still wasn't done for, and I have been doing 15% water changes every Mon, Wed, and Fri and still at a stalemate. I think I am going to have to try a blackout next.
I am not losing the battle, but not winning either. All new growth seems fine. I wonder if I could just get away with turning the lights out for a few days as opposed to covering the tank.
will taking out my sand and drying it kill off all the algae? meanwhile ill be scraping the glass and cleaning the plants.
I can tell you, in my personal experience, I broke down my tank completely on 3 different occasions within weeks of each other and it didn't work. I removed all plants and thoroughly scraped/cleaned them. I scrubbed all hardscape and very meticulously vaccuumed the substrate. I scraped the glass with a razor blade and scrubbed it with a sponge. I cleaned the filter. I even tried boiling the hardscape elements. All of this caused my hands to stink incredibly and the boiling process made the kitchen smell like a swamp. Also, none of it worked. The BGA always came back within a few days and took over within a week or so. I was also doing strict water changes the whole time. Erythromycin worked almost immediately and the BGA hasn't come back since I used it, almost 4 months ago. All of my fish are fine thus far.will taking out my sand and drying it kill off all the algae? meanwhile ill be scraping the glass and cleaning the plants.
Can you use Erythromycin with inverts in the tank?
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