[radioman]

I have had staghorn on my filter outlet for a few months now. It never really spread until I moved back to school to a softer water area and until 2 weeks ago when I had to move everything from one tank to another due to a leak. Now the staghorn is slowly spreading on my blyxa japonica. It is mainly on my dead leaves at the bottom of the plants but I can see little pieces on green leaves. My co2 is where it should be as is my dosing. What is the best method to get rid of this other than cutting the leaves back. I heard it can be worsened from substrate disturbance so I wonder if it is from when I moved all my substrate to the new tank.

 

[Abrium]

Most likely from the move. Have yourself a peroxide treating party but just make sure you go slow because staghorn is a lil' thicker than most algaes so you need a good concentration of peroxide.

You can also pull it if it isn't an epidemic yet.

 

[bsmith]

You can treat with the peroxide but that does not fix the rot issue of the algae.

You say that you moved back to an area with softer water. To me, softer water means that it is less concentrated with minerals and other nutrients that our plants use as ferts. Perhaps this change in water has cause you to become deficient in something.

That is likely not the issue though. Co2 is your huckleberry more than likely. I know you say that your co2 is "where it should be" but what does that mean and how are you determining that where it should be is really where it should be? Are you using a drop checker or pH probe? how is the tank filtered/water moved throughout the tank? How do you diffuse co2? What are you dosing, how often and at what amounts?

Again, in 98% of "I have this algae problem but I know its not co2..." it ends up being co2 for one reason or another.

So answer the questions I posed and hopefully we can track down the cause of your woes.

 

[radioman]

This in on a 2.5g and I have about 1bps ( turned it up a little over 1 bps now) with my drop checker at yellow. I dose using the EI method and converted the seachem measurements to go with my tank. Since the water is soft do you think I should up the amount I am dosing. Since it is so small the water flows all throughout the tank from my HOB. The co2 is being diffused through a glass ceramic disk diffuser placed under my HOB outlet to move the co2 around the tank. My plants are growing like mad so I'm surprised they aren't out competing this stuff.

 

[h2oaggie]

Are you using tap water for water changes? I also recently started to get some staghorn algae in my tank, and even with 2 weeks of 3X Excel overdose it is still hanging on. I wonder if there is something in the water....

 

[radioman]

Ya I am using the tap water...maybe it is the water. It is mostly just little pieces on the leaves that I can see from co2 bubbles getting trapped on it plus the stuff on my filter. It isn't out of hand yet so I just want to keep it from getting there.

 

[h2oaggie]

I wish I could help you. Like I mentioned, Excel is doing nothing nothing unless I spot dose it. Otherwise I am just plucking off the leaves that are badly infested. Have you had any problems with diatoms as well?

 

[radioman]

No problems with diatoms and I have just been pulling off the the really bad leaves too.

 

[bsmith]

Did you crank up the co2 yet?

 

[radioman]

Yes it is over 1 bps for a 2.5g and my drop checker is yellow or was yellow from old solution so i just turned my co2 up even more and spot treated the stuff on my filter again and it is showing signs of dying. I also started dosing 2x excel to see if that works. I might just chop my blyxa way down to see if that helps. Also I am running low on excel, if I were to use h202 do I have to spot treat with it or can I just put it in the tank. What would be the measurements on that? It is kind of hard to spot treat hundreds of blyxa leaves.

 

[radioman]

So cranked up the co2 but forgot to turn my HOB filter back on...oops. All of my shrimp seem fine except for a lone ghost shrimp and an otto who was struggling.
Update: R.I.P. lone ghost shrimp. I'm pretty sure once your on your back you aren't coming back.
Update 2: His body disappeared maybe he came back to life!