Algae... Journal ?

Greggz

Lifetime Members
Lifetime Member
Jan 6, 2016
450
591
93
Almost 3 weeks after the half dose treatment, I can say that cladophora survived and is now growing strong.... Its like a moss for the wood :D. I will try the full dose this weekend, if it does not work I will try what you suggested burr.

In the first aquarium I did the full 1-2 punch I only have some minor GDA and BBA. So overall it works quite well at full dose.

Pics? Funny you said the algae is like moss for the wood. If it makes you feel any better, here is some I had earlier this year when my CO2 ran out while I was out of town. Actually looked kind of cool in a strange kind of way. How about yours?

pHosting.php?do=show&type=f&id=100074&title=20170606_190930c.jpg
 

Allwissend

Super Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Lifetime Member
Jun 20, 2016
871
382
63
www.intuitiveaqua.net
Nice and rustic, reminds me of moss on the rooftops in England.

The thing with cladophora is that it grows great in between mosses and ruined my phoenix moss culture. Well the culture was okay but I did not want to sell any of it with the infestation.

So today I did the full dose as previously described. I forgot one RCS in there, it got a little bit hyperactive during the full dose but survived ( at least short term). I will report on it.
staghorn with peroxide.jpg


staghorn with peroxide-2.jpg


A little side story. So that you don't think I'm bent on destruction of all things in aquariums... CRS K4 babies just hatched. To get a sense of scale, in the corner you can see pond snail eggs.

CRS day 1.jpg
 

Tom Barr

Founder
Staff member
Administrator
Jan 23, 2005
18,699
786
113
2 days, that's the time difference with the two before and after pictures. 2 water changes and a lot of manual removal and trimming.

From there, adding a new CO2 gas tank, good cleaning etc, algaefix I think.
Water changes 60-80% twice a week for a few weeks till everything is back up.

It's pretty simple. And I've done this for many tanks and for clients with every type of algae you can think of.
 

Allwissend

Super Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Lifetime Member
Jun 20, 2016
871
382
63
www.intuitiveaqua.net
Hi Tom, thank you for coming back with the details. I want to give AlgaeFix a go to see how it performs, but it is not widely available here. I guess I could find another product that has PBED in it. The tetra pesticide, with monolinuron, is available here in the EU, but at that price you can buy many gallons of 12% H2O2 :)

Short update, I am too tired for photos now. It has been 2 days since the full treatment. Most visible cladophora became brown. The fissidens moss is still green. RCS unit still functional... I will give it a little more time before I pull the dead algae away.

Reason for this ??? A small bit of cladophora hidden under a rock can resurface and re- infect moss like nothing. And as I said, I want to test the treatment itself, not to target a particular outcome.
 
  • Like
Reactions: karel.brits

Allwissend

Super Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Lifetime Member
Jun 20, 2016
871
382
63
www.intuitiveaqua.net
As promised, photos
cladophora after peroxide.jpg


You can see the Fissidens moss without any side effects while cladophora is dead. Other mosses also survived without side-effects.

cladophora after peroxide-2.jpg

Nevertheless from the top, I was able to spot a place where some of the cladophora is still green . It may be that the algae was too dense at that spot or that the flow of water was insufficient there . Spot dosing for such places is a viable alternative.

Another short note, in-vitro experiments with the conc. H2O2 and mosses for 24h resulted in massive damage. Lower doses also affected individual moss strands. This is because the neccesary dose of H2O2 is somewhat related to the quantity of things it can react with. Here it is no longer only a matter of conc. but actual number of H2O2 molecules. Put a larger moss mass in the same conc. that melted a single strand and the effect will be reduced. Add some organic debris and the effect will be a lot less. This explains why in the previous aquarium some mosses and liverworts melted, it had blasting sand and is relatively clean. This aquarium has a very nutritious ADA AS with lots of detritus. It may also explain why some people report loss of shrimp. The good part is that by and large the full dose works in most conditions.

Oh yeah, and I can't seem to get that BGA culture going... growing algae is hard stuff.
 

Lakshmi Jagnnathan

Lifetime Member
Lifetime Member
Jan 22, 2018
42
28
18
50
Phoenix
Thank you slipfinger.

I went to the fishstore and got some lemon tetras. As a freebee I also got this in the bag :)
View attachment 10800

1. I wonder if the fish will introduce this algae into their destination aquarium. Hopefully the system is robust enough to prevent an BGA takeover
2. Yey now I have a nice sample of BGA to grow and experiment with. I want to do the the same treatments as above, given that BGA was not present in the first round of trials, plus extended blackout, increased nitrogen and other recommendations found on other forums. Let's see.

Meanwhile:
I looked at some debris from a pre-filter from a high energy planted aquarium. Surprisingly you will find some things that are more likely to be associated with a lower trophic level in environmental samples. Notice that the samples are not very clean as a lot of dirt from the filter was still present

A mix of diatoms, unicellular algae and dinoflagelates
View attachment 10801


View attachment 10802
No this is not an algae spore, it is actually a heliozoan. This is an algae eater :)

View attachment 10803
I also managed to capture a very active Gastrotrich. They also eat bacteria and algae .

As a small conclusion
1. even in the pre-filter there is a very high diversity which lives from the bacteria and algae we provide with nutrients. The impact of these microorganisms on our aquariums is hard to quantify or even observe.
2. wash your hand before and after working in the aquarium. :rolleyes:

I suddenly feel the urge to buy elbow length gloves for my next tank maintenance day!
 
  • Like
Reactions: karel.brits

mastin

Junior Poster
Jul 5, 2009
21
0
1
What is your microscope of preference for taking these pictures? They are quite good.
Thank you for your work.

Thank you slipfinger.

I went to the fishstore and got some lemon tetras. As a freebee I also got this in the bag :)
View attachment 10800

1. I wonder if the fish will introduce this algae into their destination aquarium. Hopefully the system is robust enough to prevent an BGA takeover
2. Yey now I have a nice sample of BGA to grow and experiment with. I want to do the the same treatments as above, given that BGA was not present in the first round of trials, plus extended blackout, increased nitrogen and other recommendations found on other forums. Let's see.

Meanwhile:
I looked at some debris from a pre-filter from a high energy planted aquarium. Surprisingly you will find some things that are more likely to be associated with a lower trophic level in environmental samples. Notice that the samples are not very clean as a lot of dirt from the filter was still present

A mix of diatoms, unicellular algae and dinoflagelates
View attachment 10801


View attachment 10802
No this is not an algae spore, it is actually a heliozoan. This is an algae eater :)

View attachment 10803
I also managed to capture a very active Gastrotrich. They also eat bacteria and algae .

As a small conclusion
1. even in the pre-filter there is a very high diversity which lives from the bacteria and algae we provide with nutrients. The impact of these microorganisms on our aquariums is hard to quantify or even observe.
2. wash your hand before and after working in the aquarium. :rolleyes:
 

Allwissend

Super Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Lifetime Member
Jun 20, 2016
871
382
63
www.intuitiveaqua.net
I suddenly feel the urge to buy elbow length gloves for my next tank maintenance day!
Well at least think twice before priming the water hose with your mouth :) The things in the images are not really dangerous for humans (except bga), but I understand the yuck factor. It's really the smaller bacteria, the small black dots in some photos that may cause infections and such.

I am not the hygiene obsessed guy. Truth is for most samples we study, it is the really 'dirty' ones that are negative for most pathogens. The clean ones, where the disinfectant just recently failed, give more problems. So there is something to be said about commsal flora and bacterial competition before burning everything :)

More photos to come
 
Last edited: