I would like to know this algae :-)

[Dusko]

I got myself some nice algae and I am not sure what it is
I didn't maintain this tank in a while, to see what algae will come out first.

And here we go;

I didn't do water change in a month now, and didn't do any other dosing but Easy Carbo (liquid carbon) once a week.
Feeding fish daily once.

Lights are 2x 11 Watts compact fluorescent for 10 hours.

No other algae what so ever.

It is growing on Rotala a lot and a bit on the gravel. I would like to understand this thread looking algae a bit better.

I first thought it is the Thread Algae, but it is not growing in individual strands?
It is NOT branching. I wouldn't say it is Cladophora.

It grows in a "spaghetti" way.
Any clues why it appeared and what it is? Thanks.

This tank pic (10G) is about 1 month old, just before this algae started taking over;

Kind regards, Dusko.

 

[Tom Barr]

Oh that one is easy, silkweed: Spirogyra.

Take a look under a scope.
You should see the spiral chloroplast(2 per cell).

It will grow pretty well along with good plant nutrients/CO2/lighting.

It's a bit tough to manually remove but it can be done.
I suppose Excel bombing might work, never tried it on this one.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Dusko]

Thanks Tom,
Spirogyra you say. Nice one for my Algae ID page
Are you saying excess nutrients did this?

There is one thing I forgot to mention Tom. My female Apistograma disappeared approx month ago. I would say it died. The tank is fully planted so no way to find the dead body.

Can it be that this algae appeared because of possible ammonia from the decaying fish??

BTW, I performed the water change today and removed all the algae (easy really).

Do you know of any algae eating animal that would go for it??

I keep 2 Otos and one Neritina zebra in there but they are showing no interest in this algae.

Regards, Dusko.

 

[Sintei]

I think youre wrong Dusko, when you say you didnt do any dosing of nutrients. I see you have Aquatic Nature Ferti soil? Plenty of nutrients there
I myself have a 4g nano with fertisoil, its great, BUT looks like crap since it looks like small brown marbles instead of regular gravel.
OT: You should get zoogiganten to order some plants that are rare, not the usual mainstream ones *coughs*

 

[Dusko]

Hi Sintei,
I guess you are right, plants/Silk algae did get nutrients through the soil.
But I was more referring to the Estimative dosing.

Kind regards, Dusko.

 

[Tom Barr]

I think it came in on another plant, something else, some water/fish/plant etc.

It rarely has ever appeared unless I brought something from outside etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr