Ok to have algae on wood?

R

rrguymon

Prolific Poster
Jul 23, 2005
52
0
6
70
ABQ NM
Right now I am pleased with my set up. My plants are mostly algae free and I have a large bio mass. I recently placed a peice of wood in the tank. It has some green moss looking or hair algae growing on it. It actually looks pretty nice.

I am concerned that algea on the wood could spread to the plants. The wood is not shaded and gets direct light so I am not sure how I could stop the algae from growing on it if I want too keep it in tank. Do you think it will be ok to leave it in?

Thanks Rick
 
S

Spar

Guru Class Expert
Jun 5, 2005
123
0
16
44
Dallas, TX
Re: Ok to have algae on wood?

as long as all your dosings, co2, light, etc are fine then the algae will not spread. the plants will out compete.
 
P

PK1

Guru Class Expert
Oct 7, 2005
154
0
16
Pennsylvania
Re: Ok to have algae on wood?

I have (had...) the same thing happening for a while and I didn't mind it since it looked quite nice. My concern was the same as yours, would it spread, and since I already had a bad case of GSA and green dust at the time, I decided to run an experiment based on a thread I had read somewhere about Seachem Excel and algae.

This is what I did when doing a big water change at one time: Using a dropper, I put the initial dose of Excel directly on the wood after I drained the tank and while the wood was exposed to air. The concentrated solution was on the wood for about 10 minutes or so before the refill water covered the wood and diluted the solution.

Within a few days, I could clearly see the algae disapearing in the areas affected by the Excel. After 5-6 days, the algae in those areas had completely disappeared (sorta like running an ink eraser pen on erasable ink). Since it looked quite unatural with "lines" of algae on the wood, I did the same on the rest of it a week later. The wood is now completely algae free!

I am not necessarily recommending this method or saying this is the way to get rid of algae, but... food for thought if yours gets out of control one day.
 
C

Cornhusker

Guru Class Expert
Jan 23, 2005
192
0
16
Re: Ok to have algae on wood?

hmm! i wonder if the excell trick would work on bba. wow, that stuff is hard to get rid of.that along with a little green dust algae is all i fight. regards,cornhusker :) :)
 
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