Though, weird green hair algae that shrimps don't even eat!

[fablau]

Hello to everyone,
I have a 70gl planted aquarium with plenty of plants, a good number of fish and hundreds of shrimps. I have actually a big population of both Amano and Red Crystal shrimps that keep breeding all the time and that always helped me to combat soft green hair algae in the last 3 years. But something new appeared about 1 year ago and kept growing until today, very slowly, on the drift woods (see attached pictures) which the shrimps couldn't help to defeat. It looks like a kind of green hair algae very tough for the shrimps to eat that they just ignore.

What do you suggest to do? Maybe I could try some kind of snail or fish algae eater?

If you are wondering about my CO2 situation, I am using an in-line reactor injecting about 4-5 bubbles per second and my plants grow wonderfully and so much that I need to trim them once a week, so I don't think I am not using enough CO2. I also have a permanent CO2 liquid indicator which shows me a perfect CO2 level in the tank.

Any thoughts are very welcome!

Thank you in advance.

Best,
Fab.

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[Gerryd]

Hi Fab,

The first pictures looks like a clado species that I had for awhile on my driftwood. It grew and grew. C02 did help it but I was never able to fully eradicate it.

Please note that IMO there is no such thing as 'perfect' c02 levels for the entire photoperiod..else you would not have algae issues

Not all algae is c02 related, that is very true, but many times we have seen that better c02 helps.

Since your plants grow so quickly and you need to trim often, have you been increasing c02 to keep up with the increased bio-mass?

We many times forget to do this once the plants grow well, as we think, 'hey co2 is good'. Well, at that time it is. But as the plants grow their need for c02 increase as well.

Increased bio-mass can also heavily impact flow/current in the tank. Has this been ruled out?

Many things can affect c02 over time.

Hope this helps.

Tank looks nice btw!

 

[nipat]

It looks beautiful to me, that Clado on wood.
I don't know how many species there are.
A species that grows slowly with beautiful form is sought after.
But ones that spread quickly and ugly is nightmare.

 

[fablau]

Thank you for your replies.

Gerry: you are absolutely right, we have to increase CO2 with increasing bio mass, in fact I used to have 3 bubbles per seconds at the beginning whereas now I am with 4-5 bubbles per second.... of course I am not sure 100% that's the perfect dosage, but according to the CO2 indicator that should be good.

I would like to know if you have any suggestions about some specific organisms that can help me to "graze" them. It is my guessing that there are not "silver bullets" out there to accomplish that...

Thank you again very much, I am open to more ideas, anytime!

All the best,

Fabrizio

 

[Tom Barr]

Nothing really eats it other than maybe rosey barbs, but they will shred anything that is furry, moss, stem plants etc.
I'd remove the wood and peroxide it, or do a large water change and pick out all of the algae you can, and spray the H2O2 directly on the algae, then refill the tank.

If it gets in the HC, hair grass or moss, you may as well pull the infested area up, and toss the plants.
You can save a few stems and clean then really well, then replant and keep the CO2 good thereafter.

 

[fablau]

Thank you Tom, I think your idea to use Hydrogen Peroxide directly on the woods is the best way to solve this. I will try that. Thank you very much!

 

[fablau]

One more question: how long does it take for algae to get off or die once you treat them with Hydrogen Peroxide? It has been already one hour after repeatedly soaking the woods with it and I don't see anything is changing: algae are still well green, well attached to the wood... do I need to wait longer? Please, give me directions...

Thanks!

Fab.