What Algae Is This?? How To Fix It?

[tirtha1979]

What Algae is this?? It's all over the Rocks and Woods , plant leaves like Dust and small cotton thread. As well as the same algae is forming a thin layer of dust on Plant leaves. They are floating in water like clouds. I forgot what is a clean and clear water now a days.

If I rub fingure it's coming out easily and If I put plants under tap water the algae is getting washed out like Deep green water. No smell in water.

I already have redone the tank twice in last 30 days but within 2 days the algae is coming back.

First I thought, I got Green Water. Tried Black Out with huge water changes. Nothing happened. Then I suspected I got BGA so dosed Amoxi. Again nothing happened.

What is this? How to get rid of it?

This is nither BGA nor Hair Algae.

Tank is running with 3WPG MH light and EI dosing with pressurised CO2 fixed at 130BPM speed. Using Eheim 2217 for (Which I have cleaned twice in last 1 month) and a 1000 lph powerhead to increase water circulation.

 

[Gerryd]

Hi,

I am unsure what type it is, but I had this for a long time.

It grew very thick on any wood I had where I could pull bunches of it out every couple of weeks.

I finally eliminated it when my C02 WAS STABLE AND SUFFICIENT for the lighting intensity.

I also have MH at 2.5 wpg. I had this algae for years on rocks, wood (especially), and the gravel.

When I got my EI dosing and c02 sufficient and stable I manually cleaned out all I could (toothbrush on wood), and within 1-3 weeks it started to disappear and has not been back since.

Just for fun, I placed a piece of wood that I had in another tank that was covered in it a few weeks ago, and the wood is now nearly clean of all algae.

Could you give more details on tank size, dosing amounts and sched, filtration size, etc?

Hope this helps.

 

[tirtha1979]

Hi,

I am unsure what type it is, but I had this for a long time.

It grew very thick on any wood I had where I could pull bunches of it out every couple of weeks.

I finally eliminated it when my C02 WAS STABLE AND SUFFICIENT for the lighting intensity.

I also have MH at 2.5 wpg. I had this algae for years on rocks, wood (especially), and the gravel.

When I got my EI dosing and c02 sufficient and stable I manually cleaned out all I could (toothbrush on wood), and within 1-3 weeks it started to disappear and has not been back since.

Just for fun, I placed a piece of wood that I had in another tank that was covered in it a few weeks ago, and the wood is now nearly clean of all algae.

Could you give more details on tank size, dosing amounts and sched, filtration size, etc?

Hope this helps.

Thanks Gerry for the Inputs. Let me key down the details first.

Tank Size: 4'x2'x2' 120G Open Top Aquarium.

Light: 2 150watt MH (4200K and 6500K) installed 1 feet above water surface.

Dosing: KNO3,K2SO4, KH2PO4 3 times a week along with Trace eliments and Iron. And following the normal EI dosing amounts specified for a 120G tank.

Filteration: Eheim 2217 along with a 1000 LPH Powerhead (For Water Circulation).

CO2: 130BPM speed. CO2 goes on 3 Hrs before Light On and shut off hile Light goes off. Drop Checker is showing me a nice Lemon Green color.

 

[VaughnH]

That looks like green dust algae to me. When I get severe GDA I get it on the plants and hardscape too, and it looks much like this.

 

[tirtha1979]

That looks like green dust algae to me. When I get severe GDA I get it on the plants and hardscape too, and it looks much like this.

But how to get rid of that?? It's already been arround 45 days I am getting this algae.

 

[tirtha1979]

Take a look at my tank water as of now.

 

[Tom Barr]

UV or a diatom filter will help a lot till the Green water is gone, about 2-3 days etc of running one.

If you can add some Amano shrimp, do so, angelfish might eat them if the angels are larger. Rubber nose plecos will help also, Zebra nerites might, otto catfish, etc.

I do not think this is GDA.

You needed to cycle the tank better, more water changes etc and you likely had too much light. I'd not add the main fish like angels till much later after all the plants are growing well etc, no algae etc, and the shrimp have had time to grow, establish etc.

Likely have some CO2 issues as well.

Lower the light about 1/3 to 1/2 for now also.


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[tedr108]

Tirthankar,

If you cannot reduce the light with your current fixture (as Tom is recommending), you might want to see about getting some floating plants to help cut down on the light. They will also help clean up your water, from what I have seen. I'm not sure what floating plants are available in your part of the world, but salvinia might be nice and spreads quickly.

 

[tirtha1979]

UV or a diatom filter will help a lot till the Green water is gone, about 2-3 days etc of running one.

If you can add some Amano shrimp, do so, angelfish might eat them if the angels are larger. Rubber nose plecos will help also, Zebra nerites might, otto catfish, etc.

I do not think this is GDA.

You needed to cycle the tank better, more water changes etc and you likely had too much light. I'd not add the main fish like angels till much later after all the plants are growing well etc, no algae etc, and the shrimp have had time to grow, establish etc.

Likely have some CO2 issues as well.

Lower the light about 1/3 to 1/2 for now also.


Regards,
Tom Barr

Thanks a lot Tom for replying. Now let me tell what I have done.

Tank was completely fishless till yesterday. Yesterday Only I have added 2 Pleco, 3 Ottos and 4 Angels. And I can see Plecos have started cleaning job slowly. Though Ottos are still hiding.

I am planning to add 2ltr EHEIM BIOMECH in Canister to improve Biological and Mechanical filteration.

I was running CO2 at 160BPS speed but found all fishes started Gasping immidiately. So I reduced it to 130BPS. Take a look at my Drop Checker.

In India it's too tough to find a Diatom filter or a UV filter. But will try to find one.

As of now My photo period is 6Hrs. So do you want me to cut off the photo period or want me to reduce the Light itself? Then I will stop 1 MH as of now.

And please tell me if I am still missing something.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tom Barr]

You are not going to get rid of Green water without a UV or a diatom type micron filter.

You can do 80% water changes 2x a day, it will still come back.
No amount of fert tweaking will resolve it.

A cheapo 15 Watt UV will take care of it, see if you can borrow, buy or rent one for a few days.

You will not need it afterwards.
The other algae can be addressed via the CO2, and algae eaters. Do not use normal plecos, use rubber nose plecos and otto cats, shrimp etc. They are effective.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[tirtha1979]

You are not going to get rid of Green water without a UV or a diatom type micron filter.

You can do 80% water changes 2x a day, it will still come back.
No amount of fert tweaking will resolve it.

A cheapo 15 Watt UV will take care of it, see if you can borrow, buy or rent one for a few days.

You will not need it afterwards.
The other algae can be addressed via the CO2, and algae eaters. Do not use normal plecos, use rubber nose plecos and otto cats, shrimp etc. They are effective.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Thanks Tom. Let me try out if I can find one. One of my friend is planning to buy AQUAEL UV Internal filter. But not sure if it will work for me or not. Please take a look at the product in the below link.

https://sklep.aquael.pl/webapp/wcs/...ctId=17019&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=10591

Will wait for your feedback on this.

 

[tirtha1979]

Tirthankar,

If you cannot reduce the light with your current fixture (as Tom is recommending), you might want to see about getting some floating plants to help cut down on the light. They will also help clean up your water, from what I have seen. I'm not sure what floating plants are available in your part of the world, but salvinia might be nice and spreads quickly.

Ted.. Thanks for the Input. We got Duckweed here in India. But the main problem is that, It spread too fast. So within 2-3 days It will cover the water surface and block the light.

 

[tirtha1979]

Is it a miracle???? I tried everything to remove the green water in last 40 days. Nothing worked.

For last 3 days I simply gave up and was looking for an UV sterelizer. Yesterday I made 50% water changes like everytime and today morning I found, water is almost clear. HOW COME!!!!

 

[tinkerman]

I just got threw with green water and found it was due to adding to many fish at one time. I added 3 mystus vittatus and got gw and got it to clear, then added 1 Schilbe intermedius and 1 Mystus leucophasis got gw cleared and added 1 more Schilbe intermedius and got it to clear took about a week to clear each time with a uv. I believe my problems came from my bio filter was not up to the task of handling the fish load.

 

[Tom Barr]

GW and NH4 are well correlated/ particularly with high light.
That you have

So removing them, doing water changes etc, raising light etc, got rid of it. Typically, this is not the case, rather the exception, but it does happen.

You should be okay, keep an eye on things to make sure it does not come back.
Hopefully it will not in the next few days/week.

If not, you are home free.

You have a nice tank , perhaps you can get that old CO2 reactor out of the tank and switch to a disc diffuser?

That would likely help more and look better

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[tirtha1979]

I just got threw with green water and found it was due to adding to many fish at one time. I added 3 mystus vittatus and got gw and got it to clear, then added 1 Schilbe intermedius and 1 Mystus leucophasis got gw cleared and added 1 more Schilbe intermedius and got it to clear took about a week to clear each time with a uv. I believe my problems came from my bio filter was not up to the task of handling the fish load.

You got another Extream case I think. According to my understanding, it's the problem with your filter that It's failed to do the biological filteration properly.

 

[tirtha1979]

GW and NH4 are well correlated/ particularly with high light.
That you have

So removing them, doing water changes etc, raising light etc, got rid of it. Typically, this is not the case, rather the exception, but it does happen.

You should be okay, keep an eye on things to make sure it does not come back.
Hopefully it will not in the next few days/week.

If not, you are home free.

You have a nice tank , perhaps you can get that old CO2 reactor out of the tank and switch to a disc diffuser?

That would likely help more and look better

Regards,
Tom Barr

Thanks a lot for your guidance and assurance Tom. Will change the reactor to a Glass diffuser ASAP. But as of now I have to wait couple more days as my Angels started spwaning on the reactor.

 

[VaughnH]

It is so nice to see the Clown Loach waiting to be the baby sitter

I don't recall ever getting angel fish to spawn. You must feel like a proud father now!

 

[aquabillpers]

You are not going to get rid of Green water without a UV or a diatom type micron filter.

Well, it depends.

I once accidentally spilled several tablespoons of Flourish into a well-planted 20 gallon tank. In less than a day the water was quite green.

I did nothing and in about 3 days the water was back to its normal clear state. Apparently the algae consumed its nutrient bonanza and died back, waiting for the next one.

(See also, "Excessive nutrients do not cause algae" threads. )

Bill

 

[Panda]

I don't recall ever getting angel fish to spawn. You must feel like a proud father now!

I tried and tried !! no luck
There's an old saying in spanish that says something like this: you find things when you are NOT looking for them !