# Stupid Algae



## PhantastickFish

So when i set up my tank i started to notice small amounts of algae mostly growing on my drift wood. its now made its way to the substrate and on the glass. obviously i clean it off the glass. I cant seem to get rid of the rest of it though.

its a 90. 10 juvi Reds. 3 amazon swords. i had 2 40w t8s on 12 hours a day. thought that might be to much so i cut it down to 7 hours. today, i just took out one of the bulbs to see if that has any effect. i was using flourish but i stopped to see if that would help.


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## Guest

Try vaccing it off the substrate and reduce your lighting period. What does the algae look like?


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## PhantastickFish

its like green fuzzy stuff. kinda like mold. not stringy. i cant vac it off the sub either..


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## Piranha_man

Stupid algae...


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## PhantastickFish

Piranha_man said:


> Stupid algae...


i know right


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## Guest

PhantastickFish said:


> its like green fuzzy stuff. kinda like mold. not stringy. i cant vac it off the sub either..


Try algaefix, though you have to be really careful if your have fish in the tank as it can burn them.
It's hard to say without a pic what exactly it is.


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## PhantastickFish




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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Looks like cyanobacteria... Manually remove as much as you can and remove the driftwood that it's growing on. If removing it doesn't work, you could try a 3 day complete blackout. Since it's a bacteria and not an algae, you can always dose an antibiotic like erythromycin to kill it -- Maracyn works pretty well and is widely available -- that should be a last resort tho.


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## PhantastickFish

so you think its more the wood in the tank? im thinking it might not be the right type of wood? its been in there sense January and still needs to have rocks on it, it wont stay down on its own.


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## maknwar

how long have you had the wood, and plants in the tank?


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## PhantastickFish

maknwar said:


> how long have you had the wood, and plants in the tank?


woods been in there scene January plants came in in mid February.


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## mantis

I think the common name is blue green algae...? Its sucks! Maybe jst a bit too much light.

I agree, manual cleaning, and a black out. I wouldnt use any meds, it will run its course. might take a little elbow grease.


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## FEEFA

I've heard that its a pain to get rid of once you get it, I would stop dosing ferts, clean as much as you can and def blackout the tank.

Good luck but some people have actually had to tear down and restart tanks because of it.


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## PhantastickFish

took the wood out. cleaned all the rocks. gravel vaced where the wood was. uv is rockin. lights are off. we'll see if this helps at all, if not ill do a black out.


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## 65galhex

FEEFA said:


> I've heard that its a pain to get rid of once you get it, I would stop dosing ferts, clean as much as you can and def blackout the tank.
> 
> Good luck but some people have actually had to tear down and restart tanks because of it.


I just took my tank down to water and fish- no deco, no substrate, nothing, because of cyanobacteria. Do everything you possibly can now to get rid of it or itll spread like wildfire. I agree on stopping dosing ferts, def get rid of the driftwood. During the blackout, be sure to do a water change, this depends on the length of the blackout, but since its a bacteria and not an algae it will die off and destroy water params. I would do one water change for a 3 day blackout. Im not expert, but this is just my personal experience.


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## FEEFA

I remember you troubles with this also Hex, it was the poolfilter sand in your 150gal right?


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## CLUSTER ONE

Id probably start by dropping your photoperiod to 10hrs then see how that helps and possibly then drop it again to 8hrs. Mannual removal should be your fisrt step to try and get as much as you can of it then you can try to kill the rest by:

-cut back on lighting
-manually remove as much as you can (also srcape it off while doing a waterchanges and try to suck it up)
-increase waterchanges to remove any excess organics that would feed it
-lighting blackouts (with water changes as you don`t want to kill it off and have a nirate spike which in turn will feed the growth of more cyano)
-chemicals though I don`t think it needs to come to this.

Here is an article on cyano:

TFH Article - August 2006

Also what is your ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and phosphate (if you have this test) atÉ


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## 65galhex

FEEFA said:


> I remember you troubles with this also Hex, it was the poolfilter sand in your 150gal right?


Oh yeah it was awful. I stripped it all down and let it be bare bottom for a solid 2 months with water changes and cleanings more frequently. I actually just got some nice black blasting sand that I will be doing this weekend. I finally got rid of it I hope.

Cluster brings up a good point; determinging the water params will also help.


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## PhantastickFish

ammo 0
rites 0
rates 15

i dont have the phos test. ive never had rates this high... last week they where around 5.


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## Guest

PhantastickFish said:


> ammo 0
> rites 0
> rates 15
> 
> i dont have the phos test. ive never had rates this high... last week they where around 5.


ammo doesn't look 0 in the pic, looks like it's got a green tint to it.


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## 65galhex

The Nitrite looks a bit purple as well.


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## Guest

Are you waiting 5 mins before reading the tests?


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## PhantastickFish

ya that was 7 min. i guess there could be a small tint?


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## Guest

PhantastickFish said:


> ya that was 7 min. i guess there could be a small tint?


Do a water change and check again. This could be what Joe was talking about, the bacteria thing. I don't know how it effects your filter bacteria, but I wouldn't risk it.


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