# Algae Identification please!!!!!



## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

I have been studing plants and algae for the last couple of months pretty intensive and think I got this but never know with some things so please let me know what you think?? I think it's staghorn but unsure as I have only read about it and never seen a picture of it. It is spreading rapidly and figure I should pull the affected plants immediately as I don't want any other growth of it. I remember reading that this is caused by low Co2 if I am not mistaken and would gladly take any advice you can give.
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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

GHA... Green Hair Algae

Less light, more CO2 i believe is the solutions i came across when i had the problem back in the day... might want to up your flow a bit as well?

Black mollies, and Chinese algae eaters worked for my problem...


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

Do I get rid of the affected plants or do I have a solution to rid them of it??


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

That and do I need to get some sort of Co2 sytem now or suggested but not needed as I was thinking the Hagen co2 fermentation system as it looks simple enough and no cartridges as I have seen the injection systems in edmonton but not here and would be a pain in the ass to try and refillif I have to go there. As well its 44 bucks instead of 225 bucks and looks a hellva lot easier!!


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## Murphy18 (Oct 17, 2008)

One of the causes i would think of this algae problem of yours would be those mondo grass plants, they are non-aquatic, they are actually vivarium plants i think, they can only last a short amout of time before they start to die off etc.. so i would get rid of them because their only gonna cause more problems. That algae looks like hair algae as stated or possibly staghorn, i wouldnt know how to get rid of these because ive never experienced these type algaes before. But if they are only on the mondograss then just remove them. And if that little green blob is what i think it is starting to appear (cyanobacteria) then that is more of a pain than anything to annihilate.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

RedneckR0nin said:


> That and do I need to get some sort of Co2 sytem now or suggested but not needed as I was thinking the Hagen co2 fermentation system as it looks simple enough and no cartridges as I have seen the injection systems in edmonton but not here and would be a pain in the ass to try and refillif I have to go there. As well its 44 bucks instead of 225 bucks and looks a hellva lot easier!!


Make a DIY CO2 system out of a 2 ltr pop bottle... Go to the store and buy some activated yeast, and a bag of sugar. Make a hole in the cap of the 2ltr, use a piece of rigid airline tubing about 2" long and put it through the hole, leaving an inch in, and an inch out. Superglue the tubing in place, add 2 cups of sugar, warm water, 2 tbsp of yeast, and add the cap... use CO2 safe airline (the blue silicone kind worked for me) and connect the bottle, to a powerhead in the tank, or the inlet of a canister filter works great! You will have to pay attention to how long your reactor works, and then once you figure out a recipie you can just have another bottle ready before the first one expires (stops producing co2)

Problem solved until your tank grows out and demand is high, even then you can just make another 2 ltr... This is my old 55 gal using a smaller DIY reactor


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

Murphy18 said:


> That and do I need to get some sort of Co2 sytem now or suggested but not needed as I was thinking the Hagen co2 fermentation system as it looks simple enough and no cartridges as I have seen the injection systems in edmonton but not here and would be a pain in the ass to try and refillif I have to go there. As well its 44 bucks instead of 225 bucks and looks a hellva lot easier!!


Make a DIY CO2 system out of a 2 ltr pop bottle... Go to the store and buy some activated yeast, and a bag of sugar. Make a hole in the cap of the 2ltr, use a piece of rigid airline tubing about 2" long and put it through the hole, leaving an inch in, and an inch out. Superglue the tubing in place, add 2 cups of sugar, warm water, 2 tbsp of yeast, and add the cap... use CO2 safe airline (the blue silicone kind worked for me) and connect the bottle, to a powerhead in the tank, or the inlet of a canister filter works great! You will have to pay attention to how long your reactor works, and then once you figure out a recipie you can just have another bottle ready before the first one expires (stops producing co2)

Problem solved until your tank grows out and demand is high, even then you can just make another 2 ltr... This is my old 55 gal using a smaller DIY reactor










[/quote]

Deadly idea and thanks for your help I think I will do that but only on a grand scale I reckon!!!!!


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

How big is the tank that its in?


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

75 gallon


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## Murphy18 (Oct 17, 2008)

> One of the causes i would think of this algae problem of yours would be those mondo grass plants, they are non-aquatic, they are actually vivarium plants i think, they can only last a short amout of time before they start to die off etc.. so i would get rid of them because their only gonna cause more problems. That algae looks like hair algae as stated or possibly staghorn, i wouldnt know how to get rid of these because ive never experienced these type algaes before. But if they are only on the mondograss then just remove them. And if that little green blob is what i think it is starting to appear (cyanobacteria) then that is more of a pain than anything to annihilate.
> 
> They sell it as aquatic and dippy already told me so. But no it's all over the place right now. It's on my air bubbler air line, plants of both types , powerhead, and intake for my canister but am nuking the system right now.


Yeah most places sell it as an aquatic plant, here is a list of other non-aquatics, you may have noticed some of these also eing sold by lfs's.

Plant Geek


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

It looks like staghorn algae. Add some Flourish Excel, check nitrates and if you are over feeding then stop. Also check your filter, it might be dirty which could be a culprit.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

A better way to seal the lid to the airline is get a drill bit that is a touch smaller than the airline, cut the airline at a really long angle, and then pull it threw with a pliers. I dont even use superglue or silicone, and none of mine have ever leaked.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Im not sure what type of algea it is, looks like a strain of BBA to me, but not sure.

I would check nitrates, because I get bba when my nitrates hit 0. Very bad for plants. They need nitrates to live at all. The worst macro nutrient to be low on.

The CO2, either pressurized, excell, or DIY will work, pressurized being the most effective, and hassle free, but the most cost up front. Excell gets expensive after time, and so does DIY.

Post up your params for us--nitrate, phosphate, pH, how you run your tank, and also your lighting, ok?

And if that is in fact your mondo grass, it was living on borrowed time anyway. Is it all over your tank, or just on that plant?


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

^^^^^Just the man I was waiting for^^^^^^
I got a 24" deep tank with 2x40wtt halogen Gro-lite bulbs and as my timers conked out there has been some days where it has stayed on for 18 hrs at a time(I know I know). My params over the last couple weeks have been a little wierd as they have read zero nitrates for around 20 days give er take. My ammonia has been zero consistantly as well as my nitrite. My Iron levels have been 0 my chleated Iron has hovered around .50-.75. I however dropped it this last week to 0 after viewing the first stages of algae and figured to stop dosing. My p.h has dropped about a month ago to around 7.2-7.4 p.h after introducing Malay Driftwood and adding Peat granules to my filter setup. I as of yet don't test for phosphate or kh/gh but will start I figure soon. I even backed off on the water change a little taking less % per week to try and boost the nitrate level up. I can take params now but I know they will be spiked as I just flopped my substrate and still a little cloudy.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

RedneckR0nin said:


> ^^^^^Just the man I was waiting for^^^^^^
> I got a 24" deep tank with 2x40wtt halogen Gro-lite bulbs and as my timers conked out there has been some days where it has stayed on for 18 hrs at a time(I know I know). My params over the last couple weeks have been a little wierd as they have read zero nitrates for around 20 days give er take. My ammonia has been zero consistantly as well as my nitrite. My Iron levels have been 0 my chleated Iron has hovered around .50-.75. I however dropped it this last week to 0 after viewing the first stages of algae and figured to stop dosing. My p.h has dropped about a month ago to around 7.2-7.4 p.h after introducing Malay Driftwood and adding Peat granules to my filter setup. I as of yet don't test for phosphate or kh/gh but will start I figure soon. I even backed off on the water change a little taking less % per week to try and boost the nitrate level up. I can take params now but I know they will be spiked as I just flopped my substrate and still a little cloudy.


Hey man I'm sorry to say this but halogen bulbs, in the past anyways, has been blacklisted as fixtures not to be used on aquariums.
I'm not sure about now, because I have been busy, and knew enough to get my tank going, but no one was using halogens a while back because they weren't growing aquatic plants.
If it has changed or new ones came out that are useful, im not sure

yeah, if your params go outta whack for that long, problems are to be expected, and can be reversed once you get things going again for at least that amount of time.
I wouldn't skip on water changes, but add nitrates instead, I figure water quality over raising nitrates naturally is best IMO. My plants always did better after a water change no matter if params were off. Having nitrates around to add in these situations is very useful.
Keep your iron chelate levels up too, because they are good to have around in trace amounts like that. That isn't the problem, because if you have 0 nitrates, your plants won't ail, they will flat out die.
Algea infestations always come first before plant death.
It's great that your pH is dropping. that's one good thing. You have kinda low light, but if they stay on for so long, and nitrates crap out, major problems are around the corner for you. 
My guess is the algea in question is BBA, or black brush algea, and the way to stop it is 
1) if your lights are not aquatic plant lights (T12, T8, T5, PC flourescent, or metal halide between 5000k and 10000k) Get a new fixture ASAP.
2) get those nitrates up to at least 10ppm, and not over 25.
3) Keep dosing, or check phosphate levels and get them up to at least .5ppm and try not to go over 2-3ppm.
4) Get new timers, and set them not to exceed 12 hrs in a single day--(9-11.5 hrs optimum)
5) potassium would help things--20ppm optimum
6) get all non aquatic plants out of your tank so they don't further ruin water quality
7) keep doing weekly water changes/filter maintenance

You can wait until things settle down, and your aquatic plants start growing nicely again before pruning BBA infested leaves on your aquatic plants, because if you get your nitrates up, it should halt the infringing algea in it's tracks.

I hope this helps!!!

EDIT: 8) consider some sort of co2 enrichmet for your tank


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

Thanks dippy I figured you could help will do and post my recifying procedure tommorrow on this thread just to let ya know what I did.


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

I swapped out lights to 2x40 flourescent growlights
Clipped out all the leaves that had the algae on it as well as scrubbed off all that was on the sides and hoses
Going to grab plant additive and phosphate. kh/gh tester kits from the lfs after supper
Will look at Co2 systems while I'm there
Got a new digital timer for my lights so bye bye nights where it runs continous
Going to grab some more driftwood to place in the tanks as I lke the success it has had lowering the p.h levels and keeping them there


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

I would look into a CO2 system for a tank of that size. If you're thinking DIY CO2 using yeast etc., you're going to need a ton of 2 liter bottles to get the CO2 levels where they should be. One 2 liter bottle keeps my 5.5 gallon in check. I had 3 on my 55 and it was ok in it's prime. All the mixing, changing of bottles, fluctuating levels, etc... it's worth the cash to just buy a system. You will be a 100 X happier..


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

Yeah I figured that as I even looked into the hagen kit and it's made for a 20 gallon tank with instuctions to buy additional units to match to tank space. That makes it around 160 bucks I'm going to have to spend just to get it started with those buggers as well as have 4 difuse racks all over my tank.......Hell with that I'm going injection cartidge now I need to stop at the blood bank to donate 3 pints so I can afford it.


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

RedneckR0nin said:


> Yeah I figured that as I even looked into the hagen kit and it's made for a 20 gallon tank with instuctions to buy additional units to match to tank space. That makes it around 160 bucks I'm going to have to spend just to get it started with those buggers as well as have 4 difuse racks all over my tank.......Hell with that I'm going injection cartidge now I need to stop at the blood bank to donate 3 pints so I can afford it.


I don't know how much you're planning on spending. I bought this one about 8 months ago because it was fairly cheap and comes with everything you'll need with the exception of the tank. I was able to find a 5lb tank on ebay pretty cheap..

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...amp;pcatid=9935


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

roccov12345 said:


> Yeah I figured that as I even looked into the hagen kit and it's made for a 20 gallon tank with instuctions to buy additional units to match to tank space. That makes it around 160 bucks I'm going to have to spend just to get it started with those buggers as well as have 4 difuse racks all over my tank.......Hell with that I'm going injection cartidge now I need to stop at the blood bank to donate 3 pints so I can afford it.


I don't know how much you're planning on spending. I bought this one about 8 months ago because it was fairly cheap and comes with everything you'll need with the exception of the tank. I was able to find a 5lb tank on ebay pretty cheap..

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...amp;pcatid=9935
[/quote]

Thx rocov cause your plants are deadly so I appreciate someone like yourself taking the time to help me. I was thinking whatever is necessary to do the trick. I was thinking I would hook up one to begin with and hook up a 27inch bottle to infuser. I got buddies that I am currently getting ahold of to get mig welder tanks at a discount. Once I know what I am looking at for compatibilty for different setups I might go one or two 48 inch bottles and run lines out from that or I may go indivisual 18 inch tank per tank. After viewing how lame every system that is cheap in this category won't even come close to what I want might as well go a little overboard in preparing for the future if I can.

So in answering your question I will spend what I have to in order to obtain results like yours.


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

RedneckR0nin said:


> Yeah I figured that as I even looked into the hagen kit and it's made for a 20 gallon tank with instuctions to buy additional units to match to tank space. That makes it around 160 bucks I'm going to have to spend just to get it started with those buggers as well as have 4 difuse racks all over my tank.......Hell with that I'm going injection cartidge now I need to stop at the blood bank to donate 3 pints so I can afford it.


I don't know how much you're planning on spending. I bought this one about 8 months ago because it was fairly cheap and comes with everything you'll need with the exception of the tank. I was able to find a 5lb tank on ebay pretty cheap..

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...amp;pcatid=9935
[/quote]

Thx rocov cause your plants are deadly so I appreciate someone like yourself taking the time to help me. I was thinking whatever is necessary to do the trick. I was thinking I would hook up one to begin with and hook up a 27inch bottle to infuser. I got buddies that I am currently getting ahold of to get mig welder tanks at a discount. Once I know what I am looking at for compatibilty for different setups I might go one or two 48 inch bottles and run lines out from that or I may go indivisual 18 inch tank per tank. After viewing how lame every system that is cheap in this category won't even come close to what I want might as well go a little overboard in preparing for the future if I can.

So in answering your question I will spend what I have to in order to obtain results like yours.
[/quote]

Thanks for the kind words Red. Hell 5 months ago I had no idea what the hell I was doing. The props go to the guys that run the aquatic plant forum. I learned most everything from that forum and the guys helped me out every step of the way. An excellent resource.

How many tanks are you trying to run CO2 on. Sounds like you have a few.....


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

I currently am running 6 with probably another 2 to come in the very near future. I only plan to plant 4 of them but then again I would like the available resources to do all 8 if I had too. I am thinking now that I have talked to a couple of welders 3x48" tanks with diffusers and multi lines outso that each tank could do 3 aquariums if need be and each splitter needing to have a flow adjust for varying rate of Co2. I am still in the concept stage though and feel I now at least have a idea where to go from here.


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

RedneckR0nin said:


> I currently am running 6 with probably another 2 to come in the very near future. I only plan to plant 4 of them but then again I would like the available resources to do all 8 if I had too. I am thinking now that I have talked to a couple of welders 3x48" tanks with diffusers and multi lines outso that each tank could do 3 aquariums if need be and each splitter needing to have a flow adjust for varying rate of Co2. I am still in the concept stage though and feel I now at least have a idea where to go from here.


Got it. I like the idea of having one main large tank as opposed to all single units. Definitely should save you some cash. Keep us updated if you decide to go through the build process. I don't think I've ever seen anything on the net on a scale you speak of.


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

roccov12345 said:


> I currently am running 6 with probably another 2 to come in the very near future. I only plan to plant 4 of them but then again I would like the available resources to do all 8 if I had too. I am thinking now that I have talked to a couple of welders 3x48" tanks with diffusers and multi lines outso that each tank could do 3 aquariums if need be and each splitter needing to have a flow adjust for varying rate of Co2. I am still in the concept stage though and feel I now at least have a idea where to go from here.


Got it. I like the idea of having one main large tank as opposed to all single units. Definitely should save you some cash. Keep us updated if you decide to go through the build process. I don't think I've ever seen anything on the net on a scale you speak of.








[/quote]

After viewing your tank "tha Junga" as well as others I have yet to have my plants that robust or green yet. I would think it to be rather nice to grow out my tanks in this fashion. Maybe not to the extreme as yours but have natural and florishing plants that reproduce and survive well. Co2 and lighting are still pretty new to me but now thanks to you guys I understand the concept behind it. As far as the scale well that's just me for ya, I would rather do it once to a level unheard of than five times to a level of the norm. With my kitchen and living room set up the way it is I find that it will be the most space saving method as well. Also using mig welder Co2 setups are somewhat familar to me and would more than likely run three 100 gallon tanks for 6 months at a time at a min. I have not worked that part out yet but if a little 20 oz bottle can do a 100 for a month, I stand to believe a 50ilb tank should be time and cost saving in the long run.


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

RedneckR0nin said:


> I currently am running 6 with probably another 2 to come in the very near future. I only plan to plant 4 of them but then again I would like the available resources to do all 8 if I had too. I am thinking now that I have talked to a couple of welders 3x48" tanks with diffusers and multi lines outso that each tank could do 3 aquariums if need be and each splitter needing to have a flow adjust for varying rate of Co2. I am still in the concept stage though and feel I now at least have a idea where to go from here.


Got it. I like the idea of having one main large tank as opposed to all single units. Definitely should save you some cash. Keep us updated if you decide to go through the build process. I don't think I've ever seen anything on the net on a scale you speak of.








[/quote]

After viewing your tank "tha Junga" as well as others I have yet to have my plants that robust or green yet. I would think it to be rather nice to grow out my tanks in this fashion. Maybe not to the extreme as yours but have natural and florishing plants that reproduce and survive well. Co2 and lighting are still pretty new to me but now thanks to you guys I understand the concept behind it. As far as the scale well that's just me for ya, I would rather do it once to a level unheard of than five times to a level of the norm. With my kitchen and living room set up the way it is I find that it will be the most space saving method as well. Also using mig welder Co2 setups are somewhat familar to me and would more than likely run three 100 gallon tanks for 6 months at a time at a min. I have not worked that part out yet but if a little 20 oz bottle can do a 100 for a month, I stand to believe a 50ilb tank should be time and cost saving in the long run.
[/quote]

Should be interesting to say the least. Once you get everything up and running and you have all the bare necessities in place, ie lighting, ferts, CO2 and most importantly a maintenance schedule, everything seems to run on its own. What are the sizes (gallons) of the tanks you are going to plant...?


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

75,60,80,120,200


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

That 200 will surely make your arm pickled lol


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## roccov12345 (Sep 26, 2008)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> That 200 will surely make your arm pickled lol


Pickled......lol


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