# black hair??



## ssunnylee24 (Jan 10, 2008)

this plants been in my tank for about 3 weeks. havent grow not even an inch? and black hair is growing off the plant leaves??


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## dalyhawk (Apr 30, 2007)

Question for Dippy eggs! He's the plant master


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Hes gonna ask you what your tank specs are and how much light. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, do you use co2 and light configuration and how long per day you leave your lights on.


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## ssunnylee24 (Jan 10, 2008)

40w 12hrs on 12hrs off, havent checked ammonia, nitrite, nitrate , ph level is 6.8~7.0 n no co2. 3, 35% waterchanges in a week or more.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

tank size and do you use ferts?


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## ssunnylee24 (Jan 10, 2008)

55g use canister filter and powerhead filter if that counts and i used schultz aquatic plant soil


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## LS1FDRx7 (Mar 6, 2007)

A Pleco and Oto along with a Chinese Algae eater will get rid of that in a few days. If you can't wait and is concern about it being a huge problem you could always remove that plant, rinse it under cool/cold water and scrub off the black hair and then put it back into it's place.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Hmm.. How much light do you have, as in how many watts are over your 55g?? It isn't a perfect way to understand, but it will get us in the ballpark.

Usually, BBA (black brush algea) comes as a lack of nitrate.. but it has showed up for other wierd reasons I haven't understood.

I have heard of algea like this happening from bad water quality, but again, it's speculation. So what I do is try to go down the line of troubleshooting--
Get nitrates in the proper ppm. then go down the list..phosphates, potassium, and micros. Of course, if you only have minimal light, it isn't as crucial, so I work on water quality (doing more water changes) and removing infected leaves.
Start from there and see what happens down the road


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

if i read correctly, you said you are doing 3 35% water changes every week on a 55 gallon, that sounds a bit excessive, especially for a planted tank.


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## ssunnylee24 (Jan 10, 2008)

ok. so im gonna try to remove 2 plants that has BBA and get a new light bulb (about 100w). and do my water change and see what happens. thanks alot guys.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

I had BBA in my 125, but all my specs were fine. Excel got rid of it for me, YMMV.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

ssunnylee24 said:


> ok. so im gonna try to remove 2 plants that has BBA and get a new light bulb (about 100w). and do my water change and see what happens. thanks alot guys.


Don't remove the plants, only remove the leaves that are most infected









You might have a CO2 issue


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