# What algae is this and why is the only thing pearling?



## iskandarreza (Jul 4, 2011)

I don't know if you guys can see it, but that's the clearest shot I could get of some kind of algae growing on my lava rock cave. It also happens to be the only thing I see pearling in my tank. I'm using DIY CO2, drop checker is lime green.


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## ghotifish (Feb 16, 2009)

Sorry, I can't really see it. Perhaps a description would help?


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## iskandarreza (Jul 4, 2011)

It's dark green, almost black, and grows only on the lava rocks. It's not fuzzy, it's not stringy, it's just there. I'm not sure if it's slimy or hard because the lava rock is rough. 

Here is another picture of what I think might be the same kind of algae, but it's growing on the driftwood:










It's no longer pearling now because the sunset hygrophilia has grown really large and probably is taking the lion's share of the CO2, on account of it being right in front of the spray bar (I'm using an in-line diffuser).

The picture is still not very clear because I've got this brownish-green film of some kind of algae growing on the glass which coats the glass again within 3 days of me scrubbing it with a toothbrush.

Then there's this other algae growing on some of the lava rocks:












Not sure if this is the same thing as above: 












And there's that stringy algae that grows long like a zig-zag light green thread amongst my java moss and another one that is greyish-green and fuzzy that grows under my java ferns and petite nana. 

There's algae everywhere. It's not that noticeable at a glance, but then it's there. 

Would it be a wise move to get 3 otos for this tank? It's 17.5g but probably only 15g now with all the hardscape. I've got 11 assorted corys and 8 zebras in there as it is, plus god knows how many snails I've dumped into that tank picked from the other tanks. They don't seem to be doing the job...


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## Robert H (Apr 3, 2003)

Blue/green algae, which is actually a form of bacteria and not algae. It can be killed with an anti-biotic, maracin.


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## Jaguar (Oct 13, 2011)

Looks like you've got quite the algae collection going on in there. Black brush/beard algae, Green spot algae, and Cyanobacteria (which isn't actually algae). Looks like my tank LOL. 

http://aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/

That should help you out or at least give you a good place to start.


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## ghotifish (Feb 16, 2009)

I agree with Jaguar, it looks like you've got all kinds of algae. I'm sorry. If it helps, I rarely have fewer than 3 types of algae going in my tank at a given time. A few green spots on the glass here, a tuft of BBA there, or bit of fuzz here. It happens. Now, you can post all your tank specs and we can try to pinpoint your problem (usually light, co2, ferts, flow, water quality, filtration, etc). We can also suggest a variety of remedies such as hydrogen peroxide or excel.

Good luck


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