# algae id: diatom or Rhizoclonium?



## wespastor (Dec 20, 2009)

Bump??? Inquiring minds?


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## whitecheese4356 (Jul 24, 2011)

looks similar to what ive had.
i dosed double recommended of flourish excel and 3 day black out with water change everyday.
it was very effective at killing it.


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## eser21 (Apr 19, 2011)

I have this in my iwagami, i move my powerhead and its almost gone. This algae seems to be based on low flow. Also a toothbrush is the best way to remove from HC IME.


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## kuro (May 21, 2010)

I did a 4 day black out last week and overdose with excel this algae didn't even budge. I did water change every 3 days with tap which has almost no trace of silicane. however I switch to ro/di last two weeks and reduce the fertilizer and this algae still doubling it growth each day, light only on 4 hrs a day. I might just let it grow as much it want this week than remove as much algae I can and do 50% water change


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## malaybiswas (Nov 2, 2008)

This is diatom most likely. Get some amano shrimps.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk


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## kuro (May 21, 2010)

I thought it was diatom too but my Otto have not touch them


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## eser21 (Apr 19, 2011)

i have amanos and they dont touch it. Im not surprised otos dont though.. they are pretty fussy.


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## dooboogoo (Apr 19, 2007)

I've had some luck dosing H2O2. Killed it pretty quickly and my water looked like soda for a day. I'm not really sure if it'll come back yet, I'm still trying to remove all the death stuff from my driftwood.


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## kuro (May 21, 2010)

how much H2O2 did you dose per gallon? i never dose H2O2 so i don't know the amount


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

There are 2 kinds of diatoms, its been posted before.
I think oto's are partial to the slimy film variety, and not the filamentous variety. 
Amano's should eat this though no matter what it is.


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## dooboogoo (Apr 19, 2007)

I'm not really sure... i didn't exactly measure, but probably 1/4 cup for 20 gallons? you could probably use less if you squirt it directly onto the algae using a syringe.


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## Chlorophile (Aug 2, 2011)

Not sure why h2o2 killed it.
Anyway, I've used cups and cups of h2o2 in a 20 gallon before and never had ill effects other than some clouding. 
I read on this forum about someone using it and then losing a fish, but the fish was old, and I don't believe it was related, although the owner certainly did.
If you're spot treating, be sure to turn of the filter.


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## JeffHB (Feb 11, 2011)

appears to be diatoms, unfortunately the form has very little information on managing these guys. There are a number of "best practice" theories tho if you search the posts...


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## Francis Xavier (Oct 8, 2008)

Indeed diatoms.

Remove as much as you can manually while doing a 50% water change.

Add in 15 Amano Shrimp per 20 gallons and it will clear up over night. Do another water change, and you will be set.


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## kuro (May 21, 2010)

okay i think i won the battle, turn out it rhizoclonium. I took some of the brown algae out of the tank and let it dry up. When it dry up it turn green so i assume it rhizoclonium. So i did a 50% water change and add 3ml of excel per gallon. The next day it turn green and most it melted away. I did another major water change 2 days later and dose another 3 ml of excel per gallon. The fish is okay including the chilli rosboras, otto catfish and fire red shrimp. I wouldn't overdose excel because of the shrimp but i been adding 1ml of excel to 5.5 every day so most of the fish/invertebrate was expose to excel before the overdose to allow them adjust to the excel.


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