# Help! How do I get rid of this algae?



## robmcd (Sep 8, 2020)

Following, as I am starting to have the same issue.


----------



## Bunsen Honeydew (Feb 21, 2017)

Looks like Staghorn to me. Long term, you need to have a better balance of nutrients, plant density and light. You might be OK once your plants grow in more. The easiest way to remove it is with glutaraldehyde (Excel, Easy Carbon), but as you have said, it can damage your val. Do you see the algae on new growth too? Perhaps you should shorten your photoperiod.


----------



## AquaticBlaze (Sep 14, 2020)

Hello, thank you for responding.
The algae doesn’t seem like it’s growing on the new growth. It’s growing on my trident and java fern, Anubias, dwarf saggitaria, a little bit at the bottom of rotala bonsai, my submersible circulation pump, and there’s some on the substrate. My vallisneria is already starting to melt probably because it has just been put in my tank, so I’m not sure if I can add liquid carbon. I also have heard that if you introduce liquid carbon slowly(less amounts at the beginning and increase through time) the vallisneria will come back and get used to it. I am not sure if I should take the risk and add liquid carbon or not. I am also thinking of possibly getting a co2 system but they are very expensive so I’m not sure if I can get that right now. What would you recommend to do to get rid of this algae?


----------



## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

you have a bit of slow growers in there. I do see the rotala in the corner but I think some other fast growers out there will help soak the excess nutrients before the algae does. some floaters are always great idea as they will also shade some of the light. 

I don't think adding carbon right now is going to help, you need to get more plant mass first before it'll make a difference. get some quick growers and then it'll actually be helpful. The slow growers won't make a big impact unless the tank is super stocked with those first


----------



## AquaticBlaze (Sep 14, 2020)

Thanks for the advice, I am currently just letting my plants grow out without trimming. I am getting one more plant for this tank and its Ludwigia Arcuata. I might think of floaters but wouldn’t that slow down the growth of the other plants and take away their light? Is it better to let the stem plants grow out or trim them and replant? And should I decrease the amount of fertilizer I dose temporarily?


----------



## Eric Tran (Jul 7, 2016)

I had the same in my shrimp tank. Stag horn algae. I turned off the filters and lights and dosed 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per gallon of water and mixed it around the tank, turned back on filters after 1 hour. Did this for 3 days in a row and all the algae turned red and died off.


----------



## mourip (Mar 15, 2020)

I had staghorn for a while along with a bit of green spot algae. I turned up my CO2 a bit and dosed with Seachem Excell and it all died in a few days.

Dealing with BBA now. Much harder!

I am probably overfeeding...


----------



## AquaticBlaze (Sep 14, 2020)

What I did to get rid of BBA is dose Mardel Maracyn which I got from aquarium coop and dosed 1 packet per 10 gallons and boom it’s gone


----------



## ahem (Dec 27, 2014)

I have found that spot treatments with H2O2 and dosing with excel helped my algae problems go away. The algae that seem most vulnerable to H2O2 are the thready ones like yours. I noticed with some like BBA, that my shrimp at the time did not have interest in, they would get interested after I "BBQ'd" with H2O2. Use sparingly as dangerous to fish and tank animals.

I think you want to get rid of dead matter also, if you see anything too far gone, clip it and get it out of there.


----------



## mourip (Mar 15, 2020)

AquaticBlaze said:


> What I did to get rid of BBA is dose Mardel Maracyn which I got from aquarium coop and dosed 1 packet per 10 gallons and boom it’s gone


Maracyn advertises as safe for snails and shrimp. 

Has anyone seen issues with it for any tank inhabitants? Will it affect beneficial bacteria causing a new cycle?


----------



## Bunsen Honeydew (Feb 21, 2017)

AquaticBlaze said:


> Hello, thank you for responding.
> The algae doesn’t seem like it’s growing on the new growth. It’s growing on my trident and java fern, Anubias, dwarf saggitaria, a little bit at the bottom of rotala bonsai, my submersible circulation pump, and there’s some on the substrate. My vallisneria is already starting to melt probably because it has just been put in my tank, so I’m not sure if I can add liquid carbon. I also have heard that if you introduce liquid carbon slowly(less amounts at the beginning and increase through time) the vallisneria will come back and get used to it. I am not sure if I should take the risk and add liquid carbon or not. I am also thinking of possibly getting a co2 system but they are very expensive so I’m not sure if I can get that right now. What would you recommend to do to get rid of this algae?


If it is not growing on the new growth, it seems like you are making progress towards being balanced and its probably just a matter of killing the staghorn. Starving it takes awhile, I killed mine with glut last time, but nuked my val. you could spot treat with glut, or pull out objects/plants for treatment. You could also pull out the val, treat the tank, then put the val back. In my experience, staghorn can be killed with glut in 3-4 days.


----------



## AquaticBlaze (Sep 14, 2020)

Bunsen Honeydew said:


> If it is not growing on the new growth, it seems like you are making progress towards being balanced and its probably just a matter of killing the staghorn. Starving it takes awhile, I killed mine with glut last time, but nuked my val. you could spot treat with glut, or pull out objects/plants for treatment. You could also pull out the val, treat the tank, then put the val back. In my experience, staghorn can be killed with glut in 3-4 days.


Thanks again, I’m going to slowly introduce glut again, by doing the half amount of dosage recommended every other day, then increase it to help the val as much as possible. Should I keep the light intensity, duration, and amount of ferts I’m dosing the same other then the easy carbon? Currently the intensity is 50%, 6 hours a day, and dosing easy iron and green one a week. Should I bump it up to 70% 9 hours a day, and dosing twice a week like I did a couple days ago? I’ll keep you updated.



mourip said:


> AquaticBlaze said:
> 
> 
> > What I did to get rid of BBA is dose Mardel Maracyn which I got from aquarium coop and dosed 1 packet per 10 gallons and boom it’s gone
> ...


It will not affect the beneficial bacteria dramatically. Just make sure you add more bacteria the next day after dosing. That’s what I did and all went well. My fish ended up fine and the wild snails in my tank survived, not sure about shrimp though.


----------



## [email protected] (Jul 15, 2018)

Just get like 2 or 3 amano shrimp they will clear that up in a few days


----------



## half3e (Sep 15, 2020)

Try seachem excel, follow the instructions but dose half instead. full doses will kill your Val. Full doses always kill my neo-c shrimp. small dosing seems to be ok. it elimnates stag, green and black thread alage. helps a bit with spot algae. dont follow the instruction about initial dose. its too much for some plants like vals and crpyts. please update us


----------



## j_iffy (May 29, 2020)

My best recommendation for long term would be to look into getting some sort of CO2 system.

For now, I would turn the light intensity down some and decrease the photo period by an hour or so and try to dose the minimal amount of excel daily.Take it all slow though so it doesn't have too much of an affect on the rest of the tank- stealing words of someone else but it's stuck with me- nothing good in an aquarium comes quickly (make slow changes and over time it'll all even out). You're just still looking for that balance between light-ferts-C02.

My vals didn't like the excel at first but grew back just fine.


----------



## Gauravbhedi (Sep 6, 2020)

Use toothbrush to clean algae from hardscape and then.
1) Cut the leaves which are heavily infected.
2) Use H2O2 spot treatment.
3) Change water.
4) Add 10 Amano shrimps.
5) add 10 Otocinclus catfish.


----------

