# Algae Killing My Moneywort?



## kell (Mar 24, 2012)

Update: I removed the stem from the tank and it was clear that the affected leaves were unlikely to recover. I removed them, sprayed the plant with H2O2, rinsed, and replanted. I saw a little of the stuff today on the plant but was able to rub it off - perhaps it was floating and got caught or maybe it regrew?

Doesn't anyone know what this stuff is?


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## chicken (Aug 22, 2007)

Staghorn algae? It looks like something I once had in one of my tanks. It was grayish white branchy stuff, and I thought it looked like pictures I'd seen of staghorn algae. 

I battled it for awhile, by manual removal and doing my best to keep co2 and dosing consistent. It finally went away completely when I upgraded to a canister filter. I don't know if that was because of better circulation, or better co2 levels now that I was no longer losing some from surface agitation with the HOB filter, or both.

Algae usually means that something is out of balance. Now that you've reduced your lighting, keep up with manually removing the algae, and work on keeping co2 and ferts consistent. 

How many bottles of diy co2 are you running? When I ran diy co2 on my 20 and 29 gallon tanks, I had two 2-liter bottles going at a time. I would refresh the mixture on one bottle one week, and then the other bottle the next week. (You may find that every two weeks works fine for you. I experimented and it seemed that every week worked best for me.) This kept co2 levels as consistent as possible. 

You might also want to add some easy, fast growing plants to the tank (I followed your link, and from the pictures it doesn't look like your tank is very heavily planted), even if you don't want to keep them all permanently. A tank with lots of healthy, fast growing plants will not be as hospitable an environment for algae.


Edited to add: Here's a link to an article about algae that may be helpful: 

http://gwapa.org/wordpress/articles/algae-in-the-planted-aquarium/


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## kell (Mar 24, 2012)

chicken said:


> Staghorn algae? It looks like something I once had in one of my tanks. It was grayish white branchy stuff, and I thought it looked like pictures I'd seen of staghorn algae.
> 
> I battled it for awhile, by manual removal and doing my best to keep co2 and dosing consistent. It finally went away completely when I upgraded to a canister filter. I don't know if that was because of better circulation, or better co2 levels now that I was no longer losing some from surface agitation with the HOB filter, or both.
> 
> ...


I was guessing a fungus related to the driftwood. I've seen several posts saying that driftwood could harbor a fungus; we soaked/brushed the driftwood for several days before placing it in the tank but didn't boil or disinfect (as I've read some people have done).

At any rate, that's what I was thinking before I got home from work and read your post and the article you referred to. Previously I assumed that it couldn't be staghorn if it was white/gray; however the article says otherwise. Furthermore, I noticed that two more stems that are a few inches further away from the driftwood than the stem that I removed/replanted Sunday are now being afflicted while no noticeable strands are on the nearby driftwood itself.

So I'm going with staghorn. I removed the two additional stems tonight, dipped them in a 1:20 bleach solution for 2 minutes and have them soaking in dechlorinated tap water plus H2O2. Tomorrow night I'll see if they're viable for replanting.

On the CO2, I have two bottles working well for about a week now so I feel I (finally) have the DIY CO2 problems solved.

As for adding fast-growing plans, I'd consider it. I may have to re-scape somewhat to accommodate and maybe abandon some of the not-so-fast growing Ludwigia.

I'm also going to try tweaking the positioning of the powerhead used overnight to see if I can get some better flow towards this problem section of the tank.


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