# Tiny, long threads (with microscope photo). What is it?



## Tacoshooter (Oct 19, 2005)

*Another microscope shot*

Instead of doing quick and dirty, I managed to pull enough to prep a slide and got a better image out of the microscope. Based on this I'm thinking rhizo possibly?


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Maybe thread algae, but I'm no expert. My tank occasionally has long, fine individual strands of it like you describe. I thought I had identified it as thread algae, and I also looked at it under microcsope- looked like your second pic. I can't get it w/a toothbrush or by siphoning, but sometimes I pull off the longest strands by hand. Can only see them when the light is on. I find they crop up just after I've added root tabs (I think from extra nitrates or iron in the water) and it's slowly going away since I dimmed my light a bit.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Tacoshooter said:


> Hey guys.
> 
> Have a new type of algae that I haven't run into before and was wondering if anyone could give me an ID. Am dosing EI and have been doing pretty well from an algae standpoint over the past 8 weeks or so that the tank is up, but this one has me perplexed. Other than some green spot and diatoms, this hair-type has been the dominant strain and the only concerning one. It is anywhere from 2"-6" long, growing off of both slow growing plants and the substrate. Seems more prevalent in the front corner which gets the least flow; there is some on the stem plants but I suspect that it gets caught up there from blowing around the tank and doesn't originate on the stems.
> 
> ...


 Drop checker appear's in photo to be blue green and should be more yellow lime green.
Were it me, I would increase the CO2 a bit or..lower light intensity.
Bet if you were to move drop checker further down on the glass the color would be more blue= not enough CO2 for light energy being used.
Folk's usually place drop checker higher(easier to get to I guess) which would indicate more CO2 than they think or might be needed, for the gas content will be higher nearer the surface.


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## Tacoshooter (Oct 19, 2005)

*Sounds like the same stuff.*



JJ09 said:


> Maybe thread algae, but I'm no expert. My tank occasionally has long, fine individual strands of it like you describe. I thought I had identified it as thread algae, and I also looked at it under microcsope- looked like your second pic. I can't get it w/a toothbrush or by siphoning, but sometimes I pull off the longest strands by hand. Can only see them when the light is on. I find they crop up just after I've added root tabs (I think from extra nitrates or iron in the water) and it's slowly going away since I dimmed my light a bit.


Sounds very similar. With the lights dimmed, I can't really see it. It is most visible under full daylight and is very difficult to remove manually unless I can actually catch one of the longer strands. It's really very frustrating since I can't really remove it effectively.

One thought I'm considering is to re-scape the front corner areas where it has taken hold. I may pull everything out and get the top layer of substrate off, then peroxide dip and re-plant.

I'm not sure excess nitrates would be a cause since I'm always running excess nitrates with EI ... I'm a little leery of knocking back light since the Planted+ 24/7 is pretty borderline with just one of them. What I may do is adjust the light cycle to stagger the offset more; that should reduce the peak intensity.

I did put another 550 GPH powerhead in last night, hoping the flow helps some.

Bump:


roadmaster said:


> Drop checker appear's in photo to be blue green and should be more yellow lime green.
> Were it me, I would increase the CO2 a bit or..lower light intensity.
> Bet if you were to move drop checker further down on the glass the color would be more blue= not enough CO2 for light energy being used.
> Folk's usually place drop checker higher(easier to get to I guess) which would indicate more CO2 than they think or might be needed, for the gas content will be higher nearer the surface.


Good catch. I actually took that picture shortly after a water change ... usually the drop checker looks more like Mountain Dew. It's also a 5 kh solution.

I'm running ph 6.1-6.2 with a 2-2.5 kh and is right at the borderline where the shrimp start to panic and fish are breathing hard at peak. I re-calibrated the controller last night just to check, and it wasn't very far off. I may try to push it down a bit more. I feel like I'm running borderline for livestock though.

I definitely will move the drop checker down some. That's a good idea.


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## meowschwitz (Sep 6, 2011)

Spirogyra.


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## Tacoshooter (Oct 19, 2005)

*I think I'm making some headway.*

So over the past week I've tried to painstakingly locate the clusters of strands and pull them out by hand, using a length of CO2 tubing to collect as many as possible and then use my tongs to free them. The areas that were completely overrun, I pulled and then vacuumed thoroughly and replanted with unaffected plants.

This all sucked immensely, but it seems to have helped.

I do think it was triggered by some sort of CO2 issue, which I still can't figure out. My best guess is that my driftwood has started leaching tannins, because my water is still at a kH of 2.5 yet I moved my pH controller to turn on at 6.02 and off at 5.92, which should be lethal. It seems like I still even have room to add more CO2. I went so far as to add a second pH controller into the tank to confirm the first's data, and they synch up.

It almost has to be tannins, right?

Today's water change I pulled out all of the stem plants that had both the stranded algae and green spot. If they just had the stranded algae, I removed as well as I could and replanted. It ended up being a pretty major trim on stems, but I'm hoping it helps me stay on top of things.

I am considering getting a good needle valve and dumping the controller. The only hesitation I have is with the Finnex 24/7 it doesn't seem as clear cut when to begin and end injection. I'm also reconsidering running the Finnex just on a timer rather than the 24/7 mode -- reverting back to what I know. But hopefully none of that will be necessary as long as things clear up.


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## vision (Sep 29, 2015)

I have the exact same issue you're having, however, I do not have any wood in my tank.

What type of water are you using?


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## jmelvin (Aug 11, 2014)

I have the same stuff as well. I lot of manual removal weekly. I have noticed that if I reduce my flow it has helped greatly in the reduction of the algae. I've done the peroxide dosing and it didn't seem to affect the algae. My tank is dirt and no drift wood. I also use pps-pro.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk


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## Tacoshooter (Oct 19, 2005)

vision said:


> I have the exact same issue you're having, however, I do not have any wood in my tank.
> 
> What type of water are you using?


I'm using just tap water. It's from the surface around here and runs 2.5-3kh so actually is pretty good. When I was here a few years ago I used the same water supply and it produced my best tank ever. Might just be a coincidence but I know it can be successful.

I did take the wood out a couple of days ago and went to some stone I had in storage. The wood was an algae magnet and was attracting the cleanup crew to the point I felt other things were neglected. I'm going to be watching to see the effect the removal has on ph, but there's been none yet.

I'm currently running my controller on at 5.96 and off at 5.86. A 5 dkh drop checker is yellow and fish are noticeably bothered at the lower end of the range. So I don't think I have a CO2 issue.

Bump:


jmelvin said:


> I have the same stuff as well. I lot of manual removal weekly. I have noticed that if I reduce my flow it has helped greatly in the reduction of the algae. I've done the peroxide dosing and it didn't seem to affect the algae. My tank is dirt and no drift wood. I also use pps-pro.
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk


I've been doing manual removal and I think it's making a bit of a dent but there still isn't the improvement I would have expected. Doing it twice a week, Wednesday and Sunday, and then grabbing any stray strands I see. It is just incredibly difficult to remove however.

In reality it is only visible under max lighting and only when looking closely, so aesthetically it's not a terrible bother. But it limits my enjoyment knowing it is there, so I try to get it out.

Regarding the flow, I've upped my flow significantly and haven't really seen a dramatic difference. I'm running three ~250gph fans on a wave controller and I also swapped my 2215 out for a 2217. Overkill on a 60P but it doesn't seem to be hurting much.


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## Maryland Guppy (Dec 6, 2014)

Had a similar problem with this type of algae.
Tested my water and the KH dropped to nothing.
After adding CaCO3 and baking soda it is now gone.
All gone in like 4 days with a small amount of manual removal.


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## Edward (Apr 11, 2005)

jmelvin said:


> I have the same stuff as well. I lot of manual removal weekly. I have noticed that if I reduce my flow it has helped greatly in the reduction of the algae. I've done the peroxide dosing and it didn't seem to affect the algae. My tank is dirt and no drift wood. I also use pps-pro.
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk


Hi jmelvin,
I would try to dose 1/10th of the Solution #2 TE trace elements for few weeks and see what happens. 

Edward PPS


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## alcimedes (Dec 7, 2014)

Best way I've found to remove this type of algae is manually, with something like a nylon tube brush.

You need something with longer threads than a toothbrush, but I've found that once it starts wrapping around the nylon brush you can get the bulk of it.










Typically I found it growing in Java Moss where it can intertwine with the moss. In those cases I'll just chuck the bulk of the moss and let it regrow. More often then not the java moss comes right back, this time thread algae free.


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## Tacoshooter (Oct 19, 2005)

Nice, I'll give a longer-bristled brush a try.

Need it too, because just when I thought I was getting the upper hand, had a bit of a disaster and killed a lot of shrimp. I mentioned earlier that I'd pulled the piece of driftwood out; as it turns out the tannins must have been suppressing the ph more than I had thought. When I got home today, a couple of the cherry shrimp were swimming around and the rams were hiding near the intake.

I looked at the CO2 and it was ripping, with the controller struggling to keep it below 6.09 (it's set to come on at 5.97). It was already too late; most of the amanos were dead on the substrate.

Interesting enough though, despite the high CO2 -- clearly it must have been good for the past couple of days -- there was a very large outbreak of the algae during the day. I realize the two probably aren't directly correlated, but it's more ammo that I really haven't had an ongoing CO2 problem.

I took the step of pulling one of the Finnex Planted+ 24/7 lights off and am running with just one light. I guess this gets me more into the low/medium light category, but at this point I'm not sure what else to do. The stuff is getting the best of me -- it gets out of hand in a day or less.


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## vision (Sep 29, 2015)

I use tap water, as well.

Switched to Seachems liquid line as I was using dry ferts prior. I have a BML led 6 inches above my tank @ 45% intensity and pushing co2 as high as possible until the shrimp start trippin about it and I still have this algae. 

I'm starting to think it's the water. We are very far apart so I don't know if thats a valid culprit but I have been planning on getting an RO system. 

I will update you once I stop being lazy and pick one up cause it's not as noticeable until you _really_ start looking at it.


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## Tacoshooter (Oct 19, 2005)

Sounds like we are doing the same things. 

My CO2 is also completely ripping with a 5dkh drop checker at yellow and at the edge of shrimp stress using a controller. I am using dry ferts for nitrate and phosphate, and the Seachem line for micros, as well as Excel.

For the past week that I've been down to one light, the algae has become more manageable; I only have to remove every couple of days and it no longer grows dense enough that I can see it without specifically looking. But it's still there, waving at me.

I did add the second light back in at 60% intensity at 30 minutes twice a day, concentrated on the stems. Figured it was worth a try since I'm starting to see the rotala struggle. I ripped out a set of stems that was particularly afflicted and tossed them and am hoping it helps. 

Really getting at my wits end though. I've never had anything like this on aquariums with even higher light than the two Planted+ I have currently. Starting to think about tossing the lights and switching to something else.


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## vision (Sep 29, 2015)

Glad to hear that you're getting it manageable. 

I picked up a little Koralia 240 power head last Tuesday Feb. 2nd, and the extra flow has *really* made a big difference. It hasn't been a week yet, however, some of the algae is starting to slowly cut back! Water change coming up this Sunday and I'm going to mechanically remove as much as possible. Hopefully it doesn't grow back after that point.

Also, I started to notice my Blyxa Alternifolia start to get some red coloring this week. They lost all their red when I first planted them. 

Coincidence?


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## Tacoshooter (Oct 19, 2005)

*Yuck.*

In mid-Feburary I had to turn the second light back on because I was starting to have a lot of die-off and general poor health of the plants. Lost most of my red plants. I don't think I can successfully run the tank long term on one light. 

With the return of the second light though, the long hair algae has gotten unmanageable again. I pulled out all of my s. repens foreground and replanted so that I could suction it out of the substrate ... but two or three days later, it was back again. The stem plants are just covered in it. I try to remove it daily but it seems like a losing battle.

I don't know what to do. 

I'm considering just tearing the whole thing down, moving the tank to a different location (side benefit, would be in a little darker room) picking the best plants and peroxide dipping them before re-scaping. My sneaking suspicion is that it will come right back however.


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## Tacoshooter (Oct 19, 2005)

*Made the decision last night.*

I'm going to tear down, peroxide dip the plants and spray a peroxide solution on the substrate, and then move the tank's location to somewhere that gets less sun.

I'm about at my wits end so it is drastic measures time.


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## Tacoshooter (Oct 19, 2005)

*Update*

As I mentioned above, I did a teardown, peroxide and Excel dip, and actually moved the tank to a new location where there was less sunlight. I also vacuumed out the top layer of substrate, cleaned the filter and replaced the reactor.

Everything was quiet for about a week; I could tell the plants had been stressed but were recovering. Unfortunately just as the plants started recovering, the thread-like algae did as well. By week 2 it had come back just as strong.

Since I had some success going down to one light (at the expense of the plants) I decided to try running with two lights but at about 1/4 the macro ferts (my med-light routine) and a significant dial back of the CO2. It's only been a few days now and the threads seem to be much less dense.

My plan now is to experiment with the CO2 and macros to see if there is a specific one that inhibits or encourages the growth of this algae.


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