# Relentless Staghorn



## WickedOdie (Aug 15, 2015)

Lets start with pictures.











Here is what I've done since our last thread. Co2 is constant and high. Water flow has been increased, I have since started to EI dose.

This stuff is now not just growing on my plants, but in inert substrate. 

My plan of action, I have about 100 par right now, 2x dual t5ho glo fixtures, with a glass top, so it should be about 60-70 par at the substrate. I'm going to remove a light bulb. Next I think I'm going to pull out my red mylio, cut all my crypts above the crowns,trim my moss. take the top layer of my gavel off and bleach it, probably pull out all my dwarf hair grass and clean it up and grow it emersed for a while?

I still cant figure out the cause.


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## WickedOdie (Aug 15, 2015)

Well here is what I did, for record keeping.

Reduced photo period by 1 hour. Instead of 10 hours it's now 9 hours. I cut all my crypts off at the substrate. If they come back they come back, if not, I like that I can actually see my driftwood now. I trimmed my java moss back, got rid of all the red myriophyllum. I brushed my driftwood with a tooth brush, I used H2HO on the DHG and substrate, let is sit for 20 minutes before turning all my filters and circ pumps back on. I removed foliage with staghorn on them. 

Lets see if this puts a dent into it.

I'd really like to find the cause.


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## dirbrit (Oct 8, 2014)

gud luck.. 

I reduced my lights from 6 to 5 hrs.. up to 6 now

50% water changes every other day for 3 weeks ..

my thinking.. the algae gets nutrients from the water column. the plants from the roots. 

not enough competition for nutrients in the water column. algae gets it.

I also put a bunch of duckweed in to remove nutrients from water column. was amazed how the duckweed multiplied... 

finally won the battle. the duckweed doesn't multiply any where near as it did.. 

I think i won,, lol


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## WickedOdie (Aug 15, 2015)

I read that reducing photo period to 6 hours might help. i was contemplating doing that too. 

Did you pick it out by hand or did it eventually just stop multiplying and die odd?


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Just a statement that I think is a common factor in algae threads.
Somewhere close to 90% of all algae threads state that either it was and they reduced
it or it still is at the time they made the algae thread. The tank has lights on for more than 8 hrs.
It is so simple to reduce the hrs/w a split photo period and still get A.M. and P.M. 
viewing hrs of your tank that I fail to see why everyone doesn't have that in their
tanks just for the added viewing time. I now get to view my tank much more since
I added a split photo period. Was either A.M. or P.M. but now is both.


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

Reduce light, i have it right now in small amounts, and i have learned to deal with it, in this hobby we can eradicate MOST algae, but it is always present in a healthy aquarium


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## WickedOdie (Aug 15, 2015)

i had it split before the staghorn started. With a 4 hour gap in the middle. I since changed it so there was no break in tbe middle. Back then I was having a problem with my co2 and every time it turned on I would lose flow. However I don't have that problem now, so I suppose I could go back to the break in the middle.

Bump:


sohankpatel said:


> Reduce light, i have it right now in small amounts, and i have learned to deal with it, in this hobby we can eradicate MOST algae, but it is always present in a healthy aquarium


I don't mind green dust algae, which is what I have in my drift wood. It gives it a nice touch. I can't stand how my DHG looks with staghorn all over it and the substrate. But since I put h2ho on some of it this morning it has turned a bright red. I'm hoping to see more die off.


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## Little Soprano (Mar 13, 2014)

I had staghorn to the point I was pulling fistfulls out at a time in my 40 gal.

Case in point:

















I dealt with this for literally 6 months. 

Solution:
First I actually went from a 6 hour photoperiod to an 8, and also switched from a small co2 system (I had the disposable cartridges), to a full pressurized system with a steady 3-4 bps. And I slowly increased that until my drop checker was a very strong green.
Second, flow flow flow flow. I originally just had a HOB filter (penguin 200), and a UGV powered by an AC30 on the other side of the tank. I got out two more AC30s, and placed one on each side of the tank, and quite honestly I believe they were the solution entirely. I have them turned all the way down, but it took no more then 2-3 weeks after the addition that it all went away. Its not so strong carpet plants won't hold down but it was enough that the staghorn was starting to disappear. 
Lastly, I went and got basically the fastest growing stems I could find. Elodea for one. I got two handfuls from my LFS, and threw them in there (just floating), and also rotala indica too. Having the stems along with a moderate EI dosing schedule, was the last key for me. I did end up changing the gravel to Eco also but that was due to a nasty bacterial infection and BBA on it. 

Now a year later, I can't even tell you the last time I had algae in my tank. Only thing I do have is a little bit that always grows on the spillway of the hob, but I don't worry about it much. 

The staghorn was a nasty one, I was tempted to throw in the towel actually, but now my tank is the easiest tank in the whole house. Hardly any work aside from trimming stems. 

This was back in January when it started to recover (also had a heater die so lost stems and gained algae):









It's looking cruddy right now since I just finished getting rid of 30+ pool comets and had to run an air bubbler 24/7 for a few weeks, so my stems were all hacked down, and replanted as 2" plants again, but its basically the above, minus the algae on the lava rocks. It takes some-time for the staghorn to die, but patience and a little effort and it will go away for good....


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## WickedOdie (Aug 15, 2015)

Little Soprano said:


> I had staghorn to the point I was pulling fistfulls out at a time in my 40 gal.
> 
> Case in point:
> 
> ...


Awesome thank you very much for the response. I'm starting to get green dust algae on my glass and some thread algae, so I'm thinking my lighting is out of wack. I'm going to reduce my photo period to 6 hours a day until everything clears up, then slowly increase it till I find a balance. I'm at 9 hours right now, but I'd rather get rid of it and slowly increase the light, than to decrease the light one hour and play tag with it until it's gone.

Again, thank you very much for the informative response, I'm glad someone has some real information on the stuff.


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## WickedOdie (Aug 15, 2015)

here is a little update

I reduced the photo period to 6 hours for a little over a week now, the staghorn is starting to turn red and is dying. I'm going to keep it up until I don't see anymore staghorn and or until the plants start to show signs of light deficiency.


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## WickedOdie (Aug 15, 2015)

Update two:

Almost all the staghorn is gone, I've not picked any out, it's simply just vanishing. There is no signs of any thread algae, and the green dust algae is at a minimum.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

I suspect that you overdosed the trace elements. Why? Because the staghorn grew on the older leaves' margins. This is one indication of micro-tox.


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## WickedOdie (Aug 15, 2015)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> I suspect that you overdosed the trace elements. Why? Because the staghorn grew on the older leaves' margins. This is one indication of micro-tox.


I got staghorn growing before I started dosing ferts. I started dosing ferts because I got staghorn.

I'm thinking a lot of it had to due with my co2 fluctuating. I used some pretty crappy plastic check valves that created back pressure and slowed down my co2 and made it fluctuate. I've since removed all check valves and my co2 is steady. 

However nothing I did was helping with the staghorn. Spot treatment would work but it would grow somewhere else and by the time I finished spot treating that, it would grow back elsewhere.

Reducing the photo period has worked excellent. And as there isn't much on the internet as to how to combat it, I thought I would document it for people with the same problem to find.

It looks as if excess light helps staghorn grown much like other aglaes.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

There may have been a potassium deficiency that resulted in the older leaves being prone to staghorn. Then once you dosed macros, this alleviated the potassium deficiency but this did not alleviate the damaged and algae-affected leaves.


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## WickedOdie (Aug 15, 2015)

Solcielo lawrencia said:


> There may have been a potassium deficiency that resulted in the older leaves being prone to staghorn. Then once you dosed macros, this alleviated the potassium deficiency but this did not alleviate the damaged and algae-affected leaves.


I haven't been dosing ferts since I reduced the photo period to 6 hours. Explain that one. 

I don't want to argue with you, but the proof is there. Photo period has something to do with staghorn.

I wont argue that something was out of wack to begin with. Be it a potassium deficiency, also associated with inconsistent co2. Could have been other things that attributed to it as well as that, too much light?

What caused it to grow on inert gravel? 

All I am saying is whatever it was, deficiencies, or over dosing, or fluctuating co2, whatever caused it didn't fix it when it was all balance. The staghorn continued to grow.

The only thing now that has seemed to put a dent in it as well as other algaes is the absence of light.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

WickedOdie said:


> I haven't been dosing ferts since I reduced the photo period to 6 hours. Explain that one.


Depends on how much you dosed and how large the water change was. In my high-light, heavily planted, CO2 tank, 0.1ppm of Fe from CSM+B per week is in the toxic range for micros.



> I don't want to argue with you, but the proof is there. Photo period has something to do with staghorn.


Light has something to do with photosynthesis. It's possible that staghorn needs more light or longer photoperiods, I don't know.



> What caused it to grow on inert gravel?


A symbiotic relationship with bacteria.


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