# I got crap on my plants(pics)



## confuted (Jan 31, 2007)

That looks like diatoms to me...


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

ok...so what can I do about it? Also, what is the yellowing from?


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## Naja002 (Oct 12, 2005)

I get GSA on my anubias from either too much light, too little P or both......

Also, Maybe I missing it, but I don't see anything that looks like BBA.....

HTH


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

alrighty what do you think it looks like?


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## Naja002 (Oct 12, 2005)

I really don't know, so hopefully someone else will come along and know.

I don't see anything in the 3rd pic, but maybe I'm just missing it.

In this anubias Pic I'm not sure what's in the red square. In the blue square looks possibly like a small tuff of BBA or staghorn--but its really hard to tell if its anything at all from that pic:










In this Pic I assume You are referring to what's on the leaf tips inside the red squares, Right? If so, I really don't know what it is. From the pic it looks like a deficiency--is there algae there? I cannot tell. Diatoms looks reasonable:










Sorry I cannot be of more help!


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

in the pciture with the anubias, that is java moss. The amazon pic does have some kind of algae on it at the ends with yellow tips on some of them.


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## Ryzilla (Oct 29, 2005)

in the third pic it looks like a combination of GSA and Fuzz algae.


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

well im more concerned about the algae on the amazon swords so if anyone can help me that would be great...


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

i found some info about the yellowing of the tips and it said it could be a calcium def. I added some calcium to the tank but im wondering how often and how much I should add?? I have calcium chloride.


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## Naja002 (Oct 12, 2005)

From what I understand Calcium deficiencies are pretty rare. Potassium and Calcium deficiencies can look alike. Also, the calcium is going to harden Your water. From my experience with hard water and reading--the odds are much more in favor of needing Mg (Epsom Salt). Do You have a calcium test kit? It would help You determine the Gh make up of Your tap water: X=Calcium--the rest is Mg. There is a Ca:Mg ratio. There isn't a Ca:Mg ratio. I guess it really depends on who You ask and which day of the week. Either way, I don't recall what it is (3-4:1?), so a quick search should answer that question.

If its a "Calcium deficiency" the odds are that its not a lack of ca--its something else lacking/blocking Ca uptake.

Also, if it was a Ca Deficiency--I would assume--that You would also be getting the twisted, distorted leaves.

HTH


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Rach, Are you dosing EI? Also, one site maintains Diatoms can be from an excess of PO4 and limited KNO3 in lower light areas. Scroll down and check out this great link:

http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

yes i use the EI dosing method. I dose 1/2 tsp of kno3 and 1/4 of phosphate and 1/4 of potassium and csm+b. Is that a good amount of each? 

Also, is a 40% water change good to do every week? because that is what ive been doing for ever.


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

I had both problems and here's what I did with successful results;

The black diatom frost you see mostly near the bottom of slow growth plants will go away after 4-5 treatments with 2/3rd dose of ChemiClean Red Slim Remover, then maintain it with one treatment per Month. Only use this approach if you have a long established tank since a new tank will temporarily have diatoms anyway that should reduce naturally over time.

The Green Spot Algae growing on your leaves is probably growing on your glass as well. You can reduce it by shortening your light period down to 6-8 hours which is really all your plants need anyway. you can completely removed it by pruning the leaves it appears, and cleaning your glass with an exfoliant sponge, but this sponging may have to be repeated every few weeks.

Using a UV during the first 24 hours after a internal glass cleaning, water change, gravel vacuum, or filter media, rinse may also reduce the amount that these two problems reassert themselves, since the UV will kill them while they are water borne before they have a chance to migrate to a new surface after your maintenance activity displaced them.

I don't think increasing Nitrate dosing is doing you any good unless your Nitrates are normally low, like under 5ppm.


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

is the chemiclean a spot treatment or added to the whole tank?


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

yeah, you have to use a Q-Tip and dabb every single black spot with....

of course it's a tank treatment, LOL... that's why I used the word _dose_.

I'm just fun'in yah. search here for "chemiclean" as we've discussed it before.

most say 1/2 dose. I did 2/3rd cause I'm a rebel, and my fish are tough...


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

HAHA...i thought you were serious at first...lol

I did a search for it on the forum but came up with nothing.


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

so this chemiclean will get rid of the diatoms on my plants? I googled it and it said it was used from saltwater slime or something, nothing about diatoms. Will this harm my fish at all?


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## Chrona (Feb 25, 2007)

Hmmmm, interesting. I have the EXACT same thing on my swords as well, and my anubias nana. Lemme know if that chemiclean works out


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Personally, I would try upping the CO2 and keep the light to 10 hours per day with a full blast at midday for four-five hours and half light the balance of the photo period (depending upon your light and water column).


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

Betowess said:


> Personally, I would try upping the CO2 and keep the light to 10 hours per day with a full blast at midday for four-five hours and half light the balance of the photo period (depending upon your light and water column).


well i cant really do the full blast thing becuase i only have 2wpg for 100 gallon....i have increased the co2 but i will increase my lighting also. 

what do you think about the chemiclean idea?


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Snake oil remedy? Never heard of it. Of course I've heard of and used the Excel spot treatment for BBA and some others, but chemiclean? What? 

And a UV clarifier won't do squat to clear up GSA. I haven't a clue where he came up with that one. Their just good for green water algae.

You probably need more light to bump up the plant growth. Swords actually do better with a lot of light. I re-started a tank recently and packed it full of stems. In a little over a month the tank has pretty much balanced with 10 hour photoperiod (5 hours full) and near full EI dosing. Its a Tek light on a 90 gallon with 216 watts, but with really good reflectors on each T5... Plants are pearling like crazy. BTW, fastest growing plant I've ever used was LAGAROSIPHON MADAGASCARIENSIS. Tremendous algae buster, but very weed/invasive. But who cares if it balances a tank fast. Or Stargrass or most Hygrophilas are other good algae busters.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...s.php?id=102&category=genus&spec=Lagarosiphon

Maybe your light is the limiting factor. Perhaps EI full dose is too much at 2 WPG?


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## Chrona (Feb 25, 2007)

Betowess said:


> Snake oil remedy? Never heard of it. Of course I've heard of and used the Excel spot treatment for BBA and some others, but chemiclean? What?
> 
> And a UV clarifier won't do squat to clear up GSA. I haven't a clue where he came up with that one. Their just good for green water algae.
> 
> ...


He was saying to turn on the UV when scraping/cleaning. Meaning the algae will be waterborne.


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

Betowess said:


> Snake oil remedy? Never heard of it. Of course I've heard of and used the Excel spot treatment for BBA and some others, but chemiclean? What?
> 
> And a UV clarifier won't do squat to clear up GSA. I haven't a clue where he came up with that one. Their just good for green water algae.
> 
> ...



I got my lighting from ahsupply. i have 2 96watt kits and i was actually thinking about getting two more 55watt kits making my lighting about 3 wpg. Would that over welm me??

What would you recommend me dosing then for the amount of lighiting I do have? I currently dose kno3 at 1/2 tsp., and phosphate, csm+b, and potassium at 1/4tsp.


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

I got my lighting from ahsupply. i have 2 96watt kits and i was actually thinking about getting two more 55watt kits making my lighting about 3 wpg. Would that over welm me??

What would you recommend me dosing then for the amount of lighiting I do have? I currently dose kno3 at 1/2 tsp., and phosphate, csm+b, and potassium at 1/4tsp.


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## Naja002 (Oct 12, 2005)

RachPreach said:


> I got my lighting from ahsupply. i have 2 96watt kits and i was actually thinking about getting two more 55watt kits making my lighting about 3 wpg. Would that over welm me??
> 
> What would you recommend me dosing then for the amount of lighiting I do have? I currently dose kno3 at 1/2 tsp., and phosphate, csm+b, and potassium at 1/4tsp.


My Opinion is: People start out with Too Much Light--and then wonder Why they have so many problems. In Your case, I would suggest that once You can eliminate algae problems--*long-term*--then up the light. Until then just stick with what You have. Adding more light is just going to compound any algae problems and speed things up--problems show up faster and get worse faster. I have stayed in the 2+wpg range for a while now (2yrs). I rarely have any algae problems that are not a direct result of my own laziness(--one of the reasons I like Auto-dosing!) And things are just now really starting to come together for me mentally. I am finally understanding the things that the Gurus have been saying--and it all males sense. My Opinion is: Just wait on more light for now.

Sorry, but I don't EI nor do I dose by the tsp/tbsp method, so I cannot help You out on that. :tongue: 

HTH


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

I basically agree with Naja. You have a fair fish load in there too, but certainly not too much. Try some heavy water changes, maybe two regular ones in a week to reset and maybe back off the KNO3 just a little for a week and see if things improve. If you have any greenspot, keep the PO4 where you have it. Experiment around with that for now. If no improvement try again with slightly reduced PO4 and traces. You may be really close to having it balanced. But that is pretty close to low mid light, so you probably can't dose full EI, is my best guess. Excel will certainly help too for a few weeks, if you have some and care to spend that kind of money.


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

So everything in my dosing looks ok?? I will lower my kno3 to 1/4tsp. 

I do have excel that i was thinking about spot treating the places with it or hydrogen peroxide which has worked for me in the past.


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## ianmoede (Oct 1, 2004)

At first glance, the title reads, ive got crap on my pants. HAH.


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

ianmoede said:


> At first glance, the title reads, ive got crap on my pants. HAH.


OMG Im rolling right now laughing at what you wrote....I never even thought of that...

BTW... i do NOT have crap on my pants....just on my plants...:hihi:


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

ok I spot treated some of my plants with hydrogen peroxide to see if that would help with the diatoms aka "crap" on my plants. It seems like its every where. I hope this works becuase the only other thing i know to do it get a bunch of ottos...


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## obet_07304 (Jul 23, 2006)

Rach, any update on your problem? Im having the same problems w/ my Amazon right now. Just started to lower my lighting from 260W to 130W & started dosing 1/4 KNO3 & 1/8 KH2PO4 & K2SO4 (w/c I hope is enough). My fixture only have 1 cord (the old style) so the full photo period for 4hrs I cannot do.


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

umm its not really improving any. today i spot treated with excel so ill see how that works...Im in the same boat with my lighting, all of my lights are attached with one cord..

you think there would be something proven to get rid of diatoms but no one seems to know...


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## obet_07304 (Jul 23, 2006)

Hang in there. I will try the 130W for 10hrs & do regular dosing for 2 weeks. I will update you if everything works out w/ the plants. Thanks.


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## Digsy (Mar 4, 2006)

Hey RachPreach, please keep us updated on your progress. I've been following this thread because I have the same problem and am going to try just cutting back on KN03 for now. Let me know how the hydrogen peroxide works out. This stuff is so annoying


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

i just bought 5 ottos so i have 8 total now. Hope they help out...


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## ToYoTa (Jan 30, 2007)

This is my Sword














































Are there any suggestions on the ferts. that i am definitely missing. Help
I've been dosing 2Tbs of pmmd from greg watson 4 times week. 10ml flourish micro 4 times week. 5ml Flourish Iron 3 times week. lights 12hr day 4.4 watts 55gal tank. I just check the phosphate @ .5 Nitrate 80 two questions 2nd one is why aint my plants useing up the Nitrates?


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

well, ive been spot treating my swords and dwarf sag with flourish excel and i think its definitely helping. My dwarf sag is actually growing in better without the diatoms.


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## Digsy (Mar 4, 2006)

I decided to give up ferts altogether, at least for a week or so. I've been going between one form of algae to another and think maybe I should just start with a clean slate! Glad to hear that the Excel is working for you Rach.


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## obet_07304 (Jul 23, 2006)

RachPreach said:


> well, ive been spot treating my swords and dwarf sag with flourish excel and i think its definitely helping. My dwarf sag is actually growing in better without the diatoms.


How about the amazon sword? Is the crap going away? Thanks.


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

yeah the ottos i think are getting the job done. I havent spot treated in a few days.


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## obet_07304 (Jul 23, 2006)

Finally, got pics:


















As I stated previously can't even rub it off:icon_mad: 
Any suggestion or ID of this crap will be very helpful. Thanks.


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## Daniel Morris (Aug 25, 2006)

Wow - very interesting thread to me, because I've been having the same problem for a while now. By a while I mean the last year.. I'm in the kind of hopeless state where I've let things go for a while without doing any maintenance or anything... But coming across this post gives me some hope that perhaps i can get rid of this problem.

I use to dose pretty heavily with excel but Tom Barr gave me advice to ween off excel for a while in order to avoid another problem I was running into. I think I'll try picking back up with Excel now to see if I can mitigate the problem.

BTW this grows like crazy on ALL my anubias.

I'm considering making a big investment soon and I was wondering it a UV filter would help this... sounds like its not a big help unless you're making large water changes on a regular....


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## obet_07304 (Jul 23, 2006)

Daniel Morris said:


> Wow - very interesting thread to me, because I've been having the same problem for a while now. By a while I mean the last year.. I'm in the kind of hopeless state where I've let things go for a while without doing any maintenance or anything... But coming across this post gives me some hope that perhaps i can get rid of this problem.
> 
> I use to dose pretty heavily with excel but Tom Barr gave me advice to ween off excel for a while in order to avoid another problem I was running into. I think I'll try picking back up with Excel now to see if I can mitigate the problem.
> 
> ...


Daniel if you have the same problem as mine don't waste your money on a UV. Just my 2cent.


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

yeah i have a uv and ive still got this algae.

Obet, those pics you posted look alot like mine except that stuff grows on the edges of my leaves of my swords. It also grows on my dwarf sag too. I can rub mine off ethier. I still have mine so the ottos are failing me 

Some one has got to know how to get rid of diatoms(im assuming thats what this crap is...)


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## obet_07304 (Jul 23, 2006)

Rach, your lucky that at least you can rub them off.


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## Daniel Morris (Aug 25, 2006)

yeah there's no way I'm able to rub this crap off.. it has taken over my Anubias COMPLETELY.. although I'm still seeing new growth which gives me hope....

obet - thanks for the advice. I won't get a UV sterlizer. I'm guessing most of my tank problems arise from inconcistency of dosing. skip a day here and there, and the whole thing goes to hell...

SO whats the concensus on the "crap?" Is it a result of not cleaning enough? Is it diatom fest 2k7? 

I've always had this stuff in my tanks over the last 4 or 5 years but its never been the biggest issue so I didn't hone in on it, but I feel like you just don't see this in the prize winning tanks...


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## Daniel Morris (Aug 25, 2006)

Also - to see if Ottos can solve the issue in my tank i went out and bought 10 to scour my 72 gallon.

I'm sticking to a strict EI schedule for the next two weeks to see if anything changes. After that I may start dosing with Excel depending on if you really think Excel is helping Rach.

Rach you're using 4+ wpg right? It seems like everyone who has this problem is using high light..


What are your water parameters Obet?


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## obet_07304 (Jul 23, 2006)

Daniel Morris said:


> yeah there's no way I'm able to rub this crap off.. it has taken over my Anubias COMPLETELY.. although I'm still seeing new growth which gives me hope....
> 
> obet - thanks for the advice. I won't get a UV sterlizer. I'm guessing most of my tank problems arise from inconcistency of dosing. skip a day here and there, and the whole thing goes to hell...
> 
> ...



Your welcome. I have the same problem in my Anubias but only like 3-4 leaves affected & still showing new growth. I think this is an UNKNOWN algae/diatom (crap) we have on our tanks:icon_wink


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## obet_07304 (Jul 23, 2006)

Daniel Morris said:


> Also - to see if Ottos can solve the issue in my tank i went out and bought 10 to scour my 72 gallon.
> 
> I'm sticking to a strict EI schedule for the next two weeks to see if anything changes. After that I may start dosing with Excel depending on if you really think Excel is helping Rach.
> 
> ...


Daniel, keep me updated w/ your Otto experiment. I'll probably but 5 more if they work for you. Right now, I don't test anymore (Test kit crappy). See thread: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/water-parameters/47046-high-po4-no3.html Thanks & Good Luck.


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## Daniel Morris (Aug 25, 2006)

Couple responses after reading through the entire thread...

First let me correct myself: NOT everyone experiencing this problem is using high light.

Rach, regarding your dosing schedule: If I understand correctly you're dosing the following:

1/4 tsp KNO3 (used to dose at 1/2 tsp till recently)
1/4 tsp KH2PO4
1/4 tsp KSO4

And you have a 100 gallon tank moderately(?) planted with 96 watts on top.

If this is correct - I definitely think you're going to see more problems if you lower your dosing. I used the fertilator to calculate how much you're adding to the tank and it would seem the current dosing schedule is limiting plant growth.

This is whats being added to the tank 3x a week:

Nitrate:  4.21 ppm
PO4: 2.58 ppm
Potassium: 5.62 ppm 

To quote Tom Barr from the Estimative Index, the ideal ranges for these nutrients are:

Nitrate: 5 - 30
PO4: 1 - 3
Potassium: 10 - 30 

While different hobbyists may debate the various _*methods*_ of maintaining these nutrient levels in an aquarium, I don't know of anyone who debates the actual ranges. That being said I should never underestimate the possibility of someone actually saying I'm totally wrong because those ranges may be a few ppm off on either ends... but lets assume Tom's right. That means your dosing schedule is undernourishing the plants...

And for a just a second lets just make sure we're all on the same page about excess nutrients. *Excess nutrients will rarely cause algae outbreaks in your aquarium* especially if you're doing big water changes every week.

The assumption that you must limit your nutrients to control algae is an outdated assumption that many of us believed for a long time. I've been reading this for a few years, and have even observed this by experimenting with my own tank - its true. I'm no scientist but I've researched and experimented enough to know this is true. Tom Barr and many others have been saying this over and over again (see the EI and search for "excess") but its hard and it takes a long time to debunk myths in a hobby like ours i guess. I was just reading about this in Greg Watson's Guide to Dosing Strategies (well worth the purchase).

Here is another good post that debunks the myth that excess po4 causes algae outbreaks. Its educational but also somewhat entertaining because its just classic... old habits/ideas die hard...

Given that you are doing a 40-50% water change each week, and given that my calculations are correct I think you would be better off adding the following 3 times a week:

Nitrate: 10 (about)
PO4: 2 (about)
Potassium: 10 (about)

That means adding:

KNO3: 1.25 tsp
KH2PO4: 1/4 tsp
KSO4: 1/4 tsp

So in other words I would just increase your KNO3 (not lower it). That would be my two cents on changing your dosing strategy... *Digsy* - I don't know anything about your setup but I don't think that lowering KNO3 dosing would help anything...

Getting back to the central issue: what is this crap and why won't it leave me alone? I think that Nitrates are not the problem here, and I say that because I dose adequate KNO3 with 220 watts over 72 gallons and Rach doses less KNO3 with 96 watts over 96 gallons and we BOTH have this problem...

It seems like *Spypet* is the only contributor to this thread that actually got past this problem. I'm going to try and look around to see what people are saying about Chemiclean - I also wouldn't rush to the conclusion that a chemical that may help with the removal of algae is "snake oil."

I just got the ottos a few days ago and I would like to think that they are helping already! but maybe I'm just being hopeful...

Another question I have is this: Rach or anyone else experiencing this problem, do you have any red plants? and if so are they growing well? Mine are doing awful and I wonder if the problem is related...
*
Chrona* - if you're running into the same problem could you post your setup an details?

*Toyota* - Do you have the calculations handy for what nutrients are being added to your tank when you dose your pmdd? I've never dosed pmdd and so have never done the calculations for it...

*Obet* - i saw that post as well as the one on Barr's forum.. Looks like you've had a hard time getting straight answers.. . I also decided to lower my photoperiod to 8 hours. The idea being that it won't hurt anything, and with almost 4 wpg it will just slow things down so I can get a better idea of whats happening in the tank before I make any decisions to change my dosing schedule or my general idea of whats causing the problem. As for it being an unknown algae type.. I'm not sure. I mean I've looked at a bunch of algae websites describing the different kinds, and I'm not seeing anything that really resembles it.. I hope that someone else takes a look at this thread and can tell us definitely whether or not its diatoms or not.

Maybe we can figure this out by looking at all the factors in all our tanks and seeing what is common.roud: 

Sorry for the long post, but had a lot of ideas to throw out there...:icon_wink


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## ToYoTa (Jan 30, 2007)

I just got kn03, kh2p04,ks04 thanks to rex griggs so im strating to dose now what does the calculator say for 55gal 4x55W CF lighting 1bps co2 thanks
currently after three days kno3 is 10-15ppm po4 is 10ppm<--long story and going down daily from plant uptake


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## Daniel Morris (Aug 25, 2006)

I assume you're also dosing flourish or CSM+B? Let us know if the stuff goes away. I've been out of town alot in the past few weeks so my problem has been inconsistent dosing. For the next three weeks though I'm devoted to getting rid of this stuff so I'm going to be consistent. Let us know if the problem improves...


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## Digsy (Mar 4, 2006)

Ok, as far as my setup for comparison:

58 gallon, 3.3 WPG
Nitrates: 5.0ppm
pH: 6.0
Phosphate: 5ppm
KH: 1 GH: 4
CO2: 30ppm 

I'm dosing EI Greg Watson dry ferts:
1/2Tsp-KN03 3x a week
1/8Tsp-KH2P04 3x a week
1/8Tsp-Flourish Trace 3x a week

50 - 60% water change weekly

I did stop dosing all ferts for one week and noticed no difference. After that, I returned to normal dosing with the exception of KH2PO4...no difference. I also purchased 6 ottos and left on a 5 day vacation. When I returned, there was also no difference there either, although I noticed that the ottos were munching on a little algae. 

Nothing I do seems to work. I'm hoping we can find out what the common problem is here...


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

i cant rub this stuff off either. And i have 2wpg over my tank Daniel morris....


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## Digsy (Mar 4, 2006)

My algae is starting to fade a little bit. I just started dosing again, as normal, except lowering my dose of KH2PO4 because the reading was so high. The Ottos are helping a litlte but beyond that, I can't figure out why it's going away.

Rachpreach, are you still spot treating with Excel? I thought I remembered a post that said you didn't need to much anymore. Are your diatoms clearing up?


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

i havent spot treated in about 2 weeks. It is clearing up a little bit though.


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## Daniel Morris (Aug 25, 2006)

ottos really did a number on the algae in my tank... Its looking much better in my tank as well.

But I've read that your tap water's parameters can change come summer. So i'm not 100% sure I figured it out. But hey, i'm not compaining...

I did the following:

1. Big Water change
2. Increased my ferts so that i was dosing a little more than 10 ppm of KNO3 and 10 ppm of K, and 2.5 ppm of PO4
3. Bought a powerhead to increase circulation
4. Increased CO2 a little
5. reduced my photoperiod to 8 hours

I was thrilled to see the black stuff just kind of disappeared in the last 6 days.. An unrelated effect may have been the melafix i added to the tank to get rid of the fin rot a few of my fish were experiencing.

On the other hand... when I increase my photoperiod back to 10 hours.. I'm curious to see what happens.


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## Daniel Morris (Aug 25, 2006)

Digsy... How are you checking your CO2? I just recently realized I was overestimating my CO2 levels... Made a big difference for me


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## obet_07304 (Jul 23, 2006)

Anybody has any UPDATE on their battle w/ this algae? My current situation: I will stop dosing KH2P04 (its coming up too high in the SEACHEM PO4 test I just bought) for maybe about a week till i get it to about 2 or 3PPM. I'm thinking this high PO4 could be the cause of my problem. Another odd thing I notice is most of this crap are mostly on the leaves of the right side of my tank & this is where the CO2 diffuser is positioned. Shouldn't I be getting it on the right side since its farther from the CO2? And also my Anubias is starting to get more of this crap on the leaves not just the older leaves. If I cut most of the affected leaves from the Anubias, will that be ok? Thanks.


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

mine was pretty even all over the tank, but its pretty cleared up now. What is left doesnt really bother me anyway...


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## obet_07304 (Jul 23, 2006)

RachPreach said:


> mine was pretty even all over the tank, but its pretty cleared up now. What is left doesnt really bother me anyway...


Rach, can you tell me specifically what you did? Add more/less ferts? Excel treatment? add less/more lights? etc. Thanks.


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## Digsy (Mar 4, 2006)

Mine has diminished significantly and I think that is mostly due to the addition of Otos. I didn't really change much else other than dosing some Excel, in addition to increasing my CO2 a tad. There's still a little of it around, especially on my Java ferns and my C. helferi but, I think I"ll just need to cut off those leaves that are affected. The algae growth has definitely stopped. It's just getting rid of what's still there!


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## RachPreach (Jan 16, 2006)

i did get rid of the leaves that it was on, I also think the ottos had something to do with it. I dont think i changed any ferts. I just add 1/4 tsp of everything I have listed in my signature.


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## Ramirez (Jan 12, 2006)

Any more updates? I'm glad I finally found this thread.  This algae has been suffocating my plants for over a year now, despite many changes. I have some ottos now, but not much change. Does anyone think it could be the CO2. I'd love to be able to get rid of this algae, because it has been stunting most of my plants, particularly anubias, crypts, and java fern.


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