# Claphophora :( and some ideas on how to get rid of it?



## rom (Sep 25, 2020)

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and i've made some mistakes with my first nano tank. I didn't realise that I had cladophora, I thought it was just normal hair algae and so I left it. It's too late now, it's on all the hardscape and on some plants. I'm pretty sure its cladophora, it's wiry n' woolen-feeling, filamentous, smells awful when you remove it from the water. My tank is old now, coming up to three years. I've beat every other form of algae but this. 

My research has told me that balancing the aquarium will not get rid of it. Plants will only outcompete it in pretty low light levels which I have observed. But I need a high light tank for some of the plants I'm keeping. I've been manually removing it but its very difficult to scrub off. Spot-dosing Flourish Excel has kinda worked. The patches that I dose turn white after a few days, but the rest carry on growing. To make any kind of dent, I have to use a lot of the stuff and I only have a small tank, it's putting a lot of strain my plants, fish and shrimp. I can't keep this up.

I haven't yet tried 'Easy Life AlgExit' which some forums have recommended and I'll let you know how that goes. 

I've also been looking at blanket weed remover for ponds. Blanket weed is common name for cladophora spp. according to multiple sources i've checked. And they make specific blanket weed algaecides which claim to be fish and plant safe (example here: https://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/...fA1w71KmvU0rTH21UoRjC-V8aAtjEEALw_wcB#342=813 ). Figuring out the dosage for a nano aquarium would be difficult but not impossible. Has anyone ever tried this? Do you think it would be safe? Do you think it would work?

Thanks in advance!

Tanks paramiters:
NO3-:0-10
NO2-:0
GH:8-16
KH:10-15
pH:8
i gots hard water
Tank size:5 gallons
Temp:23
CO2: No, not injected. I use passive co2 though, works well as i have a small tank. Plants often like to pearl.
Lights: chihiros C series
Ferts: just a general fert, tropica premium nutrition. 6 drops a day. And flourish excel ofc

Livestock: 3 otos, 3 amano shrimp, Quite a few MTS (i love them ok), 1 zebra nerite
Plants: Javafern, Crypt. wendtii , Java moss, hydrocotyle tripartita, Bacopa Carolina, Monte carlo. All growing very well.

Substate: Organic potting mix capped with jbl sand


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## Preeths (Jan 29, 2008)

My Bad. wrong advise hence deleted the post.


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## Tiger15 (Jan 7, 2018)

Cladophora is a difficult algae to control as it likes the same conditions as for healthy green plants. I have cladophora in one planted shrimp bowl, but not in the other. The conditions are identical for both setup: zero tech, heavily planted, and receive afternoon window sunlight. The only difference is the type of plants. The one free of algae has guppy grass. The one with cladophora and spirogyra has other plants. I am not sure whether guppy grass (like Hornwort as documented) may release allelopathic agent to suppress algae or its vigorous growth just out compete algae. You may try to introduce guppy grass or Hornwort as a biological control to see if it works. 

I have not heard of Pond Rescue Blanketweed that you cited and don't know what is in it. Be careful of any algaecide that claimed to be plant and fish safe at it may not necessarily be shrimp and invert safe. API Algaefix is an effective algaecide said to be plant and fish safe, but the label says don't use it on invertebrates. Excel is safe for shrimp according to Seachem if dosed at recommended dosage. If Excel worked for you in spot treatment, you may try dosing Excel to see if it works.

Bump:


Preeths said:


> 80-100 mg of erythromycin will kill the cladophore. You can then do a water change to remove the dead stuff. This will also kill all the beneficial bacteria. I am not sure where you live, but erythromycin requires a doctors prescription and is not available over the counter in most countries.
> 
> Dosage is 4-5 mg per liter of water.


Are you sure you had cladophora and not cyanobacteria. Erythromycin is an antibiotic supposed to be effective against bacteria.


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## rom (Sep 25, 2020)

Tiger15 said:


> Cladophora is a difficult algae to control as it likes the same conditions as for healthy green plants. I have cladophora in one planted shrimp bowl, but not in the other. The conditions are identical for both setup: zero tech, heavily planted, and receive afternoon window sunlight. The only difference is the type of plants. The one free of algae has guppy grass. The one with cladophora and spirogyra has other plants. I am not sure whether guppy grass (like Hornwort as documented) may release allelopathic agent to suppress algae or its vigorous growth just out compete algae. You may try to introduce guppy grass or Hornwort as a biological control to see if it works.
> 
> I have not heard of Pond Rescue Blanketweed that you cited and don't know what is in it. Be careful of any algaecide that claimed to be plant and fish safe at it may not necessarily be shrimp and invert safe. API Algaefix is an effective algaecide said to be plant and fish safe, but the label says don't use it on invertebrates. Excel is safe for shrimp according to Seachem if dosed at recommended dosage. If Excel worked for you in spot treatment, you may try dosing Excel to see if it works.
> 
> ...


Hmm yeah i think I might have to just keep dosing excel then. My shrimp don't like it at all but they'll probably like it more than any actual algaecides like the blanket weed killer/API algae fix. I'm deffo already dosing excel well over the recommended limit but my fish/shrimp aren't showing any clear signs of illness yet. Looks like this'll be tedious. I'll let yall know if I manage to get rid of it. 

Also yeah this isn't cyanobacteria. I've had that before, its deffo not it. Equally smelly though ew



Tiger15 said:


> Cladophora is a difficult algae to control as it likes the same conditions as for healthy green plants. I have cladophora in one planted shrimp bowl, but not in the other. The conditions are identical for both setup: zero tech, heavily planted, and receive afternoon window sunlight. The only difference is the type of plants. The one free of algae has guppy grass. The one with cladophora and spirogyra has other plants. I am not sure whether guppy grass (like Hornwort as documented) may release allelopathic agent to suppress algae or its vigorous growth just out compete algae. You may try to introduce guppy grass or Hornwort as a biological control to see if it works.
> 
> I have not heard of Pond Rescue Blanketweed that you cited and don't know what is in it. Be careful of any algaecide that claimed to be plant and fish safe at it may not necessarily be shrimp and invert safe. API Algaefix is an effective algaecide said to be plant and fish safe, but the label says don't use it on invertebrates. Excel is safe for shrimp according to Seachem if dosed at recommended dosage. If Excel worked for you in spot treatment, you may try dosing Excel to see if it works.
> 
> ...


Ahh ok. Well I've already been using excel way over the recommended limit. I have a hunch that any more might be too much, although, my shrimp/fish aren't showing any signs of illness yet. I'll up the dose a bit and keep an eye on everything. If it doesn't work then I think i'll move my shrimp out and use API algaefix. I'll do more research on the blanketweed killer for now.

Also its deffo not cyanobacteria, i've had that before and gotten rid of it by balancing. Cladophora is just as smelly though ew


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## Sarlindescent (May 14, 2015)

Not a fun answer, but after 2-3 months, I have basically beaten it. It was in my sump and I removed the plants and cleaned them 1 by 1. Then pulled out any that I could see in the tank. Then daily check for a week. Now, once every couple weeks I check and find a couple strands. Preventing it from choking out the plants, caused faster growth, not sure if that helped. If any plants were too bad and I had replacements, I just throw them out.


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## Preeths (Jan 29, 2008)

Tiger15 said:


> Bump:
> 
> Are you sure you had cladophora and not cyanobacteria. Erythromycin is an antibiotic supposed to be effective against bacteria.


Oops My Bad. You are right Erythromycin will not help.


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## rom (Sep 25, 2020)

No that was really helpful thank you, I'm just glad it's possible honestly


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## barbus123 (Aug 23, 2019)

Algexit helped me, dosage for 4 weeks. But the plants are very sick, some had to be thrown away. Some snails have died. But I got rid of the cladophores, there are already 3 months. API Algaefix did not help, after which the kladofora returned. In addition, the balance collapsed.


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## ahem (Dec 27, 2014)

I had a couple battles with Clado in a low tech tank. H2O2 burns some species others seem resilient against it. Number one is to manually remove as much as you can. I think daily dose of excel keeps it at bay. 

One thing that gave me a miraculous one day "cure" was PhosGard (a seachem product you put in a bag and into your filter). At the time I had high phosphates from my tap and did not have plants that needed that level. I had read that Clado is a phosphate aficionado. Anyway, all of it died in 24-48 hours after I put the phosgard packet in. It was incredible to see it atrophy so fast. If you are trying to grow plants this might not be a long term solution but it might be something to try for a short term. 

Take everything people say on here with a grain of salt, we all have our own experiences, tank nuances, and perspectives. Cladophora is a group of many algaes and they probably all do not respond the same. 

My list of things I would do are:
1. Remove what you can, carefully, don't allow threads/pieces to float to other places in the tank
2. Trying squirting some H2O2 directly on it and see if it vulnerable to that (I had one instance that H2O2 did nothing to it).
3. Daily Excel dosing at the levels indicated on the bottle
4. Try Phosgard to wipe all phosphates from your water column for a 2-3 days and see what happens.


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## barbus123 (Aug 23, 2019)

I used including PhosGuard , the result is zero. sorry


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## ksimdjembe (Dec 19, 2013)

clado is tought to battle. sometimes i just think i should embrace it, it is after all essentially almost a simple plant 

I have heard of people adding a siesta in their light regime that seems to favour plants and not algae. I think its described in pretty good detail in Walstads book. I don't know if a siesta will fight clado.
Let us know if it works cause I have it growing too


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