# Weird black algae?



## Geodash74 (Mar 29, 2015)

I have some weird black growing on my Anubias leaves and on some other plants as well. Can you please help me figure out what it is and how to get rid of it? Trying to find where to post pictures.

Bump: How do I post pictures?


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## Geodash74 (Mar 29, 2015)

remobed duplicate photos


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Not sure what you have access to with such a low post count. Can you see at the top of the page a pull down menu called "RESOURCES"? If so, does it have a listing for "Upload Images"?
I find this the best/easiest place to put pictures. Once you upload your picture, copy the picture URL, then go to the thread where you want to post the picture. Start your post and then use the "post picture" icon. Past the link in that Icon pull down and it will post your picture.


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## Geodash74 (Mar 29, 2015)

Bump: Sorry for multiple posts, it's not very user friendly from an iPad.

Bump:


Immortal1 said:


> Not sure what you have access to with such a low post count. Can you see at the top of the page a pull down menu called "RESOURCES"? If so, does it have a listing for "Upload Images"?
> I find this the best/easiest place to put pictures. Once you upload your picture, copy the picture URL, then go to the thread where you want to post the picture. Start your post and then use the "post picture" icon. Past the link in that Icon pull down and it will post your picture.


Thanks, it wasn't working very well from the iPad, but think I got them now.


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Definitely some algae issues. Can you post some more info regarding your tank setup? Size of tank, type of light, how long do you have the light on, are you using co2, are you using fertilizers.


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## Geodash74 (Mar 29, 2015)

Immortal1 said:


> Definitely some algae issues. Can you post some more info regarding your tank setup? Size of tank, type of light, how long do you have the light on, are you using co2, are you using fertilizers.


It's happening in multiple tanks. My main one, the last 3 pictures:

60 gallon acrylic
48 planted plus 24/7 - adjusts the light all day
Eheim 2217
Heavily planted
No CO2
Dosing 2 times a week with this from a local guy Thrive All In One Liquid Fertilizer | 500ml Bottle - NilocG Aquatics
gh booster once a week after water changes
Temp 78ish
Ph 7.1
Am 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrates less than 20

Anything else I can add to help?


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

You say "adjusts the light all day". I understand what you are saying and feel that from what I know about this light, you might be have too much light for the rest of your variables. 
Heavily planted - that is good. But, what kind of plants? I ask this as if you had a heavily planted tank of anubus, then you have too much light.
Dosing 2 times per week - Ok, so you are not dosing a huge amount of fertilizer. This makes sense as you are not using co2 either.

Based on the above, you may be supplying too much light for too long of a time for what you have. Do you have a full tank picture? or maybe a list of the type of plants in the tank?


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## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

It looks to me like Black Beard Algae and starting colonies of thereof mixed with some Green Spot Algae. The way the BBA develops it looks to be growing on damaged old leaves. What caused the damaged leaves is another question altogether. Looks like N deficiency which is weird since the NilocG AIO should provide enough. A whole aquarium photo would be nice


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## Geodash74 (Mar 29, 2015)

Bump: Sorry, I know it's hard to see, but don't want to wake them. I have lots of plants - 

Anubias
Tiger Lilly's
African Congo fern
Large on in plant
Madagascar Lace
Java ferns
Windelov Java ferns
Crypts
Driftwood
Spider wood


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## Geodash74 (Mar 29, 2015)

I have some BBA in there but this stuff feels different. It cannot be rubbed off, when you rub the leaves it feels almost like sandpaper. And the deterioration of the leaves...what would cause that?


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## Geodash74 (Mar 29, 2015)

Any thoughts or help anyone can offer?


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

Here is what I would do. I would remove the dead and jacked up leaves. I would start dosing excel. I had a terrible bba outbreak when I first setup my 75. Excel took care of the problem with a double dose daily. I wish I could give more help with the light but I just use cheap old shop lights and what not. Anyway. I would grab a bottle of excel. With three tanks metricide 14 will be a more economical way to go and the end result will be the same.


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## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Geodash74 said:


> I have some BBA in there but this stuff feels different. It cannot be rubbed off, when you rub the leaves it feels almost like sandpaper. And the deterioration of the leaves...what would cause that?


Yeah, that is how it starts and when the leaf is damaged it can grow one next to the other to give this effect of small round bumps. It may be a different sp. but at the hobbist level, BBA. 

Leaf damage can come from many things... plecos, snails, deficiencies in mobile nutrients such as N, P, Mg etc. as well as CO2 def and high light. I would think the ferts you are adding should be enough for the plants you have. So maybe your light is high enough and CO2 limitation starts to appear. Could you add some floating plants and see what happens ?

The fish do not seem to be overstocked and the tank clean enough. Is the setup new, sand looks too clean ? Maybe there are not enough bacteria to break down the organics fast enough. On the other hand most plants are slow growers and the lack of CO2 means they will not use a lot of the organics ... I know in my high intensity aquariums I am able to induce BBA bloom by overfeeding or leaving the filter unclean for longer... both result in organics increase.

I agree with the above. Remove damaged leaves, they will never be repaired and only serve as nutrient stores... plants have plenty in the water column. Excel would be a solution to add some CO2.


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

One other thing that _seems_ to have helped my situation is purigen. You may want to look into purigen for your tanks.


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