# Combatting Green Dust Algae on plants, sand, DW and glass?



## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

Buy, beg, or borrow a UV sterilizer, if you don't have one, and run it 24/7 for about a week.
Once or twice each day, brush down the green dust algae off the glass, plants, and wherever it sits, to get it moving up & through the water column, to allow the UV to pick it up & destroy it.
Can't guarantee it will entirely get rid of it, but it sure worked for me.

GDA is caused by some imbalance in the tank, unknown to me, and it may return if you do eradicate it, but it didn't in my case, and has not returned since.
Best of luck to you.

P.S. I tried a number of things first, including not disturbing it for 3 weeks, as is given as a common remedy, but nothing worked, till I used the UV.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

You need to put your hands in the tank and clean, clean , clean. Every day until it is gone! Take the anubias out of the tank and clean it with a soft toothbrush. Make sure the si doing is correct. I always find this to be an algae that fades away in the long run.


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## essabee (Oct 7, 2006)

50% WC followed by 72 hours of darkness; cover the tank with thick blankets - no CO2, no fertilisers, no food, no peeping.

Uncover after 72 hours and do 50% water change - dose macro with 10% more P than before, lights on, CO2 boosted to max fish tolerance, follow other routines unchanged.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

Stop dosing micros; dose only as necessary.


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## M-Mike-Shyamalan (Oct 20, 2015)

I had the same problem but with brown. It was covering my plants and killing them. I physically removed the larger stem plants from the tank like the swords java fern and wiped them under running water. I brought in some midsize bristlenose plecos and they cleaned the plant leaves awesome. Then, you have to go dark. If you have a window that is even remotely close to your tank, cover it. You have to get rid of sunlight if its an issue. Otherwise, leave the lights off (i turned on for feeding etc) for 72 hours or so. You will see it clear up quick. Good luck!


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## jr125 (Mar 5, 2015)

I had a bad algae bloom in a tank after putting some vacation food in the tank for about 10 days. I'm talking about when the water turns into pea soup. I don't know if this is the same thing you are talking about but a uv sterilizer cleaned it out in a about a week if I remember right. It's been a few years back.


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## Jeff5614 (Dec 29, 2005)

Daily cleaning followed by a diatomaceous earth filter for week took care of it for me.


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