# Algae on anubias



## Prostock442

Me too. I was going to make a post asking the same question. Anyone?


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## veryzer

Bump

Nobody else deals with anubias algae?????


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## guppygolucky

using a eye dropper or something along those lines I squirt excel onto or near the algae problem. it usually gets rid of it after a single dose.


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## DANIELSON

Yes i do and the stuff seems to never go away!!


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## WalterMelons

otos do a pretty good job of eating algae off of leaves and such without harming the said plant.


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## mrchach

i have the same issue...

I have no idea what it is...

Ottos/mollies/CAE haven't touched it...

i just added 2 whiptail catfish and a nerite snail so we will see if they take interest... i will begin spot treating with exel today


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## Cuchulainn

I had some what I think to be beard algae on my anubias frazeri. Was told to use a 1:19 bleach/water to soak them in for 10 minutes or so-worked very well for me. They have come back with no issues. Someone else mentioned using Hydrogen peroxide, haven't tried this one though. I dipped mine about 4 weeks ago now-algae hasn't returned. I did lower my photo period after the fact to 8 hours.
GL


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## veryzer

All right! I thought this thread was dead.

My otos (for as long as I can keep them alive) are aristocrats. They only eat cucumber...never touch the anubias. 

Cuchulainn: Do you do a rinse before putting the anubias back in the tank after the bleach bath? I'm thinking I'll go this route.


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## kevmo911

I had black spots on leaves of anubias nana petite, around the rims of leaves, and completely covering roots. 2 sets of plants were on pieces of driftwood. After getting noticeable but minimal results with both spot-treating and water column dosing (3x) with excel, i dipped both in 1:19 bleach solutions for 90 seconds each, driftwood and all. Worked wonders, suddenly they were green again and bottom feeders cleaned them up pretty well.

I then quickly rinsed them under the faucet and let them sit for 10 minutes in water with 10x the recommended Prime dose. I put them back into the tank with no fish issues. I had been worried about the driftwood soaking up bleach, but it all worked out perfectly.


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## wakewalking

i soaked driftwood in bleach once and thoroughly cleaned it for about 30 minutes and had no problem. the bleach to water ratio was small though.


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## mrchach

the algae im experiencing is not BBA

its more like diatoms and very hard to remove manually


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## Cuchulainn

veryzer said:


> All right! I thought this thread was dead.
> 
> My otos (for as long as I can keep them alive) are aristocrats. They only eat cucumber...never touch the anubias.
> 
> Cuchulainn: Do you do a rinse before putting the anubias back in the tank after the bleach bath? I'm thinking I'll go this route.


Oops, Yes sorry. Guess I should of added that you should definitely soak the plant in fresh water before returning into tank. I was overly cautious, soaked a couple tymes over just to be sure all the bleach was gone. Wish I had taken some pics, the Anubias was black in some parts of the leaf before the treatment.
Gl


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## fern09

Cuchulainn said:


> Oops, Yes sorry. Guess I should of added that you should definitely soak the plant in fresh water before returning into tank. I was overly cautious, soaked a couple tymes over just to be sure all the bleach was gone. Wish I had taken some pics, the Anubias was black in some parts of the leaf before the treatment.
> Gl


anyone been success from this.
i also have same issue now.
wiped around the glass with paper towel and came out brown algae.
but anubias left black on the leaves and some plants leaves are brown....

got nerite snail and i see its attached to glass but dont' know how to get rid of black from anubias.

would like to hear.

thanks


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## chris.rivera3

is it GSA?? ...i would just cut off the leaf...cutting will also encourage growth...win-win situation for me:icon_mrgr


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## Franzi

co2/excel, good circulation, and some ferts should clear it up in no time. just cut off the leaves that are badly affected.


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## EntoCraig

The cause is generally too much light. They do much better in lower light conditions. They grow to slow to fight of the algae. The above post will help you get rid of what is already there.


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## fern09

EntoCraig said:


> The cause is generally too much light. They do much better in lower light conditions. They grow to slow to fight of the algae. The above post will help you get rid of what is already there.


mine is only 2watts/gal with 6500k cfl bulbs.
seems more algae on water movement side so i slow down quite a bit for the movement.
and added one nerite snails in 20gal maybe not enough but just did yesterday....

any suggestion greatly appreciated.

thanks


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## Cuchulainn

What kind of Anubias is it you have Fern? I started originally cutting off the leaves with heavier algae-if I continued though I figured I would be left with nothing but the rhizome left.


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## veryzer

Cuchulainn said:


> What kind of Anubias is it you have Fern? I started originally cutting off the leaves with heavier algae-if I continued though I figured I would be left with nothing but the rhizome left.


Exactly! I have a low-medium light tank and I just can't keep ahead of it by clipping, water changes and fertilization notwithstanding. It was the same story when I used pressurized CO2. Granted, I have nowhere near the expertise of some people on this forum but my upkeep is by no means shoddy, especially for an "easy care" plant. I'm going to be going pressurized again in a couple more weeks, so I'll give them a bath beforehand and see what results.


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## Centromochlus

mrchach said:


> the algae im experiencing is not BBA
> 
> its more like diatoms and very hard to remove manually


It is likely GSA (green spot algae). It thrives on very slow-growing plants (especially anubias). It is very hard to remove manually, and only nerite snails eat it i believe.


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## mrchach

AzFishKid said:


> It is likely GSA (green spot algae). It thrives on very slow-growing plants (especially anubias). It is very hard to remove manually, and only nerite snails eat it i believe.


its black not green... 

does GSA appear black on anubias?


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## Prostock442

Did we ever get an answer about the black stuff on anubias? I am having that issue now.


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## veryzer

I have the black stuff. I'm going to try the bleach dip early next week. I'll report back with my results.


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## Cuchulainn

Here is a link to the same question I had about my Anubias.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/plants/119750-algae-my-anubias-frazeri-help.html

I ended up using just a few drops, maybe 5ml in a 5 gallon pail, filling it nearly full with water and soaking the entire plant for about 10-15 minutes. I did this around November 3rd-4th. So only about 6ish weeks ago. I swapped out my T5NO 6700k dual strip for me old T12 shop light with new 5500k bulbs. Photo period 8 hours. So far the frazeri's great, there the lush green they should be not the dark green/black that was there. I can notice on some of the leaves that were more heavily affected what looks to be a bit of scarring maybe. The outline of where the algae was is still very slightly visible. Not sure if it is scarring, or maybe didn't kill all the algae the first tyme round? Well see, I'll post if it comes back.
A friend had some sort of algae growing on some of his Nana recently. He said he stuck it in his fairly heavily populated Crystal red shrimp tank and they cleaned it up overnight. He wasn't sure what the algae was though, but may be worth a try if you have a shrimp colony!


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## veryzer

Well, I did the bleach treatment and it lived up to its billing. I have green anubias again, though there's still a white film from the dead algae. They seem a little pale...I don't remember if this is their natural color or if they're a little stressed.


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## Prostock442

I would think bleach would leave a white slime coat on the plants if not washed off thoroughly. I used a similar mix to wash black moss off of our house which is a log home. Even after hosing the house down with high pressure hose, it left a white slime on the wood. I wonder if it will make your algae eating fish sick or kill them. Keep us updated. I got rid of my Black Algae just by changing my lighting times. I run my lights a few times a day for shorter periods. I run them probably 6 hours a day or less. Good luck with your fish & algae.


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## Cuchulainn

veryzer said:


> Well, I did the bleach treatment and it lived up to its billing. I have green anubias again, though there's still a white film from the dead algae. They seem a little pale...I don't remember if this is their natural color or if they're a little stressed.



When I soaked my Frazeri, the algae affected areas came out kinda brown, then turned white after a couple days, then slowly diminished leaving them green as they were originally. Hopefully they will do better this tyme around with the lower light intensity and shorter photo period. Hope your does well!


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## DavidZ

Forget about bleach and all the other stuff, will be a temp solution.
Get to the real problem, as stated before: light(direct light is a problem at times) and ferts(start using). I use Kent Pro-plant and Kent Iron & manganese, but you can use other products,make sure they have micros.
You will see a big change.

After making the change, cut off some of the old leaves and the new will regrow.


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## Prostock442

I sell Osmocote Fertilizer Capsules if anyone is interested. They work great, sold many. They are $5.00 for 25 1" gelatin capsules shipped to U.S. & $6.50 shipped to Canada. PM me if interested.


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## veryzer

Oops! Might've left them in the bleach solution too long...I have some leaves melting away.


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## KShoes

I took out a good number of my anubias nana petite to attach to a piece of driftwood. It took a bit longer than I expected and the plants started drying up. Basically all the black algae (bba?) on the leaves and algae dried up. I put them back into the tank and all the algae washed off but the leaves are still green. So I guess I inadvertently killed off the algae.


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## Prostock442

But is it still dead or has it been slowly coming back to life?


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## Michael in Texas

Ramshorn snails ate all of the black algae from my anubias in 48 hours.


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## elpezpr




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