# Algae identification



## Mark Fisher (Dec 29, 2011)

You have Rhizoclonium. Diatoms are unicelluar and do not form filaments.
http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm


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## Mantis992 (Feb 13, 2013)

Mark Fisher said:


> You have Rhizoclonium. Diatoms are unicelluar and do not form filaments.
> http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm



I am almost positive I do not have Rhizoclonium. I dose EI every day and my co2 levels are so high that I had to remove all my shrimp from the tank. In addition, I have strong water flow throughout the tank.


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## norbot (Jan 5, 2013)

It does look like it could be rhizo. I have the same in my 29g, though not to the same extent, and I have similar wood..I've wondered about the wood decomposing because the alage only seems to grow on the wood.

That is a great link and has lots of useful insight, but, I agree, the causes it lists for rhizo do not fit with what I see, I believe there is more to the story.

What I am _hoping_ is that the algae is simply a reaction to some sort of chemistry and will exhaust whatever is feeding it after awhile.

Of course, I can hope all day long:confused1:

personally I would get on with the maintenance, large manual removal via toothbrush or whatever works, large water change and if it keeps ruining your plants, consider some form of chemical treatment, h202, excel, algaefix etc.

If you figure out what's causing it please let us know!


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## jfynyson (Apr 15, 2013)

You say you're using EI & using a lot of CO2. 

Can you elaborate specifically what & how much you're adding everything ?
As far as flow goes, do all plants have a gentle sway or are their some that do not move at all or do many of them seem to be blasted by flow ?
What is your fish feeding regiment like ? Is it possible you're over feeding thus putting additional nutrient load into the system ?
Do you see a lot of mulm (natural dead plant material) ?
What is your maintenance regiment (i.e. % percent water change & at what frequency, do you vaccum the substrate or an inch or so above it, do you scrape only the glass or do you use a pad on the equipment as well, etc...) ?
There are several easy ways to kill this algae and get the tank back to looking good but need to know root cause the best you can to mitigate future blooms (of course).


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## Mantis992 (Feb 13, 2013)

jfynyson said:


> You say you're using EI & using a lot of CO2.
> 
> Can you elaborate specifically what & how much you're adding everything ?
> As far as flow goes, do all plants have a gentle sway or are their some that do not move at all or do many of them seem to be blasted by flow ?
> ...



Here are my current specs and regime.

Tank- ADA 60p
Light- Tek T5 HO 24W (2 bulbs on for 7 hours a day about 25 in from substrate)
Substrate-ADA Amazonia
Filter-Eheim 2217
Co2-Custom built dual stage regulator and inline atomic diffuser
Dosing- Dry ferts dissolved in water and added directly to tank. Currently, I dose according to this schedule.
+/- 1/8 tsp KN03 (N) 3x a week 
+/- 1/32 tsp KH2P04 (P) 3x a week
+/- 1/32 tsp (2ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change

My nitrate levels seem to hover around 30ppm according to my test kit. The test kits also show 0 ammonia and nitrites. 

The flow throughout the tank is fairly even, but of course some areas receive less flow than others due to the nature of the outflow. My co2 is cranked awfully high, with a yellow drop checker and constant pearling. My co2 is so high that shrimp cannot inhabit the tank for any length of time. I do not think overfeeding is the issue because I feed my white clouds just a small pinch once a day. There is some dead plant debris in the tank, but this is more a result of plant death from the algae than from poor maintenance.


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## jfynyson (Apr 15, 2013)

Ok, thanks for the info. My best guess here comparing your parameters & regiment to your tank photo is that you could have too low of a plant load for your lighting & ferts. Not enough plant biomasss & therefore growth to out compete with the algae. There have been many instances of this mentioned in this forum. You may try to raise your lights 5-6 inches if possible and reduce the photoperiod to 6hrs until you can get a lot more plants. Also try to reduce your ferts a little and increase your water changes to 2-3x per week until you get the algae under control (no additional growth). 

If you want to get rid of the algae really quick (1-2 weeks) then see this thread as it works great but note the disclaimer in post #1. Do not add more than 2tbsp / 10gal equivalent of the H2O2 and if you don't have one get a powerhead to help push circulation up while performing this method (if you choose this route). I've done and it works great. 
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=203684&page=6


Then get your plant load up & get the tank in balance to more closely monitor any future algal growth for potential root cause.


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## Xiaozhuang (Feb 15, 2012)

Plant load does makes a big difference. ADA soil leeches quite abit of ammonia for the first few weeks. Ammonia triggers algae bloom if uptake rate is not fast enough. Doing more frequent and large water changes for first few weeks can compensate somewhat


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## Mantis992 (Feb 13, 2013)

I am not sure if this helps, but when I rub the mystery algae between my fingers, it disintegrates into a puddle of dirty water. Also, the algae has a potent smell that is reminiscent of decaying soil.


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## johnmcleren (Aug 21, 2013)

*Reply*

In my opinion it is Rhizoclonium, diatoms are unicellular and can't grow at this rate and amount. I am not an expert, but this link will help you that is sure.

http://www.algaebase.org/search/gen...45&-session=abv4:B7530105160c936B65IWM42973F0


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## Mantis992 (Feb 13, 2013)

Well everyone seems to think the algae is Rhizo and I am beginning to agree with them. It is really weird though considering I do not have any of the issues that normally bring on bad cases of Rhizo so I am not sure where to go from here.


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## norbot (Jan 5, 2013)

Xiaozhuang said:


> Ammonia triggers algae bloom if uptake rate is not fast enough.


^ Have you checked your ammonia lately?


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

norbot said:


> ^ Have you checked your ammonia lately?


Exactly. If you started with Aquasoil a month ago, you should have been doing daily water changes for the first week, every other day for the second week, and then stretching them out a little further after that as you monitor the ammonia levels. It really does leach a lot of ammonia. It helps to cycle the tank for you, but you need to be changing water. If you weren't doing that, then you know a pretty major contributor to your algae.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

is there anything else in the filter like gravel? limestone? etc


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## Mantis992 (Feb 13, 2013)

AnotherHobby said:


> Exactly. If you started with Aquasoil a month ago, you should have been doing daily water changes for the first week, every other day for the second week, and then stretching them out a little further after that as you monitor the ammonia levels. It really does leach a lot of ammonia. It helps to cycle the tank for you, but you need to be changing water. If you weren't doing that, then you know a pretty major contributor to your algae.



I did a drystart for about two months to cycle the substrate so I could add fish immediately without concern. To double check this, I have tested Ammonia levels every day since week 1 and they have remained at zero. My filter was brand new so maybe the bacteria colonization in the filter could have added to the issue.


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## Mantis992 (Feb 13, 2013)

happi said:


> is there anything else in the filter like gravel? limestone? etc



Nope, I only have the media/filter pads that came with my Eheim Filter.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

Mantis992 said:


> Nope, I only have the media/filter pads that came with my Eheim Filter.



ok the reason i asked because for some reason this algae bloom when there is limestone in the water, something to do with carbonate from limestone, but am not 100% certain, this algae was present in my brother's tank when he had limestone in there. i have also seen this algae to bloom after washing the filter.


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## Mantis992 (Feb 13, 2013)

*Update* The battle with algae still rages on but I think the tank looks a lot better.


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

That's a huge improvement! 

I like your hardscape — nice job on the tank!


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## Mantis992 (Feb 13, 2013)

AnotherHobby said:


> That's a huge improvement!
> 
> I like your hardscape — nice job on the tank!



Thanks a bunch:red_mouth


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

Mantis992 said:


> I am almost positive I do not have Rhizoclonium. I dose EI every day and my co2 levels are so high that I had to remove all my shrimp from the tank. In addition, I have strong water flow throughout the tank.


I just started an outbreak of this nasty stuff. It seems to grow in my heavy flow areas of the tank, and is rare to see in my low flow areas. I also have my co2 turned up a ton, and have been using the 60-80 gal. dosing due to my very heavy plant mass, plants growing great, no other algae except a tiny itsy bitsy bit of green spot algae every once in a while. Its driving up a wall.



Mantis992 said:


> *Update* The battle with algae still rages on but I think the tank looks a lot better.


 
How have you been fighting it? I did a single week of Excel overdose, it worked, but came back a little after that. I may have not gone long enough to kill it all off.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Mantis992 said:


> *Update* The battle with algae still rages on but I think the tank looks a lot better.


Do water changes, like 2-3x a week, 50-70% till gone. Adjust CO2 and watch plants, add more etc. 

The alga is _Melosira_, it is in fact, a filamentous diatom(of which there are many, but this one is rather common). Shrimp will eat it, add maybe 10-12 amano's.


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## Mantis992 (Feb 13, 2013)

Noahma said:


> I just started an outbreak of this nasty stuff. It seems to grow in my heavy flow areas of the tank, and is rare to see in my low flow areas. I also have my co2 turned up a ton, and have been using the 60-80 gal. dosing due to my very heavy plant mass, plants growing great, no other algae except a tiny itsy bitsy bit of green spot algae every once in a while. Its driving up a wall.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I actually used a half dose of algae fix, while simultaneously increasing my co2 and reducing my lighting period by one hour. After the algae started to die, I did a huge water change and sucked up all the debris. I have not seen any of the brown algae in a few weeks, but I still have some BGA I am dealing with!:icon_sad:


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## Mantis992 (Feb 13, 2013)

plantbrain said:


> Do water changes, like 2-3x a week, 50-70% till gone. Adjust CO2 and watch plants, add more etc.
> 
> The alga is _Melosira_, it is in fact, a filamentous diatom(of which there are many, but this one is rather common). Shrimp will eat it, add maybe 10-12 amano's.



Thanks for the ID! I actually have eradicated all of the diatoms with a half dose of algae fix, while increasing my co2 and cutting my light period back. I did not want to use chemicals, but the algae was choking out my plants and I needed to do something quick. I had about 6-7 Amanos in the tank, but I had to take them out because every evening they would start to turn blue and roll over on their backs. I assumed it was a co2 issue, so I transferred them to one of my other tanks and they seem to be doing perfect. 

Now I only have some BGA left that I am trying to combat. In all honesty it is probably a product of my light because I am running two bulbs on a tek fixture only 15-18in above the substrate. I will probably need to dial it back quite a bit.


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