# Algae question



## hotrodprincess (Oct 17, 2012)

I am very new to aquariums I have tree types of moss in our tank. I noticed this week that there was a few pieces of verry fine strings hanging from some of the moss. I am talking thinner than sewing thread. I think it is green I couldn't get a picture of it because its so fine. Its a low tec 10 gal tank only has a betta in it right now. The light is just a basic florescent light nothing fancy. Its on from about 9 in the morning tell about 5 ish at night when the kids feed the fish. I have removed the strings as I have found them they pull off easily. What can i do to deter them from getting worse. Would shrimp or something help ? I would hate to see if over take our tank our moss is starting to grow good.


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## urbguy (Sep 24, 2009)

hotrodprincess said:


> I am very new to aquariums I have tree types of moss in our tank. I noticed this week that there was a few pieces of verry fine strings hanging from some of the moss. I am talking thinner than sewing thread. I think it is green I couldn't get a picture of it because its so fine. Its a low tec 10 gal tank only has a betta in it right now. The light is just a basic florescent light nothing fancy. Its on from about 9 in the morning tell about 5 ish at night when the kids feed the fish. I have removed the strings as I have found them they pull off easily. What can i do to deter them from getting worse. Would shrimp or something help ? I would hate to see if over take our tank our moss is starting to grow good.


It really sounds like you have a "Thread Algae" problem. If you have other plants in the tank, it should out compete this strain of algae, some fishes eat them but not all. 

Check out this page and see if thread algae matches what you have in your tank! Good luck!

http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/


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## hotrodprincess (Oct 17, 2012)

urbguy said:


> It really sounds like you have a "Thread Algae" problem. If you have other plants in the tank, it should out compete this strain of algae, some fishes eat them but not all.
> 
> Check out this page and see if thread algae matches what you have in your tank! Good luck!
> 
> http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/



It looks like it could be thread algae. I have a marimo ball and three types of moss will those out compete it ? I remove it when ever I see it.


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## urbguy (Sep 24, 2009)

hotrodprincess said:


> It looks like it could be thread algae. I have a marimo ball and three types of moss will those out compete it ? I remove it when ever I see it.


I don't think a Marimo ball will do it. When I say out compete, I mean it will take up nutrients faster than the algae would, I don't think a marimo will have the capability since they are insanely slow growing. Since your tank is set up for low tech, why not look at some low light plants?

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=56042

If not, physically removing it is your best bet.


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## hotrodprincess (Oct 17, 2012)

urbguy said:


> I don't think a Marimo ball will do it. When I say out compete, I mean it will take up nutrients faster than the algae would, I don't think a marimo will have the capability since they are insanely slow growing. Since your tank is set up for low tech, why not look at some low light plants?
> 
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=56042
> 
> If not, physically removing it is your best bet.


Thanks for the help. I forgot to mention that i have some dwarf hair grass that Is starting to take root. it was the kind in a pot and has had some trouble getting acclimated to our tank i did notice some green growth today so I am hopeful. We wouldn't mind adding some other plants though I have even been playing with the idea of planting our hob. Its a home school project and we are doing it on a budget.it We don't have to many plant options at our local fish store. For now I will keep removing it when ever we find it tell we get some other plants


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## urbguy (Sep 24, 2009)

hotrodprincess said:


> Thanks for the help. I forgot to mention that i have some dwarf hair grass that Is starting to take root. it was the kind in a pot and has had some trouble getting acclimated to our tank i did notice some green growth today so I am hopeful. We wouldn't mind adding some other plants though I have even been playing with the idea of planting our hob. Its a home school project and we are doing it on a budget.it We don't have to many plant options at our local fish store. For now I will keep removing it when ever we find it tell we get some other plants


Oh great! I say, anything that's within budget is good. One great thing about a low tech tank is everything is slower. Growth of the plants is slower and so is the algae. It gives you a bit of wiggle room; however, should your lighting be any higher, I'm pretty sure your tank would have more than just thread algae. Water changes are a good thing as well! Good luck with everything!


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## wheatiesl337 (Mar 30, 2011)

You can try playing with your photo-period some. It looks like you have a light running 8 hours? Might knock this down some and see if that helps. I would also put the light on a timer if it is not already. Increased plant load probably wouldn't hurt, though I doubt water-changes will do the trick (having had massive thread algea issues in the past myself). How is circulation in the tank?

When approaching algea problems, I almost always consider lighting issues first before chasing around other potential culprits.


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## hotrodprincess (Oct 17, 2012)

wheatiesl337 said:


> You can try playing with your photo-period some. It looks like you have a light running 8 hours? Might knock this down some and see if that helps. I would also put the light on a timer if it is not already. Increased plant load probably wouldn't hurt, though I doubt water-changes will do the trick (having had massive thread algea issues in the past myself). How is circulation in the tank?
> 
> When approaching algea problems, I almost always consider lighting issues first before chasing around other potential culprits.


The light has been on about 8 hours a day. I will try decreasing it a bit and see if that helps. I will see if I can get a cheep timer next time we go in to town. I think water circulation is good I can see the dwarf hair grass on the other side of the tank moving around some in the current. I do have the outflow baffled a bit (a piece of filter sponge with some moss growing on it stuffed in the outflow) because the outflow was up rooting my dwarf hair grass. Someone gifted us with the different mosses so that helped us a lot budget wise. Not much to choose from plant wise at the local fish store. I got the dwarf hair grass there and another plant that turned out not to be an aquatic plant so we wasted some there. So we were thankful when someone gifted us the moss. I hope it will grow enough so that I can offer some up in a ROAK. I will try doing a little extra water change just in-case it will help. We are hoping to add some shrimp and a few fish. I think the shrimp will help keep the moss clean. But we have to find some


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## Gold Finger (Oct 13, 2011)

The timer should help. Also, there is a product called excel which kills algae, though it does not say so on the label due to some legal stuff. You can dose your whole tank as per the instructions or just squirt a little right on the algae one time. Don't overdose it or it will kill everything in there and don't let the kids play with it, its a rather nasty general biocide. The Excell has other properties too. It speeds up how fast your plants grow by giving them carbon which they usually get from the CO2 in the water. That they do say on the label. Generally speaking, In a tank with some light and fish/fish food providing some nutrients (NPK and traces) to the plants the carbon is what plants need more than anything else. You know, the right level of light is the key to plants growing well and algae being _almost_ non existant (there will alway be some). I dont know if your ligh is too high or too low, but if your ligh is just a bit too high the excel would probably help a lot with the algae. The more healthy and populous your plants the less algae there will be, but not because the plants eat all the nutrients and leave none for the algae, rather because healthy plants excrete chemicals which prevent algal growth while unhealthy one release ammonia which triggers algal growth, other conditions which favor algae are unbalanced factors such as light to CO2 ratios. This is very common with a persons first planted tank. Too much light and not enough CO2allows the algae to thrive. Algae does much better than plants in unbalanced conditions. There are other things, like poor circulation or low oxygen, that cause algae and I don't really know the cause in your tank. A little algae is not a bad thing, by the way. It is actually good for your fish since it is removing toxins just like the plants do, except for "blue green algae" which is properly called cyanobacteria. That stuff is not really algae despite the name and is poisonous. If you get that get rid of it fast. As for the good algae, it took me about a year to get a good handle on mine so Don't be bothered if it is kinda tough to get rid of. Now I try to grow some because I have some algae eating otto cats in my tank. Keep in mind that If you decide to use the Excel regularly your plants may grow so fast that you _may_ need to fertilize a little bit in the future.


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## hotrodprincess (Oct 17, 2012)

Gold Finger said:


> The timer should help. Also, there is a product called excel which kills algae, though it does not say so on the label due to some legal stuff. You can dose your whole tank as per the instructions or just squirt a little right on the algae one time. Don't overdose it or it will kill everything in there and don't let the kids play with it, its a rather nasty general biocide. The Excell has other properties too. It speeds up how fast your plants grow by giving them carbon which they usually get from the CO2 in the water. That they do say on the label. Generally speaking, In a tank with some light and fish/fish food providing some nutrients (NPK and traces) to the plants the carbon is what plants need more than anything else. You know, the right level of light is the key to plants growing well and algae being _almost_ non existant (there will alway be some). I dont know if your ligh is too high or too low, but if your ligh is just a bit too high the excel would probably help a lot with the algae. The more healthy and populous your plants the less algae there will be, but not because the plants eat all the nutrients and leave none for the algae, rather because healthy plants excrete chemicals which prevent algal growth while unhealthy one release ammonia which triggers algal growth, other conditions which favor algae are unbalanced factors such as light to CO2 ratios. This is very common with a persons first planted tank. Too much light and not enough CO2allows the algae to thrive. Algae does much better than plants in unbalanced conditions. There are other things, like poor circulation or low oxygen, that cause algae and I don't really know the cause in your tank. A little algae is not a bad thing, by the way. It is actually good for your fish since it is removing toxins just like the plants do, except for "blue green algae" which is properly called cyanobacteria. That stuff is not really algae despite the name and is poisonous. If you get that get rid of it fast. As for the good algae, it took me about a year to get a good handle on mine so Don't be bothered if it is kinda tough to get rid of. Now I try to grow some because I have some algae eating otto cats in my tank. Keep in mind that If you decide to use the Excel regularly your plants may grow so fast that you _may_ need to fertilize a little bit in the future.



Thank I will put it on the list incase it gets worse. I am going to decrease the time that my light is on and see if that helps first. If not we will give it a try


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## Gold Finger (Oct 13, 2011)

Yeah. Um. I don't really know that your light _is_ too high. String algae can come in with plants you buy and will grow even a balanced tank. If it's the only algae you have you probably don't have too much light, that would cause all kinds of algae. I would just try removing or killing it. Aparently you can put some hydrogen peroxide on it to kill it too. Too little light is not good either. I think 8 hours is a good minimum amount of time for plants to be lit. If you did need to reduce the light can you move the light up higher above the tank? If not, I would cover about ten percent of the bulb with some tape to reduce the intensity rather than the photoperiod.


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## wheatiesl337 (Mar 30, 2011)

Photo-period of less than 8 hours can be used. Link to the edge in my signature is running on a 4-hour photo period.


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## hotrodprincess (Oct 17, 2012)

wheatiesl337 said:


> Photo-period of less than 8 hours can be used. Link to the edge in my signature is running on a 4-hour photo period.


The moss is growing really well so I don't want to reduce it too much I thought may be reducing it to 7 hours instead of 8 because it does get light from a window. I think it came in on the moss as long as i can keep it to a minimum we will be ok.


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## Gold Finger (Oct 13, 2011)

Wheaties- Your edge looks great! I know short periods _can_ be used but don't think we are _sure_ that too much light is the issue here. Now that we hear about the natural sunlight I suspect that. I agree with Hotrod's approach. Small change... Wait and see. A little algae is not bad. Also Wheaties; I would love to know why you run a 4 hour day. Is your bulb too bright for more hours?


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## wheatiesl337 (Mar 30, 2011)

It's low-tech with no c02 injenction or fert-dosing. The bio-load is also very low, as it is currently a home to only some blue-velvet neos. The lower photo-period prevents most algea growth and keeps plant growth slow for reduced pruning requirements.

Back to the topic at hand, I would agree that considering the sunlight is important and making small adjustments should get you where you want. Thread algea is fairly irritating stuff to deal with. Maybe look into adding some anubias or java fern to your set-up. Both are traded commonly on the forum and you could likely get some through a ROAK.


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## wheatiesl337 (Mar 30, 2011)

It's low-tech with no c02 injenction or fert-dosing. The bio-load is also very low, as it is currently a home to only some blue-velvet neos. The lower photo-period prevents most algea growth and keeps plant growth slow for reduced pruning requirements.

Back to the topic at hand, I would agree that considering the sunlight is important and making small adjustments should get you where you want. Thread algea is fairly irritating stuff to deal with. Maybe look into adding some anubias or java fern to your set-up. Both are traded commonly on the forum and you could likely get some through a ROAK.


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## hotrodprincess (Oct 17, 2012)

wheatiesl337 said:


> It's low-tech with no c02 injenction or fert-dosing. The bio-load is also very low, as it is currently a home to only some blue-velvet neos. The lower photo-period prevents most algea growth and keeps plant growth slow for reduced pruning requirements.
> 
> Back to the topic at hand, I would agree that considering the sunlight is important and making small adjustments should get you where you want. Thread algea is fairly irritating stuff to deal with. Maybe look into adding some anubias or java fern to your set-up. Both are traded commonly on the forum and you could likely get some through a ROAK.


We will look into getting some other plants for the tank. What plants do you think would look good any suggestions on placement. I would like to keep it looking nice . the dwarf hair grass is starting to get new green shoots. I trimmed the dead looking stuff a few days a go and I have noticed a lot more new growth since then. The moss has also grown about a 1/4 in this last week. the moss is greener than it looks in the picture.


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## Gold Finger (Oct 13, 2011)

Anubias are beautiful and java looks and works great in low light with moss. The surface looks dead still. Do you have any splash or bubbles to break it up. That fish may not need the O2 or CO2 but the plants do. It would help with algae too.


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## hotrodprincess (Oct 17, 2012)

Gold Finger said:


> Anubias are beautiful and java looks and works great in low light with moss. The surface looks dead still. Do you have any splash or bubbles to break it up. That fish may not need the O2 or CO2 but the plants do. It would help with algae too.


the surface moves around some and the outflow makes some bubbles I can watch them rise from the bottom of the tank below where the outflow is but may be its not enough. I can move the filter sponge thats baffeling the outflow up some and give it a little more splash


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