# how to clean up Rhizoclonium, pictures included



## o snap its eric (Jan 12, 2004)

help? one of my tanks has been over ran with this algae and i just wanna pick it out but it just disintegrates.


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## captain_bu (Oct 20, 2007)

Siphon it out using airline hose...


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## o snap its eric (Jan 12, 2004)

i can't its stuck onto my hc.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

I do a black out for 2-3 days, add Excel daily at full labeled dose, turn off CO2 and do a water change or two.

It's gone thereafter.
Focus on water changes and good CO2 for the next 2 weeks and you should be okay.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## o snap its eric (Jan 12, 2004)

tom, its basically impossible for me to do a real blackout due to the position of my tank and how its placed. Dosing excel in a 60g, would that be wise, more importantly cost smart? Since my tank is a larger tank, would upping the CO2 work just as good?


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

o snap its eric said:


> tom, its basically impossible for me to do a real blackout due to the position of my tank and how its placed. Dosing excel in a 60g, would that be wise, more importantly cost smart? Since my tank is a larger tank, would upping the CO2 work just as good?


Why would it ever be impossible to do a blackout?
I'm curious:icon_eek:

A plastic bag(or 2-3 layers worth) and turning the light out will suffice in all cases I've ever seen.........a little tape etc. 

The Gloss will get leggy, but it's leggy already in the pics.......so they would need trimmed soon anyway. 

Excel can be had, at least in our club, for about 20$ a gallon, so for 5 months or so.........20$.
That's if you used it daily, I'm just talking for this issue for now till things clear up and the plants grow in a bit and then you tweak the CO2 some.

Upping the CO2 often does not work on the algae that is there............but it is the long term cure, upping CO2 might work for many cases, particularly if they are mild and directly CO2 induced..........which many, most are.

Try that and see, the method I suggest is more aggressive and uses that + Excel, + Blackout, + large water changes. You might try this w/o the blackout also. I know this species of algae is very susceptible to blackouts though.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## o snap its eric (Jan 12, 2004)

Well tom, its not impossible but rather hard enough i have so much light (ambient and sunlight) coming from all different angles into this tank. The back of my tank is pretty much touching my wall (yes i know, horrible placement) and i set this tank up many years ago before it became a planted tank and i placed this tank is a very small spot lacking room for me to do many things to it. Scrubbing algae is a pain in the ass due to the lack of space. I mean i can do a black out but again, its harder than it sounds due to my bad description. I'll try your method without a blackout to see if work. If not i'll do a black out. 

Thanks!


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## o snap its eric (Jan 12, 2004)

update: excel dosing with lights on did not help. Not even with overdosing the recommended use. I just started a black out today. Going to do a 4 day black out and see what happens.


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## Ebichua (May 13, 2008)

Black out and excel will help the most. Siphon as much as you can out, then do the blackout. How new is this tank?


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## o snap its eric (Jan 12, 2004)

not new at all, been up for years before it was converted into a planted tank. I never had this problem until a freak accident. My timer freaked out on me and ended up turning on the lights at 3am. i didn't wake up till 10am to find it on already and my sister told me later on that day that it was on all night. Thats when the problem started. Well....not to mention at the same time i got new lights and doubled my wattage.


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## o snap its eric (Jan 12, 2004)

update: 80% of it is gone. I'll begin C02, lighting again at 4hrs and slowly raise it back to 8hrs. Dosing like normal as well.


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

I got rid of it by:

Cleaned out filters
Manual Removal in tank
Large Water Change
Begin 3.5 day blackout
dose excel daily(left co2 on, but reduced bubble count)
Ended black-out
large water change
reduced lighting intensity/photoperiod
continued excel for one week.

Gone, never came back. It was pretty much total war to get rid of this stuff. It grew INCHES a day.

I find that thick black trashbags are great for blackouts. Easy to cover the tank with them.


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## pandapr (Nov 10, 2008)

Best lesson learned: listen to Tom !!roud: or a person that also has been there !!


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## kev82 (Feb 6, 2009)

amanos cleaned my tank in just a few days... You can see before/after pics in the link in my sig...


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Amano's are good also at this species.

As with most algae issues, hit it with a lot of everything you know that will help plants, hurt algae. "Many little hammers" beating the pest down.

This is much better than a large hammer hitting things once.

High Light Disease= HLD

If you "limit" light, then you control CO2 much eaiser, have less energy for algae growth, can use less CO2(the #1 killer of fish in planted tanks...........) and not stress fish as much(maybe you do not care), and then the nutrients are less important and you can add more/less etc without much risk.

Everything becomes easier with less light.

I do not understand how folks in some threads(not here) rattle on endlessly over the need/ecology all this BS about nutrients.............then do not add just enough and not any more for light.

Then the CO2 issue with fish and all the folks who have killed fish with CO2.......not to mention the algae issues associated with CO2 variations and stability.

Never met or even heard of single KNO3 death due to over dosing for fish, and I've managed to kill amano's at well over 160ppm and have yet to find a lethal range for KNO3 and CRS's.......30ppm over time did no harm and that's at 82F.

Growth of both algae and plants starts with light(not with limiting PO4 or NO3), this is what causes plant growth basics.

So use that tool.
Cost you less, easier to manage, better for fish etc.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

While you are doing the blackout, do you feed the fish? Maybe lightly? I just started one on 3 of my 4 tanks, today.


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Fish are perfectly fine for a 3-4 days. I do not feed during a black out.


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## KentCurtis (Jan 22, 2009)

I am going to start my blackout as soon as my excel arrives in the mail as I have a case of rhizoclonium on my HC as well. So turning down co2 to 1 bps~, 3 day black out, and good dosing of excel should do it? I assume I stop all fertilization during these times as well. It is very hard to remove manually from the HC but I have tried to pull off longer strands of it, should this suffice?


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

FYI, I've had Rhizo on HC and this method does no harm to HC, Gloss will get leggy with a BO, HC des not.

3 Days is all you need, cover the tank, increase the flow/aeration etc, disconnect CO2 etc. Do a large water change before and after, dose, and then make sure the CO2 is good, maybe add carbon to the filter/Clean filter etc.

Then do another water change 2-3 days later and another 2-3 days after that.

Tweak CO2 good and make sure the Excel is added etc.
Reduce the light some and wait from there, also, trim often as needed.

It's not hard to get rid of.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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