# Black hair algea and HUGE PROBLEM!



## PeteyPob (Apr 26, 2004)

Hi everyone,

I have posted before about my algea problems and got back great responces. Now I am on a different road and cant seem to find my way out. My pH is at 7 and kH 10 drops,phosphate level at .2,lighting is 130watts 6700k. Dose hhalf of the recommended flourish. I preform my water changes every two days as well.OK now for my problem I preformed a water change yesterday and manually tried to remove as much algea as I could from my jaava laces and chain swords. The next day I noticed new black hair algae on the same spots I had removed it from and now is on the substrate and then creeps it way on the glass. I have been told to get my SIO4 tested( dont know what that is) and if those are high to dose my tank with robophos. Also been told to tint one half of my tank to see if its my spectrum that too high(not a real big fan of this method), also been told to use RO water that way there are no minerals and then to add SAE to help with the problem. I currently have 10 ottos and a bristle nose who seem to be doing there jobs. I am very confussed and certainly have no clue on what to do. Any of the methods mentioned sound like winners? Thanks!~Pete


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## travis (Nov 17, 2004)

This algae is black and hairlike? It doesn't have a bubbly appearance at all does it? The way it's spreading I wonder if it might be blue-green algae(BGA). If you get some on your fingers and smell it, is it just foul smelling? If so, you've likely got BGA.

The best method I know of for treating black beard algae (BBA) is to use CO2. Maintaining CO2 at stable 20-30 ppm levels should get rid of BBA fairly quickly. If it's BGA then you can easily wipe it out with a 3-5 blackout of your tank.

Of course these methods only treat the symptoms and not the cause. You should make sure your nutrient levels are stable as well: nitrates 5-15 ppm, phosphates ~.5 ppm. Nutrient imalances are usually the cause of most algae issues.

Hope this helps


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## PeteyPob (Apr 26, 2004)

Hi Travis thanks for your reply!

The algae is black, kinda of like a solid net. I now keep my co2 levels at 30ppm, and watch my supplements hoping these are the problem. I add seachem flourish, leaf zone by aquarium pharm. I originaly was adding flourish iron and potassium powder type from greg watson but lost how to figure the correct measurments and the desired amount. Leaf zone adds both iron and potassium hopefully. As far as blackouts go, if it comes down to me trying this method are water changes and co2 to be done as usuall? Thanks for the help!

Pete


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## travis (Nov 17, 2004)

Pete - If you do need to do a blackout, do a 50-70% water change before the blackout and another one immediately after the blackout. Try to maintain water temps below 78 degrees as well. Some people discontinue CO2 for the duration, although if you're using a pH controller this shouldn't be a problem. Also, try to run some aeration (bubble stones, etc.) in the tank while it's blacked out. Discontinue fertilization and feeding during the blackout as well.

Although, if this is BBA a blackout may not help much. Maintaining good CO2 levels should get rid of BBA eventually. If you could post some pics that would help with the algae ID a lot.

And here's a link to a great nutrient calculator if you're using Greg's fertilizers. It should help out with figuring out potassium dosing.

Good luck


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## PeteyPob (Apr 26, 2004)

Just thought I update to see if maybe this will help to figure out what will help me. I did a 75% WC this morning and the algae is already growing. It brown on some areas, green and black on others. I will post pics soon to help describe what I am talking about. I test my phosphates before the WC @ .4 and nitrates @ 5ppm. Is this algae supposed to grow this quickly? Thanks for the link on the calculator! 
Thanks!

Pete


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## Momotaro (Feb 21, 2003)

Why so many water changes? Once a week should be good enough. 

Those frequent water changes might be exacerbating the problem, too.

Mike


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## PeteyPob (Apr 26, 2004)

Hi Momotaro,

I have a heavy fish load: 7-3.5" Discus, school of glowfish, 1 angel, 2 cories. My discus require alot of meaty foods. Also they tend to make a big mess.


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

I had more algae problems using flourish as a micro nutrient. Now I prefer to use CSM +B from greg watson. And 30ppm CO2 will solve the BBA (Black brush algae). But the way its speading it sounds like BGA, the only major algae I have not dealt with. Its actually a cyano bacteria. I believe Maracyn will treat it, but I don't know if that would hurt discus. I would check with others. And blackouts don't always wipe out BGA (blue green algae). I have heard it is a pain to get rid of all the dead algae, once you have killed it. But you still have to. HTH.


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## travis (Nov 17, 2004)

With blue-green algae I have done both blackouts and used the anti-biotic Erythromycin (sold as Maracyn and other brand names). The blackouts were effective, but my plants took about a week to fully recover and I hated not being able to look at my tank for three or four days :icon_frow . I don't like to recommend any sort of medication unless absolutely necessary, but the last time I treated my tank for BGA I tried the Maracyn cure (I wanted to be able to look at things :icon_conf ) and it worked like a charm. I haven't seen a lick of BGA since that time and my African cichlids did not show any ill effects from the anti-biotic. The only thing I did notice was that some of my Riccia was stunted for about a week afterwards, but that's nothing, and it did recover quickly after that 

btw - The best way to identify BGA (IMHO), if you haven't seen it before, is by smell. The stuff positively reeks. I can't describe it very well, but it is extremely odoriferous :tongue:


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## PeteyPob (Apr 26, 2004)

I took some pics but forgot I have no idea how to post them with this format. :icon_sad: Any suggestions?


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## donhitme (Nov 10, 2004)

Hi guys, not too sure if you are having the same problem as i did 3 wks ago, where my tank is basically swamped with brown hair algae. Well I bought this product from Hougang Green shopping centre (2 fish shops there, the slightly larger one): "ALGAE CONTROL", the brand/company is "INTERPET". It cleans up ALL the brown algae in a week. Although the green hair algae are still around :tongue: 

Anyway, it solves my algae problem, no garantee on yours. Check out with the shop owner first


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## PeteyPob (Apr 26, 2004)

Hi everyone,

With research and many trial and errors I have found that my problem is not black hair but Blue green Algae. I have desided to treat this with erythromycin (Maracyn). It has put a thin blanket over my javas and micro swords and started to form small patches over the substrate. This algae has put a complete stop to my javas growth. I know that blue green is gram (-) bacteria and erythromycin is targeted towrds gram (+). But in same article I read blue green is more sensitive to erythromycin, not sure how acurate this information is  . I also noticed right now that if I look through one side of the tank when light is shining through the other side there seems to be little thread like things in the water. Not just a few but ALOT floating every where.What is the little threads :icon_conf ?!?!?! Also if anyone has been through the same experiance how well or unwell did your treatment go?


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## travis (Nov 17, 2004)

Those threads are likely BGA too. I've used Maracyn before (five day regimen) and it absolutely wiped out the BGA in my tank and I haven't seen it since. The recommended dosage is 200mg per 10 gallons of water per day for five days, but some people have reported success with half that dosage. I didn't screw around and went for the full boat. It worked great, although my water was cloudy for a few days afterwards. I would recommend a large 50%+ water change after the five day dosing period to clear out the dead algae and medication.

Erythromycin _is_ targeted toward toward gram positive bacteria but works quite well against cyanobacteria without harming your nitrifying filter bed. The damage reported by some users of erythromycin to their bacterial filters is likely due to the ammonia load produced by decaying cyanobacter that the anti-biotic killed. I don't know much more than that about the specifics of the process but I can tell you it works like a charm, but don't recommend it unless you've exhausted all other methods to rid your tank of the BGA. Good luck


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## johnnyandjebus (Dec 16, 2004)

*Maracyn treatment and fish*

Hello all
the product Maracyn, is it harmful to any fish in the tank? I have a problem with BGA and am concerned about treating it with Maracyn due to the fact that I have 2 Discus in the tank.

One other question
My BGA problem appears to be isolated to one sword and one Val which happen to be planted under the filter outtake, the filtered water tends to flow on top of these 2 plants. I have had this BGA problem for several weeks and wonder is it normal for it to stay isolated to one or two plants in the tanks?

Ok I lied, one more question
I have tried to blackout the tank in an attempt to get rid of my algae problem but stopped after 2 days because my Cabomba’s were showing serious strain, they have bounced back but I am wondering if anyone has any comments on this?


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## PeteyPob (Apr 26, 2004)

I personaly dont favor the black out method. I really dont think it will do much to help get rid of the BGA due in part that is only partially photosynthising(spell check) bacteria. My tank right now with the BGA problem consists of 7 discus, I have used maracyn before (not for algae) and the discus did great.


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

Blackouts do NOT stop blue-green algae. I tried 2 blackout periods on mine, incluing one that lasted a week or better. The plants suffered, while the BGA simply waited for the lights to come back on to explode back into full plague status. As I've stated before on this forum, Maracyn works like a charm and if I ever see that stinky crap in my tanks again, I will run, not walk to the cabinet where I keep the Maracyn and nuke it back to hell where it came from.
As for discus, I doubt the Maracyn would hurt them, but when the BGA all dies off, you will have a large amount of rotting material in your tank that could cause ammonia or nitrite spikes. I would be very worried about that and monitor the water quality every day during the treatment.
-Aphyosemion


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## Marc (Oct 13, 2004)

i just dosed my 10 gallon tank with a large anubia covered with bga. second day it started to all melt off. You still need to scrub the damn thing off on bad areas but now my anubia is completely green. It became like that because it was in my extra tank and it was ill maintained. Over feeding and infrequent water changes etc. 

If your tank is bad, i recomend taking out the fish, treat the tank, maybe even redo and sanitize the tank if its really bad. It works but like others said it will come back if you dont find the cause.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Betowess said:


> I had more algae problems using flourish as a micro nutrient. Now I prefer to use CSM +B from greg watson. And 30ppm CO2 will solve the BBA (Black brush algae). But the way its speading it sounds like BGA, the only major algae I have not dealt with. Its actually a cyano bacteria. I believe Maracyn will treat it, but I don't know if that would hurt discus. I would check with others. And blackouts don't always wipe out BGA (blue green algae). I have heard it is a pain to get rid of all the dead algae, once you have killed it. But you still have to. HTH.



Blackouts most certainly do take out BGA permantly if you treat the cause, *low NO3*. You need to add more KNO3 otherwise BGA will come back everytime. Maybe not for a month or 3 etc. But at some point.........
I have not had a BGA algae issue for what? 12 years or more? Oh it's there(take a sample of th gravel out and place under a scope at 100-400x), and I've reinfected my tanks hundreds of times since then........
But it does not grow........
Yes, I've bred discus and all sorts of fish in planted tanks, they just do their thing.

Rather than looking for ways to kill algae so much, look for ways to grow plants well, not just with light or CO2, but nutrients as well.

Your tank will look much than adding Azoo BBA killers, Algone, or snake oil of your choice. Biggest waste of $ in the hobby truthfully. 

Algae grow for distinct reasons....I can look at a tank and tell what is wrong without a test kit, both with algae as indicators and plants.

Basically kill, remove the algae that's there, then correct the conditions and keep them up to par from then on.

It's no big deal and becomes old hat fast. It's a bit of a pain sometimes but teaches you to keep up on things.

Anyone that claims blackouts do not work on BGA, has not added the KNO3 back afterwards(at 10-11ppm NO3 per dose at least 1-2x a week, 3x a week for higher light) and continued to do so.

I've done this many many times and repeated this process. GW, BBA etc and most of the others.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

Get the planted info you need and desire roud: 
www.BarrReport.com


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