# Algae infected plants.



## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

Not sure what algae it is but doesn't look like BBA to me. I'd try using Excel or H2O2 and maybe reducing the lighting period to 6-8 hrs. Also, manually remove as much as possible.


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## Ben3721 (Jan 20, 2018)

Would a 3 day blackout help or just weaken the plants more to the point the algae will take more advantage? I still haven't had this algae identified after posting it on many forums. So I'm not sure how to treat it.

Still not sure what to do. Bump.


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## Speedo'stanks (Sep 13, 2017)

Your photos are not the best, bud... It seems like you have a ton of natural lighting there? If it is only growing on the plants, I would consider removing all of the plants and cleaning the tank to see if this stuff continues to grow in your tank. If does not, get new plants...


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## Amy9 (Jul 4, 2012)

Good thing you reduced your photo period. 12 hours is too long for plants as well as fish. 

Honestly there are so many possible factors when dealing with algae. Excess nutrients, low flow, wrong spectrum of lighting...it goes on and on. I can’t get a good view of what yours looks like. One you can rule out for sure though is BBA. You can’t rub it off leaves. There are tons of websites that you can check out with pictures of different types of algae, the causes, and how to eradicate it. Wish I could be more help. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Ben3721 (Jan 20, 2018)

Yesterday I got tired of this mess and cut down all my plants full with algae. Removed half my gravel which was too much and held in lots of waste, then did a 70% water change and sucked the gravel clean as well as cleaned everything as much as I could. I added a overpowered extra filter and had to wash the pad about 5 times during that. Only small algae free leaves were left. I half dosed Marineland algaecide which contains "oxyethylene (dimethyliminio) ethylene (dimethyliminio) ethylene dichloride" which should be safe for plants and not too hard on the fish. I put in flourish root tabs and been dosing Envy. I added extra Phosguard to lower silicates and phosphates. 

I pretty much did everything possible within reason. I had to put some fake plants in for my fish to hide around.


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> Ferts, products and lighting:
> Been using api leaf zone (iron) api co2 booster and Envy (chorella, only recent). I've also been using phosgaurd to bring down phosphates and silicates for about two months now.


In Estimative index tanks the practice is to supply the plants with everything they need to grow. When that happens plants generally outcompete algae for nutrients,the algae dies back, and the plants recover. You are dosing fertilizer but the two you selected won't work.

Plants need the following to grow:
Nitrogen, potassium, Calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, sulfur. These are collectively called Macro nutrients because they generally have to be present in the water at a level above one part per million. 

Other nutrients need are Chlorine, iron, boron, manganese, zinc, copper, Molybdenum, and nickel. These are called micro nutrients because they are generally in the water at less than one part per million.

if any one of the above nutrients are missing plant growth will slow and may even stop. Algae in contrast has a much easier time growing at very low nutrient levels. End result is algae takes over the tank. 

API leaf zone is one of the worst fertilizers on the market because it only contains potassium and iron. Aqua vitro is even worse it has no nutrients that plants need. It only contains vitamins which healthy plant make on there own. Your CO2 booster is fine, continue to use it. Your lighting is low but since you have had success with it when your plants were growing I wouldn't change it for now. 

So you likely have multiple deficiencies in your tank. Your tap water and substrate will have some. Since your fertilizers are so nutrient poor the plants have been living on the tap water and substrate nutrients. However your substrate has probably lost most of its nutrients after 5 years and what little is left is being consumed by the algae. You can continue to use your old substrate but from now on treat it as inert


The other thing that that doesn't help is the Phosguard. It was once thought that excess phosphate was the cause of algae and people tried to keep it at less than 0.5ppm. However in successful EI tanks the phosphate is dosed at typically at 1ppm and in some cases up to 5ppm with minimal to no algae. So remove the phosguard from your filter. You should try a different fertilizer. You might want to try thrive from Nilocg.com. I have not used it but it is popular.


Note if your still have problems with a different fertilizer start another post. There are significant differences from place to place in tap water. Additionally very few fertilizers have calcium, sulfur and chlorine Typically tap water has these. However nutrient deficiencies are still possible. In some cases it is easy to resolve with a sulfur based GH booster such as Sachem Equilibrium. but ask for advise first.


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## Ben3721 (Jan 20, 2018)

Thank you for your response and help. I am not able to use my tap water due to the fact it's over 150ppm nitrates. I'll try a new fert and hope for the best.


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## vince01 (Nov 3, 2017)

If what you`re seeing is a fine dark powdery substance suspended in a slimy matrix that disintegrates upon being touched, then I think I`ve got the same problem. I`ve read everything I can get my hands on and I`m still no wiser as to what causes it or how to get rid of it.

Rightly or wrongly I`ve come to the conclusion that it isn`t a true algae but a bacteria, and what I`m seeing isn`t the living organism but a by product kinda like coral. The reason I came to that conclusion was that I took a leaf with a patch of the crud and put it in a container of tap water and it didn`t get any bigger in a couple of days whereas in my tank the same patch would have doubled in size.

I am lucky in that most of my plants are fixed to rocks or wood with just a couple of crypts planted, but just like you I removed everything that I could and what could be soaked in hot water was and the plants were cleaned of with an artists paint brush, then I rinsed everything off in tap water thinking the chlorine might help (it didn`t). Within 3 days I was seeing the brown patches starting to form again. The only thing I did different to you is use Rowaphos rather than Phosgard. Oddly enough the only plant not affected was some Java moss, the root its tied to was covered in the stuff but not a spec on the plant.

Now my regime is day 1 test water, drain the tank to leave just enough water for the fish, clean off as much as possible, refill and dose macro and carbo. Day 2 dose micro and carbo, day3 repeat day 1. I know I`m sailing a fine line with the filter but I`ve had no problems in about 4 weeks. I`m hoping that whatever it is will consume all of whatever it is that sustains it and it dies out. It will be interesting to see how your algaecide does, my next move is to introduce some live daphnia as suggested by a member of this forum.

If what you`re seeing is not the slimy crud I`ve just written all of that for nothing lol.


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## Ben3721 (Jan 20, 2018)

Not sure if the above poster has the same type of algae, photos? I bought some seachem flourish. Hopefully that will help. I hit the tank with a second dose of algaecide, I can not let any algae start on the new leaves otherwise it will claim them. Hopefully this will prevent the spread.


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## Ben3721 (Jan 20, 2018)

So the seachem flourish and root tabs did the trick over the last 10 days. New leaves formed that were totally different color, shape and firmness. Very healthy looking. I removed every single old malnourished algae infected leaf down to the stem. I also removed some gravel (had a bit too much) and did a deep cleaning of the rest of it since now i can reach around where the plants covered. The algaecide was extremely effective to the point even my driftwood is now algae free for now (sorry mr.pleco). All fish are still healthy and it seems the algaecide caused no harm, I still will never use it again as its more of a symptom cover up and risky.

As for my lighting on my tank, I did a side to side comparison to a few other LED hoods and found my homemade one was blinding compared to other basic lights. I've been through fish stores with many types of reg hoods and nicer LED lights and can safely say mine is beyond bright enough for my tank size. I don't even feel comfortable to run it at 100% power in fear Ill blind my fish. As for color I think its more on the 5500K-6500K range. I have a ton of these LED strips of different white colors, whats ideal? 6500K-ish? I see some nicer LED lights have blue and red and other random spectrum of LED's in them. I know the kelvin scale isnt meant for LED's as they produce very narrow array of spectrum's to produce their white-ish color (true right?)

Here are the current photos of my tank. - https://imgur.com/a/uJuyP
Yes I have some fake plants back in and a battleship just so my fish can hide if they feel the need to. I plan to take the fake ones out when i can as well as the battleship, my goal is for a 100% natural tank. I have multiple types of wood drying over the last year that i hope to use if my research can prove certain types of those wood are safe. I have Maple wood, Locust wood and Cherry wood. All insanely hard woods lol


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