Algae All Over My Anubias

[Ch4rlie]

Hi,
 
I am getting a little concerned with my plants and tank in general concerning algae.
 
There seems to be quite a lot of brownish deposits thats going around the tank and settling on my gravel, bogwood and Anubia plant as well as darkish green algae thats starting to form at frony of my anubia plant.
 
If anyone can give advice as to whats the best course of action, that would be great.
 
Note, this is a 90l tank thats going through a fishless cycle at the moment and could this algae be due to lack of nitrites as test readings for that is consistently at 0 at the moment. And also my lights are on for around 9 hours every day.
 
Thanks
 

 

[BerryAttack]

you lights are on for too long, drop it to 7hrs.
that algae you can remove with your fingers gently.
i find that snails are the best thing, they love to remove that algae (i have it in my tank) and do an amazing job. 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Ok, thanks very much for that BerryAttack. 

 
Will reduce my lighting hours down to 7 hours per day.
 
Will try to remove dark green algae using fingers, will see how that goes.
 
The snails that are in tank are not really interested in the algae on that plant for some reason, more snails on the glass itself rather than on any of the plants. 

 

[greenmumma141]

Looks like the dreaded diatoms to me.  It will get better once your tank is more established, but snails should help... if they make it through all the cycling

 

[Ch4rlie]

Yeah, makes my tank look very dirty. 

 
Since am in middle of fishless cycling, am reluctant to do anything that may interfere with this cycle. So am not even doing any WC or gravel cleaning as need the bacteria to form and grow in numbers first to establish water! 
 
So am being very strong willed NOT to get my tank cleaning kit out and clean everything and do massive water changes!! 

 
Just have to hope once cycle is finished that these diatoms will start to disappear and introduction of otos or larger snails to try to control this at least.
 
Will these diatoms block or do anything to my filter media now I think about it? 

 

[greenmumma141]

They won't harm anything no, but any kind of build up or blockage in your filter will keep the water from getting to the good bacteria, so just keep an eye out for that.  
 
I know how you feel, I have a newly set up 10g fry tank with black sand..... there's diatoms everywhere!! My sand looks brown and gross and my plants are covered with it too. I can't vacuum it as much as i would like bc baby platies seem to have no common sense at all lol.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Oh no, LOL can just imagine your platies going exactly where you don't want them to!
 
Thanks will keep an eye on my filter media but TBH I would not know if filter media is blocked or not since this is my first tank!? 

 
And also just noticed I also have hairlike strands thats on my plants, would anyone happen to know what this is? Another form of algae perhaps or something to do with the snails? Sorry if these seem to be silly questions......
 

 

[greenmumma141]

Just keep an eye on the flow of your output filter. If it's clogged or not getting enough flow, it will affect the pressure.
 
It's the dreaded hair algae probably.  That stuff is more of a pain than diatoms I think. Check the algae section on here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/forum/222-algae-removal/ .
 
My baby platies are pretty horrible with the vacuum, it's actually stressful lol.

 

[Mads]

To fight the algae effectivel you have to use furtilizers(micro and macro fertilizers), do you do that?
 
The best cure against diatoms is darkness for a couple of days. Algae  is in general more sensitive to changing in lightning in comparison with plants. Plants will do well without light for a few days, while diatoms will suffer. I just did that with my tank with great succes
 
Regards
Mads