Algae Growing On My Plants?

[mezrie]

Would anybody have any advice on this?

The leaves of my plants just get covered in the stuff!

 

[Themuleous]

I'm sure we could advise, but a picture would help us to work out which type it is and if you could post as many tank stats as poss like tank size, lighting, CO2 addition, substrate, current plant stock, any water stats like NO3, KH, PO4, etc, etc would be very helpful

Sam

 

[jlOisAhoTti]

Yeah, probably an algae problem. Hate to say it but I've got the same problem with one of my tanks(The only one with plants in it). A good way to get rid of the algae is to buy an oto or a Siamese algae eating fish or amano shrimp. They eat most algaes.

 

[MoreCoffee]

A pic would help, but from the description it sounds like BBA or maybe staghorn.

If so otto's or amano shrimp aren't going to help much. Siamese Algae eaters are a better option, as long as you dont feed them with anything else.
However they can sometimes be agressive, so may not suit your tank.

If it's a high tech tank, you may need to look at your Co2 and Lighting levels, particularly the Co2. Try getting up to a stable 30ppm.

I had an outbreak a while ago and I did a 3 day blackout before increasing the CO2.
Blackouts are usually the remedy for BGA (rather than BBA), but 3 days of no lighting seemed to weaken it considerably. Your plants and fish will be fine during the blackout.

Al

Edit:
Actually I also did a large water change and no ferts just prior to the blackout, then another water change after the blackout and increased the CO2. It soon started to die off and eventually cleared up altogether. Dont forget to manually remove as much as possible first ... even if that means removal of leaves or whole plants.