Black Beard Algae Growing On My Fish

[Rockatteer]

Nitrates "off the scale" means that your cycle is working fine, but you are not doing enough water changes.

Cycle is a useless product.

Prime is a better conditioner than AquaPlus.

HTH

hmm...I do a 25% - 33% water change every week.

Guess I'll need to up it to 2 per week for a while huh?

 

[mikev]

Generally, what you do should be sufficient.

Checklist:
1. Are you overstocked? -- then you need more water changes.
2. Does you tap contain high nitrates?
3. Did you check nitrates correctly?

Oh, btw, algae would grow better in a high nitrate environment (food!), so this is one more reason to solve this problem.