Furry Black Stuff!

[garrym1983]

This is probably a subject or question thats been asked on here and other forums countless times.... but what is this furry black stuff on my plants??? its getting a bit annoying and a bit disheartening when im putting nice plants in my tank and within a couple of weeks they look somewhat unattractive and growing fur like my nan!!!

Ive been apart of the fishkeeping hobby for 12 months, but have only really commited to giving the planted aquarium a serious go. in the begining id buy a plant or two, plant it and that be that. Now i have restarted the tank setup and introduced a plant base from JBL called aquabase, i use JBL manado for my substrate, use the daily plant fertiliser called ferropol 24 and i use the easy life pro vito weekly fertiliser. I also use the liquid carbon as i cant afford quite yet to have the co2 systems. Can anyone offer any advice to what things to look out for in regards to keeping algae away and what some of the otrher nastys that are detremental to plant health

thanks

 

[nick1200]

Its algae .... The water in the tank is not right. Algae can get out of control ( kill plants ) if you do not do water changes. Or can get out of control if your leaving yur lights on for two long. I use to leave me lights on for 12 hours a day and got algae growth over all my plants. So cut it down a lot and now i get no algae growth

 

[garrym1983]

I do water chamges weekly, about 25 per cent, i leave lights on for 8 hours. How much light, minimum, do plants need? can i get rid f the algae once its on the plants?
what would you say is best way froward apart from the light reduction that youve mentioned?
thanks

 

[stu40]

Try searching for topics in the algae section 'Bottle Brush Algae'
plus this algae guide
Also, if you're using liquid carbon, you really need a fert with N & P. Ferropol doesn't & neither does Easy Life Profito?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Its not the water its BBA (black brush algae), its caused by low or fluctuating CO2 levels, I know your not dosing CO2 but not keeping the liquid carbon amounts level can cause it, are you dosing the carbon weekly as it has a short half life which means big fluctuations. Also do you use an air pump or does your filter break the water surface a lot? This can cause the small amount of CO2 in the water to gas off. Lastly do you water change with lights on or just before they come on?

 

[garrym1983]

i dose the liquid carbon daily and the filter makes ripples in the water, dont use an air pump. i do the water changes when the lights are on, normally when i get in from work when they have been on a few hours.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Ahhh that will be the cause then, doing water changes with lights on causes a huge fluctuation on CO2, the tap water contains lots of CO2, you should do them after lights out, that way the excess CO2 has a chance to gas off before lights on.

To get rid of it make up some liquid carbon/water mix 1:20 ratio and drop the water level down below the algae,spray the algae and refill. After a few days the algae will turn red and vanish.