Havent Been Here In Awile, Got A Problem, Please Help

[ridewake210]

hey everyone

i have not been around here in a VERY long time.
hows it been going?



hopefully some of you will remember me.


anyways..

i've got a problem going on in one of my tanks, had it in a 2nd but im shutting that tank down so that tank doesnt matter right now.


but the tank im concerned about is my 30g with my africans.
lots of rock, black sand.
50g AC and a 30g AC

whats the problem?
i've got this growth. its black.. they grow in balls.
real fluffy like, spiky.


what is it? what do i do to get rid of it?
i had it in a 20g tank real badly.
didnt seem to harm anything, none of the fish died and the fish were around it for 6+ months

but this is something new in this 30g tank. i just noticed it. and its only on 1 of my rocks.

here are a few pictures of it-

any help is greatly appreciated it.




Thanks everyone!




Sean

 

[ridewake210]

ok i got the rock out without having to totally take the tank apart.


thanks to my girlfriend for helping out.


im going to scrub the rock down and replace it.
i would still like to know what the stuff is though.


and what i can do to treat the water to make sure there isnt anymore of it.



thanks

 

[dthoffsett]

It looks like some sort of algae to me, I'm not that great at identifying the different types though.

 

[QuotheRaven]

I had an algae that looked very similiar to that on a rock I have... just scrub with a toothbrush (new not used) if it annoys you so much or else just leave it in my opinion

 

[ridewake210]

im not sure what it is.


but it is very ugly. and it does bug me.
its all over one of my other tanks.

hopefully someone can give me a name and a solution. lol

 

[chishnfips]

it looks like a red algae of some sort (maybe the beginnings of brush algae), apart from that I know nothing really about it. I have heard scrubbing is really the only way to get rid of algae, apart from that you can go to the extremes of using copper to rid the tank of algae but that will kill all of the algae in your tank which might not be ideal for the mbuna....

I have heard other methods like turning your lights off for an hour or two through the day to break the life cycle of the algae, I think they need 12 hours of light a day so if you turn of the lights it affects its growth, but I haven't ever tried it out.

hope that helps a bit.

chish

 

[ridewake210]

it looks like a red algae of some sort (maybe the beginnings of brush algae), apart from that I know nothing really about it. I have heard scrubbing is really the only way to get rid of algae, apart from that you can go to the extremes of using copper to rid the tank of algae but that will kill all of the algae in your tank which might not be ideal for the mbuna....

I have heard other methods like turning your lights off for an hour or two through the day to break the life cycle of the algae, I think they need 12 hours of light a day so if you turn of the lights it affects its growth, but I haven't ever tried it out.

hope that helps a bit.

chish

Thanks

im going to try shutting the lights off
its 9am right now, im going to turn them back on at noon
im going to try this for about a week unless someone else has some ideas

 

[chishnfips]

it looks like a red algae of some sort (maybe the beginnings of brush algae), apart from that I know nothing really about it. I have heard scrubbing is really the only way to get rid of algae, apart from that you can go to the extremes of using copper to rid the tank of algae but that will kill all of the algae in your tank which might not be ideal for the mbuna....

I have heard other methods like turning your lights off for an hour or two through the day to break the life cycle of the algae, I think they need 12 hours of light a day so if you turn of the lights it affects its growth, but I haven't ever tried it out.

hope that helps a bit.

chish

Thanks

im going to try shutting the lights off
its 9am right now, im going to turn them back on at noon
im going to try this for about a week unless someone else has some ideas

I would be inclined to do it half way through the day so they dont such a long period with the light on, maybe have them on for 4 hours turn them off for two hours and back on for four hours.

If you put them on at 12 then they dont have a break in the light and its on for the rest of the day if you know what I mean.

The only thing with trying this method is the algae may still benefit from natural daylight, so I dont know how effective it is.....can only try and see if it works.

lol 9 am unlucky lol!! you still have the whole day, its 15.15 over here almost done for the day for me lol.

 

[Ferris]

lol 9 am unlucky lol!! you still have the whole day, its 15.15 over here almost done for the day for me lol.

Haha - that depends on what is planned for the day - it could be something to look forward to.

 

[Biulu]

I had something similar, and I got rid of it by lowering the number of hours of lighting (from 10 went to 8 hours), including a break after 4 hours for 1 hour. Further I added more plants (heavy planting to outcompete the algae), this might be more difficult in a mbuna tank, and I added otocinclus.

Good luck!

 

[ridewake210]

i dont have any live plants

last time i tried live plants the cichlids destroyed everything i had.


i've had a cichlid tank for 4 years now.
just the last 2 or so i havent been visiting any forums.


so pretty much i have forgotton alot of things

 

[chishnfips]

lol 9 am unlucky lol!! you still have the whole day, its 15.15 over here almost done for the day for me lol.

Haha - that depends on what is planned for the day - it could be something to look forward to.

lol very true, I had my work head on

i dont have any live plants

last time i tried live plants the cichlids destroyed everything i had.


i've had a cichlid tank for 4 years now.
just the last 2 or so i havent been visiting any forums.


so pretty much i have forgotton alot of things

Let me know how you get on I would be interested to see if it works.

 

[ridewake210]

i was told that Flourish excel or Flourish by seachem will get rid of the stuff.

i bought both, but i think i heard that it will do harm to my plec.
im going to go back and re read and make sure this is true or not

 

[ridewake210]

i havent done anything so far.


i havent noticed any growing back since i scrubbed the one rock i saw it on.