My New Pet Hate!

[Ludwig Venter]

i personally try to avoid all algae killers because they do there job and then it will take hold again and again and if something goes pair shaped... . im guessing its that black/blue/green hairy stuff? i had it in my tank for a while all over my vallis and it was killing them, i increased the flow to 10X tank volume an hour. and it went within two weeks. this coupled with 50% water changes every 2 days will eradicate it very quickly.

sorry to sound like a broken record lol

Now there!!.... In defence of MY algea,.....(I have to say) it's not just any cheap algea growing in anyone's common tanks.... this is a healthy specimen of good cultured prime stock algea.... Thick strands of healthy vibrant green algea threads.....(get the picture)....But I hate it...

I even left the empty ponds in the sun for at least 4 days before I transferred the fish... no avail!

Hallo Kia... Sorry to sound ignorant,..... But what are those?? (Nerite snails)..... I have plenty Apple snails,.... No will help??

[URL="http/theaquariumwiki.com/Neritina_natalensis"]http/theaquariumwiki.com/Neritina_natalensis[/URL]

Thanks Kia.... I had a look at your link, but never seen 'em live before in me life, so I would assume they're unavaible in SA.....

 

[JustKia]

LOL Ludwig, apparently they are native to SA (and Florida) =)

 

[Ludwig Venter]

LOL Ludwig, apparently they are native to SA (and Florida) =)

Then it probably stems from the Law of not being allowed to keep indiginous species in captivity.... So they would not be for sale around here.....

 

[saltynay]

This is a Machete and most guides advise labour intensive removal for hair algae. What are the temps in your ponds? you may be able to keep some algae eating fishies in there if they are around 20 as cape town is supposedly 19C air temp

 

[three-fingers]

It took a lot of effort on my part to move my fish from one pond to another..... all 5 (ponds) of them!..... not 3 weeks later, and with basic caution..... my hairy algea is back!!!..... How do I get rid of it forever, forever...FOREVER!!!!!..... I'll put pool acid in if I have to!... I hate the stuff! (fish gets tangled & die)

lack of CO2 (i dont think so in this case)

poor water movement. get some power heads in there!

Hi Trucka..... nothing wrong with your line of thinking..... but I am vigourously agitating (cause I thought along the same lines)... but nope!... the stuff thrives!

Do you mean agitation the surface of the water? Or actual water turnover? Are there areas in there with a low flow of water? Any plants in there?

Have you tried puttin gin some of your hornwort? That stuff usually completely out-competes and kills algae .

 

[s007]

Sorry might sound stupid buy algea needs light like any other plant right? what about covering your tank for few days from light it shuld die off isnt it?

 

[england]

hi mate, my oscar's are all gone now, iam concentrating on snakehead's now, alway's have a love for oscar's.....once iam settled in colombia i shall return to these beauty's

 

[Schmill]

2 words, BARLEY STRAW

Get a nice bale of it and chuck it in the pond, (usually with a floating cork / bottle attached as the straw must be kept in the flow, and also well oxygenated, so it's no good just sitting on the bottom).
After a couple of weeks when it starts to decompose it releases an organic enzyme that the algae seems to dislike, (but plants dont care about, my lillies used to grow and flower really well ).
You just remove it before it either all decays, or it starts to go mushy, remembering of course to put in a new bale around 2 weeks before you take the other one out.

I tried lots of treatments on my pond, but all were quite expensive because of the volume, whereas Barley straw I could get anywhere, and cheaply
(It's worth checking pet stores etc, as a lot of 'rabbit straw' is actually Barley straw, and about 1/10th the price of 'Aquatic Barley Straw Packs'

Some more info here:
Barley Straw to combat Algae

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Have you tried puttin gin some of your hornwort? That stuff usually completely out-competes and kills algae .

Agitation, I mean bubbling the water to the extent that the poor fish just floats around in the resultant eddies, & yes..... Hornwort is in there, but the stuff grows on the Hornwort.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

2 words, BARLEY STRAW

Thanks Schmill,....This sounds like an educated solution, but I'm concerned when I remove the straw..... It'll be hard to take out bundles with hundreds (thousands) of LB fry hiding in it.... I'll surely remove a lot of 'em as well???

 

[three-fingers]

Have you tried putting in some of your hornwort? That stuff usually completely out-competes and kills algae .

Agitation, I mean bubbling the water to the extent that the poor fish just floats around in the resultant eddies, & yes..... Hornwort is in there, but the stuff grows on the Hornwort.

Well if your bubbling the water loads, the turnover is probably very uneven, and if it is good enough it will be be driving off a lot of CO2.

This means that if the algae is growing fast, it is a species that is evidently more capable of using bicarbonates as a carbon source than the hornwort is (which is unlucky, as hornwort is pretty good at that).

I would use a couple of stong water pumps to try give a big flow without creating surface agitation, which could very well give the hornwort an edge over the algae.

Using bales of hay is only addressing the symptoms rather than the actual problem, and at the end of the day you have rotting hay in there too.

Tom Barr would be the best person to give a solution, he posts every now and then on here as plantbrain, if you trawl through some of his posts or look him up on the net and start reading you should end up greatly enlightened .

 

[aaronnorth]

well if your bubbling the water loads, the turnover is probably very uneven, and if it is good enough it will be be driving off a lot of CO2

It will only drive of CO2 if he is injecting it (which i dont think Ludwig is)

 

[three-fingers]

It will only drive of CO2 if he is injecting it (which i dont think Ludwig is)

How so?

Ponds and aquariums have a much higher concentration of CO2 than pure water at equilibrium with air (due to all the respiring organisms), surface agitation increases surface area, allowing more gas exchange to occur bringing it closer to the low equilibrium levels.

Which is why air pumps and surface agitation is advised against for planted tanks with no CO2 injection, such as Walstad style ones.

 

[Truck]

i always thought that surface agitation will keep CO2 levels at 6-8ppm and wouldnt drive it off. because of gas exchange. but threefingers explanation also makes sense. after all the percentage of CO2 in the air is only 0.033%

 

[aaronnorth]

It will only drive of CO2 if he is injecting it (which i dont think Ludwig is)

How so?

Ponds and aquariums have a much higher concentration of CO2 than pure water at equilibrium with air (due to all the respiring organisms), surface agitation increases surface area, allowing more gas exchange to occur bringing it closer to the low equilibrium levels.

Which is why air pumps and surface agitation is advised against for planted tanks with no CO2 injection, such as Walstad style ones.

i am not too sure about ponds, and whether there is a big difference to aquariums, there may well be higher CO2 levels than air, but once the plants start photosynthesisng this is quickly used and then the levels are lower than air. It is all to do with Equilibrium:

If you are adding CO2 artificially, you are raising the levels high above the natural equilibrium with the air. In this case, the more aeration you have, the more CO2 you lose from the water. So an airstone can be a problem if you are artificially adding CO2.

If you are not artificially adding CO2, then the levels are never going to be measurably above the equilibrium point with the air. But they can get below it, because the plants are using the CO2. So if you use an airstone in this situation, it will help the tank to stay in equilibrium with the air, and this will actually add CO2 to the water in this situation (although it will still be around the average of 8ppm - basically it keeps the levels steady)