so way had it. stripped my tank

[purple_drazi]

after buying siamese flying foxes to eat that nasty black beard algae, and losing practically all of my fish to whatever infection the foxes brought in with them... I was still looking at that $#%& black algae on everything. It was getting worse, not better.

But anyway, today I snapped. I just couldn't stand looking at that black #*$% any more.

I bought some nice, clean plants, ripped all of the old ones out, scrubbed the rocks, wiped the walls, put the new ones in and did a 25% water change to clean up the junk that had been kicked up by all the moving. I hadn't wanted to go that route because my old plants were really well established and huge. They were so nice and the new ones are so little!

But. It's even nicer not to see that black gunge everywhere!
bah.
Should have done it in the first place.

 

[rdd1952]

You could probably clean the old plants with a bleach or vinegar and water mixture. They might not look perfect afterwards but probably would recover.

 

[gale]

I think I have that kind of algae in my tank too, but I simply can't afford to replace my plants. I can only buy them online (local lfs' don't sell them and when they do, they don't have the type I need for my low light tanks) and the shipping is killer. I think I've spent around $70 on them already and don't really have that many. It's all shipping! I don't want to do a bleach dip either though, because I killed a hygro that way (with a 40:1 mix). I'm going to get some nerites and see if they do any good.

 

[rdd1952]

If you need to order plants online, try aquariumplant.com. Their shipping is reasonable especially if you get quite a few plants. I just ordered 44 plants for my new 75 gallon. Total shipping was only $24.05 for next day USPS. This is the first time I have ordered from them so I'm not sure how quick their shipping is. It says within 72 hours but I can't confirm that yet since I just ordered about 8 PM last night.

 

[lovebuzz]

Black beard algae is just disgusting

I don't mind other algaes--hair algae, green algae, brown algae, but the black beard algae just looks soooooo bad.

Anyways, good luck with the tank and I hope it all works out

 

[gale]

If you need to order plants online, try aquariumplant.com. Their shipping is reasonable especially if you get quite a few plants. I just ordered 44 plants for my new 75 gallon. Total shipping was only $24.05 for next day USPS. This is the first time I have ordered from them so I'm not sure how quick their shipping is. It says within 72 hours but I can't confirm that yet since I just ordered about 8 PM last night.

That's where I bought mine from, but I can't afford 44 plants at one time.

 

[rdd1952]

Those 44 plants are for my new 75 gallon. It was expensive but I want it to be heavily planted. They just arrived today but they are wrapped in paper so i haven't opened them yet to see how they look. I am now experiencing the same black hair algae problem in my 29 gallon. I have a better light strip ordered for it that is supposed to deliver on Tuesday. Hopefully, better lighting and maybe some plants left over from the 75 gallon that I can add will solve my algae problem. My nitrates and phosphate are fine at 7.5 and .1 respectively.