Ugh.....green Beard Algae

[Rlon35]

I usually give my new plants a short bleach bath, but I may have neglected this one time. I know the LFS who has it in their tanks, and I recenlty added some nice looking glosso from their (the leaves looked fine, but I was afraid to bleach them for more than a minute). So, I have green beard algae all over my driftwood, rocks, parva crypts, and banana plants. I am going to give the parva and bananas a bleach bath, but I will ruin my scape if I try to remove the driftwood. I have 2 siamese alage eaters and amano shrimp in the tank. I am thinking about adding nerites. Is there anythig that can be done with this alage? I can't treat it with an herbicide due to my stock. It can't be removed manually...uh, suggestions?

 

[aaronnorth]

you could buy some excel or easycarbo, then spot dose to remove it/ kill it.

because your tank was fine before, it means that you cant really do anything to change any stats to fix the problem - as it must of been fine before otherwise you would of had algae.

 

[Rlon35]

you could buy some excel or easycarbo, then spot dose to remove it/ kill it.

because your tank was fine before, it means that you cant really do anything to change any stats to fix the problem - as it must of been fine before otherwise you would of had algae.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Actually, I didn't mean to be misleading, but I am now running 3 of 4 65 watt lights on a 55 gallon tank, as I can't, because of a malfunction, run the two lights that are on the setting with the fan. So, my choice is 2 lights, at 65 watts, without the fan, or 3 lights, one faded/on its way out, at 65 watts each, with the fan. I have excel, but I haven't spot dosed because I lost my syringe in the move. I blacked out the tank for over 3 days...no impact on algae because I don't think that takes care of this particular algae. It's a coralife fixture, and I can't manage to fix it (one of the connections is broken). I don't know why I left that out of the original post, except that I know where the algae came from (lfs). I added a few large bunched of rotala indica to the overlit side, but the driftwood is filled with algae. Unfortunately, I have less time for the tank nowadays...

 

[aaronnorth]

well that is the problem then. If you cant fix it then i would get a small 12v fan and fix it next to the lights. There is little cost invloved. DIY is an option or i saw someone have a clip on fan which they used to keep the temp down in hot weather.

 

[killudead]

you could buy some excel or easycarbo, then spot dose to remove it/ kill it.

because your tank was fine before, it means that you cant really do anything to change any stats to fix the problem - as it must of been fine before otherwise you would of had algae.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Actually, I didn't mean to be misleading, but I am now running 3 of 4 65 watt lights on a 55 gallon tank, as I can't, because of a malfunction, run the two lights that are on the setting with the fan. So, my choice is 2 lights, at 65 watts, without the fan, or 3 lights, one faded/on its way out, at 65 watts each, with the fan. I have excel, but I haven't spot dosed because I lost my syringe in the move. I blacked out the tank for over 3 days...no impact on algae because I don't think that takes care of this particular algae. It's a coralife fixture, and I can't manage to fix it (one of the connections is broken). I don't know why I left that out of the original post, except that I know where the algae came from (lfs). I added a few large bunched of rotala indica to the overlit side, but the driftwood is filled with algae. Unfortunately, I have less time for the tank nowadays...

i just got one of these. I called the tech support for coralife, Really great bunch of guys over there. he said that you only need the fan to extend the life of the ballast. heat is its enemy, one way to combat that is with the fan. they got all that crap on the fan and that prevents much airflow.
I actually unhooked the fan anyways. it was too loud.

 

[Christi_22]

Hi

I too unfortunately introduced hair/beard type algae by adding a plant from the LFS to my 5 Gallon Betta tank. It just grew and grew, and was really unsightly, the only way I have managed to get rid of it is by removing the affected plant leaves, and using a clean toothbrush to take out as much as possible. As the tank is small I guess it was easier to manage, and now with the addition of 3 Armanos, we seem to be on top of it. Not sure how practical it would be for you to manually remove. but it does give the algae eaters a fighting chance of keeping it at bay.