Algae Identification

Got some algae growing on silk plants but not sure what type it is. Dark colour in appearance, not fuzzy and very difficult to remove. I've even tried scrubbing aggressively with a harsh toothbrush - no impact on it. The algae is also spreading to some anubias so I could really do with getting rid of it ASAP.
I've heard of bleaching the affected decor, though I'd prefer not to go down this route if I can as those plants took ages to put in and are very difficult to put back For a more fish-related reason, my cherry shrimp litterally live in them and are very difficult to find in there, so I think I'd struggle to remove them from the plants without harming them.

Algae on the silk plants:



More algae on silk plants:



Algae spreading to anubias:



Thanks for the help

Oh, and the lights are on for 6-8 hours a day and I do have some ferts which I use (for my anubias), though I only bought them two days ago so I haven't established a "routine" yet. The box states once fornightly though I'm not sure about this. It's King British aquatic plant food if this helps, it says it contains trace elements, though I'm not sure what they are. Any advice with this would be appriciated

looks like a bit of Black brush algae to me. It's normally cause by fluctuations in C02, but with this being a non planted tank. I would bleach them and then leave them in dechlor for an hour or so. All bleach is in Chlorine and dechlor will get rid of the remaining bleach.

Thanks for your reply, I had guessed that bleach is going to be my only answer. Any ideas on the dosing of ferts? I'm not sure whether once fortnightly is enough.

Also, any ideas how to get the shrimp out of the plants?

so you have real plants??

what is you lighting in the tank?? (in watts)

I just have some anubias and two marimo moss balls in there and I believe the lighting is 11W

I've done some more research, I think it may be Black Spot algae, just a lot of it, as it isn't fuzzy like the pictures of BBA show.

Will I also have to bleach the affected decor/plants to remove it or is there another option?

I've heard that "spot dosing" with Flourish Excel can kill algae, would it be worth investing in this myself?

Hate to say it, but with such limited planting (Anubias spp. are very slow growing species, as is "Marimo" which is actually just a type of slow growing algae itself) you will always have algae. Algae will always grow where there is a habitable environment for it, unless you have enough plants to compete with it, you will just have to scrub it away frequently.

To limit its growth you could decrease lighting hours on a timer, increase flow and water changes, but really the only signifigant thing you can do is add more fast growing plants.

The easiest and fastest-working option would be floating plants, like Amazon frogbit or Salvinia spp. as they are right up next to the light, they grow fast and block out light for algae below. Also, as their leaves are above the water surface, they are at no risk from algae growing over the pores where CO2 is absorbed for photosynthesis - and CO2 diffuses into leaves much faster in air than under water, giving them an advantage over true aquatic plants.

The easiest and fastest growing aquatic plants for algae-busting would IMO be hornwort (Ceratophyllum spp.) and Hygrophila polysperma - neither need high light and both grow very fast in most aquarium conditions .

Adding fertiliser with just your current plants would only make the algae worse! Using Seachem Excel wouldn't be useful with your limited planting either, and I personally wouldn't recommend it with shrimp unless you have very dense planting (so the plants use it up fast) as its composed of glutaraldehyde - a medical disinfectant - and I have had past shrimp deaths using it .

Once you have a high amount of plants, however, dosing a simple trace fert like Seachem Flourish would help the plants grow and this decrease algae .

I was thinking of planting the tank, so would doing this help eliminate the algae? Would I not have to get rid of the algae first before doing so, so that the new plants aren't re-infected with the agae?

As for the current situation, would you too advise bleaching the affected decor/plants? Am I able to do this with the anubias too with it being live?

Thanks for all the help

pablothebetta said:

I was thinking of planting the tank, so would doing this help eliminate the algae?

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Yes, planting the tank is basically the only thing you could do to significantly reduce/eliminate the algae long-term.

Would I not have to get rid of the algae first before doing so, so that the new plants aren't re-infected with the agae?

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Nope, remember algae is basically just a plant, they like the same conditions. There is no way you would be able to get rid of every single algae cell without bleaching EVERYTHING in the tank (including media), and even then algae would find it's way back in through tap water, new plants, fish etc.. If your water is nutritious for plants, it's nutritious for algae too so like I mentioned algae will always grow where there is a habitable environment for it.

So the only way to stop plants being 'infected' with algae is to get them to grow healthily enough that they repel it themselves .

As for the current situation, would you too advise bleaching the affected decor/plants? Am I able to do this with the anubias too with it being live?

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You could disinfect the decor with bleach to kill all the algae on it, though as I said you would never get all of the algae anyway so it will still grow back on the decor. Being lazy and not liking the smell, I would just give everything a good hard scrub. Be gentle but thorough scrubbing the live Anubias - I find a toothbrush does the job well .

Thanks I did try scrubbing the silk plants with a toothbrush though it didn't do much, I'll try it on the anubias, though.

I do have some ideas for re-doing the tank with more live plants on another thread, including a moss wall, carpet plant, some plants to go behind the anubias (I did find a crypt I quite liked, lingua I think it was) and some wood planted with java fern. I also thought of investing in some flourish excel and possibly some TPN+, would these ideas help to reduce future algae?

Thanks again

You should use bleach as ianho suggested on the silk plants if the toothbrush didn't work, though I would just replace the plant with a live one lol .

Sounds nice, I'll check out the other thread. If you grow all those plants well, it will eliminate the algae, and once they have grown a bit you may benefit from adding TPN+ and/or Ecxel...however all the plants you mentioned are slow-growing too and are usually either relatively expensive, or melt off while adapting to the tank as is the case with crypts. I would see how it goes without ferts first, as stated I personally don't like using Excel with shrimp (google glutaraldehyde), but it works very well in the right conditions. If you get rampant plant growth but still have algae on the leaves a few months later maybe give it a go IMO. With the species you listed in your set-up I would only use TPN (not +) or a cheaper trace element fertiliser.

By all means go for the plants you mentioned - they would look beautiful in your tank and are easy to grow, but for algae-busting you would be far better off just chucking in some of the plants I mentioned in my last post.

They are cheap (about £3 posted from online), don't even need planted so can literally be thrown in and are faster growing and have other algae-busting properties over other plants too.

If you don't like the look of them, you could at least chuck them in until your other plants all arrive and are established in your tank - it would reduce the chance of algae attacking your slower-growing plants before they become established.

I've looked up the hygrophilia, it's quite nice. I may get some - how would one go about planting it? I have sand, so would it be OK in there without any root tabs etc? I was thinking of planting it behind the anubias. Infact, it could be included in my planted idea if I decide to go for it
Would it help reduce the algae growth because it would use up the nutrients from the tank to grow that the algae also uses (if that makes sense)? Just wondering

This has been really helpful so thankyou!

pablothebetta said:

I've looked up the hygrophilia, it's quite nice. I may get some - how would one go about planting it?

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If it's just temporary - literally chuck it in and it will grow without being rooted. Otherwise, just use a your fingers (or tweezers if it's easier) to push each individual stem into the sand at least a couple of cm apart. Remove any leaves from the bottom part of the stem that will be under the sand, and trim any less-than-perfect looking parts off the stem before planting for best results .

I have sand, so would it be OK in there without any root tabs etc?

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Yep, your water will have enough nutrients in it already. Being a "stem plant", hygro can very readily uptake nutrients from the water column. Crypts on the other hand are a "rosette plant" and while they also uptake nutrients from the water through their leaves, they rely more on their roots than most stem plants do. So root tabs wouldn't hurt, and would be especially beneficial to the crypts - but aren't necessary, especially to begin with .

Would it help reduce the algae growth because it would use up the nutrients from the tank to grow that the algae also uses (if that makes sense)?

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Basically, yes, in low-tech and planted community aquariums thats one big factor as to why plants can eliminate algae. There are loads of other little reasons and theories that add up too - fully planted tanks being overall more stable ecosystems, plants producing algae-suppressing chemicals (google "allelopathy") and obviously the plants are blocking light to algae in some areas in the tank.

No worries, hope this info helps to rid your tank of algae!

Well I think I will definitely buy some hygro and it may even stay in there

Should I bleach my anubias if it is definitely going to stay in the tank even if I do swap those silk plants for a wholly planted setup? If so, how long and what concentration? I've never bleached anything before so any advice would be great would it be worthwhile to bleach the silk plants too? Just thinking if I had might as well do those at the same time and cut down the level of algae.

Thanks again

Don't bleach the live Anubias - just scrub it and remove any leaves that are too far gone. Being soaked in bleach for a short period of time probably wouldn't kill it, but it cant be good for it - especially if it's already struggling slightly due to algae. If scrubbing isn't working, then it's worthwhile bleaching the silk plants - but it's kinda a waste of time as it will pretty much always grow on silk plants. The leaves are a nice textured medium for algae to grow on and plants are shaped to maximise photosynthesis, so by putting a fake plant in your basically inviting the algae to grow on it - so IMO not worth it .

Bleach wise, I buy very cheap "value thin bleach" from supermarkets (less than £1 for several litres and it doesn't have any perfumes or other additives in it) and used to soak my CO2 equipment in about 1/2 water 1/2 bleach solution for an hour, then another hour in a small volume of water overdosed with enough dechlorinator for my 80l tank to be extra sure the bleach is all gone. That would work for the silk plant, though I'm not sure if it would remove the colour from it .