Algae out of control!

I have a serious algae issue that is getting worse and worse every day. My tank is only a few months old, heavily planted and fully cycled. I first noticed this algae a few weeks after the tank was set up, it was growing on the leaves of one of my plants, an Anubias (Think it is Anubias Barteri, but not 100% sure), it looked like black hair around the edges of the leaves. My tank had no fish in at this point and I thought it was caused by the ammonia spikes (from Kleen-off doses), followed by the nitrite and nitrate spikes. Once my tank had completed its cycle I bought 4 Otocinclus as I'd been reading about them online, and a Silver flying fox which was recommended by the store. Within a few days the algae was gone. I rehomed the Flying fox as I found out that it got larger than expected and would not be suitable for my tank. I seemed to be algae free for a week or two, then it started to reappear, the Oto's all seem to have big fat rounded bellies and are just being lazy. The horrible looking algae is now growing faster than before and now seems to be affecting all of my plants, rocks, glass. My plants still seem to be thriving, as well as my fish.

Could it have been the flying fox that almost eliminated the algae before? now that the flying fox has gone it has come back? Should I get more and just keep returning them when they get too large? I don't really want to use any chemicals to get rid of it, or change lighting, everything seems to be thriving as it is already, unfortunately that includes the algae. Obviously it did not just appear from nowhere though, it must of been brought in with the plants, but how do I kill it off without harming the rest of my plants or fish.

80 litre tank with around 65 - 70 litres water.
24w light on timer for 10 hours per day.
5ml API leaf zone added with water changes (Stopped using this week as have heard excess Iron could be causing algae, however algae seems to be growing even faster without it).
No Co2.

Water parameters as of today before water change:
KH 6deg
GH 10deg
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0 (this is normally around 10, but I don't feed my fish on a Sunday so they can go scavenging for any leftovers, I assume this temporarily stops the nitrogen cycle and excess nitrates are consumed by the plants. Correct???)

Water is then changed every Monday around 40 - 50%.

The flying foxes are quite good at keeping algae at bay, as they are algae eaters. I tend to clean the front glass of my tanks and let the fish clear the rest as long as it's green algae you should be fine, it's when it changes colour it can be harmful. If it's green it's means it's drawing some of the excess nutrients from the water. The API Leaf growth is probably not helping as it's more of a fertilizer and will encourage your plants as well as algae to grow.

From your description I would think the algae is a form of black brush algae. I will post photos of the two most common forms, see if either is what you are dealing with.

If this is what you are getting, and it is probably the most common type of nuisance algae, the only way to deal with it is to balance light and nutrients so the plants use most of these and algae is thwarted. I have battled this algae a few times. Otos will not eat this, most fish that eat algae will not touch it (Farlowella, Bristlenose, etc). Siamese Algae Eater will eat it, though as the fish ages some report it eats less, and it is large and is a shoaling fish requiring a group, so not usually the best method anyway.

Never use algicides (you said you didn't want to resort to this, you are correct) as they get inside fish, plus they may harm some or all plants. Restoring (or establishing) the balance between light/nutrients is the only way to deal with this.

Flying Fox...Confusion abounds with this fish. This species is frequently confused with the true Siamese Algae Eater and sometimes the False Siamese Algae Eater; the Flying Fox has white-edged red and black coloured fins, not clear fins as in the afore-mentioned species. With respect to being useful in controlling algae, the Flying Fox is not the fish to acquire. It may or may not have done much previously, but even so, it is still not the preferred method to deal with problem algae as it is a species with its own requirements that may or may not fit in with the aquarium.

Can you provide data on the light? Watts is not a useful guide any longer as there are so many types of lighting and intensity can be totally unrelated to wattage when comparing.

The other thing that stands out is a lack of nutrients plants need. API Leaf Zone is iron and potassium, but none of the other 15 required nutrients. Excess of some nutrients, and iron is one, can cause algae because the plants cannot use it, since the other requirements are missing or insufficient. A comprehensive supplement like Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive Supplement for the Planted Aquarium, or Brightwell Aquatics' FlorinMulti, would be better. But excess of these can also cause this algae, if the light is not balanced, or the plants cannot use all that is being added. Balance really is the key, and we may be able to sort that out when we know the light data.

Also, the plant species and numbers (a photo of the tank would answer this). You mention Anubias...this is a shade plant and when placed under the overhead light will often (if not always) develop brush algae. I found floating plants solved this aspect.

The only thing I will add to the comments already posted is that adding fish that supposedly eat algae won't solve the problem, only mask it.

What filtration have you got? A decent flow rate around your tank will help reduce algae as well as dosing ferts. I would also reduce the light time down to 6-7 hours tops.

Algae grows for a reason so you need to eliminate the causes to deal with it long term.

if it's black beard algae (like picture 2 that Byron posted) it came in on the plants or as spores in water from another tank, probably the pet shop. It is a pain in the butt to get rid of and normally you never get rid of it without stripping the tank and sterilising everything. Most people trim the infected leaves off the plants and do big water changes, and avoid adding fertilisers that encourage it to grow.

Im no expert, but i too had this problem untill recently. I have tried many things and trawled through countless hours of vidoes, blogs and documents. I have found that if you black the tank out for roughly 11 days (as a result of black out some plants will melt back ie vals crypts but will bounce back so dont worry to much) remove detritus via mechanichal filtration and manually vac,add more flow ie wave maker or power head, change from t5s/t8s to full spectrum leds reduce ferts by 50% and most importantly light timings. So i now run the lights for 8 hours on a timer, 4 hours on, 1 hour off, 4 hours back on consistency is the key here, i now no longer suffer with this algae problem hope this helps

Colin_T said:

if it's black beard algae (like picture 2 that Byron posted) it came in on the plants or as spores in water from another tank, probably the pet shop. It is a pain in the butt to get rid of and normally you never get rid of it without stripping the tank and sterilising everything. Most people trim the infected leaves off the plants and do big water changes, and avoid adding fertilisers that encourage it to grow.

Click to expand...

Algae may be a pain in the butt sometimes but if you treat it correctly then you shouldn't have to strip out and sterilise your tank. Also, avoiding fertilisers isn't necessarily the answer, especially if you have plants so what you actually need to do is get to the root of the problem and treat that, then everything else will fall in line.

If we're talking black beard algae then its likely that the problems are caused by either low or fluctuating levels of CO2.

As you're not running a high tech tank with CO2 injection, I would think that you're suffering from fluctuating CO2 levels. We've asked for more details around your lights and filter but going from what you've provided, 80 litres and 24w lights, it sounds like you have a relatively low light setup so not doing water changes for a while should help rather than as has been suggested, you do lots!

Tap water often has lots of dissolved CO2 in it so regular 50% water changes will cause it to fluctuate and the BBA take hold.

Overdosing on something like EasyCarbo should clear it up as well as cutting back on the water changes. Once gone I'd carry out 20-25% water changes on a tank your size.

The light is a AquarienEco 24W 2730 lumes LED light with 6 red, 4 green, 23 blue & 45 white LED's. I've adjusted the timer for 6 hours of light.

I have an AllPondSolutions 1000EF filter which provides decent flow. Intake is at the bottom on the opposite end of the tank to where the water comes in.

I have a thick layer of around 7KG of Flourite gravel as substrate, with a thin layer of sand on top. I am not sure on the amount of nutrients that will provide, but my plants seem to be doing well. I have an Amazon Sword plant that had 4 small leaves when I got it, it now has 15 - 20, some of them almost 2 feet long!

The plants I have;
Anubias Lanceolata
Anubias Heterophylla
Echinodorus Bleheri
Echinodorus Martii
Microsorium Pteropus
Eleocharis Parvula
Limnophila Aquatics
Bacopa Monnierri
Egeria Densa
Sagittaria Subulata

I am not 100% sure, but I think it is BBA. I've also noticed some green spot algae growing on the glass at the back of the tank, which was very difficult to scrub off, I got most of it off though, anything to be concerned about here? I don't mind a little algae here and there as long as its not harming my plants or fish, but this BBA stuff is taking over my tank.

I have read that Seachem Flourish Excel has helped many people beat this type of algae, I have ordered a 500ml bottle from Amazon which will arrive some time tomorrow, any advice on using this?

A quick update...

The Seachem Flourish Excel that I ordered arrived today, however they sent me the Flourish comprehensive by mistake, or maybe I ordered the wrong one by mistake. Anyway, I have dosed 1ml of this stuff. If a lack of nutrients is causing the algae, then hopefully this will help. Should I still get the Flourish Excel?

Also, here's a close up picture of the nuisance algae.

Nutrients have nothing to do with black beard algae. It gets into tanks via spores or on plant leaves and it grows.

Aquafox said:

The light is a AquarienEco 24W 2730 lumes LED light with 6 red, 4 green, 23 blue & 45 white LED's. I've adjusted the timer for 6 hours of light.

I have an AllPondSolutions 1000EF filter which provides decent flow. Intake is at the bottom on the opposite end of the tank to where the water comes in.

I have a thick layer of around 7KG of Flourite gravel as substrate, with a thin layer of sand on top. I am not sure on the amount of nutrients that will provide, but my plants seem to be doing well. I have an Amazon Sword plant that had 4 small leaves when I got it, it now has 15 - 20, some of them almost 2 feet long!

The plants I have;
Anubias Lanceolata
Anubias Heterophylla
Echinodorus Bleheri
Echinodorus Martii
Microsorium Pteropus
Eleocharis Parvula
Limnophila Aquatics
Bacopa Monnierri
Egeria Densa
Sagittaria Subulata

I am not 100% sure, but I think it is BBA. I've also noticed some green spot algae growing on the glass at the back of the tank, which was very difficult to scrub off, I got most of it off though, anything to be concerned about here? I don't mind a little algae here and there as long as its not harming my plants or fish, but this BBA stuff is taking over my tank.

I have read that Seachem Flourish Excel has helped many people beat this type of algae, I have ordered a 500ml bottle from Amazon which will arrive some time tomorrow, any advice on using this?

Click to expand...

Light is your main issue here, and reducing the photoperiod should help. I should point out that the existing algae will NOT disappear; the aim is to not having it increasing after the change(s). The leaves with the algae may eventually die off and can be removed then.

I do not recommend Flourish Excel. This is glutaraldehyde, a highly toxic disinfectant. It does cause fish issues, it can kill plants and bacteria. While some will advocate regular use, I do not. There is no need for such a toxic substance getting inside fish.

Flourish Comnprehensive Supplement is the complete liquid fertilizer, and I use this. I would recommend using it once weekly, at less than the recommended dose (try half dose), but this too can cause BBA and if the plants are OK now it might be best not to rock the boat. Another thing to keep in mind is that when making changes to improve plants/deal with algae, it is best to make one change at a time and monitor the result rather than jumping into several which can sometimes make things much worse. The light reduction may bee all you need here; I know nothing about LED so I cannot say if what you have is good or not, but start with the reduction in photoperiod.

The green dot algae is best dealt with when you see it. I have had this in one or two tanks, on the front glass, and regular sponge-type scraping of the inside front glass at each weekly water change (whether you see algae or not, do it anyway) will prevent this from establishing. On the back and side walls, up to you, but I would tend to deal with this there too as it can become an issue. This too is a matter of light and nutrients, so the reduced photoperiod may help here as well.

Algae is natural in the presence of light and nutrients (other algae can appear with too little light plus nutrients) and it is impossible to have an aquarium that is healthy biologically without algae, there is just no such thing; but keeping the algae in check is the aim with a planted tank, and that is just the light/nutrient balance, nothing more. Water flow is immaterial (I see this algae at the filter intake and return where flow is strongest, so that argument dissipates). I have BBA on most of the wood in my tanks, but it does not appear on plant leaves unless the balance gets out. I have experimented over the past several years and found any aspect of the light/nutrient balance can cause this algae to increase, and reducing it was just as simple. With light for example...I discovered that the longer and brighter daylight in the summer was sufficient to throw off the balance and BBA increased; keeping the windows darkened completely during summer eliminated it. Point is, the balance is key.