mangoed
New Member
Hi,
Could anyone help to identify the predominant green algae type in the photos below and recommend any steps toward its eradication?
(It actually looks worse in digital photos than to the naked eye but, to either, it is rather unsightly.)
When I moved house, and aquarium, 10 weeks ago I decided to try sand instead of gravel in an unplanted setup (with rocks as decoration). My decision was primarily due to the year-long battle, ultimately lost, against other algae in a previous planted installation.
The substrate is approximately 5cm of Eco-Complete (I wanted to keep my options open regarding future planting) covered with CaribSea Super Natural Marine Sand (this is a tropical freshwater, not marine, aquarium but the sand is inert and should, apparently have no effect on pH or KH).
The algae appears to infest the sand itself and has proven extremely difficult to remove. It does spread to the rocks (as can be seen) and onto the glass sides of the tank but, since I can remove the former for scrubbing and simply wipe the latter, it isn’t so much of a problem in those locations.
The tank receives no direct sunlight and the water contains no measurable concentrations of either nitrates or phosphates. I have tried reducing the lighting period to 8 hours but this has no noticeable effect.
Any ideas?
Could anyone help to identify the predominant green algae type in the photos below and recommend any steps toward its eradication?
(It actually looks worse in digital photos than to the naked eye but, to either, it is rather unsightly.)
When I moved house, and aquarium, 10 weeks ago I decided to try sand instead of gravel in an unplanted setup (with rocks as decoration). My decision was primarily due to the year-long battle, ultimately lost, against other algae in a previous planted installation.
The substrate is approximately 5cm of Eco-Complete (I wanted to keep my options open regarding future planting) covered with CaribSea Super Natural Marine Sand (this is a tropical freshwater, not marine, aquarium but the sand is inert and should, apparently have no effect on pH or KH).
The algae appears to infest the sand itself and has proven extremely difficult to remove. It does spread to the rocks (as can be seen) and onto the glass sides of the tank but, since I can remove the former for scrubbing and simply wipe the latter, it isn’t so much of a problem in those locations.
The tank receives no direct sunlight and the water contains no measurable concentrations of either nitrates or phosphates. I have tried reducing the lighting period to 8 hours but this has no noticeable effect.
Any ideas?