Algae On Plants

[garyspence84]

Hi all.
I have a heavily planted tank, mainly amazon swords, vallis and crypts.
I have a black fluff like algae growing on all my plants. It started on my swords 1st, as theyv been there the longest, but now its over all my plants, and regardless of how much I attempt to clean it off, it just seems to be getting slowly worse.

I have read a simmilar thread a while ago and followed some advice off that, and asked in a few trusted LFS' and they all say the same, reduce light.

I have 2x30w tubes on a 4 hour a day timer, an Eham Eco pro external filter, powerhead, water is 28/30degrees, tank is near a window, but only gets about an hour (at most) direct sunlight, and I tend to keep the blind closed at this time anyway.

The tank is 4ft, stocking discus, chain loach, rummy nose tetra, bleeding heart tetra, corys, butterfly fish, clown loach and spotted cat.

I use tablet frets that I got from plantsalive.com when ordering porting kits, and use them once every 2 weeks.

Oh, and tank gets 30% water change every Sunday, and a small 10% change mid week.

Any help on this would be great.

Gary

 

[tribalbrit]

Sounds like black bush algae, bba. usually associated with fluctuating co2. cut down on the water changes as these can add co2 to the water column. may be 30 or 40% every month for a while see if that helps.
The only way to remove it from plant leaves is to remove the affected leaves, this will also encourage new plant growth which in turn will make the plant compete with the bba for nutrients.

Failing that TOTAL blackout for 3 to 4 days.

Increasing the circulation with a koralia or power head may also help.

 

[garyspence84]

Cool, think I'll try cutting off all effected leaf and go blackout for a couple of days. Not sure about not doing as many water changes though, maybe miss the small mid week 1 bit still do my 30% change on Sunday. The min I slow the weekly water changes, my discus start to go dark and iv JUST got firm all to a good standard. Rather loose a plant than a fish.

Cheers, will keep progress posted

G

 

[tribalbrit]

Ahh didn't realize that you had discus , the leaves on the swords should be peeled off rather than cut.

 

[garyspence84]

Ahh didn't realize that you had discus , the leaves on the swords should be peeled off rather than cut.

What do you mean, peeled?

 

[tribalbrit]

try and pull the affected leaves down and to the side so that they come away from the crown rather than cutting them off.

 

[garyspence84]

Ah right, so that the stem part comes off too? I'll give that a go tonight after work. I've turned the light out too and will leave it till Saturday, see if that makes any difference.

Cheers for your help, much appreciated.

 

[tribalbrit]

If you are going for total black out you need to cover the tank so no light at all gets through, not just keep lights off.

 

[garyspence84]

Just wallpapered round the outside of my tank there. Probably the most strange thing I've ever had to do to my tank haha

 

[garyspence84]

Well, I put my tank in complete black out for 4 days, cleaned it, peeled off most of the worst of the algae leaves, and its looking a fair bit better. Still not too good bit its the best I can do. Think I'll just slowly replace the plants though as its still doin my head in.

Cheers for your help