Black Algae On Plants - Like A Layer Of Felt

[Ps3Steveo]

Grab a powerhead then.

 

[snazy]

I got this algae in one of my tanks after a very busy summer and the lights blazing for 12 hours a day if not more . The glass itself was perfectly clean though, but it was probably my pleco having a right feast. I've got two tanks next to each other in the same room and the one with very high light, got the black algae. My other tank that is spotless of any algae has crap light but enough for low tech plants. I am not even certain what type of algae it is but it's not the black beard fluffy/hairy one. It's like black dust(not diatoms) or thick black film on the anubias leaves that can't taken of with your finger or nails and looks like the plants have had a charcoal bath or something
None of the tanks were dosed with CO2 or ferts and the problem tank has always been super low on nitrAtes-5-10ppm max(more plants in this tank eating it I presume) Where the non-problem one is always over 20ppm to 40ppm and even more sometimes. So go figure.Both tanks are well filtered and the algae tank has an additional powerful powerhead blowing. Even the pleco poop goes straight into the filter intakes as I have sand and there's no poop at all on it and he is 7 inch big. My guppies get blown all around the place the poor things, so in my case it is not a flow issue.

I am blaming this on the high light, long hours exausting my plants and causing nutritient disbalance, maybe CO2 one too but since I am not dosing I'll never know.

What I've done so far and that's only the last couple of week or so, is I cut the light to 8 hours. I started dosing with liquid carbon(I did not spot dose) and micro and macro ferts daily per the recommended dose on the bottles. I added 2 ottos who in the space of a week shined the leaves trailing in the process poop two times their size. The tank is looking way better, bright and nice now, barely any algae, definately dicreasing and I haven't bothered cleaning it myself one bit. I am certain it's something to do with the light being too brigh as the plants that are under direct light were the most affected and the ones in corners and shades very little. But also low nitrAtes and high light, long hours leads me to believe the plants were struggling too and the algae took over.

You said you are using CO2 on both tanks. But if you have a high light tank do you dose with micro and macro nutritients or you do just CO2?

 

[gforce17]

I dose with a fertiliser each day. Not sure about macro and micro. Also dose daily with carbon liquid. Things seem to be improving. I have also cut down the time the lights are on. New growth on plants seems nicely green but the older growth is still covered in the black stuff. I think I need to get some algae eating fish. A friend told me there are some which stay quite small in size and don't poo too much. Any help with their names would be appreciated.

 

[snazy]

I dose with a fertiliser each day. Not sure about macro and micro. Also dose daily with carbon liquid. Things seem to be improving. I have also cut down the time the lights are on. New growth on plants seems nicely green but the older growth is still covered in the black stuff. I think I need to get some algae eating fish. A friend told me there are some which stay quite small in size and don't poo too much. Any help with their names would be appreciated.

The small pure algae eaters are otocinclus. They are social so the more the better, but eventually you need to supplement with veg and algae tablets.
Most ferts contain just micro nutritients. If you are dosing CO2 you need to dose macro nutritients as well, which are Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), and Potassium (K), or get fertilizer that contains all micro and macro like TNC Complete or Tropica Plant Plus.
Interesting that your algae could be caused by the same problem as mine, low macro nutritients in the tank. What's the ferts you are dosing?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Doubtful its to do with nutrients, black brush is nearly always CO2 problems, if not injecting it your water still has it in and using liquid carbon and not sticking to a daily uniform dose can cause it too.

 

[snazy]

Doubtful its to do with nutrients, black brush is nearly always CO2 problems, if not injecting it your water still has it in and using liquid carbon and not sticking to a daily uniform dose can cause it too.

Since I was not dosing with CO2 of any form it couldn't have been that?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

There is co2 in tap water so doing water changes with lights on causes a huge dose straight into your tank, if you do it after lights out it will gas off before the lights get to it. Also large surface movement causes all co2 to gas off along with air pumps. If any plant is to survive the water must have some co2 in it so the plant can photo synthesise whether it be small levels in tap water or injected every aquarium will have some co2 in the water. It just needs to be small doses on low tech and water changes done with lights off are a good way to accomplish this.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

P.S. Not doing water changes can help too but not recommended due to the quality of the water but in low tech aquariums can be done.

 

[snazy]

I don't know really, it's a wild guess and I can't argue when I don't know a thing. The long hours high light obviously not only used up the nitrAtes and other nutritients but the CO2 as well, although it was just the one produced by fish, decomposing stuff and water changes. I do water changes(50%) on both tanks on the same day with the lights on on both tanks and in fact my maintainance schedule was a bit off for that period of time and I probably did water change once every 3 weeks .But the fact still remains that a tank with more plants and high lights gets the black algae after getting over 12 hours a day light for a long period of time, and the other with less powerful lights and very few plants but exposed to the same lighting period didn't get the black algae or in fact any algae.

So far, it's nearly gone to be honest and it wasn't as bad as I have seen online. But reading about it it's hard to get rid off?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Yeah its stubborn stuff, thats prob what happened then, high amount of co2 then the fast drop would have caused it, if using high light should always dose full fert range inc nitrate and phosphate to keep levels up and high light requires co2 so might be worth getting the light down and going for 8 hours a day.

 

[magpie]

and in fact my maintainance schedule was a bit off for that period of time and I probably did water change once every 3 weeks .

Interesting... I got some BBA in my low-tech tank but it also was after I was gone on vacation for 3 weeks - a friend fed the fish but no water changes. After that normal weeklys for 2 weeks, then I had knee surgery so another 2-3 weeks before normal water change.

This also happened to my work tank where a co-worker was feeding and was supposed to clean but I don't think it happened. Could it just be from the drastic change in cleaning schedule? Also possible over-feeding from other people during the same time?

I removed a lot of mine by hand - there is still some there. Do I need to remove more of it? Honestly it doesn't bother me to have a bit on the driftwood and the rocks - it's on the plants where it starts to look ugly and raggedy...

 

[snazy]

Mine is looking good. New leaves, no algae, the old one almost eaten by the ottos. I wish I knew what's causing it exactly.
It's not my thread so just a quick question. I was gonna get the TNC Complete ferts but there was a problem with delivery so I got refunded. I already had an Excel Nitrogen bottle, so I bought the Profito(micro ferts). I dose the Micro ferst and Carbo daily but the Excel Nitrogen says to dose twice a week. This week I am due another dose but measured the nitrAtes and they are about 30ppm, not quite yet 40ppm, first time so high in this tank. Should I dose the Nitrogen ferts again although I at least have enough NitrAte in the tank or stick ot the half of the recommended dose as I understand the fish are still producing these regardless?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

If I were you I'd grab a bottle of neutro + from aqua essentials, all in one and saves confusion. Are you dosing CO2 tho, if not and have low light stock with ferts without npk.

 

[snazy]

Yes, started dosing with CO2 and ferts 2 weeks ago and have to use up 1 litre bottles of each. The light is 3x39W T5 bulbs.
I'll try half dose macro ferts once a week and I'll see how it goes.

 

[gforce17]

Hi Ps3Steveo. It got to the point where I cleared the whole lot out, cleaned up, and replanted. Following your advice do I understand correctly that I need to ensure the flow of CO2 is constant and regular and that I add carbon in the correct dose every day? Thanks.