Black Hair Algae Problem

[nivisec]

Hello all,

I've been working with a planted aquarium for about a while now and about 3 months ago I added some clover to my tank. The clover had a little bit of black on it, but I thought nothing of it and assumed it was just the leaves dying out.

One day it boomed up to make almost all my clovers black all over and I noticed the same hair growing on all my other plants. I'm now overrun with it on all my plants. The algae is alway stringy, flows well in the water, and is black when it gets grouped up on the leaves of the plant. It really prefers that clover and my grass plants as a target, but it'll do just fine attaching to java fern and java moss (I had read that these plants sometimes out compete the algae for nutrients).

I've tried to find info on it, but it's all been with mixed results. I haven't tried the bleach bath suggested at places and when I finally found some SAEs (at Wal-Mart sadly), I can't keep them alive for more than a few days in my hospital tank due to something being wrong with the fish from Wal-Mart (go figure). I gave up after 2 tries. I read that Ottos are supposed to eat this stuff, but none of mine will. I also read that Tiger Barbs and Mollies like to eat it as well, which isn't true for me either. Thus far about the only thing I can get to eat it is our pond turtle, but he eats the leaves and algae, so it isn't a solution

Right now I just keep doing water changes every other day and trimming plants like crazy if I see anything on it. I have no other algae types in the tank that I can find, so my fish seem to enjoy eating all but this stuff. Any suggestions are very welcome. If needed I'm able to remove all plants except the clover and grasses (they have really deep rooted and I'm not sure if I could re-root them).

 

[JamesC]

Hi and welcome to TFF.

Some details of your setup would help. How much light do you have and are you adding CO2? It seems you might have Black Brush Algae (BBA) which is normally CO2 related. Take a look here for ID - http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm.

James

 

[nivisec]

James,

Thanks for the weclome It most definitely is BBA (that is the first picture I've seen that made the BBA look like what I have).

My planted tank is low light with approx 1 watt per galon (20 gallon tank) and I haven't deemed myself ready enough to add CO2 yet and not kill the fish (although from reading the forums here last night, I've gained knowledge on measuring my CO2, so I may try it if I upgrade the lighting system). I've also tried to get plants that do decent in lower light conditions for this tank. Note that the tank gets other outside light from the turtle tank and whatever seeps through the curtains, so it may be more than 1 watt per galon in the end.

I've had some ph and kH fluctuations recently, so I'm assuming my CO2 is fluctuating as well, hence causing this problem as you mentioned. Is the Flourish Excel overdosing the best way to clear this up ASAP or should I focus on adding more light and some CO2 for this tank?

 

[JamesC]

With your light you don't really need CO2, but you do need it stable though and doing lots of water changes is making the levels go up and down. Doing fewer water changes may help but also, if you can, leave the water to be added for a day or two before hand to degas it.

Another option is to use Flourish Excel. This is a replacement for adding CO2 gas which also has the added advantage of killing BBA.

James