Can Someone Identify This Algae?

[aconnoll]

Hi all, I have this 9 gallon (1.5 foot long) tank with Ambuila, Vallis and Java moss in it.. It is fairly moderately to heavily planted with no CO2 and two 15 watt 6800K 18 inch flouresent tubes. 5-2-5-2 light exposure.. 27 degrees.. The tank is 3 months old and is now used to just growing plants to put into other tanks. The Vallis is growing amazingly! It had neons in it until they all died from the introduction of some deseased ones and all that is in there now is a small chinese algae eater. He was put in there to get past the diatom stage and he did a fantastic job! He is still small and grazes on the bogwood amongst other things. Probably around last month sometime I began to get this hair type algae on the glass and on the bogwood but it stayed quite minimal and the CAE seemed to munch away on it. Over time it has gotten thicker esp on the Ambulia (as shown in the pics below). The vallis is unaffected as is the Java Moss.. neither of these plants have any hair algae but the bogwood and ambulia is starting to get it more and more. Please see pics..

My questions are what type of algae is this? how could I get rid of it? or.. if there is some other fish or shrimp that would clear this up? I have snails in there that I dont know where they came from (most likely from plants at the shop). Can someone identify what kind of snail this is? as this snail has been great for keeping other algae ive had at bay except for this type - they arent getting through it too well.

Cheers,
Adam

 

[nicklfire]

dont know what type of snails they are.. not trumpet snails does not seem like at all....

as far as the algae goes.. pictures are kinda far away and blurry still my best guess would be...beard algae

Grows on plant leaves and is bright green. Individual strands have a very fine texture but it grows in thick patches and looks just like a green beard. It grows up to 4 cm. It will ripple with water current. Cannot be removed easily removed mechanically. Very soft and slippery. It grows fast and can even overtake an aquarium under good water conditions. Quickly eaten by Florida Flag Fish. are you dosin ferts in it... at all?

I would highly suggest co2 at the current wpg your running on your tank. obviously your plants cant grown enough to take nutrients out of the water fast enough so in comes in the algae.. my best guess

 

[JamesC]

Looks like Blue Green Algae (BGA) but hard to tell from pictures. Take a look at http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm.

James

 

[nicklfire]

dont know about the bluegreen man... bluegreens like tar and sticky and sticky looking. That dosnt look like it.

 

[Dave1]

the snails might be Marisa Snails (Giant Ramshorn)

do they look like this?

 

[aconnoll]

Ok ive tried taking some better pictures of the algae and the snails.. The snails have an amazing gold colour when their shell starts to get colour in it (it is clear for the first few weeks). Then after some time they turn a normal boring dark brown colour but they dont seem to grow very big at all compared to some others ive seen.



Regarding the algae, I cant be bothered with CO2 for this tank and I dont think its a big problem at the moment seeing as about 10 percent of the Ambulia is affected and has been like that now for the last 3 weeks.. it seems to grow pretty slow. Ive taken another closer shot, ive tried to show the top of the ambulia and how it is unaffected but the section below which is about 3cms is affected..

 

[Annaconda]

I had algae like that once too, so I bought 3 amano shrimp. and they ate it all within a week.

 

[spankone]

yeh deffo some sort of ramshorn snail.........arnt they quick breaders?

 

[aconnoll]

yeah they seem to reproduce at fast rates.. then they stop for a while... then off they go again.. I move them into other tanks to start populating again to keep some types of algae at bay... but I think the chinese algae eaters do eat them sometimes when they are small - after all they are a loach.