Chemical Bath!

[denis coghlan]

Ok this is just going to be a quick question? I have this algae problem, see photos below. I don’t know what the name of it is but its begging to clog up my plants big time and it doesn’t look very nice either. The plants are in my cold water 20 gallon (UK) tank. To date I have just replaced the plants when they got to this stage and begin to loose productivity, but this is starting to become an expensive exercise. I have tried physically to remove the algae with minimal results.

It’s also sort of a catch twenty two situation as I try and promote algae in certain areas of the tank to provide a food source for my two hill stream loaches. Therefore I do not want to remove algae completely from the tank. But this is my question!!! Can I removed the plants from the tank place them in a sort of chemical bath that will remove or kill the algae and return them. If this can be done, what is the name of the chemical I am looking for?

Cheers

denis

 

[kenneth_kpe]

looks like hair algae or staghorn maybe it would be nice if you provided us with more information on your tank. lighting, co2 and ferts try to balance your tanks. Controlled algae is possible but im assuming its hard hehe

for the chemical part, you can use bleach BUT it can also kill your plants if not used properly, ive never tried bleach with live plants so cant help you with that You could also try placing the plants inside a dark pail for a couple of days, maybe the algae will die first before the plant does.