How do I get rid of this?

[Fishies4Ever]

Recently I have been noticing some green algae on the glass. An almost mold looking thing on the driftwood as well as a lot of black dots on the driftwood. Also a lot of the plants are covered in a brown kind of thing. How do I get rid of all this?

 

[Obsessed with fish]

To clean the green algae off the glass you can try scrubbing it with a sponge. The black spots on your driftwood seem to be black beard algae, black beard algae is very hard to get rid of. I would recommend taking the driftwood out of the tank and giving it a good scrub. As for the plants, you can try rubbing them with your fingers to try remove the algae

 

[outofwater]

How recent is the whole thing?

How many times a day do you feed your fish, what fish do you have, and what type of food and how much do you give them?

What kind of light do you have, and how long do you keep it on for daily?

Most if not all algae growth (out of the ordinary) occurs due to imbalance in nutrition and light.

Some green algae on the glass is to be expected on established tanks but the brown one on your plants, that mold thing on the wood and the apparent black beard algae all seem to indicate some adjustments need to be made

 

[Colin_T]

The white stuff on the wood is fungus. Take the wood outside and blast it clean with a hose. Do this any time you see the white stuff coming out of the wood. It should eventually stop.

If fish start dying for no apparent reason and there is white stuff on the wood, remove the wood permanently and do a 90% water change on the tank immediately. The fungus is normally harmless but not always and if fish start dying when everything looks ok (0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate), then it's usually a toxic form of fungus and the wood is useless for an aquarium.

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The black dots on the plant leaves could be the start of black beard algae. Reduce light by an hour a day and see how it goes over the next few weeks. If it continues or gets worse, post more pictures.

 

[Playsander]

To get rid of black beard algea on bogwood. I take the wood out and attack it with a wire wheel attachment on my battery drill. Green algea on the glass is normal and I use an algea scrubber to keep that under control.

 

[10 Tanks]

Recently I have been noticing some green algae on the glass. An almost mold looking thing on the driftwood as well as a lot of black dots on the driftwood. Also a lot of the plants are covered in a brown kind of thing. How do I get rid of all this?

Hello Fish. Algae is natural and grows on most things in the tank. It's really a good water filter. I use an algae scrubber to remove it from the front glass, so I can see into the tank. I just let it grow on the other sides. I do have to scrap the front glass weekly when I change the tank water. Scrapping takes just a few minutes. Don't feed your fish too much and algae shouldn't be a problem. Fungus will grow on new driftwood. Ramshorn snails will remove it.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[Fishies4Ever]

How recent is the whole thing?

How many times a day do you feed your fish, what fish do you have, and what type of food and how much do you give them?

What kind of light do you have, and how long do you keep it on for daily?

Most if not all algae growth (out of the ordinary) occurs due to imbalance in nutrition and light.

Some green algae on the glass is to be expected on established tanks but the brown one on your plants, that mold thing on the wood and the apparent black beard algae all seem to indicate some adjustments need to be made

The balck bear algae has been on the wood for awhile. The plants just look like they have sediment from the water that condensed. The fungus is pretty recent and it appears to be on one of my plants as well. It has happened before but I think I just scrubbed it away. I used to feed my fish twice a day but I realized when I fed them in the morning they didn’t really come up to eat so I don’t feed them in the morning anymore. I give them about a pinch of the food with the picture below. A picture of my light is below. It is usually on from about 7 or 8 in the morning until 9 or 10 at night but the times do very. I do admit I am not very good with water changes. It’s just a pain and I don’t have gravel to clean so when I use the gravel vacuum it just sucks up some of the sand.

 

[Playsander]

Water changes with playsand are easy. I don't bother with a gravel vac, I just use a hose to syphon straight into a bucket over my outside drain. (The bucket is in case I suck up a fish or snail). I just wave the end of the hose just above the sand, it will suck up all the mess but will hardly suck up any sand at all.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

You must be consistent with your water changes... @10 Tanks will be on your tail about those!

Poop etc just tends to sit on top of sand so you don't have to gravel vac it....simply wafting your hand above it to pick up the muck while your siphoning is sufficient enough

 

[outofwater]

A picture of my light is below. It is usually on from about 7 or 8 in the morning until 9 or 10 at night but the times do very. I do admit I am not very good with water changes.

Seems to me it's excessive light time and that will trigger algae. Water changes also can influence this, so try to be more consistent in terms of time and volume.
I keep my tanks at 8 hours of light at most, but every setup is different, so you have to tweak it by playing with it until you find the time frame that works for your tank.

Is that light programmable/dimmable?

 

[Fishies4Ever]

Seems to me it's excessive light time and that will trigger algae. Water changes also can influence this, so try to be more consistent in terms of time and volume.
I keep my tanks at 8 hours of light at most, but every setup is different, so you have to tweak it by playing with it until you find the time frame that works for your tank.

Is that light programmable/dimmable?

It does have 3 different light settings but it is not programmable.

 

[outofwater]

It does have 3 different light settings but it is not programmable.

Gotcha.
in my experience (tank running 2 years, perennial forum lurker, and had an algae issue about a year ago when I updated my lights) excess algae is due to nutrition and light imbalance, and water quality also plays a role.

It's a relatively easy fix. Tweak the light time, start with a consistent 8 hours per day and go from there to adjusting the brightness, and be more consistent with water changes, you'll see quick results. I got rid of that brown thing on my plants and black beard which had started growing on my sword plant in about 2 weeks just by doing that.

Now, that fungus looking thing, I think a round of scrubbing and boiling is in order to get it ready to put it back in the tank. Do note that I don't have any direct experience with driftwood, this is stuff I read here.

 

[10 Tanks]

You must be consistent with your water changes... @10 Tanks will be on your tail about those!

Poop etc just tends to sit on top of sand so you don't have to gravel vac it....simply wafting your hand above it to pick up the muck while your siphoning is sufficient enough

Hello Capt. Too funny! But, guilty as charged!

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[Fishies4Ever]

I cleaned the tank a few hours ago. I took out the driftwood and cribbed it with an old toothbrush. I ended up taking out the snail eggs. I also vacuumed the sand for the first time and it actually work. In the past I had tried but I didn’t like really stick it in there because I thought it would just suck up all the sand so I got a lot of gunk out that way! This is what us looks like now! The sand looks so much more white!!! I still have to check my parameters but I’ll probably do that sometime tomorrow.

 

[Playsander]

Well done, looks great.