Pictures of Algae Types

[Ami]

My tank has algae for the first time ever (in 6 years - is that a record??!) and hence I have no idea what kind it is.


I thought it might be a good idea if we could collate some algae pics to help people recognise them as there's bound to be other people stuck like I am.

What do you guys think?


The type I have has just appeared on the bogwood, it's white, fluffy, small and looks like little clumps of it have been glued on! Will post a pic when I get home. I've changed the lights to 5-3-5 as the previous 5-2-5 obviously wasn't working to control it, what with my adding iron rich fertilizer to the roots of the plants at the weekend. Doh. Will this be too long a break for my plants to be happy?

 

[Mr Miagi]

I use this link to give too people that need help ID'ing algae. Its definately a good start too looking for an ID: http/www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9

Hope your problem disapears soon!

 

[Ami]

Cheers for the link Mr Miagi - unfortunately it didn't help though!

Here's a pic of my algae stuff:

Any ideas? Most importantly, will it spread and will it kill my fish!?

Sorry it's not very good. I've got the sun reflecting on the front of the tank and that end of the tank, which is furthest from the window, is looking a little 'dusty' inside.

Don't know what that is either but I'll sort it out tomorrow when I vacumm and do the water change.

Thanks,
Ami

 

[nodding_dino]

is that newly added bogwood that it's on?

 

[houndour]

i don't know. I've not seen a white algae before. could it be something thats grown from the wood?

I would be tempted to take the wood out and boil it.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Hmm, i think it might be your wood rotting. When importers and LFS import wood, sometimes it hasnt been cleaned properly, or there is still matter that can decay, on the outside of the wood we want in our aquariums.

Id suggest removing the peace of wood from your tank, and pouring boiling water over the effected area several times. And then scrup like youve never scrubbed before!!

 

[Ami]

It's not new wood - I've had this piece for several years!

Before this tank was set up again, this piece of wood was removed from the existing tank, boiled and scrubbed with methalyne blue (excuse my spelling). The stuff has only appeared since I added potash pellet things to the roots of the plants on the 23rd.

Hence the reason I presumed it was an algae of some sort....

 

[wrs]

looks lke stuff that grew on mine when I had an ammonia outbreak

 

[Ami]

looks lke stuff that grew on mine when I had an ammonia outbreak

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Not that either I'm afraid, my last stats were on Sunday night. The weird stuff had already grown up since the past weekend, but I then took the wood out on Saturday and scrubbed it again, before doing the stats the next day.

My stats were Ammonia and Nitrite <0.1mg/l, nitrate 25mg/l, pH7, GH2. See the following thread:
Am I feeding too much...or not enough??, Paranoia is setting in...

Do you think it could be that the stuff started to grow when the tank was cycling and the ammonia spiked, but didn't grow very far becuase I did a fishless cycle by adding ammonia and it quickly went back to zero? Then when I added the fish it grew a little more, but didn't really take off until I added the fertilizer tablets?


I hate not knowing what something in the tank is - makes me worry it could be bad after losing the last few fish to whitespot!