weird stuff on my java moss

[liquidforce5010]

I was wondering if any of you had any idea what this black stuff is on my java moss....i had a huge clump of it and split it between a few aquariums but the biggest clump is the only one that has this stuff on it....dsf.jpg
dfg.jpg

[Sea-agg09]

black beard algae

[liquidforce5010]

what is the best way to get rid of it...im reading The Siamese algea eater eats it but ive never seen those before...and it says to much light exposure often times causes it...i have 48" t5 wit 2 blue and 2 white bulbs thats one at least 12 hours a day....if i leave it off for a while will that help?

[Totenkampf]

BBA probably wont go away with just limiting the light. i have only had good results by using peroxide, but i have never tried that on java moss. put some h2o2 in a spray pbottle, pull some moss out of the tank and spray it, wait 10-15 minutes, and then drop it back in to stop the oxidation. the algae should turn brown and die in a couple days. hopefully the moss wont die too so try a smaller test peice first. BTW my last batch of SAES were useless for BBA but they have helped some in the past. they also like eating moss and thin leaved plants (like my fave pogostemon stellatus) when the algae runs out thought

[liquidforce5010]

Ok what percent strength of peroxide and how diluted?...what are the negatives for just letting this stuff grow and how does it also "eat" nitrogens?

[mistahoo]

what is the best way to get rid of it...im reading The Siamese algea eater eats it but ive never seen those before...

I'm no plant expert, but siamese algae eaters are at almost all the big box stores (i.e. Petco, Petsmart). They also have the golden algae eaters. Not quite sure what's the difference but good luck!

[liquidforce5010]

I've seen golden and Chinese but never Siamese

[mistahoo]

I've seen golden and Chinese but never Siamese

I've seen those two along with the Siamese

[Totenkampf]

a SAES is a Siamese Algae Eating Shark (Crossocheilus siamensis), the chinese and goldens are not the same and are actually aggressive sucking loaches. These are very often mislabelled at LFS, sometimes they even have Flying Foxes labelled as SAES. There are pics on the internet so you can tell them apart. Mainly theres no color in the fins of SAES and their scales are more defined.

http://www.petresources.net/fish/article/sae.html

I just use the regular old peroxide that you buy in the first aide section, i think it may be 2%. The negatives of BBA growing is that its ugly and spreads to all slow growing plants...especially anubias. i dont know what you mean about it eating nitrogen.

[wesleydnunder]

Excel applied directly to the BBA will kill it also. I'd be cautious with buying livestock to combat an algae problem. Figure out why it's there in the first place and correct that. It could be an abundance of nitrate and not enough plants to use it. In that case, more frequent water changes or addition of plants will lower the nitrates. It could also be a long photoperiod along with the nitrates. What is the tank size, light type and wattage and photoperiod?

Mark