Tweet
UPDATE: Please see page 3 for the official diagnosis---it definitely is fungus, causing imbalance and algae outbreaks...any fungus experts out there??
So I've been having algae outbreak in my tank, and am having trouble not only getting it out, but ID'ing the underlying issue...never had a problem like this before so I'm stumped- I don't know much about algae and could really use some help!
Here's the tank:
7.9g Ebi
13w stock light, on timer for 12 hrs daily
AC 30 and sponge filter
substrate is a mix of fluorite and eco complete
Current inhabitants: 2 OEBT's, 2 O-cats, 2 nerites, and some assassin snails.
Params: 7.4 pH
ammonia/nitrite/nitrate all 0
KH 3
GH 5
Maint/dosing: It gets a 20-30% W/C weekly with distilled, and occasional topping off. On W/C day, it gets dosed per bottle instructions with flourish, iron, a drop of iodide, and I just recently (last 2 weeks?) started dosing excel at half dose 2-3 times a week to try and get a handle on the algae. Doesn't seem to be helping. I don't want to use full dose because of the fissidens fontanus in here, it doesn't care for it much.
A little background: This used to be my dwarf puffer/ RCS tank. It is well established, has been running for over a year. We did do a shuffle of sorts when I got rid of my puffer. I rescaped a bit- changed plants, added the tree and sponge filter, trimmed down some of the bulky plants that are still in the same place. I drained it and switched to distilled only, let it season (still doing reg water changes for about a month to get rid of mineral deposits) before we moved the OEBT's over. Other than that, nothing has changed. Same light, same substrate and flow. Not quite as thickly planted as before, but my plant growth rate seems to have slowed- can't figure that out either.
Used to look like this:
Looks something like this these days
Everything was fine for awhile, then I started to get this stuff- almost looks like a cross between brush and/or hair algae and cyanobacteria...it's both hairy and slimy...maybe I've got more than one growing together, I don't know. Sigh. I can't seem to get rid of it and it's driving me nuts......those of you that know me, know this is my pride and joy planted tank- I'm so ready to be proud of it again! :icon_hang: Here's pics of the stuff:
On the edges of the melon sword, it's hairy and tough. Cannot scrape it off.
On this crypt, it clings to the edges the same way, and also collects in a slimy nest at the base of the plant- I manually remove the slimy nest there and it comes right back.
I've tried H202 spot treatment twice, it helped a bit but doesn't seem to be getting rid of it. This is the fissidens tree after a spot treatment, (didn't bother the OEBT at all!) but hopefully you can see the slimy looking long threads coming off? It's not short and tough in this spot, just slimy and long and tangled into the fissidens. I pull it out, it comes back.
So...any ideas on:
1) ID? Do I have an algae convention going on here?
2) How to get the stuff out so I don't have sad-face every time I look at this tank? More H202?
3) What the underlying issue is that's causing the imbalance? This is important, but I don't get it- I'm dosing and doing everything the same as before when it was beautiful...what am I not seeing?
Thanks so much for any help...
So I've been having algae outbreak in my tank, and am having trouble not only getting it out, but ID'ing the underlying issue...never had a problem like this before so I'm stumped- I don't know much about algae and could really use some help!
Here's the tank:
7.9g Ebi
13w stock light, on timer for 12 hrs daily
AC 30 and sponge filter
substrate is a mix of fluorite and eco complete
Current inhabitants: 2 OEBT's, 2 O-cats, 2 nerites, and some assassin snails.
Params: 7.4 pH
ammonia/nitrite/nitrate all 0
KH 3
GH 5
Maint/dosing: It gets a 20-30% W/C weekly with distilled, and occasional topping off. On W/C day, it gets dosed per bottle instructions with flourish, iron, a drop of iodide, and I just recently (last 2 weeks?) started dosing excel at half dose 2-3 times a week to try and get a handle on the algae. Doesn't seem to be helping. I don't want to use full dose because of the fissidens fontanus in here, it doesn't care for it much.
A little background: This used to be my dwarf puffer/ RCS tank. It is well established, has been running for over a year. We did do a shuffle of sorts when I got rid of my puffer. I rescaped a bit- changed plants, added the tree and sponge filter, trimmed down some of the bulky plants that are still in the same place. I drained it and switched to distilled only, let it season (still doing reg water changes for about a month to get rid of mineral deposits) before we moved the OEBT's over. Other than that, nothing has changed. Same light, same substrate and flow. Not quite as thickly planted as before, but my plant growth rate seems to have slowed- can't figure that out either.
Used to look like this:
Looks something like this these days
Everything was fine for awhile, then I started to get this stuff- almost looks like a cross between brush and/or hair algae and cyanobacteria...it's both hairy and slimy...maybe I've got more than one growing together, I don't know. Sigh. I can't seem to get rid of it and it's driving me nuts......those of you that know me, know this is my pride and joy planted tank- I'm so ready to be proud of it again! :icon_hang: Here's pics of the stuff:
On the edges of the melon sword, it's hairy and tough. Cannot scrape it off.
On this crypt, it clings to the edges the same way, and also collects in a slimy nest at the base of the plant- I manually remove the slimy nest there and it comes right back.
I've tried H202 spot treatment twice, it helped a bit but doesn't seem to be getting rid of it. This is the fissidens tree after a spot treatment, (didn't bother the OEBT at all!) but hopefully you can see the slimy looking long threads coming off? It's not short and tough in this spot, just slimy and long and tangled into the fissidens. I pull it out, it comes back.
So...any ideas on:
1) ID? Do I have an algae convention going on here?
2) How to get the stuff out so I don't have sad-face every time I look at this tank? More H202?
3) What the underlying issue is that's causing the imbalance? This is important, but I don't get it- I'm dosing and doing everything the same as before when it was beautiful...what am I not seeing?
Thanks so much for any help...
Comment