What is this algae and how do I get rid of it?

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

I’m getting this dark algae on my moss near my hob filter overflow. it’s not growing like crazy but starting to cover the moss up. I’ve cut it off but it comes back. how do I get rid of it? The tank has low light low co2 and medium amount of ferts, all the plants are growing well and I’m not getting any other algae it’s just that one spot.

[AndreaW]

Black beard algae (BBA).

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/black-beard-algae

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-algae

Once you have it, it's hard to get rid of it completely, unfortunately. It's a sign of a mature tank and some people love it! I ended up getting in it my 46G when I added some moss balls I ordered online, which introduced it. Fortunately, I haven't had it too bad and it's stayed under control for the most part. I'm not sure how to get it off plants, but when it was on my decorations, I was able to pull them out and pinch it off and use a little hydrogen peroxide to spot treat it -- let it sit for a few minutes, then rinse it and put it back in. You could trim the portion of the plants that it is on, but it's a hard one to remove manually.

There's a whole thread in the journals section of someone trying really hard to grow a tank of it. I bet they are jealous 

[Brandon p]

I’m have ing a hard time see what you are talking about. Is that small dark area in the middle bottom. If it’s jut that little spot just cut it out and use use east card on the whole tank. If after 2 treatments of the tank I would get a baby syringe or one you get at a farm store( you don’t need the needle part it does give you better control if it’s a very tight spot. It’s not the end of the world even the best tank keepers get it. You don’t all it the tank if you have to resort to hydrogen peroxide you can do it in the tank just check the plants you use it on can take it. Most kinds of val don’t dont do well. I think doing hydrogen peroxide outs is I header way of doing it. If it’s in the water is diluting it already before it gets to the plants and gets algae you want. I would for sure do the east carbon a chance and the if tha doesn’t work come back to this post and ask more questions the moss looks good and petaling which is great. Do you have a CO2 system

[dangerflower]

It might be staghorn algae? I'm dealing with a bloom of it in one of my tanks and it looked similar to that when it started growing.

[SandSea]

I had it for a while but unlike you I had a really strong shop light and no CO2. Big water changes never helped. So then I took all the lights off the tank and I did a big water change and I added charcoal to the filter , guess what,  it's gone . I have since put back on lighting however it is nowhere near as strong as the one I had before which may have been the wrong wavelength now that I think about it

[mouseturd13]

Black beard for sure. You can treat the whole tank with aquarium coop easy carbon however it may melt some of your plants. I recommend spot treating it by using the easy carbon with an eyedropper or pipette and applying it directly to the spots with the algae. I know some people also use the same method with hydrogen peroxide. Best long term fix along with the easy carbon is to adjust your lighting down by either strength or length of time. 🙂 

[Mmiller2001]

I've stopped using Glut products and now spot dose H2O2. It's superior to using Glut ("liquid carbon"). 

Turn off all pumps and air, let the water settle to near zero movement. Use 15ml per 10 gallons drawn up in a syringe. Simply squirt directly on the BBA. Wait about 15 minutes while it bubbles. Then simply turn everything back on. You can repeat this process every 24 hours.