anitstuk Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 Hello everyone. My tank is currently suffering a large algae outbreak but we're slowly resolving it. Hair algae is the main problem but I soon discovered this weirdly colored algae. What is it and what should I do about it? Also please don't mind my Mystery Snail photobombing 🙂 . I I don't think that it is Blue-Green Algae but I'm considering all possibilities. Looking forward to hearing your answers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 That sadly looks a lot like blue-green algae to me. 😢 How do you plan to treat it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreaW Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 I second blue-green algae. It looks like the start of it. To be sure, you can scoop a bit of it out and if it comes off in a sheet and you notice a very distinctive earthy/swampy kind of smell, then it probably is. Mine usually starts on the surface of plants closest to the light source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anitstuk Posted January 5, 2023 Author Share Posted January 5, 2023 On 1/4/2023 at 7:57 PM, TheSwissAquarist said: That sadly looks a lot like blue-green algae to me. 😢 How do you plan to treat it? I'm not sure on how to treat it since it's only my first time running into it.. On 1/5/2023 at 4:29 PM, AndreaW said: I second blue-green algae. It looks like the start of it. To be sure, you can scoop a bit of it out and if it comes off in a sheet and you notice a very distinctive earthy/swampy kind of smell, then it probably is. Mine usually starts on the surface of plants closest to the light source. How do you usually get rid of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreaW Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/blue-green-algae I treated it with Erythromycin the first time and it eventually came back (I blame my low water flow and lighting). Ultimately, you need to find the source of it and fix it long term, or you will most likely have reoccurrences. The second time I had it, I changed the lighting, removed all the floaters (water lettuce and duckweed) from the tank and treated with "UltraLife Reef Products Blue-Green Slime Stain Remover" I can't change the flow of the filter as it's a low flow Betta tank. So far, it hasn't come back (fingers crossed). *Looks over at tank to inspect...* I've got a pretty impressive growth of hair algae right now as I had to medicate the tank and wipe out the BB colony Through both treatments, I did not notice any ill effect to my plants or Nerites.  1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anitstuk Posted January 26, 2023 Author Share Posted January 26, 2023 (edited) Quick update on the Blue Green Algae Problem. I manually removed it with a tooth brush and a tooth pick around 3 weeks ago. It didn't grow back until the next water change which was only a few days later. I then went on holidays for around 2 weeks and just came back today. I can happily report that it hasn't grown back yet.. Edited January 26, 2023 by anitstuk 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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