What is this?

[Gabs19]

Is this hydra or some type of algae? And how do I get rid of it? It’s completely taken over. 

[nabokovfan87]

Looks like the algae I've been dealing with in my tanks.  It usually goes after plants with dying leaves first.

[Darax]

If you have the capacity, a siamese algae eater will probably num it. 

[Gabs19]

We have a 10 gallon with 8 tetras, 1 platy, 2 mystery snails, a clown pleco, amano shrimp and khuli loach. Is that too much?

[PineSong]

On 3/29/2023 at 7:10 PM, Gabs19 said:

We have a 10 gallon with 8 tetras, 1 platy, 2 mystery snails, a clown pleco, amano shrimp and khuli loach. Is that too much?

I've got a few questions that might help figure that out and help with the algae:

What kind of tetras do you have? How large is your clown pleco? How long has your tank been set up and how long are your tank lights on each day?

 

[Gabs19]

Sorry for the late response. We have 4 glowlight and 4 Cardinal tetras. The pleco is about 2.5 inches. We have had the tank for over a year and lights are on from about 7:30am to 11:30pm. 

On 4/2/2023 at 5:00 AM, PineSong said:

I've got a few questions that might help figure that out and help with the algae:

What kind of tetras do you have? How large is your clown pleco? How long has your tank been set up and how long are your tank lights on each day?

 

 

[jwcarlson]

On 4/3/2023 at 2:02 PM, Gabs19 said:

Sorry for the late response. We have 4 glowlight and 4 Cardinal tetras. The pleco is about 2.5 inches. We have had the tank for over a year and lights are on from about 7:30am to 11:30pm. 

 

That is an extremely long photo period, what kind of light do you have?  Typically you'd be shooting for something about half that long or less.  

I struggle because I'm up early every day and then by the time I am home it would typically be well past a good photo period, so I divided mine up from 5-9 AM and 4-8 PM so that the tank lights are on around the times I'm typically most active with them.

[Ninjoma]

I've run into algae that looks like this a few times. I think it's staghorn algae. Lowering light intensity and/or duration would help. You can also try using easy carbon, ideally applying it directly to the algae using a pipette. Adding some animals to eat it would also help. For your tank size, more amano shrimp would probably be the best bet. 

[PineSong]

On 4/3/2023 at 3:02 PM, Gabs19 said:

Sorry for the late response. We have 4 glowlight and 4 Cardinal tetras. The pleco is about 2.5 inches. We have had the tank for over a year and lights are on from about 7:30am to 11:30pm. 

 

As others have mentioned your lights are on for a very long time.

Your plants can only use/absorb light optimally for around 5 hours, but algae can just keep on using it, so having more than 5 hours or so of light in a row helps the algae grow, but not your plants. Shortening your photo period can help; in my case it eliminated problems with multiple kinds of algae including hair algae. I keep my lights on for 5 hours twice per day: 6:30 AM to 11:30 and 4:30 to 10:30.  

Additionally, you may have some nutrients out of balance in the tank water. Are you fertilizing your plants, with what and how often? The leaves of one of the plants in the lower left of the second picture (maybe a sword?) look like they have some nutrient deficiency. I used to have swords that looked like that.

Knowing what your water change schedule is and whether you are feeding the plants with root tabs, liquid ferts or not at all might also help others provide good suggestions.

[JettsPapa]

On 4/5/2023 at 7:36 PM, PineSong said:

As others have mentioned your lights are on for a very long time.

Your plants can only use/absorb light optimally for around 5 hours, but algae can just keep on using it, so having more than 5 hours or so of light in a row helps the algae grow, but not your plants. Shortening your photo period can help; in my case it eliminated problems with multiple kinds of algae including hair algae. I keep my lights on for 5 hours twice per day: 6:30 AM to 11:30 and 4:30 to 10:30.  

Additionally, you may have some nutrients out of balance in the tank water. Are you fertilizing your plants, with what and how often? The leaves of one of the plants in the lower left of the second picture (maybe a sword?) look like they have some nutrient deficiency. I used to have swords that looked like that.

Knowing what your water change schedule is and whether you are feeding the plants with root tabs, liquid ferts or not at all might also help others provide good suggestions.

I'd like to second this.  I have had much less trouble with algae after switching my light schedule to four hours on, four hours off, then four more hours on (10:00 am to 2:00 pm, then 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm).  If you like to have yours on early in the morning and late at night you could have a longer period with the lights off.

[Gabs19]

On 4/5/2023 at 5:36 PM, PineSong said:

As others have mentioned your lights are on for a very long time.

Your plants can only use/absorb light optimally for around 5 hours, but algae can just keep on using it, so having more than 5 hours or so of light in a row helps the algae grow, but not your plants. Shortening your photo period can help; in my case it eliminated problems with multiple kinds of algae including hair algae. I keep my lights on for 5 hours twice per day: 6:30 AM to 11:30 and 4:30 to 10:30.  

Additionally, you may have some nutrients out of balance in the tank water. Are you fertilizing your plants, with what and how often? The leaves of one of the plants in the lower left of the second picture (maybe a sword?) look like they have some nutrient deficiency. I used to have swords that looked like that.

Knowing what your water change schedule is and whether you are feeding the plants with root tabs, liquid ferts or not at all might also help others provide good suggestions.

Thanks! I really appreciate your help. We have had the tank a year, but we still have no idea what we’re doing. At least the fish seem happy! 
 

I agree that we must have some nutrient deficiency because the plants look terrible lately. My husband takes care of the plants. He uses API Leaf Zone to fertilize the water. To be honest, I’m not sure there’s a rhyme or reason to how often he fertilizes. He adds some after every water change which I do every 2 weeks. We also just added more Flourish tabs from Seachem because it had been several months since we last added some.