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What type of algae is this?


martinmin
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This is my small tank. I checked against the 6 algae types described in aquarium coop's article, and it seems none of them matches. I tried to manually remove it, but didn't help.

Is there an effective chemical that can get rid of them? I am afraid the plants are dying due to the algae on the leaves.

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It looks like green hair algae. If you can't rub it off the leaves I'm sorry to say you probably have to clip off those affected.

I'm very against adding any algae control chemicals to my tanks or any additives really. Clip off the bad stuff and do a large water change.

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On 5/24/2023 at 8:29 AM, Gamegurl said:

It looks like green hair algae. If you can't rub it off the leaves I'm sorry to say you probably have to clip off those affected.

I'm very against adding any algae control chemicals to my tanks or any additives really. Clip off the bad stuff and do a large water change.

What do you mean by "clip off"? The whole leaves are covered already.

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he means cut off the leaves. i agree, green hair algae. a person can try liquid carbon, but meh ive used it and not been impressed. i dont think any chemical treatment will help you out at this point. you will need to get the tank balanced out to prevent this in the future, ie fertilizers, hours/intensity of lighting, etc.

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Im curious about intensity of light. My hygger isn't fully adjustable but has four I guess intensity settings. Low, medium, medium+ and high which i never use unless cleaning. Its a full spectrum fixture. Is that what you mean?

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On 5/24/2023 at 10:07 AM, lefty o said:

he means cut off the leaves. i agree, green hair algae. a person can try liquid carbon, but meh ive used it and not been impressed. i dont think any chemical treatment will help you out at this point. you will need to get the tank balanced out to prevent this in the future, ie fertilizers, hours/intensity of lighting, etc.

If you look at it, that means almost all leaves will have to be cut off. What about daily water change to treat it?

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On 5/23/2023 at 9:16 PM, Gamegurl said:

Im curious about intensity of light. My hygger isn't fully adjustable but has four I guess intensity settings. Low, medium, medium+ and high which i never use unless cleaning. Its a full spectrum fixture. Is that what you mean?

basically. long duration, higher intensity lights tend to grow algae's really well, especially if the nutrient levels are out of whack.

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to me, 6 hours is a good baseline time. you can always adjust up or down in small increments over time to meet the needs of the plants/tank. if a person ran very low light intensity you can run 10-12 hours and not run into algae issues, but many plants want more/brighter light, and a brighter light is more pleasing while watching the tank. its all about finding the right balance of what works best in each tank. based on what you like to see, plant needs, algae growth etc.

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Algae doesn’t necessarily mean an imbalance. Use tweezers to grab out what you can but ultimately the plant is fine. 
 

It will be a nonstop battle until the plants are mature and start outcompeting for resources. 
 

Since this is not free floating algae chemicals or UV will do very little. 
 

You may have success with this method:

https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/topic/24465-reverse-respiration/#:~:text=Reverse Respiration is a new,accelerate growth and plant health.

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Assuming this is a low tech tank (no added CO2) try scheduling a "siesta" of four hours or so off-time in the middle of your lights-on period.  That may help your plants by giving the CO2 level time to recover after a few hours of photosynthesis, and enable them to compete better against the algae.  Also maybe try putting in a fast-growing floater like anacharis or hornwort at least while the tank matures.  I was struggling with algae in a new-ish tank and things got better with those interventions.  Good luck!  Sometimes it's just a question of time ...

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What is your nutrients in that tank?

It's very common if you have too many nutrients for that type of algae to grow. The plant may not be using enough nutrients, which means something shows up to use them. Normally it is this specific type of algae that does that in my experience.

Check nitrates, phosphates, and give the tank a good cleaning. Once you have a grasp about what is going on in the water with nutrients, then I would suggest using lean dosing as a method.

The plant involved is also common to have converting issues. I've never had success with it and always had algae issues with that plant. The photo we are seeing is of one plant, so it's difficult to get an idea of what the plant load and the rest of the tank looks like.

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