Can you help identify this algae?

[JimOp]

Hi, 

Haveing never made a planted aquarium, I decided to do so with my return to aquarium keeping after 5 years or so. I set the tank up with no intention of doing live plants then changed my mind. 

I have only gravel substrate and just got 3 different plants and some moss. Don't ask me what plants I never paid that close of attention. I have MS and wouldn't remember if I tried.

I started out just with the plants. Knowing nothing else. Later i learned i should have picked a better substrate. Opps too late now. Then i started learning about planted aquariums, fertilizers and lighting and the balance of the nutrients. I used fertilizer and started getting an algae issue the pleco was small and could not keep up so I got a mystery snail and freshwater shrimp. 

As I learned more I wanted to try introducing CO2 into it. And once i started that i started getting the growth in the image. I am assuming it is hair algae. But to be honest it is a guess.

 

Now I know that there is something wrong but what exactly i am not sure of. My CO2 is all new to me and I started out with one bubble per sec now i am up to 5 bubbles per sec. I have a co2 drop tester, 2 infact in the tank and they have stayed blue. I worry about adding more because it is a 40 gallon tank. So not real sure what to check. 

 

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

That looks like hair algae to me. I've got some as well.  You can reduce lighting and remove it with a toothbrush.

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

[JimOp]

It isn't really long enough to twirl aroud a toothbrush. It mostly grows on those wide leaf live plants on the edges and looks like matted hair. It is very strange and it's that icky dead color I was thinking it may be a CO2 issue because I have never gotten the indicators to turn green. But everything in the tank is growing fairly quickly.

I been mostly going hands on and pulling it off the plants.   Now I do have moss growing in the tank that kind of looks like hair algae, but that is by the ornaments and not the issue. There is some algae on the glass there and that's a separate issue as well. That's the side with the co2 defuser. Snails get to that eventually.

*edit* I wanted to add thank you for your response. I was suspecting hair algae myself. After reading more about it most of yesterday and today I read that bleached white could be dead algae since I been adjusting co2 rates. I will manually remove everything off of the leaves and then see how things go.

Thanks again.

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by JimOp

[nabokovfan87]

It looks like a type of BBA/Staghorn to me. Mostly leaning towards BBA given the shape and how it's growing.

Can you give us an idea of all of your water parameters, light settings, and dosing regime?

[JimOp]

I just tested it now, It is 2 hours into in night cycle. Day cycle is 8.5 hour days on a Hygger timer light 100%. The test strip test I have for water parms ph 6.8, cabonate 40, total alkalinity 0, hardness 25, chlorine 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 25, iron 0, copper 0. Dose twice a week with easy green once a week with flourish iron I am also running co2. It is due a water change currently.

[jasper5150]

Maybe stop the additional iron. Easy Green has enough iron for those plants. How long has the tank been set up? Mine has been going for about 6 weeks and I’m at the hair algae stage.  My endlers pick at it but don’t get rid of it. The snails stay away from it. I was going to wait a bit longer to get Amanos but will probably get them sooner to help combat the issue. For now, I’ll keep removing as much as I can and just stay the course with weekly water changes and dosing of ferts.

[JimOp]

  Tanks been up since mid march,  It is a pretty established tank at this point. Still battling the hair algae. I have been manually removing it from the broad leaf plants, trimming any thing else attaches too. I tried a few things like Hydrogen Peroxide but thats not done anything. The algae on the glass I leave as grazing food for the snails and pleco. That's where the CO2 defuser is and the only place it grows. I have a bristle nose, snails and shrimp so thats about the best I can do for now. Algicide would kill shrimp and snails. I could get mollies to try and help for the Hair algae or but the tank is pretty populated and they breed constantly. 

Edited June 30, 2023 by JimOp

[JimOp]

Updated picture, No new plants these are are grown in tank. There is moss in the tank so what looks like algae is actually moss in the middle sections. I need to do some trimming soon.

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/18/2023 at 6:32 PM, JimOp said:

I just tested it now, It is 2 hours into in night cycle. Day cycle is 8.5 hour days on a Hygger timer light 100%. The test strip test I have for water parms ph 6.8, cabonate 40, total alkalinity 0, hardness 25, chlorine 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 25, iron 0, copper 0. Dose twice a week with easy green once a week with flourish iron I am also running co2. It is due a water change currently.

when you say night cycle do you mean the blue light?  Is there a way to turn that off?  It is likely what was causing things.  Everything else looks ok.  Your GH is a bit low and could be causing issues (hardness) and your alkalinity is low, just meaning that you might be prone to PH crashes.  I would recommend trying to find a GH/KH liquid test kit and verify the results there. 

@Mmiller2001 @gjcarew what do you recall as a minimum GH target?

I apologize I didn't see the reply sooner!

Edited June 30, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[JimOp]

Night cycle is no lights, however I leave the blue light on for two hours after day cycle mainly for aesthetics. My wife wanted Glofish and so some tetras and the constantly breeding cories are glo fish, also the reason why I don't want to raise the fry. One cool thing to note is the cory eggs are fluorescent too. I attached an older photo of the eggs one the glass.

 I did notice the alkaline as a significant issue once I posted it. Low alkaline can be pretty dangerous for fish lowering their natural immunity.  I was shocked when I seen it so low as I do test the water several times a week.  After I posted and seen the alkalinity level was so low and that that was a problem itself I added a bit of baking soda that night to raise it up slightly then did a 25% water change the next day.

As far as water hardness. The water in my area is extremely hard, with KH somewhere between 180 and 300. GH above 150 with very high PH above 8.4. I now use peatmoss in a small internal filter to soften the water, that way I can remove the filter and peat once water conditions (softness) are where I want them. But, it puts me in a dilemma when it comes to big water changes as that can wildly swing the water conditions. I had been leaving the peatmoss in my canaster filter, but then it is in all the time and that was the likely cause of the very very low alkaline.

This is a water test Just taken. It is in night cycle, no lights and no CO2 being injected: Nitrate between 100 and 250, ph 7.8, gh 75,  kh 80, alchalinity between 80 and 120, Nitrite 0, Iorn 0, Copper, 0, Chlorine 0. 

Edited June 30, 2023 by JimOp

[Mmiller2001]

On 6/30/2023 at 12:09 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

when you say night cycle do you mean the blue light?  Is there a way to turn that off?  It is likely what was causing things.  Everything else looks ok.  Your GH is a bit low and could be causing issues (hardness) and your alkalinity is low, just meaning that you might be prone to PH crashes.  I would recommend trying to find a GH/KH liquid test kit and verify the results there. 

@Mmiller2001 @gjcarew what do you recall as a minimum GH target?

I apologize I didn't see the reply sooner!

2 or 3dGH is around the minimal side. I would increase to 4 to 5 dGH.

if the drop checker is blue, and the solution is fresh, then your CO2 is low and needs to be increased until the drop checker is a yellow green. I’d fix the CO2 first.

[JimOp]

Thanks for the reply, The drop checker is green now. I changed some things up and invested in a better co2 system. I was originally using the fluval co2 kit and that was a mistake. The leaking tanks and the temperamental valve caused me to blow out a hose more than once.  I was going to do a CO2 tank but could not find anyplace that sells co2 near me, so I went with a DYS co2 generator with duel valves that uses citrus and baking soda. A solenoid valve on a smart plug to put it on a timer. I have not had any CO2 issues since. 

I may be on the track to beating the algae as I think the plants are starting to win the battle. while the plants have been exploding, the algae hasn't grown any longer but it has showed up in other plants. I just now finished some trimming and cleaned all I could off all the broad leave plants. Lets see where it is in a week or so.

 

Edited June 30, 2023 by JimOp

[JimOp]

Here is how much the tank has grown since March 15th even with trimming the tall ones.