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I need help identifying algae and finding a treatment method.


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Hey o/
I hope yall are doing good and are healthy!

The past couple of months were realy hectic for me and besides feeding I had no time to care for my shrimp tank.
I finally have some spare time to do so but now I'm stuck with my plants being covered in algae and I'm not quiet sure what the best course of action is from here on.

For now I reduced the Timer of my light to a 8h (4h on, 3h off, 4h on) scheddule with which I can still enjoy the tank and also intend to dose my fertiliser on a more regular and controled manner.

After trimming my plants I noticed that because of the rapid groth and neglegtion on trimming the plants the lower parts of the plants had suffered quite a bit because of lack of light
I'm not quite sure if I can just replant my cuttings because there is heavy algae groth on them and bide my time for the algae to hopefully go away or If I can treat the cuttings in some manner to kill the algae on them but not the actuall plant? Or should I just throw the cuttings on the compost and hope that the remaining stemmplants recover over time and replant them afterwards?


I included some pictures of one of the cuttings with the most algae on it, the cutting is about 15cm/6-ish inches.

 

On another note... I would like to add a few nerite snails to the tank but for some reason I can't manage to find a rule of thumb on how many snails to add to x amount of gallons or planted tank of x size. What are your thoughts on this?

 

Many thanks beforehand for your advice!algae2.jpg.fa1c845ace66889f6fbe794a6ea12f70.jpgalgae1.jpg.d8a330561a5dbb81901288038203a64a.jpg

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Looks like string algae, a form of green algae. Unless you can remove it by pulling it off it's best to just dispose of the cuttings. I would likely just dispose of the cuttings because if you miss just one segment of it it's like the Terminator and "...will be back."

Reducing the photoperiod to eight hours as you said you will do should take care of it, sometimes, however this form of algae also appears because the plant got to grow too tall and/or close to the light source. Moss glued to driftwood very close to the water surface is very prone to get it, shrimp are a great way to curb that problem as I've learnt

Edited by Jungle Fan
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Re: Nerites, I have overstocked at 1snail/2 gallon, but after they plowed thru the algae I had to feed them. It really depends on how much you want to feed and how much of their favorite algae, there is. Be aware that mine eat driftwood also, especially softer types like cholla wood. 

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I rarely see my regular Nerites touching string algae, my black military helmet snails (another form of Nerites) will, and my shrimp, both the Amanos, and Blue Velvets are all over it whenever some occurs in the moss I have on my driftwood.

PS: Brandy's word of caution in regards to Nerites is well founded, and goes for shrimp as well. Sometimes it looks like I have a miniature woodworking shop in my tank in some areas when I do my weekly gravel vac session on the mulm before I do the water change. But it should still take them umpteen years before they run out of wood to turn into really fine sawdust. 😄

Edited by Jungle Fan
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