Algae fun!

[chris_todd]

I was able to get rid of it in my nano, but it is really hanging in there in my 75g.

[krisw]

After getting rid of it in my 50G, I'm 99% free of this in my 40G as well. My solution, overkill:

1. Hang on a U.V. sterilizer. (Don't think this did anything, but I had it)
2. Daily dose of Excel, 5mL
3. Added 4 black mollies
4. 4 Ottos (had them in another tank)
5. 25 Nerites (don't know how effective they are for this algae, but price was right)
6. 2 Garra sp. (had them in another tank)
7. Roughly 100 Amano shrimp (price was right, and I have a clado tank for them next)
8. Consistent dosing/water changes

2-3 Months later, nearly algae free.

[Sonny Disposition]

I think I've seen that stuff before. Hard to say for sure. I think flag fish will eat it.

[krisw]

Bob, it definitely looks like a lot of the algae seen in local lakes and ponds. I wouldn't be surprised if we introduced it to our tanks that way. I'm just glad to be rid of it, hopefully for good!

[Sonny Disposition]

Yeah, flagfish are of limited utility. They'll eat a lot of different kinds of hair algae, but would probably be a little hard on the delicate little fish and shrimp you folks tend to keep.

[John G]

I finally got rid of this algae the old fashioned way.

The only thing in my aquariums that would eat it were the shrimp, but unless I added a couple of hundred more they wouldn’t be able to eat it nearly as fast as it grew. Nor did my large water changes make much of a dent in it—and, as I said in an earlier post, I had very little luck with the Excell. I finally realized that I needed to regularly and consistently remove enough of it that the shrimp could take care of any that remained.

I put my HOT filter on the side of the 75 gallon and aimed the exhaust at one of the most infected spots. Once or twice a day I would move the filter to aim at another area of high algae growth. After a few days I could tell that it was having the desired effect. Bits of the algae were being knocked lose, and were ending up in either my regular filter, or the HOT filter. (I could see some of it on the filter intakes.) After a week I cleaned out both filters. Within two weeks most of the algae was gone; within four weeks it was all gone. I then transferred the filter to my 10 gallon and moved it every day to aim at another location. After about three weeks the algae appeared to be gone from that tank.

It has been two weeks since I removed the HOT filter from my 10 gal and there is no sign of another outbreak of this irritating algae in either tank.