Beard Algae Solution?

[David J. Braunegg]

I wanted to sound people out on a solution to beard algae that I want to
try. First, though, let me describe my situation:

I am suffering from beard algae which threatens to take over my tank. It
grows on my plants, castle, heater, and filter tube. I bleached the plants
and castle structure, which took out most of it, but of course it is coming
back. Before the bleaching, I cut back the light to 8 hours and covered the
back and sides of the tank tank to block light from the windows from getting
into the tank.

Particulars:

10 gallon tank
weekly water change/gravel vac of 3 gallons
pH 7.8
4 Corys and 3 Otos
3 small Valisnerias, 1 Anubias, and 2 Crypts
8 hours of light from a single Triton tube

I added the Otos to get rid of brown algae that was covering everything,
which they did. I never saw the beard algae until the brown stuff was gone.


Here are the two ideas I have to get rid of the beard algae:

1. Dechlorinate a bucket of tap water, then move the fish into it. Empty
the tank. 20% bleach everything except the biowheel, then rinse all in
water with a good dose of dechlor. Refill tank. Put fish, plants, gravel,
castle, heater, and filter back in.

I am not sure if there might be enough algae/spores still in the biowheel
and in/on the fish themselves to re-seed the beard algae, though.


2. I read that 0.5 ppm for 7-10 days will kill off beard algae, but I don't
know if my fish (or plants) will survive.
http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.9605/msg00245.html

I also found a suggestion to add copper pennies to the tank:
http://experts.about.com/q/1472/412006.htm

Adding copper would certainly be easier than the complete cleanout of #1,
but I don't know how safe it is.


I would appreciate any comments or suggestions.

Thanks and Happy New Year,
Dave

[Frank]

Dave wrote,
>I am not sure if there might be enough algae/spores still in the biowheel
>and in/on the fish themselves to re-seed the beard algae, though.

A diatom filter, micron cartridge filter, or a ultraviolet sterilizer
will filter out or kill algae spores.

>I added the Otos to get rid of brown algae that was covering everything,
>which they did. I never saw the beard algae until the brown stuff was gone.
>Here are the two ideas I have to get rid of the beard algae:

Otos won't touch the stuff - Florida Flag Fish and Ameca Splendens
(butterfly goodeid) are two fish that will eat it like a kid eating
candy. Red Ramshorns Snails will also eat beard algaes.

>I also found a suggestion to add copper pennies to the tank:
>http://experts.about.com/q/1472/412006.htm

Pennies take forever. A copper pot scrub pad atop an air stone is much
quicker, but would/could take a week or two. The fastest way to do any
kind of copper treatment, is by using a 6 volt battery and a couple of
copper wires as electrodes. Depending on the tank size, you will cut
the time down to 2 to 8 hours (10 to 100 gal. tank). You will have to
keep an eye on the plants and fish as to not overload the tank with
copper. Put the electrodes at the ends of the tank ((+) at one end, (-)
at the other end). As the (+) wire slowly turns green, the (-) wire
will have a very fine stream of bubbles comming from it. These bubbles
are Hydrogen and highly flammable. Remove any tank cover or hood so you
don't blow it off - been there, done that, you don't want to go there!
A 20% water change once a day for 2 or 3 days will remove most of the
copper from the tank. The fish however, will retain copper within their
body tissue for a long time, so don't use any copper based medications
for at least a month............ Frank

[john]

David try moonlight gouramis. I had a bad problem with beard algae and tried
Moonlights they devoured the BA algae.

JohnG


"David J. Braunegg" > wrote in message
...
>I wanted to sound people out on a solution to beard algae that I want to
>try. First, though, let me describe my situation:
>
> I am suffering from beard algae which threatens to take over my tank. It
> grows on my plants, castle, heater, and filter tube. I bleached the
> plants and castle structure, which took out most of it, but of course it
> is coming back. Before the bleaching, I cut back the light to 8 hours and
> covered the back and sides of the tank tank to block light from the
> windows from getting into the tank.
>
> Particulars:
>
> 10 gallon tank
> weekly water change/gravel vac of 3 gallons
> pH 7.8
> 4 Corys and 3 Otos
> 3 small Valisnerias, 1 Anubias, and 2 Crypts
> 8 hours of light from a single Triton tube
>
> I added the Otos to get rid of brown algae that was covering everything,
> which they did. I never saw the beard algae until the brown stuff was
> gone.
>
>
> Here are the two ideas I have to get rid of the beard algae:
>
> 1. Dechlorinate a bucket of tap water, then move the fish into it. Empty
> the tank. 20% bleach everything except the biowheel, then rinse all in
> water with a good dose of dechlor. Refill tank. Put fish, plants,
> gravel, castle, heater, and filter back in.
>
> I am not sure if there might be enough algae/spores still in the biowheel
> and in/on the fish themselves to re-seed the beard algae, though.
>
>
> 2. I read that 0.5 ppm for 7-10 days will kill off beard algae, but I
> don't know if my fish (or plants) will survive.
> http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.9605/msg00245.html
>
> I also found a suggestion to add copper pennies to the tank:
> http://experts.about.com/q/1472/412006.htm
>
> Adding copper would certainly be easier than the complete cleanout of #1,
> but I don't know how safe it is.
>
>
> I would appreciate any comments or suggestions.
>
> Thanks and Happy New Year,
> Dave
>
>

[smcclure415]

This may seem silly, but can you describe your 'beard alge'. We have
some long stringy hair like alge growing in the big tank, and the Plec
won't touch it. I am wondering if your beard alge is the same as our
hairy alge... if it is bye bye alge :)

[David J. Braunegg]

The description on this page is pretty accurate:

http://faq.thekrib.com/algae.html

If that is what you have, good luck in getting rid of it!

Dave

"smcclure415" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> This may seem silly, but can you describe your 'beard alge'. We have
> some long stringy hair like alge growing in the big tank, and the Plec
> won't touch it. I am wondering if your beard alge is the same as our
> hairy alge... if it is bye bye alge :)
>

[Frank]

smcclure415 wrote,
>We have
>some long stringy hair like alge growing in the big tank, and the Plec
>won't touch it.

Florida Flag Fish, Ameca Splendens (common name butterfly goodeid) and
Red Ramshorns Snails eat hair algaes....... Frank

[Elaine T]

Frank wrote:
> smcclure415 wrote,
>
>>We have
>>some long stringy hair like alge growing in the big tank, and the Plec
>>won't touch it.
>
>
> Florida Flag Fish, Ameca Splendens (common name butterfly goodeid) and
> Red Ramshorns Snails eat hair algaes....... Frank

Beware. My flag fish bred and the male took a couple of bites out of
the dojo's tail. Get only females if you want a peaceful tank!

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

[Frank]

Elaine T wrote,
>Beware. My flag fish bred and the male took a couple of bites out of
>the dojo's tail. Get only females if you want a peaceful tank!

Guess mabe I should have said they could be a little aggressive - so
can the butterfly goodeids as they get older, male and females!
..............Frank

[john]

"David J. Braunegg" > wrote in message
...
>I wanted to sound people out on a solution to beard algae that I want to
>try. First, though, let me describe my situation:
>

Drop your lighting to 6 hours a day, drop your ph to 7.0 and add a couple of
moonlight gouramis. Black beard algae seem to prefere a pH higher then
7.5. This is why you tend to get it in rift tanks.

John