blue green algae and black hair alage problem?

[simeseninjafish]

Hi, can anyone tell me why I've got problems with blue green slime algae and
black hair algae?. the blue green algae's got so bad that after only three
days it has recovered eight square inch's of the gravel in my tank and has
grown back in every place and more on my plants!. I no that I have not been
over feeding or over stocked the tank with fish. the nitrite and ammonia
levels are at zero. the nitrate never gets higher than 5 mg/l and the
phosphate is around 0.25 mg/l. I guess that the
ph number is high and also the gh level because of the local water coming
from reservoirs on chalk/lime hills near my home, but I have not tested for
those. the tank is out of direct
sunlight and has the standard juwel lighting and reflectors that come with
there tanks. I've been thinking about replacing a few of the plants with the
fastest growing ones that I can find, but I think that unless there is a
treatment for blue green algae that will kill it off completely it will just
start to cover the new plants, and I will be forced to remove all of them.

oh, and I change 25% of the water in my tank once a week, and I also clean
the gravel once a week with a power gravel cleaner. and my tapwater reads
zero for nitrite ammonia and nitrate and 0.25 mg/l of phosphate. thanks

[simeseninjafish]

I also cant get hold of any type of treatment that contains an antibiotic,
because I live in the uk.
"simeseninjafish" > wrote in message
news:T1rqc.88$2z5.12@newsfe1-win...
> Hi, can anyone tell me why I've got problems with blue green slime algae
and
> black hair algae?. the blue green algae's got so bad that after only three
> days it has recovered eight square inch's of the gravel in my tank and has
> grown back in every place and more on my plants!. I no that I have not
been
> over feeding or over stocked the tank with fish. the nitrite and ammonia
> levels are at zero. the nitrate never gets higher than 5 mg/l and the
> phosphate is around 0.25 mg/l. I guess that the
> ph number is high and also the gh level because of the local water coming
> from reservoirs on chalk/lime hills near my home, but I have not tested
for
> those. the tank is out of direct
> sunlight and has the standard juwel lighting and reflectors that come with
> there tanks. I've been thinking about replacing a few of the plants with
the
> fastest growing ones that I can find, but I think that unless there is a
> treatment for blue green algae that will kill it off completely it will
just
> start to cover the new plants, and I will be forced to remove all of them.
>
> oh, and I change 25% of the water in my tank once a week, and I also clean
> the gravel once a week with a power gravel cleaner. and my tapwater reads
> zero for nitrite ammonia and nitrate and 0.25 mg/l of phosphate. thanks
>
>

[Velvet]

simeseninjafish wrote:

> I also cant get hold of any type of treatment that contains an antibiotic,
> because I live in the uk.
> "simeseninjafish" > wrote in message
> news:T1rqc.88$2z5.12@newsfe1-win...
>
>>Hi, can anyone tell me why I've got problems with blue green slime algae
>
> and
>
>>black hair algae?. the blue green algae's got so bad that after only three
>>days it has recovered eight square inch's of the gravel in my tank and has
>>grown back in every place and more on my plants!. I no that I have not
>
> been
>
>>over feeding or over stocked the tank with fish. the nitrite and ammonia
>>levels are at zero. the nitrate never gets higher than 5 mg/l and the
>>phosphate is around 0.25 mg/l. I guess that the
>>ph number is high and also the gh level because of the local water coming
>>from reservoirs on chalk/lime hills near my home, but I have not tested
>
> for
>
>>those. the tank is out of direct
>>sunlight and has the standard juwel lighting and reflectors that come with
>>there tanks. I've been thinking about replacing a few of the plants with
>
> the
>
>>fastest growing ones that I can find, but I think that unless there is a
>>treatment for blue green algae that will kill it off completely it will
>
> just
>
>>start to cover the new plants, and I will be forced to remove all of them.
>>
>>oh, and I change 25% of the water in my tank once a week, and I also clean
>>the gravel once a week with a power gravel cleaner. and my tapwater reads
>>zero for nitrite ammonia and nitrate and 0.25 mg/l of phosphate. thanks
>>
>>
>
>
>
I've had that, when the tank was still new. How long's the tank been
going? what size is it? How many fish/what size, and how densely
planted is it? How long are the lights on for?

I managed to eradicate mine by hoovering up as much as I could daily,
and doing a black-out over the weekend for several weeks, allowing the
plants (and hoovering the BGA) between stints.

That and upping the filtration/current flow seem to have worked a treat.

--


Velvet

[Limnophile]

Lowering the pH by adding peat moss to the filter helps your plants compete
with the algae better. Most plants grow best at pH between 6.0 and 7.2 . It
worked for me, but YMMV ...

Limnophile

"Velvet" > wrote in message
...
>>phosphate is around 0.25 mg/l. I guess that the
> >>ph number is high and also the gh level because of the local water
coming
> >>from reservoirs on chalk/lime hills near my home, but I have not tested

[simeseninjafish]

hi velvet, and thanks for answering my post. I've had the aquarium since
November and it is a 180 litre tank. fish wise it's got 2 angels, three
mollies, 2 dwarf gouramis, 8 neon's, two small clown loaches a coolie loach,
and two cichlids which are about 7cm in size. I have planted the tank all
along the back and there are four small plants at the front, and there all
planted in 6cm of aquagrit. I did start turning the lights of after 10 hours
each day for the last month and a half, but it did not seem to do any good
so I went back to 12 hours a day. I also tried blacking out the tank for
three days but both my Siamese fighting fish were killed while the tank was
blacked out, and the black algae remand the same, and the blue green algae
was back after a week. I also had a Chinese algae eater for a couple of
months but he damaged and killed a few of my plants. will it be ok for the
fish if I Hoover the tank daily?. thanks
"Velvet" > wrote in message
...
> simeseninjafish wrote:
>
> > I also cant get hold of any type of treatment that contains an
antibiotic,
> > because I live in the uk.
> > "simeseninjafish" > wrote in message
> > news:T1rqc.88$2z5.12@newsfe1-win...
> >
> >>Hi, can anyone tell me why I've got problems with blue green slime algae
> >
> > and
> >
> >>black hair algae?. the blue green algae's got so bad that after only
three
> >>days it has recovered eight square inch's of the gravel in my tank and
has
> >>grown back in every place and more on my plants!. I no that I have not
> >
> > been
> >
> >>over feeding or over stocked the tank with fish. the nitrite and ammonia
> >>levels are at zero. the nitrate never gets higher than 5 mg/l and the
> >>phosphate is around 0.25 mg/l. I guess that the
> >>ph number is high and also the gh level because of the local water
coming
> >>from reservoirs on chalk/lime hills near my home, but I have not tested
> >
> > for
> >
> >>those. the tank is out of direct
> >>sunlight and has the standard juwel lighting and reflectors that come
with
> >>there tanks. I've been thinking about replacing a few of the plants with
> >
> > the
> >
> >>fastest growing ones that I can find, but I think that unless there is a
> >>treatment for blue green algae that will kill it off completely it will
> >
> > just
> >
> >>start to cover the new plants, and I will be forced to remove all of
them.
> >>
> >>oh, and I change 25% of the water in my tank once a week, and I also
clean
> >>the gravel once a week with a power gravel cleaner. and my tapwater
reads
> >>zero for nitrite ammonia and nitrate and 0.25 mg/l of phosphate. thanks
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> I've had that, when the tank was still new. How long's the tank been
> going? what size is it? How many fish/what size, and how densely
> planted is it? How long are the lights on for?
>
> I managed to eradicate mine by hoovering up as much as I could daily,
> and doing a black-out over the weekend for several weeks, allowing the
> plants (and hoovering the BGA) between stints.
>
> That and upping the filtration/current flow seem to have worked a treat.
>
> --
>
>
> Velvet

[Velvet]

simeseninjafish wrote:

> hi velvet, and thanks for answering my post. I've had the aquarium since
> November and it is a 180 litre tank. fish wise it's got 2 angels, three
> mollies, 2 dwarf gouramis, 8 neon's, two small clown loaches a coolie loach,
> and two cichlids which are about 7cm in size. I have planted the tank all
> along the back and there are four small plants at the front, and there all
> planted in 6cm of aquagrit. I did start turning the lights of after 10 hours
> each day for the last month and a half, but it did not seem to do any good
> so I went back to 12 hours a day. I also tried blacking out the tank for
> three days but both my Siamese fighting fish were killed while the tank was
> blacked out, and the black algae remand the same, and the blue green algae
> was back after a week. I also had a Chinese algae eater for a couple of
> months but he damaged and killed a few of my plants. will it be ok for the
> fish if I Hoover the tank daily?. thanks
> "Velvet" > wrote in message
> ...
>

My tank inhabitants were fine with me hoovering daily - I concentrated
on the BGA, I'd dislodge it if I could, then suck it up. Sounds a bit
like what happened to me, it was a while after I had the tank set up
that the black hair and bga showed up - thought I'd got away with it but
twasn't to be.

Sympathies about the fighting fish - I'm assuming they weren't two males
though? I picked off black hair algae (I'd prune the leaves they were
on if really heavy), twizzle a toothbrush in there to mop up some more
of it, etc. My algae crew consist of a dwarf bristlenose pl*c (I
*think* - not seen him for a while now, but there's still scrape marks
on the bogwood), an oto, and 4-5 dwarf flying foxes (voracious algae
eaters when small, less so these days, they're lazy flying pigs!). The
oto and the bristlenose are both worth their weight in gold to me!

How are the plants doing - are they growing well? I added a small
manual floramat CO2 system to the tank, and I *think* that was around
the time I finally knocked the algae on the head, though I'd also just
changed from two internal Hagen Trio filters to a single external Ehiem
classic cannister filter.

The BGA is a slightly different kettle of fish to the black hair, I hate
the stuff with a vengeance. I'd say hoover as much as you can of it up
daily, and consider another blackout at some point - if it took a week
to come back then I think you nearly had it licked at that point, my gut
feeling is that if there are little fragments of it still alive, then
it'll re-seed, but each time you do a black-out (before it's back in
full force) you weaken it further and further.

Where is the BGA located? I used to get hair near the filter outlet,
and BGA in places where the outlet water didn't get to so much. Oh, and
I'm in Surrey, so the water's from chalk boreholes here. Dunno if
that's of any use.

But I did get rid of the bga eventually - took a couple of months iirc,
but well worth it.

--


Velvet

[simeseninjafish]

hi again velvet, no the two Siamese fighting fish were male and female. I
think it was my angel fish that killed them but up until then there was
never any fighting between any of my fish so I'm not totally shore. I have
been pruning the plants when it gets really bad but the black algae has
grown back after a couple of weeks. the blue green algae first started
growing in the middle of my tank on the gravel but now it grows everywhere.
I wish I had known what a problem it could be when the patch was still
small. I think I'll take your advice and try blacking the tank out at the
weekends. thanks
"Velvet" > wrote in message
...
> simeseninjafish wrote:
>
> > hi velvet, and thanks for answering my post. I've had the aquarium since
> > November and it is a 180 litre tank. fish wise it's got 2 angels, three
> > mollies, 2 dwarf gouramis, 8 neon's, two small clown loaches a coolie
loach,
> > and two cichlids which are about 7cm in size. I have planted the tank
all
> > along the back and there are four small plants at the front, and there
all
> > planted in 6cm of aquagrit. I did start turning the lights of after 10
hours
> > each day for the last month and a half, but it did not seem to do any
good
> > so I went back to 12 hours a day. I also tried blacking out the tank for
> > three days but both my Siamese fighting fish were killed while the tank
was
> > blacked out, and the black algae remand the same, and the blue green
algae
> > was back after a week. I also had a Chinese algae eater for a couple of
> > months but he damaged and killed a few of my plants. will it be ok for
the
> > fish if I Hoover the tank daily?. thanks
> > "Velvet" > wrote in message
> > ...
> >
>
> My tank inhabitants were fine with me hoovering daily - I concentrated
> on the BGA, I'd dislodge it if I could, then suck it up. Sounds a bit
> like what happened to me, it was a while after I had the tank set up
> that the black hair and bga showed up - thought I'd got away with it but
> twasn't to be.
>
> Sympathies about the fighting fish - I'm assuming they weren't two males
> though? I picked off black hair algae (I'd prune the leaves they were
> on if really heavy), twizzle a toothbrush in there to mop up some more
> of it, etc. My algae crew consist of a dwarf bristlenose pl*c (I
> *think* - not seen him for a while now, but there's still scrape marks
> on the bogwood), an oto, and 4-5 dwarf flying foxes (voracious algae
> eaters when small, less so these days, they're lazy flying pigs!). The
> oto and the bristlenose are both worth their weight in gold to me!
>
> How are the plants doing - are they growing well? I added a small
> manual floramat CO2 system to the tank, and I *think* that was around
> the time I finally knocked the algae on the head, though I'd also just
> changed from two internal Hagen Trio filters to a single external Ehiem
> classic cannister filter.
>
> The BGA is a slightly different kettle of fish to the black hair, I hate
> the stuff with a vengeance. I'd say hoover as much as you can of it up
> daily, and consider another blackout at some point - if it took a week
> to come back then I think you nearly had it licked at that point, my gut
> feeling is that if there are little fragments of it still alive, then
> it'll re-seed, but each time you do a black-out (before it's back in
> full force) you weaken it further and further.
>
> Where is the BGA located? I used to get hair near the filter outlet,
> and BGA in places where the outlet water didn't get to so much. Oh, and
> I'm in Surrey, so the water's from chalk boreholes here. Dunno if
> that's of any use.
>
> But I did get rid of the bga eventually - took a couple of months iirc,
> but well worth it.
>
> --
>
>
> Velvet

[Velvet]

simeseninjafish wrote:

> hi again velvet, no the two Siamese fighting fish were male and female. I
> think it was my angel fish that killed them but up until then there was
> never any fighting between any of my fish so I'm not totally shore. I have
> been pruning the plants when it gets really bad but the black algae has
> grown back after a couple of weeks. the blue green algae first started
> growing in the middle of my tank on the gravel but now it grows everywhere.
> I wish I had known what a problem it could be when the patch was still
> small. I think I'll take your advice and try blacking the tank out at the
> weekends. thanks

You might want to think about a brief wake-up and feed call for the fish
over the weekend blackout. It takes mine about 5 mins to wake up, I
feed, black out a couple of minutes later again. On the other hand,
they happily go every other weekend without food (I'm away) but I do
know they need good feeding on my return and between times, or I see
some weight drop-off on them.

As I said, have a look at the Floramat system for plants/CO2 too. Uses
small cannisters which you manually inject (via button on top of can)
into a little chamber in the tank, and thus disolves into the water. My
plants took off like rockets when I did that, but then I had to add
plant fertiliser (for aquariums) into the mix - just enough that they
didn't go short, but not too much that the algae had enough to go on ;-)

This fishkeeping's a fine balance!

--


Velvet