My anubias is growing something on its leaf

[Phyroath]

Greeting everyone!

I think I am facing a big problem - After I came back from my 3 days trip, I find some tiny black hairy stuffs on one or two leaves of my Anubias - Please what type of algae I am having? causes? What to do?

Another issue is the green one - besides on the glass, it is on the Anubias leaves as well.

Kindly help :help:

[rich311k]

The black sounds like BBA, is it growing around the edges? if it is i would snip off the leaves.

Is the green stuff hard or does it come off like powder?

[Phyroath]

Rich, the green one is hard to scrub from the glass - I scratched the glass from cleaning it. My CAE ignore it.

I removed that BBA this morning from one of the leaves this morning. It is growing on the one infested by the green stuff.

[Blueiz]

Sounds like bba on your anubias and spot algae on your glass. Let me guees, nothing shy of a razor blade will scrape it from your galss, and what is attached to your anubias seems to have become part of the plant itself... I will say that you have to much lighting going on, cut back on how long you run the light, and keep up with water changes to remove excess nutrients. Scrapping the algae off the glass is rather "easy" to do with a razor blade, just be careful you dont cut yourself.

[Phyroath]

Thanks Blueiz! My initial thought was with green algae that I can scrub of easily but this time tough.

My normal photo period is only 7 hrs but I did reduced the frequency of w/c to just once in 3 weeks - will increase water change frequency for this.

Should I do less fert also?

PS: I am using liquid fert - daily 1 drop/g.

[Blueiz]

If the only thing you changed was less water cahnges, id just go back to doing the same amt of water changes you were doing and see if this fixes the prob. You are going to have to manually get rid of the algae first, or rather I reccomend it so you will start with a clean slate.

[Riiz]

If you're injecting CO2, increase the bubble rate. Also water changes will help as others have suggested, and your 7hr photoperiod sounds fine.

[Phyroath]

Thanks everyone,

I still have one more question. If I use razor blade, would the algae still be in the water column and reattach itself to the glass / plant again?

PS. I also dose KNO3 in addition to my liquid fert. The reason that I did this because my swords get some holes on the leaves.

[Blueiz]

The algae will be in the water colum, but your filter should filter it out, after you give your filter a few ours or so to do its job, rinse your media out..

[Phyroath]

Thank again Blueiz. It was my fault that I did not ask about this spot algae when it first started to infest the tank as I was thinking it was normal green algae.

[rich311k]

Upping your phosphate dosing a bit can help control your green spot. I add just a smidgen more than I used to and the results seem very positive,

[Phyroath]

Thank Rich! - I do not have separate KH2PO4, what other ways I can increase phosphate?

I've just cut those leaves with the BBA - waiting for this weekend to take action against the Spot Algae.

My CO2 (DIY) is up 24hr - would this also contributes to the outbreak?

[rich311k]

Fleet enema is a source for phosphates. You can get it at any drug store. there are two kinds get the one with sodium phosphate.

Steady CO2 is the important thing with diy 24 hours would be best.

[Mindcrime121]

I've had BBA completely COVER leaves of my anubias and since I got ottos and amano shrimp they are clean as a whistle.

[barbarossa4122]

Fleet enema is a source for phosphates. You can get it at any drug store. there are two kinds get the one with sodium phosphate.

Steady CO2 is the important thing with diy 24 hours would be best.

How much FE dosage?

[barbarossa4122]

I got it. Thanks anyway.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12585