Weird algea

[punch]

I have some weird algea in my planted tank. Its all on the substrate on the bottom. Its is bright blue/green and is like watery pudding in consistency. None of my algea eaters seen to touch it. (otto's, florida flag fish,clown pleco) It is only in one corner of my tank. Not on any plants or decorations.
water peramaters are normal. Any idea's?
Maybe it's not algea at all?
Thank you.

[Cichlid Woman]

Oh yeah, it's algae--green slime algae. And if you don't nip it, that stuff will spread.

It's easier to remove than most, though, for a start ... I can't recall exactly what causes that stuff, but you know it's got to do with lights and too much nutrient of some kind. Overfeeding? Daylight hitting the tank? (Gasp) inadequate water changes?!

-- Pat

[Richer]

That sort of algae can be combated quite easily through good nutrient control.

If you can give us more info on your setup, it'd help greatly. At the least, we're going to need to know:

Size of tank
Amount of lighting
CO2 Concentration (if you are injecting)
Inhabitants
Fertillizing routine.

-Richer

[HazyWater]

sounds like blue-green algae. Actually its a bacteria and fish won't touch it.

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/cyanobacteria.html
Its nasty stuff and hard to get rid of. There was a nice thread prewipe, but oh well. The easiest way to get rid of it is medication, but you should do that only in extreme cases.

What you should do depends on your set up. High light and CO2 injected tanks should limit phosphates and keep all the other macronutrients at appreciable levels. Lower tech tanks should increase aeration.

Good ol' manual labor will remove what is there. Just suck it up with your water change once you've scrubbed it off.

I believe planting some fast growing plants or encouraging an algae bloom will also help kill it.

Just remember, this isn't algae, its a bacteria-plant hybrid monster.

[Richer]

If you keep your nutrients controlled an CO2 concentrations at a good level, you can get rid of it quite easily. I shoud know. I combatted this type of algae before when I first started out with plant tanks. However, once I got my nutrients going right along with my CO2 they just spontaneously dissappeared.
Medication is usually _never_ needed for any kind of outbreak problems, whether they are bacteria, algae, or whatever. Worst comes to worst, try a complete blackout for a couple of days to see if that improves anything.

FYI, in high light/co2 injection systems, phosphates do not cause algae outbreaks. Tom Barr has setup several tanks with high phosphates level and has never experienced algae outbreaks in those tanks. He believes its ammonia that causes algae outbreaks, and I agree with him.

HTH
-Richer

[punch]

Tanks for the help, My tank is 65 gal. with 2 96 watt lights (2.95 watts per gal) Presurized co2.
PH 7
KH 5
CO2 @ 20PPM.
NO2 and no3 I forget will retest tonight, I'll let you know.
The last time I did test they were @ 0 or very low.
I feed a couple of drops of ? every other night. (I'll get that as well) and I usally do a water change once a week about 30%
Any other information you need? Oh, I also feed the fish every other day. (inless my husband has been helping with out me knowing:eek: I told him not too!)
Thanks again:)

Oh the fish I have
4 blue groumis
3 31/2" clown loaches
4 zebra danio's
1 angelicus
2 clown pleco's
4 koolie loaches
7 otto's
1 florida flag fish
1 ram

[wetmanNY]

www.skepticalaquarist.com may have some useful suggestions about controlling your cyanobacteria with a timer, with increased oxygen, with manual removal etc.. Look in the Algae/Problems folder for the "Controlling cyanobacteria" section.

HTH!

[punch]

Thanks for the link! It's off to war I go! all I can say is at least its only in one small corner of my tank and hopefuly I'll be able to stop it before it spreads!

[wetmanNY]

Just drop the water level and shift the filter outlet to splash right on it! It'll give up and go home.

[punch]

Unfortunatly I can' t do that as the out take is in the back and
the slime is in the front won't reach, would a water pump work?
I have one I can put there. Why lower the water level? and how much? Thanks again.

[wetmanNY]

If you lower the water level enough so that the filter outflow creates some splash, punch, that may be enough. Various oxidizers have been used to counter cyanobacteria: potassium permanganate, hydrogen peroxide. Lowering dissolved organics and encouraging plants to photosynthesize both raise O2 levels in the water.

(Cyanobacteria invented the kind of photosynthesis that produced oxygen (a while back). For them, O2 is waste. Too much oxygen represses cyanobacteria. That's the theory anyway.)

Your "photoperiod" setting on your light timer shouldn't be longer than nine hours for now. Cyanobacteria have no diurnal clock to stop them: they keep on going, unlike algae and plants. Long "lit" hours favor cyanobacteria without benefiting plants. --That's shorter hours, not less light.

And keep siphoning the stuff up, as HazyWater and others have suggested.

[punch]

Well I tested my parameters last night and the results are
PH 6.5 :confused: Was holding steady at 7
KH 5
GH 8
NO2 <0.3mg/l
NO3 0mg/l-12.5mg/l
NH3/4 0mg/l
Dossing 6 drops of Plantguild Gold every day.
I lowered my co2 and the fish didn't seem affected by that hi co2 consatration, thank goodness. But the funny thing is... The slime was GONE:eek: Maybe the hi CO2 killed it off? Well there was a couple of little spots on some gravel, but very little!
So I guess life in the fish bowl is once again ok!
Thanks for everybody's help!

[wetmanNY]

I'm always surprised to hear that people continue to add a daily dose of fertilizer --even while they struggle with algae. You'd think fertilizer made plants grow!The next time you're struggling with algae, though, do stop fertilizing until you have the system balanced once more.

Just my two cents. I feel you can have a beautiful garden setting without a 700-pound watermelon. My plants increase slowly, even though I prune out tired-looking leaves. I put a little fertilizer inthe make-up water. That way I'm sure that unused nutrients aren't building up.

If I could securely tell signs of toxicity from signs of nutrient depletion, maybe I'd push the system. ...naw, that doesn't sound like me...

[punch]

Well, I'm just dossing what the package says to do, and if the truth be known, I don't remember to do it EVERY day. More like every other. As algea goes, I don't realy have that much of a problem with it. Never got a bad out break or anything. Do have to scrape the glass every other week and a little cleaning, but I figure thats normal maintence. If you have a planted tank your gonna have SOME algea. You just have to get a ballance you can deal with. My plants grow steadaly and not wild, So over all I'm happy.