brown hair algae? fungi? Gah!!

happychem

redorkulated
Dec 9, 2003
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Halifax, NS
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Ever since I moved and set my 33g back up - more or less from scratch - this brown, hairy gunk has been growing like wildfire, moreso of late. After it withstood a 5 day blackout (and dare I say, grew during!), I'm no longer convinced that this is an algae. However, before I try anything like salt addition or anything else more drastic, I want to get some input from y'all, certainly I'm not the only person who's gotten this gunk.

Pics (3 days after a thorough cleaning) (poor quality, but you can see what I'm talking about):
100_0758.jpg

100_0757.jpg


It comes off the plants easily enough, but it's pretty much infested the whole tank. Physical removal doesn't work, I've been at it for weeks now. I can spend two hours weeding it out, only to have it back to this stage in a few days - depressing!

Tank specs:
33 g, recently reduced lighting to about 2 wpg, T8 NO
NO3 and PO4 dosed every other day (additions of about 7 ppm and 0.7 ppm, respectively)
traces dosed on alternating days
pressurized CO2, maintained ca. 25 ppm.
50% water change weekly to twice weekly - especially when I was trying to get on top of this stuff.
 
I can see what you've got, but it's blurry and hard to ID. I'm guessing it's a form of diatoms, but can't be sure. If that's what it is, it's some weird looking diatoms.
Maybe some more clear pictures?
Do you have any Otos in the tank?

Len
 
I know this a very old thread, but I've been fighting this same type of algae for a while now, and the only images I am finding on Google are the 3 shown here. Does anyone have any more information on this? I was thinking its a brown diatom hair algae, and was going to get some Otos today, but after the OP says his otos aren't touching it, I'm hesitant. I currently have 2 amano shrimp who aren't doing anything either.
Water specs:
Ph - 6.8
Amonia/Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - ~30
Kh - 6 drops (api test)
Gh - 0-1 drops (api test)
I dose the same as OP for ferts and run pressurized CO2 and use drop checker to monitor.

Again, sorry for digging up the 6 year old post, but I'm not finding any other information.

Thanks,
-R
 
I would raise your lights off of the tank a few inches, if possible, to cut back on light, or simply reduce your photoperiod.

I would also get in there with some scissors to cut the excess off if a toothbrush won't do the job, because if huge clumps of algae start dying at once, you're likely going to have an ammonia spike. Trimming it all back will probably also help you gauge the growth.

Get yourself a bottle of Excel and dose the tank, but if it's isolated, you can use a syringe to apply the Excel to the affected areas directly. For more efficacy, you could remove your amano shrimp for a while so that you can double the daily (not the initial) dose.
 
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