Beard algae!?

C

Caleb

AC Members
Apr 14, 1999
30
0
0
Alton, IL
I have this ridiculous growth of beard algae in my 75 discus tank. How do I kill it?

I have taken out all seen plants with it growing on them, I took all the rocks out and ran them through a hot rinse cycle on the dishwasher (water only!!) Everything I can think of, and I still have a small amount of it. I've been starving the tank for light for about 4 days now as well.

I ordered a bunch of quick growing plants to hopefully take the nutrients from it, but on the other hand, I'm worried that it'll take over my new plants as well.

Caleb
 
Oh yeah...
I have 1 discus, sold the other three. Several plecos, 50 otocinclus, and dozens of ghost shrimp at the moment......

Stupid fish

Caleb
 
If you want to go down the road of anti algae treatments, you could try 'eSHa protalon-707 anti algae treatment'. Its relitavley cheap, kills about 8 types of algae (beard included) and is plant friendly.

The downside is that you still have the problem of why your tank got so infested in the first place...
 
I'd recommend the SAE as well. I got one for just that reason and it worked perfetly. All the beard algae was gone within a few days and it has never come back. I got a Flying Fox instead of a true SAE, although I'm not exactly sure if it is a different species. Did the job just the same though!
 
I had just a little bit come in on one of my amazons. I tried everything to get rid of them that was plant safe, including otocinclus and bristlenose plecos. Finally, after a very bitter war that makes my current battle in my SW tank with byropsis look like a water gun fight you had when you're little, I removed all of my plants, who by now were dying quickly due to the plague, and used massive doses of No More Algae by Jungle. I waited a week, then did many water changes and restocked with plants from scratch. I haven't had an outbreak since. I lost alot of plants, but I beat the damn stuff.
 
Originally posted by skeletalmachine
I got a Flying Fox instead of a true SAE, although I'm not exactly sure if it is a different species. Did the job just the same though!
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They are different species, but they might be improperly acknowledged by your dealer.
 
This is my post from another bread algae question. It works. It should be no problem with discus

Glass/Ghost freshwater shrimp.


SAE's only eat algae when young. When they start to grow the become a big hassle.

For one they eat everything but the algae unless you starve the tank, but how good is that for the rest of the fish?

Next they become extremely aggressive and will kill smaller fish and will take chunks out of larger fish.

They are definetly not community oriented fish.

I have a breard algae problem in my 20 gallon long. I bought two freshwater shrimp. They are cleaning the tank very nicely. It has only taken a couple of days and I have a noticable difference.

It works because the other inhabitants are only a couple of otos and some checkerboard barbs, Both species are not even mildly aggressive and stay quite small. In fact that shrimp are the same size as the largest male barb.

You can't put the shrimp in with anything remotely aggressive or large or they will get eaten. But if you have a peaceful community tank.. tetras etc. The shrimp will work great.

I must say that they are IMO also very interesting to watch.
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