What's on wisteria?

[msp75]

I bought some wisteria for my 5g a few weeks ago and it's not looking very good. I planted the stems in a tank that has been running for a year. I keep it heated to about 78F and have a 10w cf light on about 12 hours a day. Today I noticed the tips of some of the leaves turning brown, and when I looked more closely I saw white fuzz-looking stuff (algae?) covering 2 of the larger leaves. What is this?

 

[Harlock]

Happen to have a picture of it?

 

[msp75]

sorry, I should have thought to take those from the beginning! Sorry for the image quality...these are the first tank pics I've ever taken and I can't get them quite sharp enough.

thanks for looking!

 

[Harlock]

Ahh, that looks just like fuzz algae. Please let me point you to the algae sticky at the top of the thread. Lots of good information in there.

EDIT: Do you dose any fertilizers or add any CO2?

 

[msp75]

No ferts, no CO2. I think I'll cut the light down to 10 hours a day and see if that helps, and definitely check out the sticky. Thanks!

 

[msp75]

one more thing - could the algae be contributing to causing the brown tips or do I have two issues?

 

[Harlock]

Well, I haven't had my Wisteria long and when I got it all it had was emergent growth. Sicne then the emergent leaves have, from time to time, gotten brown, then turned black and then fallen off. The submergent growth hasn't had any issues. The reaso I asked about ferts and CO2 is that a lot of times these help the plants and get rid of the algae. Flourish Excel is a great source of CO2 for your plants and supposedly (and with testimonials from people on this site I really trust) can help control certain algaes. Anyway, a healthy plant with ferts and CO2 will outcompete algae for nutrients and thereby keep alage under control. Funny how that works sometimes.