When using H2O2, do you spot treat before you do the water change? I would be weary of leaving the H2O2 in the tank for a week. Plus I don't want to lose any of my fish. Cardinal tetras and corys are expensive.
Algae on Anubias Leaves
- Thread starter spunjin
- Start date
I was able to get rid of algae on my anubias by pulling it out of the tank and swabbing the leaves down with H2O2 soaked cotton ball. Don't do that too many times on the same leaves because they'll start to turn brown on the edges.
You could also turn the lights off for a couple days. That works well most of the time but you sometimes lose a leaf or two.
You could also turn the lights off for a couple days. That works well most of the time but you sometimes lose a leaf or two.
One or two leaves doesn't bother me at all. I just don't want to loose the plant or any of the fish due to a little bit of algae.
I will consider turning the light off for 3 days. I don't think that will hurt the plants since most of them have been shipped to me.
Any other ideas for me?
I will consider turning the light off for 3 days. I don't think that will hurt the plants since most of them have been shipped to me.
Any other ideas for me?
H2O2 breaks down really fast, making it harmless to an aquarium. I spot treat halfway through an waterchange when the water is at its lowest, since I do 50% per week. This leaves a fair bit of hardscape and some plants exposed, ensuring that what I treat gets it good.
Alright thanks, Riiz. I do my WCs on Sundays so I'll give it a shot, pun intended. Is there a guideline for how much to use based on tank volume? I don't want to over do it.
spunjiin take a look at this article: http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/algae_peroxide.html (what I meant to post the first time)
the person there used 3mL/gallon of a 3% H2O2 solution (the stuff you would buy at CVS or something like that).
what you want to do is add it slowly (i.e. over 5-10 minutes worth of time), directly to the algae with a syringe or something. leave your filter on. as riiz mentioned, H2O2 dissociates rather quickly but it hurt your fish (burn soft tissue, in the same way it kills algae) if it's just sitting there, hence why you want to leave your filter on.
i always did it after a water change so that the stuff that I put on the algae itself would stay there. you'll know it's working if you see a bunch of little bubbles form on the algae itself.
the person there used 3mL/gallon of a 3% H2O2 solution (the stuff you would buy at CVS or something like that).
what you want to do is add it slowly (i.e. over 5-10 minutes worth of time), directly to the algae with a syringe or something. leave your filter on. as riiz mentioned, H2O2 dissociates rather quickly but it hurt your fish (burn soft tissue, in the same way it kills algae) if it's just sitting there, hence why you want to leave your filter on.
i always did it after a water change so that the stuff that I put on the algae itself would stay there. you'll know it's working if you see a bunch of little bubbles form on the algae itself.
Thanks for the link, Daniel. I believe I had read that one before, hence my concern for losing some of my plants and fish.
I'm going to give it a try tomorrow. I'll update then.
I'm going to give it a try tomorrow. I'll update then.
To clean algae from Anubias, put the plants in a 3 gallon bucket with 6 oz. ( small glass) of plain "Clorox" for about an hour, wait until the algae dissolves without letting the green chrophyll out of the leaves, then rinse in another bucket of plain water for a half hour then let them float in your tank with a decent filter running with carbon in it. I'm doing this for five years and have not lost a fish or plant. From "GCC580",
Email jerry@gewirtz.com.
I know that you aren't suppose to buy snails/shrimp and other inhabitants to take care of problems such as this but my 2 cents is that I bought some nerites and they tore it up in about 3 days. No chemicals to worry about hurting anything, just another mouth to feed. They cleaned up the BBA, Staghorn, and the GSA. I think they were starving too. Now they just keep everything in check and are awesome little inverts to have IMO.
