Beard & String Algae

W

White Beard

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Jun 29, 2010
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San Diego, Ca
I have read on the internet that you can kill off beard & string algae by soaking in one part clorox beach and nine parts H2O for approximately three minutes. Also stem plants do not do as well with this type of treatment. All my plants are stem plants.

I am testing this out with one stem of Didiplis diandra (Peplis diandra) Family Lythraceae in my light to medium dense planted 54 gal tank with three Tiger Barbs, two Black Skirt Tetra, one Bristlenose, two Cory cats, one female Apistogramma cacatuoides, and five Otocinclus. I started the tank the first of January 2010. I use Flourish excel, FlorinMulti, and MircroBacter7 on a regular basis. Of late, I have experiment with reduced amounts of the excel and FlorinMult also spreading the doses out by two or three days. I have also started CO2 infusion into the tank.

The plants, rocks, decor has increasingly become over grown with beard and string algae. I have attempted to clean/remove the algae from the plants/rocks/decor at least three times since starting the tank. I do not want to break the tank down and start over.

That is why I post this inquiry about the Clorox Beach treatment.

I would like to hear about any knowledge or experience with this type of treatment especially in regards to stem plants.

Thank you ahead of your post.
 
Soaking in 19:1 will do less damage and would require a 5-15 min soak. Watch the effect on the plants and remove if it shows signs of damage. Rinse well, very well.

The removal of the algae does not address the cause. You need to do a bit od troubleshooting and fix the cause or this will be never ending.

You need to check your water source, ferts, food, lighting, photo period, age of lamps etc to establish cause.
 
some plants dont do very well after the treatment. be prepared to lose some. i've never personally heard of combining bleach and h202. its either one or the other.

what i like to did is put h202 in a spray bottle and remove the affected items and spray them down. wait about 10 seconds and put then replant.

i did the bleach treatment once and lost everything i treated
 
You can try a natural hot water treatment. Just not too hot. I'm pretty sure this may work.
 
I used to try it on my plastic plants. About 100-120 degrees F or so and just pull some of the algae off by hand when it weakens. You also need to be feeding your plants a supplement or they will produce ammonia and attract the algae.
I can also suggest inverting the plants, wrapping the roots in a paper towel above the level of the treatment method, and just water the roots with perfectly fresh water so they don't drink the treatment.
 
FishPish said:
I used to try it on my plastic plants. About 100-120 degrees F or so and just pull some of the algae off by hand when it weakens. You also need to be feeding your plants a supplement or they will produce ammonia and attract the algae.
I can also suggest inverting the plants, wrapping the roots in a paper towel above the level of the treatment method, and just water the roots with perfectly fresh water so they don't drink the treatment.
Click to expand...

Advice for plastic plants is not an answer.
 
If you're skeptical, try it on a leaf. It sounds way better than clorox. No idea what hillbilly made that up.

You could also try outright neutralizing ammonia in the tank with ammonia eliminator. Then the algae wont have anything to feed on.
 
Thank you all for your replies. I found a solutions. Siamese Algae Eaters. I picked up five this afternoon and placed in my 10 gal quarantee tank. I trimmed three stems just above new growth and put in the tank with the Siamese Algae Eaters. They had all three stems cleaned within a couple of hours. I replanted those back into the main tank and took another five trimmings and put in the quarantee tank. The Siamese Algae Eaters took right to those stems.

I will put those five stems back into the main tank tomorrow then treat the quarantee tank with Nox Ich for three days then put the Siamese Algae Eaters in the main tank two days after the Nox Ich treatment. They should reduce the beard and string algae to a point where the plants will be able start using up more of those nutrients that the algae has been using.

I was amazed at how quick those five Siamese Algae Eaters cleaned those stems.
 
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