Algae ID?

[Skittyfish]

Can anyone tell me a good site with algae pic's? I have this beautiful brown (really dark green when old and bright green when new). It is all over my driftwood and is now creeping onto my plants. I can wipe it off the log and in about 24 hours it is back. I would really like to know what I am dealing with and what might eat this stuff (otto's don't seem to).
TIA

 

[OrionGirl]

Sounds like diatoms. Is this a fairly new setup? If so, it's normal, and will subside naturally in a few weeks.

As for ID'ing it...Not sure, but let me see...

http://plantnet.rbgsyd.gov.au/PlantNet/fwalgae/Introduction/classif.htm No pics, but good descriptions. May need a small magnification to help.

Off the net, there are several great books on identifying algae. Might notbe worth purchasing, but I'd check out the library for something along the lines of Common Algaes of The United States, etc. Most are regionally specific.

 

[Skittyfish]

Tanks about a year old, but the algae started after I added the new lights ( I need CO2). Thanks for the site, I will get some and put it under my daughters microscope.

 

[wetmanNY]

Hard to identify, but the bright green when new means that it's one of the Green Algae, and the olive green as it matures means that it's getting overlaid by diatoms.

I think you might shorten your photoperiod, now that you've increased the intensity of your lighting. Reduce it (with the timer) to eight to nine hours a day and see if that doesn't help.

You may try cutting down on the amount of flake feed that goes into the tank. Try a weekly "starve day."

 

[Skittyfish]

Thanks Wetman- I completely forgot about the timer on the lights. It was set for 12 hours on . Sheesh no wonder the algae is doing so well. I already do a "starve day" every week, the day before cleaning. I turned the timer down to 10 hours, and in a couple of days I will knock another hour off.

Thanks