White and brown fluff growing on my java fern

[fionap91]

Hello!
I have a 100litre tropical community tank.
At the moment it only has platy's and cardinal tetras which are fed every other day.

It finished cycling about 4 weeks a go but has been set up for about 10 ish weeks maybe more but the cycle process was delayed.

After the cycle we were left with relatively high nitrate levels around 30-40ppm so we added java fern that is attached to big wood in order to help reduce nitrates naturally.

Our nitrates our now 10-15ppm and the fish are thriving, platy's even breeding but I have recently noticed on one of the plants a white fluff type substance that has also spread to an ornament then on the other half a black fluffy. I'm 100% sure it's not new plant growth as we already have a lot of that.

I'm just about to do a water change but wanted to know what it was, if I should remove or not and if so by washing the plant or trimming the leaves.

I have attached photos thank you for ANY help!

 

[myswtsins]

That is BBA - Black Brush (Beard) Algae. Very common on slow growing plants like java fern. Usually appearing on the oldest leaves. If it is only a few leaves go ahead and trim those leaves off, from the bottom of the leaf. Treat the decor it is on with some hydrogen peroxcide. You can squirt it onto the ornament while it is in the aquarium, with the filters off and let it sit for like 10 minutes and then turn the filters back on. Or you can remove it from the aquarium and apply the H2O2, let sit, and return to aquarium.

The BBA will most likely return though if the cause of it is not addressed. The cause is an imbalance of nutrients including light and carbon. And that can be tricky to figure out but we can get into that if you like.

 

[fionap91]

That is BBA - Black Brush (Beard) Algae. Very common on slow growing plants like java fern. Usually appearing on the oldest leaves. If it is only a few leaves go ahead and trim those leaves off, from the bottom of the leaf. Treat the decor it is on with some hydrogen peroxcide. You can squirt it onto the ornament while it is in the aquarium, with the filters off and let it sit for like 10 minutes and then turn the filters back on. Or you can remove it from the aquarium and apply the H2O2, let sit, and return to aquarium.

The BBA will most likely return though if the cause of it is not addressed. The cause is an imbalance of nutrients including light and carbon. And that can be tricky to figure out but we can get into that if you like.

Thank you myswtsins my dad advised this shortly after I posted. Can I get the h202 here in the U.K and what exactly is it?

So far I have trimmed algae from the worst leaves as didn't want to leave the plant bare but if you advise removing the leaves totally then i'll give that a go.

I have scrubbed the ornament where the algae was, and carried out a 25% water change.
My nitrates are sitting at about 10-15ppm if that can be the cause?

I've removed actived carbon from my internal filter as have read that that can leak phosphates increasing nitrate levels? But am unable to access my external filter. I have changed my filter media also as that was getting rather clogged up.

I've also been advised to remove any lighting from the tank for three days so I'll cover that over in the day time.

I don't use any plant fertiliser and feed the fish every other day.
Blood worm once to twice weekly and flake on the other days.

I have read about liquid co2 but also read that is can be toxic?

I've also read about adding black mollys or Siamese algae eaters?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Tifftastic]

I think you can get hydrogen peroxide online in the UK from a few pharmacies, but I've never seen it in the wound treatment section of Boots or other shops.

How often do you do water changes and what percentage do you change?
How long are your lights on?

I don't usually recommend adding a fish to treat something. I find there is always another method.

 

[myswtsins]

Thank you myswtsins my dad advised this shortly after I posted. Can I get the h202 here in the U.K and what exactly is it?

So far I have trimmed algae from the worst leaves as didn't want to leave the plant bare but if you advise removing the leaves totally then i'll give that a go.

I have scrubbed the ornament where the algae was, and carried out a 25% water change.
My nitrates are sitting at about 10-15ppm if that can be the cause?

I've removed actived carbon from my internal filter as have read that that can leak phosphates increasing nitrate levels? But am unable to access my external filter. I have changed my filter media also as that was getting rather clogged up.

I've also been advised to remove any lighting from the tank for three days so I'll cover that over in the day time.

I don't use any plant fertiliser and feed the fish every other day.
Blood worm once to twice weekly and flake on the other days.

I have read about liquid co2 but also read that is can be toxic?

I've also read about adding black mollys or Siamese algae eaters?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

- I would not remove ALL of the leaves leaving just the rhizome (the horizontal root). The pictures don't seem to show a very bad infestation. I would just remove the worst leaves.
-H2O2 is normal hydrogen peroxide.
-10-15 nitrate is fine but if that's after the water change what is it before?
- Carbon can leak phosphates but that raises phosphates of course. Excess phosphates can lead to algae, just like excess of any nutrient. Do you have a phosphate test kit?
- Be careful when changing/removing filter media. Most of your beneficial bacteria is living in the media so if you toss the media, you've tossed your bacteria too. After 10 weeks your filter media should still be perfectly fine. Just rinse it in a bucket of tank water to clean it off and keep using it till it is falling apart. Then only change a small portion of it at a time to keep some bacteria filled media.
- Removing light aka a blackout can be effective for algae but for one this means a 100% blackout with tight thick covering. And second, I don't find this method effective against BBA.
- Liquid carbon (a liquid form of CO2 kinda) can be toxic, so can nitrates, fish food, any other fertilizer etc. Certain plants straight out don't like it either, like vals. But if used as directed it is perfectly safe. For growing java ferns you don't really need this though. On the other side it is also good for direct applications to get rid of BBA, like the H2O2.
- Black mollys mostly eat hair type alage. Siamese algae eaters (SAE) have been known to eat BBA, the only fish I know of that does eat it actually. But they are VERY hard to get true species of and they will only eat BBA if there is nothing else available to eat. It is not high on their list of yummy food.

Unless your algae issue is much worse than what is shown in the pictures I would suggest killing what you have with trimming and H2O2 and maybe reduce the lights. Java fern is a very low light plant so reducing the light could be a simple and effective solution. BBA tends to come from changing CO2 levels though which happens often, even a water change affects CO2 level. So without getting into dosing ferts and carbon try to keep it simple with lower light level and/or duration (how long are they on?) and be patient. The tank is still new, it may balance itself out in time without intervention.

 

[myswtsins]

Out of curiosity and my own theory... Do you know or will you test your incoming water you use for water changes? I'd like to know as much as possible of course like pH, KH, GH, temp etc but most importantly to my theory is pH. And what is the pH of your tank before a water change?

 

[fionap91]

Out of curiosity and my own theory... Do you know or will you test your incoming water you use for water changes? I'd like to know as much as possible of course like pH, KH, GH, temp etc but most importantly to my theory is pH. And what is the pH of your tank before a water change?

I haven't yet tested my tap water but I could do? The tank is at my partner's so I'd be unable to do that until next weekend now.
My tank ph rest about 7-7.5.

 

[myswtsins]

7.0 to 7.5 is a big difference, 5x different in fact. pH should be as stable as possible. At what times have you gotten such different pH readings?

 

[fionap91]

Than

- I would not remove ALL of the leaves leaving just the rhizome (the horizontal root). The pictures don't seem to show a very bad infestation. I would just remove the worst leaves.
-H2O2 is normal hydrogen peroxide.
-10-15 nitrate is fine but if that's after the water change what is it before?
- Carbon can leak phosphates but that raises phosphates of course. Excess phosphates can lead to algae, just like excess of any nutrient. Do you have a phosphate test kit?
- Be careful when changing/removing filter media. Most of your beneficial bacteria is living in the media so if you toss the media, you've tossed your bacteria too. After 10 weeks your filter media should still be perfectly fine. Just rinse it in a bucket of tank water to clean it off and keep using it till it is falling apart. Then only change a small portion of it at a time to keep some bacteria filled media.
- Removing light aka a blackout can be effective for algae but for one this means a 100% blackout with tight thick covering. And second, I don't find this method effective against BBA.
- Liquid carbon (a liquid form of CO2 kinda) can be toxic, so can nitrates, fish food, any other fertilizer etc. Certain plants straight out don't like it either, like vals. But if used as directed it is perfectly safe. For growing java ferns you don't really need this though. On the other side it is also good for direct applications to get rid of BBA, like the H2O2.
- Black mollys mostly eat hair type alage. Siamese algae eaters (SAE) have been known to eat BBA, the only fish I know of that does eat it actually. But they are VERY hard to get true species of and they will only eat BBA if there is nothing else available to eat. It is not high on their list of yummy food.

Unless your algae issue is much worse than what is shown in the pictures I would suggest killing what you have with trimming and H2O2 and maybe reduce the lights. Java fern is a very low light plant so reducing the light could be a simple and effective solution. BBA tends to come from changing CO2 levels though which happens often, even a water change affects CO2 level. So without getting into dosing ferts and carbon try to keep it simple with lower light level and/or duration (how long are they on?) and be patient. The tank is still new, it may balance itself out in time without intervention.

Thank you that's all very helpful and you really sound like you know your stuff!

The lights are usually on from about 6am to 9pm.
As that is when my partner leaves the house for work and then goes up on a night time.
Shall we reduced this maybe to 6-6 or 6-9 as he arrives home from work at 6pm.

Thank you again for all your help.

 

[fionap91]

I think you can get hydrogen peroxide online in the UK from a few pharmacies, but I've never seen it in the wound treatment section of Boots or other shops.

How often do you do water changes and what percentage do you change?
How long are your lights on?

I don't usually recommend adding a fish to treat something. I find there is always another method.

Hi. We do water changes every 1-2 weeks.

Lights are usually on from 6am to around 9pm.
When my partner leaves the house and to when he goes up to bed.

Would you recommend reducing this? Maybe 6-6 as he arrives home at 6pm or 6-9.

Thank you.