algae on anubias leaves

[csarkar001]

well, the title pretty much says it all. algae keeps growing tenaciously on my anubias plants' leaves. at a recent discus forum, one of the plant experts suggested adding water flow to the area to reduce the algae growth. but my plants are attached to a log at the bottom of the tank so its not clear to me how i would do this. adding a pump at the bottom of the tank just for this purpose would seem counterproductive in a discus tank.

any suggestions?

[jball1125]

I have the same problem in my tank. I have less then one Watt per gallon with a 6 hour period and still get algae on my anubias. I might have to start dosing excel and see how the discus take it.

[scottishbloke]

Be REALLY careful using Excel as an algaecide- until recently I used double doses to kill algae etc with no problems whatever regarding my fish. HOWEVER, during an outbreak 2 weeks ago (the dreaded Black Beard Algae on my Anubias nana-planted wood, a total nightmare) my fish all turned black, laid down on the tank bottom, and almost died within hours of adding the Excel, despite adding extra aeration and SAFE to prevent oxygen depletion and potential ammonia spikes from dying algae beforehand. I did a 60% w/c with no improvement, then a 100% w/c later that evening. The fish recovered after the second w/c, but it gave me quite a scare. I pulled all the planted wood out, took off the plants and soaked them in a tub of water with a 3x dose of Excel for 10 days, and boiled the driftwood before putting it outside to bake in the scorching GA sun. I am now in the process of re-sinking the wood in a 55g and scrubbing what's left of the dead BBA off of the plants, but these will not go back in until my juvies are fully done growing. I don't think I will ever be using Excel again when discus are present in the tank!!

Colin

[csarkar001]

i would be too scared to use algaecide. i need a more holistic solution.

[arabu1973]

The best result i get is by doing more WC, i did an experiment in few tanks and even without the lights on the algae still grew happily, then i started doing more wc and the algae started disapearing, the reason being less phospates in the water from feeding, especially young discus that need lots of food

[Harriett]

Interms of how you would get water flow at the bottom of the tank, either put a power head in there or set up a spray bar if you have a canister filter, and put it horizontally along the bottom or about 30% above the substrate floor to point horizontally across that area. Or, as said, you could pull the affected plants, submerge them in a rubbermaid with a powerhead and treat them in there with the EXCEL. At 2 x dose you would clean them up fine.
In terms of injuring your fish with EXCEL--I had one bad experience and learned how to dose it. I did not use some crazy amount when I first started using it, I dosed at the directed amount. The first time I dosed, I put the excel in a small amount of tank water and when the fish seemed to be heading away from where I was, I dumped it in, near the filter intake...but the discus must of thought I was dumping in a treat and like bullets swam straight back to me and into the flow of the EXCEL. Yeah, so I lost several adult discus and hurt a few more--over the course of 2 days, they struggled and did not right themselves well. Now I dose at night when they are sleeping [they bunch to one end of the tank] adding a good quart of tank water. If the fish don't swim through the stream of EXCEL water, they have done just fine in my tank. It is toxic as hell to them if they swim in it...hard lesson learned. I was standing right there watching it and couldn't get my hand into the tank fast enough to startle them into another direction. On the bright side, the next morning when the tank lights went on I was dumbfounded. My plants never looked so good--it was amazing. The stuff works. [I had no black beard by the way.]
Best regards,
Harriett

[GrillMaster]

The best result i get is by doing more WC's

Agree... :thumbsup:

You can also pull them and give them a 30 second 10/1 bleach dip. Rinse em good before puttin back in the tank. Cut the light duration down and maybe do WC's a couple times a week... :)

[Acro]

Nerite snails will clean them off.

[The_Finglonger]

You can try blasting them with a turkey baster occasionally. :)

[scottishbloke]

Well, the BBA-infested Anubias nana I mentioned in an earlier post melted this week...all 20 rhizomes :(. I've lost a couple of crypts from melting before, they're known for that, but never had this happen to A. nana in all my years of having planted tanks. I guess it does not tolerate high doses of Excel very well, like my discus. The replacement cost from a LFS would be $200, so I think my tank will remain plant-less for a while...

Colin

[willbldrco]

well, the title pretty much says it all. algae keeps growing tenaciously on my anubias plants' leaves. at a recent discus forum, one of the plant experts suggested adding water flow to the area to reduce the algae growth. but my plants are attached to a log at the bottom of the tank so its not clear to me how i would do this. adding a pump at the bottom of the tank just for this purpose would seem counterproductive in a discus tank.

any suggestions?

The formula I have been using with success in treating black beard algae and green spot algae on my anubias is the following:

At first sign of algae:

50% water change
Turn off all pumps, filters, etc to prevent water circulation
Take 5-10 ml of Excel in a syringe (available at the pharmacy counter) and GENTLY* spot treat the affected leaves by slowly moving from affected area to affected area until the 5-10ml of Excel is gone
Repeat step 3 until there is nothing left to treat or you have reached the recommended dose for the size of your tank
Wait 5 mins or so
Turn on pumps, filters, etc.


*By gently, I mean, just slowly squeeze out the Excel over the affected leaf. Don't shoot it out in a stream.

The BBA will turn gray and eventually disappear (takes about a week to completely go away in my tank). The GSA simply fades within 2-3 days.

I would not use anything beyond the recommended dose of Excel. If you can't treat all the problem areas in one go, wait a day and repeat the entire process (with the water change!).

Note: I only have to do this maybe once every 2-3 months, usually a few days after I disturb the substrate. If you have algae blooms more often than that, you have other issues you need to address (water, light, CO2, ferts, food, etc).

If you have a massive bloom, do the steps above, but double the dosage for your tank, wait a week, then do a 50% water change and don't dose again for awhile. This process completely cleared up a bloom of hair algae I had. Frankly, I was shocked it worked so well! Even algae on the substrate was killed! (see pic):

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4881069903_13dd7e54bf_b.jpg

As for fish, just keep them away from your spot treating work. Once a rummy nose tetra ran right into my Excel spray and wigged out! He shot around the tank like crazy and then was stuck, nose up, in a bunch of dwarf hairgrass I have. He stayed there for hours gasping, but not moving. I thought I had lost him, but he eventually recovered. So Excel is nasty on fish, but great for spot treating algae. Just don't over do it!

My $0.02, anyway... :)

Will

[csarkar001]

thank you for all the info.

before posting this thread, i never realized so many discus keepers use excel right inside their DT.

i'm just too nervous about using chemicals inside my DT to kill algae. some posters have suggested periodically removing the log and soaking it outside my tank in excel or bleach solution. i may try that.

willbldrco, that is a beautiful little green plant you have there. what species is it?

chandan

[Wahter]

The formula I have been using with success in treating black beard algae and green spot algae on my anubias is the following:

At first sign of algae:

50% water change
Turn off all pumps, filters, etc to prevent water circulation
Take 5-10 ml of Excel in a syringe (available at the pharmacy counter) and GENTLY* spot treat the affected leaves by slowly moving from affected area to affected area until the 5-10ml of Excel is gone
Repeat step 3 until there is nothing left to treat or you have reached the recommended dose for the size of your tank
Wait 5 mins or so
Turn on pumps, filters, etc.


*By gently, I mean, just slowly squeeze out the Excel over the affected leaf. Don't shoot it out in a stream.

The BBA will turn gray and eventually disappear (takes about a week to completely go away in my tank). The GSA simply fades within 2-3 days.

I would not use anything beyond the recommended dose of Excel. If you can't treat all the problem areas in one go, wait a day and repeat the entire process (with the water change!).

Note: I only have to do this maybe once every 2-3 months, usually a few days after I disturb the substrate. If you have algae blooms more often than that, you have other issues you need to address (water, light, CO2, ferts, food, etc).

If you have a massive bloom, do the steps above, but double the dosage for your tank, wait a week, then do a 50% water change and don't dose again for awhile. This process completely cleared up a bloom of hair algae I had. Frankly, I was shocked it worked so well! Even algae on the substrate was killed! (see pic):

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4881069903_13dd7e54bf_b.jpg

As for fish, just keep them away from your spot treating work. Once a rummy nose tetra ran right into my Excel spray and wigged out! He shot around the tank like crazy and then was stuck, nose up, in a bunch of dwarf hairgrass I have. He stayed there for hours gasping, but not moving. I thought I had lost him, but he eventually recovered. So Excel is nasty on fish, but great for spot treating algae. Just don't over do it!

My $0.02, anyway... :)

Will

Will, one reason you had algae (and might have it again later) is because you kept the plants in their pots with the rockwool. That material is usually saturated with fertilizers because many times the plants are grow emersed at the plant farms.

You should always remove the plants from the rockwool - as shown in this video from the Tropica plant growers;

http://www.tropica.com/advising/tropica-abc/vdo-tips-og-tricks.aspx

HTH,


Walter

[discuspaul]

will's method of dosing excel is right on !
Instead of a syringe, you could also use a test kit pipette - & as will says - slowly - gently - at close range.
Works very well on BBA & cluster patches of green 'flossy-type' algae, or algae on the substrate.
Less effective on filament or thread algae growing off plant leaves - that kind can be so invasive - but it should control it to a large extent.
I dose mine (only needed occasionally - every few weeks- careful not to overdose - & keeping fish away from the dosing area) when doing a w/c. Dose when the affected area is just above, or just below, the water line.
Works very well for me.

[jimg]

You could try treating with erythromycin. I had the same problem when I first set up a new planted tank. Everywhere you read it will tell you that most cyanobacter(spelling?) is blue green in color. I had my plants entirely covered with what it looks like in your tank. One time i treated with erythromycin and 2 days later it was all gone. when I set up another tank a few years later I had the same thing and it worked again. Keep in mind that it will affect your bio. I am not saying it's what you have, but looks exactly like what covered my plants. Every book or online picture will show algae as what I had, but eyrthromycin killed it.

[willbldrco]

thank you for all the info.
willbldrco, that is a beautiful little green plant you have there. what species is it?
chandan

It's known mostly as "HC" (and sometimes "dwarf baby tears"); it's a great carpeting plant. It's been said that it's the smallest leafed aquatic plant out there - looks like a moss, but it's not. ;)

Scientific name is Hemianthus callitrichoides "Cuba"

Check out how the carpet spilled out of the pots (too lazy to remove them!!) and into the chunks I had planted in the substrate. Love that stuff (well, until it gets thick and starts rising up off the substrate):

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/4883010701_168bfcb0d1_z.jpg

Note that the pots are the taller mounds in the background. The foreground mounds grew from those little chunks I planted in the substrate (see my pics earlier in this thread). The pots eventually had so much growth, they tore away and floated up to the surface where I scooped them out and sold them at the Colorado Aquarium Society mini auction that month. ;)


Will, one reason you had algae (and might have it again later) is because you kept the plants in their pots with the rockwool. That material is usually saturated with fertilizers because many times the plants are grow emersed at the plant farms.

You should always remove the plants from the rockwool - as shown in this
Walter

That makes sense! Although, I must say, as soon as the plants were placed in the water I saw lots of hair algae on the leaf surfaces. A big pond snail came with those plants as well. I was so mad!!! The vendor's ad said all plants were snail and algae free. I took tons of pics and wanted to do a posting, but then found out there is a forum rule against that. It's too bad because I'm sure others have suffered similar poor quality products from that vendor.

[exv152]

algae keeps growing tenaciously on my anubias plants' leaves. at a recent discus forum, one of the plant experts suggested adding water flow to the area to reduce the algae growth ...

Increasing water flow can help but I'd want to get to the rootcause of the algae issue if I were you. There are many possible causes, but I found the following to be the most likely:


fluctuating CO2 or not enough water circulation
Low/high nutrient levels
too long a lighting period
ammonia
lack of maintenance
dirty filter
low/high nitrates
low/high phosphates