Black hairy algae

Does anyone know how to get rid of a Black hairy algae that attaches to rocks, gravel,artificial plants.??

 

I think I know which algae you're talking about. LOL ... I like the way you named it, "hairy" hehe ;D In fact I have this algae growing on my driftwood from time to time. I remove it by hand or with small tweezers. They're easy to remove. Don't scratch them off, just pull them. I think they're an attractive type of algae. I think I might let them grow on my driftwood - they're kind of cool.

 

you could try doing a Google search to ID the algae and find out more about it. I'm not familiar with that kind...

 

Omorrokh, somewhere in the "Plants" section, Off-Ice is talking about this algae type. And he has a picture of it posted there (black with pink algae - very interesting photo).

This is the kind of algae that grows on my driftwood, only it's all black.

 

Whoa, that's pretty sweet. 8) Now I remember seeing it. Of course all I know about it is how it looks...

 

ive got some black hairy/fuzzy algae growing on the sides of the older leaves of one of my anubias plants. it doesn't scrape off even with my nail. snails and plecos don't touch it. should I just cut the leaves off?

 

Any pics?

 

I guess that might help eh? I will take one

 

I had a massive breakout of the same thing in my tanks. Get a couple of siamese algae eaters. They are the only kind of fish that eat black hair algae. If you don't have room for them in your tank permanently you can take them back to the LFS after they do their job They worked wonders on my tank. I decided to keep mine because anubias are such slow growing plants they are very prone to algae.

 

how big to SAE get?

 

Probably will max out at 6" in large tank. Just don't put two as it can quarrel with their own. Could try one but would recomments 3 or more depending on tank size and/or amt of algae.
Do some research when purchasing SAE since their look alike cousin, Flying Fox, doesn't go near the algae.

 

I don't think I should get a bunch of them. my tank is already maxed out when everybody gets full grown. I have 4 yoyo loaches that can get 6", 2 angelfish, and 2 plecos
are they unhappy fish alone? I don't want to do that either if he won't be happy on his own. maybe I can counter my overstocking with planting more plants.
I'm fine for stock with the size they are now, its just that they are gonna GROW!!

 

I have a 72 gallon tank with 2 48 inch 40 watt florecent lights ... I run them 12 hrs a day... the black algae is growing on everything ..I have live plants in there also which seem to be deteriorating.. the water seems to test ok... I'm wondering if there is too much light?

 

Hello Man IN The Box and Welcome to Fish Lore.

I've moved your thread to the Aquarium Water/Algae section of the forum.

Here is a link that you may find helpful until you get more responses:

https://www.fishlore.com/aquarium-algae-control.htm
One more, scroll down for photos after you click:


I hope you enjoy the site!

Ken

 

welcome to fishlore man in the box,your going to love this site,lots of great info here.everyone is very helpful don't know what id do with out them,probly give up on my tanks and get rid of them.lol.

 

do u guys think too much lighting might be the cause ? 2 48 inch 40 watt florescent lights?

 

It's not to much light but it is too many hours. You might want to cut back to 8 - 10 hours. If you have a picture of the algae someone might be able to identify it and suggest some common causes. Also, if you fill in your aquarium info that would help.

 

I updated my info.. checking my test strip all is normal except the nitrates which seems a bit high.. 80-160 it falls around that color... I'm guessing the algae is thriving from this.. what's the best way to keep nitrates down.. I feed them 2 cubes of brine shrimp and a few shrimp pellets a day..

2 nice size red parrots, 2 bala sharks, 2 black shark catfish, 3 small clown loaches, 3 cody catfish, pleco, 2 upside down cat fish, 1 black ghost knife fish ( whose tail was eaten recently)

and I have some live plants in the tank

algae looks like this but darker

 

Welcome to Fishlore

BBA (Black Brush Algae) maybe? Try Googling that and see if the pictures you see look like the algae in your tank. But BEFORE you do that…

Test strips are notoriously inaccurate but if the readings you are getting for nitrate are anywhere close to correct you have a bigger problem on your hands than algae. I’m wondering if you are doing water changes? You should immediately do a huge water change of at least 75%. Do another 50% water change each day until you get the nitrates down. AI'm for nitrates of around 5-20. Once you get your water parameters in a healthy range you need to do a 50% water change each week.

In your aquarium info, you don’t have any water conditioner listed. That’s the one product you need to buy to maintain your aquarium. I use Stress Coat but there are several available.

 

I feed them 2 cubes of brine shrimp and a few shrimp pellets a day..

wow you can start with that, than lower the amount of hours you have lights on to 6-8, also try a three day blackout, it can reduce the speed that is growing a bunch


what kind of pleco is it? if it is a common pleco, they will outgrow your tank, they can get to about 24" needs a 100g+ tank and same with the black ghost knife fish, they get as big as a common pleco and needs 180g+ tank

you do need a water Conditioner, most users in Fishlore use Seachem Prime, I recently converted on only using it, it is the best around

I read that your Ammonia is 0 - 0.5, ammonia should always be below .25 or just 0ppm

your nitrite is WAYYYY to high, that should always be 0

I don't see anything with nitrate but that range should be from 0-40ppm, when it gets over 40ppm, do a change

your tank doesn't seem cycled, so I suggest reading up on it

https://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

 

my tank is prob at the tail end of being cycled.. I changed the water and filter equipment about 7 weeks ago.... I usually do a water change at least once a month 25% .. I also noticed my plant life isn't doing to well.. the leaves are deteriorating .. my pleco is about 8 inches and my ghost knife is about 4 inches...

and yes black brush algae looks exactly like what's going on in my tank

 

I don't think your tank is close to finish, your nitrites are like I said way to high, and with that many fish in there... pleco being the messiest, I see you having to do 50% PER WEEK, not once a month, as for plants, I have no experience yet with them

 

50% per week? that seems like an awful lot of water changes... but if it works I'm up for it... any idea who chomped my knife fishes tail??

 

I do 50% each week. Water changes remove the nitrates so as you can see from your readings it is important.

 

50% per week? that seems like an awful lot of water changes... but if it works I'm up for it... any idea who chomped my knife fishes tail??

well I sort of left out the fact that you are still cycling and have tons of fish in there... you might have to do them per day and when you finally do finish cycling and still have those fish in there... I don't even want to think about it O____O like I said, ghost knife will out grow your tank in a hurry, also I read some info on bala sharks and they can get up to 16"

I don't know if you did any research on the fish you picked but here is some info on them





not sure what kind of pleco you have but I suspect a common pleco since they are the most common
https://www.fishlore.com/Profiles-Pleco.htm




and I am not sure what a cody catfish is




I think you have to rethink your stock list =P

 

I do 50% each week. Water changes remove the nitrates so as you can see from your readings it is important.

I do 50% every 4-5 days since I have a BN pleco in my 20 gallon lol, its never bores me to see him hang on the gravel vac, I accidently lifted up the gravel vac with him on it lol

 

75% Water change your nuts even 50 % is high!

 

50% is not high at all, you have to take the fact that he has a non-stop waste producer, and hes still cycling, so doing more than 50% to keep ammonia down is not that crazy at all

 

the ammonia was down.. that's why I figured it was pretty much cycled... the nitrates are up prob because I'm over feeding possibly...I'm never sure how much to feed.. down to 2 cubes of brine shrimp and a few shrimp pellets for the big guys.. as far as my knife fish goes hes small now.. and has no tail.. not sure if hes gunna survive the chomp to his tail.. its been a few days so I'm crossing my ffingers.. my plecco is a common one.. its huge already.. but hasnt grown in a while... bala sharks are 4 inches or so... my black shark catfish ( not sure of the name of it) they got big quick too.. and I heard they get bigger... when they outgrow the tank ill sell them and get different fish I guess.. even tho I like them a lot...

 

50% will stress the fish! and hes already got alagea problems which may be stressing the fish. You don't want stress on them.

 

I don't change water very often (like once every 3-4 months maybe). My tank is almost free of algae.

The trick is to grow LOTS OF LIVE PLANTS, which absorbs all the wastes produced in the water, produces O2. Without them, I can imagine that your tank will be infested with algae if you do not change water frequently.

BTW, a quick and easy way to kill Black Beard Algae is to spray some Seachem Excel (sold as CO2 supplement, not algae destroyer) directly onto the algae (remember to turn off the filter though), and it will turn red and die in a day. If you have Cidex (a disinfection liquid), it will have the same effect.

 

do u guys think too much lighting might be the cause ? 2 48 inch 40 watt florescent lights?

80 watts for a 72 gallon tank is considered low light (1 watt per gallon). Mine is 3 watts per gallon. Black Beard Algae does not need a lot of light to prosper. It is the excessive nutrient that leads to the algae problem.

 

I just thought I'd add, that whenever you see your real plants deteriorating or just plain old looking bad, that's a sign that something off in your parameters. And let me tell you, the plants don't lie lol. Mine did the same thing when I thought my tank was cycled, which in turn it wasn't. Cycling tanks can take lots of time and patience. Adding a lot of new fish will make the cycling process even worse since you have to slowly acclimate your aquarium to larger amounts of bioload. What really helped me was I would (depending on how many fish I had) clean my tank either everyday or everyother day and add Prime. That is what really helps cycle a tank. It's in a red bottle and you can get it anywhere here in the USA. I got mine at petsmart.

 

Hey everyone,

I have black hair like alagea attaching to my sand in my 25g. It was very minor until it get really hot here few months back and now the tank is gross half way through the week( I vac and ect every sunday). I'm sucking a lot of sand out to keep this stuff down. How can I get rid of this? Keep in mind I don't have a quarantine tank and my other tank wouldn't work for any period of time I don't think.

P.s. it was covering my live plants too but I rinsed it off gently in the sink and it really hasn't come back there

 

I had that black hair algae. I had bought a plant from a LFS and that's how I got it. It was very hard to get rid of, but finally got rid of it. It's been a long time but I remember reducing my nitrates (ie lots of water changes), reducing feeding and lightening, dipping artificial plants in bleach/water re

 

I was thinking about shortening my light times but I really like my live plants and don't want to kill them.

 

Hi,
Is it Black Beard Algae or Staghorn algae (here's something to help identify )

The treatments (or rather causes) are slightly different.

If it's staghorn, amano shrimp apparently eat it.

 

I was thinking about shortening my light times but I really like my live plants and don't want to kill them.

First check your nitrates. I do remember reading that black hair algae love nitrates. My nitrates where very high at the time I got the black hair algae. I did remove plant that introduced it. the plant was an anubias.

 

I got my plants like a year before this started to happen, I will check my nitrates this week though, Thanks hssea. thanks for the links ryan

 

any tank decoration that has it I would bleach. I've bleached my tank decor for 20 + years and never have had a problem. Rinse super well, if it's some thing porous then let it dry in sun or window to remove all traces of bleach. Even doing this that hair algae came back , but eventually I got rid of it.