What are these and how do I remove?

[an780]

How can I remove this Algae? Are they diatoms? Or some other kind of green algae? My tank is now 4-5 Months cycled. Its been there for a while now. I think it is possible to scrape them off, but looking to see if there are more effective ways -specially its very established on smaller leaves. Manually removing will be very tedious?

I have SAE, which was very effective with some hair algae. Also have 2 Nerite Snails, but they are never at the right place. Guess they have a mind of their own.

 

[Utar]

Really not sure what you have either diatoms or algae but my guess would be diatoms.
I have a 29 gallon up for a couple of years now and within several months it became covered with black colored diatoms. This stuff is relentless in my tank, thick black covering live plants and everything. I would scrub it all clean, do water changes and use chemicals, etc with no luck getting rid of it. So I had to live with it. It never hurt anything and the fish never seemed to be bothered by it. My nerite snails would eat it but it would just grow right back. It is harmless stuff, just ugly.

 

[FishGirl38]

It looks to me like it's diatom algae. What's on the plants looks almost like..particulates that have settled. Are you using an aqua soil type substrate? For the plants I'd say the best course of action would be to try rubbing the algae off the leaves. Unless you were to try more algae eaters or some otocinclus but I'm not sure even those guys would do the job.

How often do you do water changes? How longs the light on? It appears from the picture with the snail that it should wipe right off of the rocks. He seems to be doing a real good job at cleaning it off of the spots where he's been.

I'd say your best options for immediate relief would be to first remove the rocks and try to clean them with a brush of some kind. then I'd go in with my hand and just, wipe the plants off as best I could.

I've heard of using peroxide (not in the aquarium, but to clean the plants) to help get nuisance algae off of live plants. But I'm not sure on the dilution or how you should go about that.

Then once the plants and rocks are clean, I'd do a water change to help get any thing that's floating around, out. Come tomorrow the result might not look much different but, you shouldn't have brown algae covering the plant leaves...You'll need to clean that soon or they'll be starved of light. .

 

[FishGirl38]

Really not sure what you have either diatoms or algae but my guess would be diatoms.
I have a 29 gallon up for a couple of years now and within several months it became covered with black colored diatoms. This stuff is relentless in my tank, thick black covering live plants and everything. I would scrub it all clean, do water changes and use chemicals, etc with no luck getting rid of it. So I had to live with it. It never hurt anything and the fish never seemed to be bothered by it. My nerite snails would eat it but it would just grow right back. It is harmless stuff, just ugly.

Yupp, most algae is. I actually left a real long post about algae on another thread recently with my mess of an algae ridden tank. xD. Well, not really my tank but, here is the thread if you want to check that out OP.

Brown Algae?

 

[Danny002]

If you try the above methods and still can't get rid of it, I'd try otos if you have enough room and compatible fish. Honestly they might eat so much of it that you might have to start feeding them more.

 

[Utar]

You need to be very careful how you deal with that stuff. I tried turning of the lights and covering the tank with a blanket for several days, but that didn't help. So I got really radical with it, draining down the water to only a few inches, pulling all the plants and ornaments, scrubbing everything clean of the stuff. The tank looked much better but within a week half my stock died off and that stuff just grew right back.

 

[an780]

Thanks Utar FishGirl38 Danny002

I did try removing by hand. Its more possible on the bigger Anubias leaves, but the smaller leaves seems to be an issue. I do have high light (10 hours) CO2 and Thrive+ Fertilizer to give the plants the best shot (vs algae). I was even reading up on Hydrogen peroxide or bleach bath? But didnt want to do more harm than good. Any opinion on that?

The plants are growing well, putting out new leaves. But then then existing leaves are near black!

Ottocinclus is definitely a possibility - I tried a few months ago, but had a

 

[Danny002]

This is a link on dipping plants: Buceplant Plant Dip for Snails/ Algae

Honestly I don't know how well that would work for you though, as there's probably a lot of stray algae hidden in there and it may just come right back.

 

[Utar]

I think the best course of action with this stuff, is doing some research on what eats it. Then start adding them, slowly more and more until they do the job with all in balance of this stuff growing back and being eaten.

 

[an780]

I think the best course of action with this stuff, is doing some research on what eats it. Then start adding them, slowly more and more until they do the job with all in balance of this stuff growing back and being eaten.

I am trying snails. But they seem to be just happy with where they are. Not getting to where I need them to be! Impatient me. Do people reposition the snails every now and then? Or just let it be?

Honestly I don't know how well that would work for you though, as there's probably a lot of stray algae hidden in there and it may just come right back.

Maybe I'll try with just one plant and see how it goes.

Once again, thanks to everyone.

 

[idkausernamesoyeah]

if i were u i would just lower the amount of light the tank gets and just scrub the algae off the plants. the nerite seems to be going to town on it!!! add a few more of them!

 

[Utar]

Have you tried the black nerite racing snails. These guys get all over the tank and fast, they are very good at eating. The only problem with them is they will try to escape, so lock down the lid.