[Cinderwolf]

Okay so I left my tank in the care fo my grandparents for the past 2 days and over that time I have successfully grown a wierd algae ( that blankets the plants but stays off the walls) and it has killed my hornwort.. all of it!

I'
ll grab a photo of it in a bit but I am oo annoyed. I am goignt o try to recoup the hortwort in a bucket and Im gonne rinse off all the other plants to get the algae off. I am not sure how long thye had the lgihts on eevery day. but probably it was jsut natural sunlight.

 

[EvilVOG]

could be BGA (blue-green algae)... It's a bacteria not an algae despite it's name. I have an ongoing battle with it. mostly what i've been told is to dose it with an anti-fungal, or blackout the tank for 3 days (no light what-so-ever). i've been unable to keep it from coming back but the blackout thing worked pretty well.

 

[Cinderwolf]

could be BGA (blue-green algae)... It's a bacteria not an algae despite it's name. I have an ongoing battle with it. mostly what i've been told is to dose it with an anti-fungal, or blackout the tank for 3 days (no light what-so-ever). i've been unable to keep it from coming back but the blackout thing worked pretty well.

Oh I will look into that. its like.. thread like I guess but it has like blanketed the horn wort. made it look like a big green ball instead of a spiky plant its wierd. like as is a spider wed was on a pine needle

 

[EvilVOG]

yeah, sounds like what BGA did to the horwort i used to have. just covered everything in sheets of nasty green stuff.

 

[Cinderwolf]

yeah, sounds like what BGA did to the horwort i used to have. just covered everything in sheets of nasty green stuff.

Yup.. I looke dit up, thats what is it. GAH Its jsut one thing after anoher with this tank!

Any tips on gettign rid of it?

 

[Oldfishlady]

If it is thread like...it may be Spirogyra algae or water silk...or thread algae are two common type that like to grow more at the surface in hornwort.

BGA or cyanobacteria-it usually grow in sheets, smells bad, grows fast, can be blue/dark green in color and slime like feel to it-usually will be back within 24 hours after removal.

Can you post some pic...proper ID will help know what to do...

 

[Cinderwolf]

Yes, I will be sure to get soem photos today

 

[Cinderwolf]

Okay I got photos.

 

[Oldfishlady]

Looks like BGA.....the way I take care of that....manual removal daily...I like to use airline hose to siphon it out so that I am not removing too much water at a time...Increase water movement-add another HOB filter if you have one...it can take about a week to 10 days of daily removal.

What kind of fish are in the tank-you might be able to do a 3 day total black out too.....depending on what type of livestock in the tank you may want to remove them to a temporary container-manually remove all the BGA by siphon making at least 50-70% water change-use black plastic bags, blankets...etc for a total black out for 3 days....no peaking-the filter needs to be running full blast....
After the 3 days...big water change and vacuum-

 

[Cinderwolf]

There is just the betta. But wont a 3 day black out kill me plants? I will do a huge manual removal today or tomorrow. I am due for a water change anyway so I will do it at the same time.

 

[Cinderwolf]

For now most of it is on the horn wort so takign that dead stuf out will also take out a lot of the bga. then I will have to buy some more : (

 

[EvilVOG]

blackout can kill plants. i had some wisteria when i tried the blackout method and i didn't lose any of it.

 

[ao]

Nah a 3 day blackout wont do anything to your plants the bga isn't already doing. There's this online seller that I buy plants from. from Hongkong to NYC it takes about two weeks to ship. that's 14 days without lights. plant was fine.

And I'm jealous of all you people who seem to be able to grow algae. I cant seem to be able to produce enough algae for my ottos and the single nerite I have in my tank. everything is crispy clean except for some stubborn staghorn algae growing on leaves the nerite snail couldn't reach. sigh. Back to spinach and zucchini...

 

[EvilVOG]

This is not the kind of stuff they eat. In fact, it is toxic.

It's called BGA, but it is actually a bacteria, not an algae.

I'm trying my filter in a different spot to take care of mine. Plus doing 50% water changes every other day, but that's mostly because i'm also feeding them the bugs from the pool cover.

 

[Cinderwolf]

I grow all sorts of algae ; P I usually just scrape it off the walls and deal with it but yea this one I gotta take action. it already wiped out my horn wort : (

 

[Oldfishlady]

Most plants can handle a 3 day black out, however, you may want to remove the Betta.....if the hornwort is the main issue..remove it and toss....It is important to manual remove as much of the BGA that you can on a daily basis until you start the black out....you need to remove as much of the organic load that you can since this is feeding the bacteria...strong water movement is needed too.

I get this a couple of times a year in 2 of my NPT's...one that gets full sun and one that doesn't....I usually can get rid of it in about 5-10 days without doing a black out...just manual removal of the BGA daily along with about 20% water changes....I have noticed that the Florida Flag fish are eating it....I had read that they are one of the few fish that will..but do nothing for the hair algae like the research said they would....

I have a rain barrel that sits in direct sun all day that I keep piece of wood in to grow algae on that I use for my pleco tank-I swap it out as needed for all the baby plecos I have.....

 

[Cinderwolf]

Okay, so i tossed out all the horn wort then took out all the plants fromt he tanka dn went over each one to remove all the bga then rinsed them all in the tap, then I took out all the rocks and deco and scrubbed that in the tap. I also cleaned the heater, thermometre and filter( nto the sponge jsut the intake tube and such.)

O.O I never want hornwort again! there was soooo many needles in there it was crazy.. it made a huge ball aroudn my filter intake ( The fish was out of the tank for all this bythe way) so I ahd to get that all out. . Anyways. I took all the water out and as much of the plant debree as I coudl, scraped off all the algae from the sides of the tank then went and refilled the tank. , replanted the remaining plants ( my tank looks super empty now -_- ) then replaced the decorations and filter and heater and all that jazz , finally reacclimated the fish and in he went.

I cant see any more bga at the moment and I will keep a close watch to manually remove it as I see it. I dont want to do a black out if I can avoid it.

I will hold off on buying more plants ( to replace the horn wort) til I am sure the bga is gone. I think when I get more plants, I will pick up some ghost shrimp too so I can quarantine them together : )

Heres hoping I can get this all cleared out.

 

[N03113]

BGA can be cause by low nitrates and poor water circulation. Just a heads up for once you remove it to help keep it gone for good.

Also, Abalone snails and Siamese Algae Eaters will feed on the BGA too.

 

[Cinderwolf]

Well, I have the filter goign 24/7 so the circulation is good. I am also adding in a bubbler casue I heard bga grows in low oxygenated water. I hav been doing about 25 percent every 4 days or so, since I was cycling and everything.

 

[Hazell]

Arg! I had this too in my sunny aquarium, moved to my huge tank with it own Halliode light but no sun. Died away leaving my plants healthy and green again. *Shrug*