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Permalink Reply by Bob Fletcher on November 30, 2013 at 10:07am

Unless you plan on boiling and bleaching everything in the tank, you will be transferring algae into the new setup anyway, and dirting the tank will provide perfect growth conditions for algae. The reason for the algae in your current setup needs to be determined, and corrected. Does the tank get too much light? Is the wavelength of the light used optimal for higher plants, or is it just giving the advantage to algae? Is there not enough biological filtration helping the plants consume excess nutrients? Is the tank overstocked? Is the water chemistry problematic? Dirting the tank without addressing these problems will just add to your misery. If it were me, after addressing the above issues, I would just trim all the plants of their oldest leaves, and replant them in the new setup. Then, I would start a regime of daily water changes until I saw evidence that I was starving out the algae. I just did this with my 55 gal, which, after a year of relative neglect had a terrible algae infestation. Now, the remaining algae is dying back, while the plants are thriving. If there is a simple easy solution to algae, I would like to know. My goto approach is lots and lots of water changes, and optimizing the lighting conditions. I have heard of some people rescuing heavily infected plants with a quick Hydrogen Peroxide dip, but I can't remember the details at the moment. Might be something to try with precious plants that are hard to obtain, but are just covered with algae. I would recommend finding a good link to this technique, otherwise you may just kill the plant. Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Baker on December 1, 2013 at 3:10am

Thanks for the reply Bob. The tank is currently overstocked, but when I do my dirt changeover many of the fish will be going to other homes. Lighting is from a plant spectrum Fluval LED, 6hrs a day and no sunlight. 50% weekly water changes as well. The algae bloom really exploded when I removed most of the large Anubias from my tank into another. I've since then been able to keep the algae in check, but not able to kill it off. I have yet to try a black-out period, that's next on the list. At the moment I couldn't tell you water parameters as I haven't tested in a couple weeks. I can provide that tomorrow. I guess my real purpose for posting was just to see if I could chop my crypts down to nothing and have them survive algae free in the new tank. I'm thinking that's probably a no....

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Permalink Reply by Bob Fletcher on December 3, 2013 at 12:07am

Crypts don't like being moved, trimmed, or otherwise messed with. My survivors from the algae wars are still tiny and sickly looking. I am thinking of trying to grow some of them in pots in shallow water, so the leaves float on the top of the water. Worth a try. Crypts where I live are like $6 bucks each, so my collection is worth a bit of trouble to rescue.

I found a description of a Hydrogen Peroxide algae killing technique. I modified it a bit to make it easier to see what I was doing. Caution; I have only used this on Anubias infected with black brush algae. Other plants may not react as well. Test one or two leaves at first.

Find an empty nose spray bottle. Add 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt. Add 30 mls (1/8 cup) of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (drugstore). Mix well. Turn off all filtration and air stones. Use the spray bottle to carefully dribble some of the peroxide directly on top of the algae covered surface. The salt is there to make the solution heavy, so it falls from the spray bottle, down on to the plants. It also makes wavy concentration lines, so you can see where your liquid is going. Move the water around the plants as little as possible. Let stand 5 minutes. Do a large water change to remove any peroxide from the tank. This seems to be killing the black brush algae on my Anubias, but the plants are still thriving and throwing out new leaves. I will try on other plants if they get algae. Fish seem okay after 24 hours. Shrimp look a bit stressed, but they were curious and all flocked over to where I was applying peroxide. Stupid shrimp.

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Permalink Reply by Hoops on December 3, 2013 at 2:28pm

if you can get hold of one or two fishnet flying foxes they will eat all signs of that algae in a week or less.iv never had normall flying foxes so dont know if there as good at eating this stuff.the fishnet foxes eat algae like nothing iv seen before,hope this helps :)  this is the fish        http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/crossocheilus-reticulatus/

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Permalink Reply by Chris Baker on December 6, 2013 at 2:56am

I've heard of the peroxide method, I'm going to give it a shot. I'll do a black out period as well. We'll see how it goes

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Permalink Reply by hoyttt on December 6, 2013 at 12:05am

If you want to give me all the plants im ok with that haha.

seriously.

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Permalink Reply by Hoops on December 6, 2013 at 12:06pm

i wouldnt put peroxide in my tank if you paid me,but hey  up to you huh :/ .black out wont touch bba either.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Baker on December 6, 2013 at 12:26pm

haha it does seem at first a bit dangerous, but I've read enough about it to feel confident doing it. I'm not dealing with bba though. Just Staghorn algae.

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