New to forum! Have algae fighting question I KNOW someone here can help me with!

[FishNamedGil]

Greetings!!! I'm new to MFK, but have been following this forum forever and have gotten a lot of great info that's saved me on many occasions! I've been fishkeeping for maybe 6 or 7 years now in total, starting with freshwater community in a 10g, and evolved to Discus/angels, African Cichlids (malawi and victoria) and larger SA/CA cihlids in 50g and 90g tanks. I finally qualify as a small-mid range monster fish keeper...lol .

I've been to more than one LFS and still having an algae issue I'm confident if there is anyone that can help me identify and resolve, it's someone here!!! I have a 90g CA/SA tank with an Oscar, Jack Dempsey and a Severum as the main attraction, but also have a Blue Acara and a spotted pleco (4-5"). My tank is near a window, and cant do anything about that. I have been having a problem with what I believed for the longest was just brown algea/diatom when my africans were in it. Now I'm questioning it. I dont et so much of the brown film on the glass any more, but large sections on the 3-d background and on the fake driftwood decor show a dark black, somewhat greenish caked layer of what looks like dirt and I have been able to get rid of it. I was told it was diatoms and due to high phosphates (and silica), and now was jsut told by another LFS they thought it was blue-green slime algae.

I tried:
1. VIbrant (freshwater) for several weeks... it seemed to lighten after a few weeks, but then came back and darkened.
2. My phosphates from the tap are kind of high (1 ppm), so I have been running pure GFO, along with carbon and purigen, and have used Phosphate-E, which does reduce the PO4
3. I always do a 50% weekly water change, but did a couple mid-week changes just recently to bring nitrates down further
4. UltraLife Blue-green slime remover (first dose this week as of the new identification)

According to the Hanna checkers as of this week, my PO4 was at .23 and NO3 is at 24.5 before the water change.

Filtration:
1. Fluval FX6 -- running ceramic rings, Matrix
2. Aquaclear 110 HOB-- running GFO, activated carbon, purigen, and filter floss

Attached is picture.... of the decor and the black crud in the background....

Again, great to be here, and THANK YOU in advance!!! I really just want to know what I'm dealing with and the best way to tackle!!!!

 

[The Masked Shadow]

I think it’s black beard algae. Not much you can do. You will have a lot of conflicting advice. I opted for the expensive quick-solving method, a water sterilizer. jjohnwm , TwoTankAmin .

 

[FJB]

It down not sound like black beard algae. Instead it sounds like blue green algae (cyanobacteria). I beleve you should investigate whether you are over feeding (most likely).

 

[FishNamedGil]

Hey, thanks for the response Shadow. Really? BBA? I had that once before on some plant leaves in a 50g community tank.... and it was "fluffy/fuzzy". This is more like a caked on layer.

I dont know what you mean by "expensive water sterilizer" unless you're talking about UV or RODI. I do have a green killing machine UV in the tank --- not an expensive in-line sump UV -- and obviously thats not doing the trick. And since I dont have marine, I dont have RODI setup.

 

[FishNamedGil]

The last LFS I went to with this said he thought it was blue green slime (cyano). I have a basically 2-dose treatment of Ultralife blue-green slime remover. I put that in yesterday... plan on doing it again tomorrow (48 hrs it says).

Re overfeeding, I may have... with an oscar in the tank and a JD it's hard to tell, but the food does get eaten failry quickly. I usually alternate omega one large pellets with krill, shrimp or bloodworms, and give one "day off" a week.

 

[Gourami Swami]

With a heavily stocked tank that gets partial sunlight near a window, and with phosphates coming from your tap as well, you are definitely fighting an uphill battle. You may not be able to stop algae from growing in that type of setup. I will say that for that stock list, a single 50% WC doesn't sound like enough of a WC regiment. What do your nitrates get to before WC day?
Do you mind it that much? I actually kind of like some algae in cichlid tanks, adds to the natural look as long as it's not allowed to grow on glass, just my opinion of course.
Anything that you can remove from the tank, you could thoroughly douse in hydrogen peroxide and scrub, which will kill and remove the algae. Just make sure to rinse it well before adding it back to the tank.

 

[duanes]

With a heavily stocked tank that gets partial sunlight near a window, and with phosphates coming from your tap as well, you are definitely fighting an uphill battle. You may not be able to stop algae from growing in that type of setup. I will say that for that stock list, a single 50% WC doesn't sound like enough of a WC regiment. What do your nitrates get to before WC day?
Do you mind it that much? I actually kind of like some algae in cichlid tanks, adds to the natural look as long as it's not allowed to grow on glass, just my opinion of course.
Anything that you can remove from the tank, you could thoroughly douse in hydrogen peroxide and scrub, which will kill and remove the algae. Just make sure to rinse it well before adding it back to the tank.

I agree with the above.
And with a nitrate level of over 20ppm. (nitrate being one of the best foods for growing algae) I would think it impossible "not" to have it in the tank.
If (you increase to double or triple) a regime of weekly water changes, you may be able to slow it down a bit, but not until you bring down average nitrates to below 10ppm (preferably 5ppm if you want it gone).
Another strategy, is to have enough live plants that compete with the algae for the soup of nutrients

The above tank sits in full sun half the day, and yet algae in minimal.
But I try to do 30-40% water changes every other day, along with the heavy planting, to keep nitrate below 5ppm.

 

[FishNamedGil]

With a heavily stocked tank that gets partial sunlight near a window, and with phosphates coming from your tap as well, you are definitely fighting an uphill battle. You may not be able to stop algae from growing in that type of setup. I will say that for that stock list, a single 50% WC doesn't sound like enough of a WC regiment. What do your nitrates get to before WC day?
Do you mind it that much? I actually kind of like some algae in cichlid tanks, adds to the natural look as long as it's not allowed to grow on glass, just my opinion of course.
Anything that you can remove from the tank, you could thoroughly douse in hydrogen peroxide and scrub, which will kill and remove the algae. Just make sure to rinse it well before adding it back to the tank.

Gourami Swami , I've wondered about that.... my nitrates are usually in the mid-low 20s. This weekend as I mentioned they were 24.5 before the WC, so I suspect right now they are around 12-13. Regarding do I mind it... I agree with you 100% that some algae looks natural... and i like a natural aquascape. I don't mind the algae patches on the driftwood, for example, but those massive black/brown algae patches covering 50% of my background I think looks somewhat dirty.

I agree with the above.
And with a nitrate level of over 20ppm. (nitrate being one of the best foods for growing algae) I would think it impossible "not" to have it in the tank.
If (you increase to double or triple) a regime of weekly water changes, you may be able to slow it down a bit, but not until you bring down average nitrates to below 10ppm (preferably 5ppm if you want it gone).
Another strategy, is to have enough live plants that compete with the algae for the soup of nutrients

duanes , I had plants with my community and discus tank... but never did it with either of my cichlid tanks because of the way they uproot plants, and some of them will eat them. Kept it to a rock or driftwood-only aquascaping. I was thinking of doing like 3 WCs and then going to a 2x a week change, for the sake of hopefully keeping nitrates down to 15 ppm or less. I just want to get rid of the crap I see now, and hopefully without having to take out the 3d background. It's rough and textured so cleaning would be hard -- would have to bleach or hydrogen peroxide it for sure.

 

[FishNamedGil]

Anyone have good results with VIbrant for freshwater? I actually saw it lighten up when I started using it after several weeks, but then it seemed to come back. Maybe if I had double-dosed it for a while?

 

[duanes]

@duanes[/USER] , I had plants with my community and discus tank... but never did it with either of my cichlid tanks because of the way they uproot plants, and some of them will eat them.

I have always kept cichlids, this is why I always add a separate heavily planted refugium (sump) in line to all their tanks.
Sometimes the benefits of only a single refugium unit (if it has enough plants), in line with (up to) 4, unplanted cichlid tanks is enough to provide compeitiion with the needs of the algae to hold its growth at bay, especially if the plants are the hungry type .

https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/i97/dstuer/plants/papyrus/.highres/IMG_4958_zpsb8d018da.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds

https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/i97/dstuer/plants/hyacinth/.highres/056_zpsf62a89a5.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds

it may simply be about finding the right plant.
Both Papyrus, and water Hyacinth have worked, although th Hyacinth needs heavy sunlight to thrive. Both are "almost" indestructible
At the moment I am experimenting with a dozen Mangrove trees growing in Bamboo tubes. The cichlids don't bother trying to uproot them, the rim (planted vertically) is too close to the tanks water surface, and I am finding the plant itself is quite attractive.

I am also trying planting the horizontally, sliding the pod into a hole bored into a slit bamboo tube.
.
And of course terrestrial tropical plants like Pothos, dieffenbachia and many of the others commonly used as house plants hanging on the surface also work well,
and are seldom bothered by cichlids.