save my anubias

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Charney

Charney

The Fish Doctor
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Nov 15, 2005
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I have a beautiful monster anubias that is the center piece of my mixed cichlid tank. Its a 90 gallon lightly planted tank with three to four inch fish which consist of four different types of parrot fish, two oscars, and a balloon green terror (yes this is a grow out tank not the permanent tank). I recently moved and now the tank is in a room that gets lots of natural sun light and the algae growth is out of control especially on the plants. I have been trying to use an API algae product and scraping. It is not working well at all. My anubias looks awful. I just got twelve trap door snails. I am pretty sure they will be dead soon. The fish will not let the snails come out of their shells. Do you have any recommendations? I am considering ordering a bunch of bushy nose plecos, but do not really have the money to ship fish now. Any advise is appreciated thanks.
 
What type of algae is growing on the anubias? I would not use the algaecide.

PS, anubias has an s at the end.
 
Algaecides, IME, don't work.
Adding faster-growing stem plants will help - assuming your fish will leave them planted. You could also (or rather) add floating plants to help absorb excess nutrients.
A picture of the algae would be most beneficial.
 
hope the pictures are all right. I have thought about using floating plants but assumed it would be a pain with the overflow.

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Looks like your anubias are having a rotting issue. This would not be due to the algae, but rather the rhizome being buried. The rhizome (large stem that all the leaves and roots branch from) needs to be out of the substrate.
 
they are not in the substrate. The rhizome is firmly attached to pieces of drift wood. If you scrape the greenish/brown stuff off the leaves are healthy underneath. If i wait awhile to do it, the leaves start dying. the other plant picture that I posted with lots of algae is a java fern also rooted to a piece of drift wood. Do not know if this helps or not, but the substrate is sand and I do not use any fertilizers.
 
argh looks bad i think for save that anubias you must manually scratch with attention off the algae by hand and then put the anubias in a clear tank with fresh water
 
Your tank is out of balance. If you plan to keep it in the spot where it gets plenty of sunlight, you're going to have to make a change to the tank in order to solve the problem.

One solution is to try adding a lot of anacharis. It grows in lower-light, and is known for growing quickly which will absorb nutrients in the water, hopefully choking off the algae.

Another route, is to add DIY co2, ferts, and plants that require more light than the anubias and jfern, such ass wisteria, ambulia, etc...
 
What type of lighting do you have? It is hard to tell from the picture, but it appears to be brown algae, which is actually a sign of lighting that isn't intense enough.
 
Looks like cyanobacteria (BGA) and black brush/beard algae (BBA) to me.
 
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