What is this.......please help!

[L~C~G]

I have a 120 Gal malawi tank that has been running for almost a year now.

I used so have some live plants but this stuff wiped them out in a few weeks. The temp is 27 degress celcius, Ph at 7.2, Nitrates and Amonia almost zero.

I run 2 x 3ft T5`s and 1 x 2ft t8 for around eight hours a day.

Filtration: 1 x 1200l/h canister, 1 x internal box filter with bio foam and 1 x internal filter with charcoal.

Everything in the tank was perfect unitl one day I did a 25% water change and the water immediatly went cloudy, my fish started acting twitchy. I did 20% water changes everyday for two weeks after that and the water only cleared up totally after about a month

During the cloudy water time this stuff (pic attached) started growing like a weed. It wiped out my all of my plants in a few days. It is growing on my rocks, my filter and even on the acrylic panel. Now its starting to grow on the gravel. I cannot get it off the rocks even if I soak it in boiling water and scrub it. Bleach kills it but I still cannot get it off and it starts growing agian in about a week.

Ive also tried an algae killer but it does nothing to this stuff.

Its taking over my tank and im getting desperate. It has very fine strands a lot like fur and ranges from green to brown, max length at this stage is about 7mm

I also have two common plecos that wont touch it.

Please help me.

This pics was taken with my cell, ill try and get some better pics up tomorrow.

 

[mshill90]

Looks like hair algae of some kind..

 

[Ryan75]

Stock list? And also are any of your fish sick now?

 

[JK47]

BBA = Black Beard Algae. It can completely overthrow a system in short order. A few people have had success by double dosing certain ferts. I have used this approach and it worked for me but can be a dangerous thing to blindly dose ferts.

 

[L~C~G]

Stock list.
1 x Male Ahli.
1 x Male Borleyi
1 x male Kadango
1 x Male Milomo.
2 x Male Yellow Lab
1 x Male Acei.
1 x Male Venustus.
1 x Male Peacock Firefish
1 x Male JacobFreiberghi.
1 x Male Rubescens
1 x Male Taiwan Reef.
1 x Male Stuartgranti

2 x Common Plecos

1 x Fire eel (+- 12 inches)

Im willing to try anything right now. This stuff is wiping out my tank in a big way.

None of the fish are showing any illness. The one yellow lab is a bit hollow but he is still eating a lot so I think he may possibly have a parasite problem.

 

[L~C~G]

BBA = Black Beard Algae. It can completely overthrow a system in short order. A few people have had success by double dosing certain ferts. I have used this approach and it worked for me but can be a dangerous thing to blindly dose ferts.

I have no live plants left so its not going to cause too much damage.

 

[Chris E]

Overdosing with Flourish Excel is one way of getting rid of this stuff, I have done it myself, but it does cause havoc with existing plants and in high doses can be bad for you fish.
I used a double dose to start with and just had to use trial and error. I didn't lose any fish but did burn my plants somewhat.

 

[L~C~G]

I have never seen flourish excel locally, What brand is it?

Would a SAE stand any change with the stock list above. Just to keep it under control?

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Its Seachem brand

 

[Owain4]

could you have caused a bacteria bloom when you did that water change?? Did you clean too much of the existing bacteria when you changed it???