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This ALGAE refuses to DIE
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- čas přidán 18. 08. 2024
- Let me know how long you've battled algae before giving up and re-setting.
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To be honest it’s refreshing to see a high profile aquascaper struggle with thread, BBA & staghorn when everything has been done right: light, CO2, ferts, high volume planting. Please keep us updated because most people aren’t sponsored by Tropica and can’t just tear their scape down and start again. It would be good to replace anecdotal evidence and contradictory opinions with real science and real solutions. It’s also refreshing to see a more realistic approach to the “no chemicals” mantra. My guess is the solution will ultimately be glutaraldehyde. I also suspect more natural and less nature aquariums where plants are less frequently trimmed and manicured is an answer too. I think nature needs a bit of chaos.
Your calm approach to the algae problem is soothing. It is almost a gift to have algae, because it also teaches you to deal with other problems in your life.
Had a terrible staghorn outbreak last year. Dosed 1ml h2O2 per gallon everyday for a week and it took care of it, haven’t had it in the scape since
I have to say, your calm demeanor is so refreshing! So many CZcamsrs are "manic", speak loudly and in run-on sentences - it's so hard to stay engaged with that kind of weird energy. Thanks for doing your own thing and not buying into the hype
You inspired me to get into planted tanks, George. It is not an overstatement to say you changed my life.
I now have a fishroom full of planted tanks and a small aquarium biz. Still have algae issues as we all do, but nothing like I'd have if I hadn't had your help and inspiration! Thanks for all you do in the hobby!
Hi Nick,
Read my post, maybe you might have some idea about what is happening in my tank… I have no wood in the Tank, only rocks and plants. Thank you.
My experience is staghorn is just like diatoms, it another "new tank" algae that shows up around the 1-2 month mark and burns itself out after a month on its own.
Just do normal maintanence on the tank and a little manual removal on the side and eventually it'll just dissappear.
I've grown staghorn out as an experiment into a lush forest and even that just dissappeared completely after a month.
Thats exactly my Experience, i let them grow and removed them manually here and there. After some Weeks they retreat and are completely gone for now. 😊
Thanks for the video George, I’ve had the same thing with my new scape. I’m 10 years of planted tanks I’ve never had it until this scape
It appears the algae in both tanks is mostly on the sides facing each other. Maybe try covering the end of each tank? Your overall light level on each tank may be right on, but possibly the light 'bleed' is just taking the level just that little bit too high? Just a thought.
I have what appears to be green hair algae in my tank that is about three months old. I think the green hair algae looks beautiful, I’ve decided to leave it alone. To me, it looks more natural. I think it will evolve on its own, without too much interference from me. I am doing my best to allow the tank to evolve, and ensure the fish are healthy.
Thank you so much for this video being very opened and real. I love the idea of the comb to remove stag horn. And thanks for presenting new products.
I had staghorn in my tank, APT Fix and their "carbon liquid" competitors spot dosing did not kill it. I managed to get rid of it through increasing my ferts, APT Fix Lite (which is different formula than APT Fix) spot dosing worked, and it totally disappeared after one week of my holiday putting my tank in "sleep mode" (no artificial light but only room light, no CO2, no ferts, limited fish feeding).
Love watching the cleaning process, very therapeutic. I have been very lucky so far with not having algae in my 30 gallon scape. Pretty regimented with the supplements and weekly water changes thanks to you George! Learned so much over the years from your videos and book, THANK YOU!
Hey Gorge. No worries. Staghorns are nasty but easy to fight. You take a small amount of Easy Life Easycarbo and suck it up into a disposable syringe along with a lot of air. Then you blow it on the Staghorns. They turn purple in a short time and then die. I have had the same problem and this trick solved it. Give it a go. It would be sad to rework such a nice scape
Keeping it real as always George, it’s so refreshing 🎉
I alway get to the end of your videos 😉
I couldn’t get rid of staghorn until I started using 50/50 ro to tap water. Made a world of difference and plants grew better too. My tap water is 450 ppm and ~pH7.5. I’d personally try that in your position.
I had the same issue with my haigrass carpet, after giving it a hard trim, I turned my light down from 100% power to 80% , the grass is growing fine and no algae, also cut my ferts down to every other day.
I will be waiting to see how this battle goes. I like to see the long progress over many videos of the finer troubles of an aquarium. It gives me a much better understand of my own struggles with algae and what level of patience or aggressiveness I should take.
Another great vid and I'd love to see you overcome this.
Is the light simply too strong?
It makes you human George, something to connect with 😀
Betty and Tommy knows what you should do for your algae 😂, go ask them
Lovely tank and no doubt you will slowly but surely beat the algae, how you find the in tank co2 diffuser over inline on this size tank ? I used to have a 90cm and used inline but going to he buying a 60cm soon so going go to back to in tank. Thanks
I had some really cool algae in my saltwater tank when it was cycling , looked like tiny Christmas trees
I had to Deal with those Alge too. What i saw was even the smallest bits of this Alge will grow where ever it sattles. Increased Alge after trimming is in that Case logical to me. This Alge does break so easy it is inevitable Not to Break.
For me Easy Carbo helpt a Lot. Droped onto the Alge every day for a week dissolved the larger Alge and sucking them of with a waterchange. Also i dosed Phosphat fertilizer additional to my normal npk and stoped Iron dosing. I think the Combo worked good for my Tank. No Alge since a few months.
But it IS a real Fight with that Alge... do Not give Up on it, it is a long Fight but worth it
My thoughts is that the two takes lights are bleeding over to the other causing the inbalance.
Hi George " I have a same problem like your iwakumi scape, after trying few matter, I bring down my light to 70% and after spot dose apt fix, I been dosing sechem exel at least 0.5ml daily and it solved my problem 😅
What a treat while doing my indoor "dry" plants! Was fertilizing and maintaining my ferns and orchids when the notification dropped.
As far as stocking, there's some really cool new pencil fish varieties, one, I think it's called a super red or something, looks like a mini salmon in full mating colors! I wonder if those would be happy in a more open tank... I think they'd be happier at least than neon tetra?
I had staghorn bloom from a fish store bought plant. My snowball Neocaridina completely ate it all! My "cherry" Neocaridina won't touch staghorn or hair algae, but in my experience, the snowballs love it! I wonder if it's where they come from, or that they're less bred out and a different species than the run of the mill cherry shrimp.
Anyways, wishing a positive, healthy and relaxing week to all who may see this! ✌️
I had a particularly nasty hair/beard type algae on my ferns and wood as well as some of that staghorn type. After physically removing as much as I could I did a blackout on the tank for a few days. Afterwards I temporarily increased the plant mass by adding more floating plants as well as implemented a less intense light cycle. As the algae subsided I adjusted the lights and thinned the floaters back. Of course the occasional spot treatment with excel or equivalent never seemed to hurt either. Good luck!
Nice idea using the electric razor. Makes me want to check if my razor is electric. Never seen that type of algae before too. Looks like the nicest looking one I've seen.
I found this hobby initially from your content so I’ve learnt to enjoy the battle and it’s very satisfying when you see the algae retreat I’m currently battling bba in one scape and I am determined to beat it so far so good re scape will be the last resort great content George ❤
Looking forward to the outcome. Thanks for details on this uncomfy part of this hobby.
Hi George. Honestly i have rarely had any but my scapes are pretty simple. Full of plants but simple. I dont add fertz as it is doing ok and grows fast as is. So many factors influence the balance.
Not everything is a lesson Ryan, sometimes you just fail
George good luck, dealing with one thing at a time is scientific but of course a combination of factors may be involved.
I would stop making changes and doing work on the tank until I have tested the water, at least to find out what is the base line level of macro-nutrients in your water column.
A reagent test, not a dip test, though obviously all hobby kits are not completely accurate.
EI works, though I am a lean dose person but you still don't want 'polluted water', natural waters have, if clean, less than 1 ppm Nitrate and then ten times less Phosphate, but we always have higher levels in our tanks, but how high? In rivers unlike in a tank CO2 and nutrients are hard to exhaust, natural waters don't generally have 30 ppm of CO2 but we broadly need this close to dangerous level so that when the lights are on as you always recommend there is sufficient available, not all the riverbed or lake will have submerged plants, and rivers have underground water entering full of micro nutrients and CO2, 30 ppm is at least twice a natural level, this is to make sure the plants don't exhaust the CO2 in the confines of the unnatural environment they are in. So with macro nutrients we don't match natural levels but it is easy to overload the environment in a tank.
Tropica products - tabs and soils have lots of Nitrate etc., there may be leeching, the Tropica range is fine if the plants are hungry and healthy and of course growing strongly.
Light duration and intensity, temperature and CO2 levels and flow as you know have to 'match' the demand from healthy plants and of course filter mulm is full of bacteria and effective filters push Nitrate into the tank - dirty filters work best as long as there is flow through the media. Water changes are great if your hard water from the tap is ideal for your plants and also it isn't full of Nitrate, sometimes my tapwater has 40 ppm. I would test the tap water.
I also am not keen on blue purple light on a freshwater tank - but it does, with its PAR grow plants efficiently, it can grow lots of lovely algae species not normally in clean fresh water, shallow ponds in terms of noon light penetrating the water and causing pearling/bubbling are not blueish to they eye they are orange red. Dennerle has quite a bit on this in their material over the years. All open to debtae of course.
But of course, as you know George Iwagumi is a tough call.
Your question: I do not rescape, but every now and again my tanks get an algae problem normally unfortunately a combination of water quality issues, high temperature and or sun light, my current tank is up and running for years, only one major rescape - a failed experiment with undergravel plates and CO2 - I got loads of green filament algae and had to trim hard and and only retain roots and top cuttings. Lots of dust algae on my bog wood as I look now - I do not have all the solutions but I do not strip back tanks or use herbicides in my tank - but I will use media bags - RowaPhos and APINitra-Zorb.
Sorry for writing so much, and you are the expert not me, but sharing is caring! I love your work, book and website.
I’ve battled BBA for years in all my scapes, I’ve always put it down to my very hard tap water, and I’ve learned to live with the small amounts I get .i am seriously thinking of trying RO water, £3 from my local aquarium store for 25ltrs.
Get a reverse osmosis system and make your own. It's a game changer!
I suspect your electric clipper experiment might have inadvertently introduced something that's disturbed the tanks equilibrium.
Did the trimmer have any rust/oxide on it? Staghorn loves excess iron.
Also the battery could be leaking something. The white residue you get on rechargeable batteries can consist of manganese oxide, zinc oxide, potassium hydroxide, zinc hydroxide, and/or manganese hydroxide. It's caustic too, so something like that may have affected the PH, KH, CO2 triangle.
Nothing has died so and it probably return to normal with the help of a few extra water changes. So stop lamenting and do that water test you already know needs doing. 😋
Love your work mate.
Hi there George, following you for an awhile from Portugal. Had the same problem in my new scape, for about 1 months. I had great plant growth, especially in the plant that had the most problem of staghorn, Eleocharis montevidensis. Lots of runners, almost a pest. I had it only in plants strangely. I used Excel, but with little success. I had it in my phoenix moss, where I couldn't use Excel. So, to deal with it, I increased my flow by putting two filters in line. So 1º filter feeds a 2º filter, and changed from an aquarium diffusor for an inline diffusor. Well, in just 4-5 days all was gone. Hope it helps.
Thankfully the BBA I had recently was fairly minor- a combination of APT fix and Amano shrimp put paid to it, but it was mainly on the hardscape and hardware rather than on the plants, thankfully.
I've gone to war with various types of algae and always managed to eventually get the upper hand with maintenance until the tank became well balanced, except once. I struggled with cladophora in an overstocked 60p for almost a year before giving up and tearing it down. I removed so much and it just kept coming back!
It is a very hard algae to deal with, fortunately it isn't itself that ugly - within reason.
Hey George I was thinking could it be because the two tanks are so close together that the lights are that much stronger at the corner where they come together thus causing the staghorn algae in that corner on the dhg! The layout is beautiful mate! Hopefully you get it figured out and don’t have to stress anymore! I know how not fun that is!
Enjoying the honest reflection and progress of this tank, very relatable to experiences I've had in the past, unfortunately I lost those battles to algae. I wonder if the location of the Co2 diffuser is enhancing the staghorn in that corner, with the root cause due to something else like organic waste build up like you said.
Hello, George!
Yellow shrimps are very nice color.
I think, Sidex ,or Macrobrachium and old water can help .
It's likely the same as for BBA, though the fact it's an Iwagumi could also potentially play a part depending on your dosing, as you say.
After following your advice, and that of the many experienced folks at UKAPS, I've finally got a handle on my own BBA issue - one of the factors no doubt being an extra deep clean of my main filters which were pretty horrendous (despite weekly clean of pre filters), though the usual flow, CO2 and reduced organics were key.
I've always said to myself I'd happily swap BBA for any other algae, though I'm not sure about this one! 😂
I'm sure you'll get a handle on it, but good luck! 👍
In addition to spot treating, you may want to try to dose the water column George with the APT fix, and keep dosing regularly until hopefully the Algae dies out.
I do notice that the algae is concentrated around areas with the highest flow and I wonder if flow has got anything to do with it. if all else fails, perhaps consider replacing eleocharis with something else. Good luck!
It's natural to see some green dust algae after cleaning the filter. I have observed a definite correlation with that. You have enough Co2, so probably that is ruled out.
Probably substrate disturbance can lift organics in the water and that causes Staghorn for sure..try keeping it stable and things should look fine...
Maybe add some more stems to establish plant dominance.
I am in no way qualified to give suggestions, but if I had this algae, I would follow this path...it's definitely beatable
Welp from my experience that sort of algae appears when nitrates go to 0 and looking how much light and co2 you're blasting I wouldn't be suprised.
How about the light? Not just how much and how long, but also what type?
Personal anecdote: two tanks with Twinstar B-type lights develop green hair algae by the bucketload, Twinstar C-type light does no such thing.
There may or may not be other factors involved, but this is what stands out to me at this point in my tanks.
Good luck with whatever you try. 😅
Could it be linked to flow and how much CO2 gets distributed in different places ? Also with the high intensity lighting on slow growing dwarf hair grass ? Just some thoughts… I’d be interested to see how this evolves
To me, the lights look rather strong. This, plus relatively slow growing plants may be part of the issue here?
PS: my experience with neon tetras has been that they do absolutely fine in an open setup
Some neon blue rasbora’s.. similar colours to neons…
I'v got staghorn like that. Can never quite get rid of it entirely. I looks awful but doesn't seem to do any harm. Both the tanks are gettin on so I figure it's time for a do over. Have got a theory that it spreads in algea wafers but it's hard prove/disprove
I second that on the count that I have a 20 gal & has been cycled for just about a year without issue til I introduced amano/ghost shrimp & a leopard pleco along with first time use algae wafers into the scape. they say to remove any uneaten wafers after a while but I've just left them in there for a couple reasons.
Can a soup of natural leaf tannins help to combat algae?
My worst algae outbreak, I just gave up and did a complete reset.
had a problem with black beard algae for years tride evrything
esha 2000 algae exit about the best and took my rocks out and bleached the in hydroproxide I dose my tank with carbon 8 m day a night
Nice video George,
So there are a thousand videos about CO2....
Which one to have, which one not to have etc. However at the end of your video your co2 looked to me too much...... this is because I have no idea how it's supposed to really look within the tank, where to place the diffuser etc? That would be a great video not souch for someone looking to get into a high tech but someone who has the stuff but isnt too sure if they're doing it right!!
I think the algae is triggered by damaged/poor planthealth due to the massive waterflow hitting the plants from up top. You have the lily pipe the same way on the aquarium to the left of this one and you have/had problems in the same zone of the aquarium, atleast before you changed the zone to sand.
Tanks still look great George. Where do you get the Fritz glass cleaner in the UK? Can’t seem to find it.
Brilliant video 🐠🐟💦
I would love to see some amano shrimp and white clouds.
I struggled with Staghorn algae since 2021 and did 3 or 4 rescapes since then, but it eventually came back, so I thought there was something I did wrong. Battling this algae for that long had given me the opportunity to learn how to deal with it. In my case it was caused by organic matter building up in the filter and in the Eleocharis carpet, so the preventative measure was to vacuum the carpet at least twice a month with a Dennerle Nano Gravel Cleaner and also clean the filter (not heavily, but to gently rinse the bio medium and sponges in a bucket of aquarium water) once every 1.5 / 2 months. The workaround mentioned by others was to increase CO2 levels, but this didn't work for me at all (I even had a yellow drop checker to the point where some Amano shrimps died); staghorn didn't show any signs of die off with this method. If you already have Staghorn algae, cleaning the filter / vacuuming the carpet won't get rid of the already present algae, so, to get rid of it completely, without damaging plants with spot dosing method, I learned how to deal with every piece of Staghorn in the aquarium by using Seachem Excel this way: after the heavy maintenance of the aquarium and filter, I do 50% water change for at least 3-4 consecutive days and after each one, I dose directly into the tank 5x of the normal dosage of Seachem Excel. After this period, in about 3 days all the algae on the plants, rocks and wood started to turn red and die. This worked effectively for me and no plant was damaged at all, nor shrimps or snails (spot dosing does give quicker results, but I always damaged sensitive mosses). I learned about this method by experimenting with different approaches in these 2 years, it might work for you George or anyone who has this problem.
Good post, many thanks. Many types of algae in my experience continue to flourish with high CO2 levels, in the yellow as you said, with shrimp dying and fish distressed. Cladophora in my tank thrives with high CO2, hardly a surprise it isn't much down the evolutionary ladder to Hornwort. Filters can be filthy and work well but they need to flow through the media, I think that is why some prefer not to rely on sponge media. I have no strong experiences against sponge media but it does need to be rinsed to keep the flow possible.
Fast growing plants, trimmed and replanted will overwhelm all algae types, slow growing plants, that is another challenge.
Fast growing plants require lots of CO2, high light for at least 8 hours a day and adequate nutrition, get the balance wrong, especially if the tank is hot in the summer, and plants weaken and algae seize the day. Adequate nutrition is quite modest in terms of Nitrate and Phosphate in the water column, I aim to keep Nitrate below 10 ppm, ideally below 5 and Phosphate at 0.25 ppm, but have found 0.5 acceptable.
Again, in my tanks, the so-called 'clean up crew' have never made an impact on algae, but I only ever have had small bristle nose catfish and shrimp and mollies on my side. But I once had a friend with a four foot medium light no plants other than floating plants, largely hornwort and duckweed, heavily stocked, with small and medium sized fish but with a pretty huge 10 -12 inch Plecostomus, which he only fed weekly on a few pleco tabs, he definitely had a tank with almost no algae visible, no algae that I ever saw over many years other than a little on the glass, which he only cleaned every month or so, his water change routine was equally limited. He did remove duckweed weekly.
I was wondering what this was in my tank, i though it was the beginning of black beard algae.
Have tried to ask KGtropicals or prime time aquatics
Or try some algea eating fish may help
Will UV sterilization help ?
In my experience UV helps with green water and disease control for fish, nothing else. I do use it, new stock even after quarantine is a biological transit route to disaster in a long-running tank.
Hi George for a moment I thought I was watching a hairdressing channel :D Do you know if Fritz wants to come to Czech market?
Algae is never a reason to rescape.
Look it at as a challenge to be overcome.
I think every planted aquarium owner can relate to that particular challenge 😆.
Unless it's cladophora 😉
Rescape still not absolutely necessary, fast plant growth will beat Cladophora eventually, but it taks time and lots of physical algae removal in the early stages i.e. weeks if not months. @@bergpark_scaping8455
ive been battling this algae my self in my own iwagumi and it is impossible to get rid of.
Staghorn is nothing compared to cladophora.
HELP!
My planted aquarium used to be super clear but my plants were not growing much so I bought a better light that has the 24 hour cycle of day, night, dawn etc…
Plants started growing better but all of a sudden my water started turning yellowish and it goes deeper like an orangish water. I have literally tied everything from changing filters, adding uv filtering, putting in chemical algae killer, blacking out my tank for a week, nothing has worked!!!
Short of starting over, which I would hate to have to do, my plants are not thriving, I only turn the light on for about 6 hours and still the yellowish orange water stays. What in the world is causing this?
Thinking seriously of giving up!…😩
Any suggestion? Anyone?
Some kind of vampire or zombie algae 😃?
I think it is kinda nice , just another plant
At least it is more attractive than most forms of algae
staghorn algae is attractive? lol first I heard that
〰️🪮 I've never seen a make over like that 😂 ... Unfortunately I'm battling algae, I'm gonna try some floating plants to cut the light down a little 🤞
Turn up the CO2
Might help, especially if other plants - macrophytes - grow faster but many algae types - microphytes - love CO2 because they are busy photosynthesising, George's algae is green, admittedly dark green, Cladophora seem like, as many stem plants to just love lots of light and CO2.
@@williammcdowell6257 Algae is difficult to identify accurately without a microscope. However it looks far more like an odd green staghorn or bba than cladophora. Typical freshwater cladophora is stringy with many branches and that structure results thick mats. I didn't see anything like that in the video. Regardless, my thinking is that jacking up the CO2 might allow the plants to grow faster and essentially outcompete it. Just looking from the video the diffuser looks like it's barely putting anything out. At the very least it's an easy thing to try to see if it helps.
Thanks for the reply, and yes, absolutely, and sorry I wasn't intending to suggest it was Cladophora, I think that is my 'battle', but lots of filament green algae loves light and high CO2, and yes I agree it would be good to know if George is hitting 30 ppm for CO2 and if not yes CO2 may make a very big difference to the plants. I have read it often takes DNA work to really identify algae, though bluegreen, which isn't a true algae anyway, in polluted water, isn't so challenging to label, after that, it is not easy at all, BBA and Staghorn, yes I suspect you are right, both are I believe red algae, not a simple business that is for sure. Kind regards. @@underwaterjungle