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My tank was fine for the last few months until this algae started growing out of nowhere a week ago.
No new plants added:
ferts- neither increased or reduced
dosing- minimum(pps-pro)
Co2- 2bps
lighting- 3x t5ho
photoperiod- currently 7hrs/day

Is this clado? Any idea if glut/excel will work. it seems to like the carpeting plants(DHG) and HM.
posting some pics Thanks.

the best way would be to manually removing as much as possible using a tooth brush.

sushant wrote:the best way would be to manually remove as much as possible using a tooth brush.

Thats what I am doing... every alternate days. But is there any any out of it than to remove it manually for the rest of my life? I mean it wasn't there for the past 4 months. So if it appeared, then there must have been some thing that I had done(or not done). Maybe re-tracing my steps should reduce it to a minimum??! Any ideas?

Btw, is this cladophora, or hair algae(amano shrimps seem not to like it much)

Algae is caused by imbalance of nutrients, so start dosing according to light and co2,reduce the amount of iron dosing if any to the tank as too much iron causes this algae to appear ,also increase water circulation. adding excel would help.

when was the last water change done and how often do you change it.

sushant wrote:Algae is caused by imbalance of nutrients, so start dosing according to light and co2,reduce the amount of iron dosing if any to the tank as too much iron causes this algae to appear ,also increase water circulation. adding excel would help.

when was the last water change done and how often do you change it.

about every 9-10 days or so. PPS-pro adds just about enuf nutrients. They claim water changes are not required and so far I had gone fine with wc every 15 days for the past 3.5 months, until this.
No iron dosing yet.
using eheim 2217. water circulation is good.
This is not BBA, so would glut help?

slowpoison wrote:

sushant wrote:Algae is caused by imbalance of nutrients, so start dosing according to light and co2,reduce the amount of iron dosing if any to the tank as too much iron causes this algae to appear ,also increase water circulation. adding excel would help.

when was the last water change done and how often do you change it.

about every 9-10 days or so. PPS-pro adds just about enuf nutrients. They claim water changes are not required and so far I had gone fine with wc every 15 days for the past 3.5 months, until this.
No iron dosing yet.
using eheim 2217. water circulation is good.
This is not BBA, so would glut help?

glut works with almost every type of algae, an alternative and safer way is to spay H2O2. and there is no alternative to water change and it's a common sense that any chemical when added in water will alter its parameters and bioload too adds to it.

this doesn't looks like Cladophora, it's probably some form of hair algae.

Very hard to remove this algae. Best option is to remove manually. I back out for one week but it was still there.

This is hair algae. Sure sign of nutrient imbalance or poor circulation or low CO2.

Two easy solutions - very young SAE will munch on this like crazy (only if you don't feed them any food separately) OR increase the CO2 level.

However, the outbreak itself is quite normal. Be prepared for this to haunt you for the next two years in case you continue with the same scape. Algae is a hobbyists old friend.

No, retracing steps will not help. These are living organisms and have a mind of their own.

I dont believe any algae, once it infests your tank ever goes away completely to 0%. The idea is by some means to reduce it to the point that it does not take the centre stage of the scape. Even the most picturesque of scapes of Amano and the AGA have algae, but they control it to the point that it take nothing away from the beauty of the aquarium and is overlooked by the judges.