# Spirogyra Algae Doing My Nut In...



## Claire (10 May 2014)

Hey all, I have been trying to single handedly battle spirogyra algae in my 35l for the past few weeks and seem to still be losing. I did a 3 day blackout with daily water changes which really helped, there was only a tiny amount left, then started daily easycarbo dosing and only ¼ fert dosing. Yet it has reared its ugly head again. Proper PITA.
CO2 is currently quite light as I am getting no other algae problems, but I have lowered the filter outlet and upped it slightly tonight to see if it will help at all.
I also put some bubble wrap on top of the acrylic sheet cover to cut back the light slightly - this has been there for about 2-3 weeks now and the algae is still there showing no signs of deterioration.
I don't have much of a clean up crew - one or two sakuras are in there but that's all. I could add some amanos if that would be of any use?
My larger (180l) tank had this for a while but just with clearing out as much as possible at water changes it cleared up itself in about a month. However this stuff seems to be more stubborn!
Any suggestions as to how to get this gone would be most appreciated before I flake lol. Is another blackout in order? And if so, how do I stop it coming back this time?![DOUBLEPOST=1399745198][/DOUBLEPOST]And when I say "light" co2, I mean apple green drop checker with a ph drop from 6.3 to 5.6. The adjustment there will probably take it to the full 1 drop.[DOUBLEPOST=1399745296][/DOUBLEPOST]I also just took some media out of the filter there. It's now about half full with coarse sponge, then fine sponge, alfagrog and then a bag of purigen.


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## tim (10 May 2014)

Try to remove as much as possible and change as much water as possible without disturbing substrate too much it's thought ammonia spikes are a cause for this and I believe this to be the case, I used to get this in a Pygmy puffer tank I had every time I trimmed the moss in the tank which was full of their crap without doing large enough water changes,after I trimmed and waterchanged larger amounts the issue never arose again.


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## Claire (11 May 2014)

Okay, at the moment I'm only really water changing between a third and a half, so will up that and see if it helps along with manual removal. Should I just do weekly WCs or up them for now?


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## tim (11 May 2014)

I always try and aim for three water changes a week when trying to get on top of algae some would recommend daily if you have time, lower lighting intensity always helps too ime.


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## GHNelson (11 May 2014)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Easy-Life...1?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item4864b4b107
The above will give you good results......double or triple dose though.
Cheers
hoggie


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