# Algae id and help



## Nick potts (27 Jun 2020)

Hi all.

Looking for some help to id and figure the best eradication method.

Bit of info on the tank.

2 months old

25cm cube 15 litres
6W LED
Fluval shrimp and plant substrate
Small internal filter
Large sponge filter

Spider wood and seriyu stone.

Currently housing 2 betta's

Plants are Windeløv, Crypts,Moss, Sagittaria subulata, Rotundifolia, Monte Carlo and lots of Salvinia auriculata

Water change around 15% daily.

No ferts or co2

Noticed a fair bit of this algae popping up, mostly on the ends of the wood (i will need to have a better look when the lights come on.


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## dw1305 (27 Jun 2020)

Hi all, 





Nick potts said:


> Noticed a fair bit of this algae popping up, mostly on the ends of the wood


Looks like it might be fungal hyphae.





Nick potts said:


> and lots of Salvinia auriculata


Pinch the final leaf pairs off once they are brown and have sunk. 





Nick potts said:


> No ferts or CO2


The _Salvinia_ looks like it's beginning <"to suffer from lack of nutrients">. 

You can discount CO2, because it is floating plants and iron (Fe) because the old leaves are dying off rather than the new ones, so it is likely to be any/all of nitrogen (N), potassium (K) or magnesium (Mg) deficiency. 

cheers Darrel


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## Nick potts (27 Jun 2020)

Thank you @dw1305  Darrel

I will try and get some better pics when the lights come on.

I can also start dosing a low dose of aquascaper complete ferts and see if the salvina picks up.


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## jaypeecee (27 Jun 2020)

Hi @Nick potts 


Nick potts said:


> Noticed a fair bit of this algae popping up, mostly on the ends of the wood (i will need to have a better look when the lights come on.



I'm with @dw1305 on this one - some sort of fungus. It's white(ish), not green, red or black so there's a clue. It's very common to get fungus growing on wood in new tanks. If it persists, snails, shrimps and Bristlenose Catfish (Ancistrus) are likely to eat it. Be aware that snails and shrimps are very sensitive to dissolved copper in their tank water. And it would be wise to check compatibility of all these potential inhabitants with your Bettas.

JPC


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## Nick potts (27 Jun 2020)

Thanks JPC.

The pic doesn't show it well but it is a greenish colour.

I have dealt with the slime/fungus that likes to grow on spider wood/redmoor wood but this looks different.

I have a few spare ottos I can move a couple into thos tank.


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## Nick potts (27 Jun 2020)

A couple of better pics


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## X3NiTH (27 Jun 2020)

Fungus as per replies above, will go away eventually if left untouched or removed manually via water change or shrimp gut!

I have to say your Salvinia is really struggling, from experience when it starts growing long between nodes and is going pale it’s soon on its way out.









When it’s happy the internodes will shorten and the leaves will form greater surface structure. When removing dead and dying plantlets from the surface of my tank (aquarium is covered so high humidity so fungal growth is prevalent) it takes about two weeks to fully re-cover the surface after removing about 70% of it. Tank had no water changes for many many weeks (no livestock), Nitrate and Phosphate wasn’t dosed routinely (front loaded at water change) except for maybe a pinch of KNO3 or CaNO3 and KHPO4 once in a blue moon if it looked like it needed it (didn’t test other than a dip strip to see that nitrates still present and hardness remaining stable). Micro was dosed every second day via a doser, if this ran out surface growth would start to deteriorate.

My Salvinia is close to the lights but they’re down at only 20% as you can see (or not) the tank interior is very dim when making the photo exposure for the surface growth (including above pics).





To the eye the tank interior lighting is around this level.





Regular micro dosing is helping keep plant tissue growth in low light healthy (it does get lots of co2 though by being trapped under the cover). In the tank you can see the Anubias are struggling to get more light but the Buce are quite happy.

Don’t skimp on the Micro dose it’s less persistent than the Macro.


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## Nick potts (27 Jun 2020)

X3NiTH said:


> Fungus as per replies above, will go away eventually if left untouched or removed manually via water change or shrimp gut!
> 
> I have to say your Salvinia is really struggling, from experience when it starts growing long between nodes and is going pale it’s soon on its way out.
> 
> ...



Thank you X3NiTH

Your Salvinia looks very very healthy, mine has never looked like that but i only keep it in tanks that i don't add ferts too. I will start a fert regime on the tanks hopefully I will see some improvement in looks, it does spread quickly though and i usually remove some every week.

Unfortunately shrimp are a no go in the betta tank, she is a savage and will happily bite in half full grown cherries etc, i could try some amanos but will try the manual removal route first.


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## jaypeecee (27 Jun 2020)

Hi @Nick potts 


Nick potts said:


> The pic doesn't show it well but it is a greenish colour.



It may be a case of algae growing on fungus, I wonder?



X3NiTH said:


> Fungus as per replies above, will go away eventually if left untouched or removed manually via water change or shrimp gut!



Yes, it is true that fungus does disappear in time for a lot of people. But, two months seems a bit excessive.

JPC


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## Nick potts (27 Jun 2020)

jaypeecee said:


> Hi @Nick potts
> 
> 
> It may be a case of algae growing on fungus, I wonder?
> ...


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## jaypeecee (27 Jun 2020)

Hi Folks,

I once did an experiment with a piece of bogwood. I 'baked' it at just over 60C for a couple of hours or so. I will have made a log of the exact conditions but I can't put my hand on them quickly. At this temperature/duration, no fungal spores should have survived. The inference is that the fungal spores are in the aquarium water, not the bog wood. So, the role of bog wood in the development of fungus is, presumably, to provide the fungal spores with nutrients on which to feed. The fact that the fungus may stop growing after a while is either that the nutrient supply runs out or tank inhabitants consume the fungus. Perhaps there are other (better) explanations for what we tend to see over time?

JPC


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