# Algea or fungus? Nightmare help! GETTING WORSE!



## aibo82 (16 Apr 2010)

Hi

I have a Rio 125l running a ehiem 2026 spraybar slightly upward

8 hour photo period on a 4x24w plant pro t5 luminaire 2 lights on for  4 hours and the other2 for 4 overlapping to give a 2 hour boost!

Co2 slightly above lime green 86 bubbles per second

Doseing:
10ml AE Aquanorish+ NPK Daily
3ml AE Carbo  Daily
5ml Easylife Profito

Substrate is 70-80% planted and is colombo florabase

Water change 20 litre wenesday and sunday to keep stats for blue rams stable

Since doing this im getting white fluffy threads growing off plants and deco that show up about 10cm long everyday! hair algea  and brown dirt on leafs but its not diatoms its like the substrate is being kicked up onto the leafs and then grows hair yet ive pointed the spray bar up and only 4 blue rams in the tank!!

Ive also got mucus on the top of the water and white slime collecting in the drop checker every few days!

Any ideas?


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## Anonymous (17 Apr 2010)

*Re: Algea or fungus? Nightmare help!*

Not sure about your water changes or flow. Check them against what others say.
However, your dosing 10ml of AE NPK. Daily I presume? I used that before and had to dose that much daily in my 45 litre. The packaging says 5ml per 10g, I found that dosage caused cyanobacteria so upped to 10ml, cleared the problem. Do you have a reasonable amount of surface agitation?
Sorry I cant be more help.


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## ceg4048 (18 Apr 2010)

*Re: Algea or fungus? Nightmare help!*

Hi,
    Step number 1 should always be to eliminate your "boost". All this is doing when flow and CO2 are anemic is to boost your algae.

Cheers,


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## aibo82 (19 Apr 2010)

*Re: Algea or fungus? Nightmare help!*

This stuffs a nightmare every morning long strands of brown fluffy hair! is it the substrate being draged up? its colombo florabase and im getting brown dust creaping up my glass then hair brown hair grows from it!

im attacking it with 5ml daily of carbo but its not shifting!


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## ceg4048 (19 Apr 2010)

*Re: Algea or fungus? Nightmare help!*



			
				aibo82 said:
			
		

> This stuffs a nightmare every morning long strands of brown fluffy hair! is it the substrate being draged up? its colombo florabase and im getting brown dust creaping up my glass then hair brown hair grows from it!
> 
> im attacking it with 5ml daily of carbo but its not shifting!


No, the substrate is not to blame. This appears to be one of the 10,000 species of Diatomic algae which thrives in well lit environments. Lower your light and add more CO2/carbo.

Cheers,


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## aibo82 (23 Apr 2010)

*Re: Algea or fungus? Nightmare help!*

Im doing whats recomended and this stuff is getting worse! im gettin black sludge now at the bottom and the white fluff is explosive it shows up dayly and my rocks are going black and slimey!


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## ceg4048 (23 Apr 2010)

*Re: Algea or fungus? Nightmare help!*



			
				aibo82 said:
			
		

> Im doing whats recomended and this stuff is getting worse! im gettin black sludge now at the bottom and the white fluff is explosive it shows up dayly and my rocks are going black and slimey!


I assume you are removing the stuff as much as you can, right?You would do well to drop down to a single bulb for only about 6 hours a day. You should also do 3X per week (or more if you can) massive water changes, like 90%. Dose the liquid carbon and NPK immediately after the water change. Take the rocks and other hardscape out and bleach them. Your problem is simple. You have too much light. You may also not have enough flow. What filtration are you using? What came with the tank may not be enough. In any case keep the lighting low for now.

Cheers,


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## aibo82 (23 Apr 2010)

Right I shall give that a shot the filter is a ehiem 2026 I riped the juwel one out  Pump Output: 950 l/h
 Filter Circulation: 650 l/h its rated at!


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## viktorlantos (23 Apr 2010)

Looks like the green long hair algae is Rhizoclonium. This will be worst if you're not doing something with it.

i do not know what kind of rock you're using in your setup, but i bet that is the number 1 reason for the issue. would remove that immediately.

after you did that, water change and blackout 3-4 days is enough. we had similar problems earlier. i think this relate the stone and the silicate value in your tank. 

we had a big fight on one of our setup with this beast because we used a bad stone to weigth down the woods: 





luckily after we killed the beast the scape grew up and we did not had problems anymore: 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	




more about rizo: http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm


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## aibo82 (23 Apr 2010)

There Hagen black beach pebbles so proper stones for aquariums!


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