Black hairs in my vallis and crypt

[Ethan040]

Hi guys, ive got little black hairs on my vallis and my crypt and there's the off few on the front of my tanks glass also my other plants don't seem to have any some of which are java fern, amazon sword, frogbit, anubias and java moss.

ive read its to do with circulation and light my tanks 40gal my lights are 60 watt T8 my filter is a fluval 305 1000lph my vallis and crypt both move about with the circulation so that seems ok and my watts per gallon is is above 1wpg and im dosing 4ml per day with TPN+.

Any ideas on how to get rid?

Thanks, Ethan

 

[bigmatt]

Hi Ethan,
I'm sure one of the experts will pick this up but it sounds like you got yourself some Bottle Brush Algae (BBA). Have a search on the forums and you'll find loads of info. My gut instinct is that you don't need to dose the TPN+. Pplanted tanks are a balance between the plant biomass, light, nutrients and nutrient delivery. If those elements are balanced you get good plant growth as the plant biomass increases in response to good delivery of lights and nutrients. If the elements aren't balanced then algae is the result (algae can be thought of as another type of plant - just an undesirable one!). In your particular case it sounds like you are dosing a lot of nutrients for a low-light setup. As you don't have a lot of light the plant's can't grow as fast, so they aren't absorbing the nutrients you're dosing, leaving the algae to feed on the nutrients. You've picked good plants for a low-light tank, and they will grow - just at a lot slower rate than in a high-tech tank. I'd stop dosing the TPN+ and trim back the affected plants. Or fit a shed load more lighting and buy a pressurised CO2 system
If you search the "algae" forum you'll find tons of info for getting rid of the algae from people a lot cleverer than me, and look at the guides for low-tech and El Naturel tanks for ideas on how to get you tank and plants looking their best
Hope this helps!
Matt

 

[gzylo]

Hi

Ho often do you do water changes?
Do you dose co2?
- you might have unstable co2

Regards
Gzylo

 

[chilled84]

I got to agree that that is bba, almost definetly linked to poor flow and unbalanced co2 levels.

 

[Ethan040]

Hi, i do 30% water changes a week and i don't dose co2

My flow seems fine the affected plants all move with the flow my amazon sword and anubias are fine they have no bba at all.

Thanks

 

[CeeJay]

Hi Ethan
Certainly sounds like BBA and BBA is CO2/flow related.
Your flow is a bit on the low side for a planted tank, at 1000lph for 180l tank (I'm assuming you used UK gallons).
You might find that you are actually causing the problem yourself by doing the 30% weekly water change .
The reason for this is as follows:-
Your tap water contains CO2. You put 30% worth of new water in your tank every week. Therefore you are raising the CO2 levels in your tank. The plants then adapt to this new higher level of CO2 and then increase their internal production to increase their growth rate. However, the CO2 in your tap water will only last a day or two at the most, as it will be consumed by the plants. So you now have 5 days of lower CO2 levels and the plants will now have to use their energy adapting to this lower CO2 level. This will stress your plants and they will become susceptible to algal attacks, which is what you are seeing.
The plants you quoted (java fern, amazon sword, frogbit, anubias, java moss and crypts) will all live quite happily in a low light/no CO2 environment.
You will still have to trim the infected leaves and clean the glass of the algae as already suggested.
My advice to you would be to stop the water changes immediately . This may sound radical but this way you will end up with stable, but low, levels of CO2 when the water 'stabilises' through constant exchange with the atmosphere then you will find your BBA should not return and your plants will quite happily adapt to their new 'stable' environment.
One of my tanks is a 95l, 1wpg, no CO2 tank, and my maintenance regime is as follows:
Feed the plants once a week (a whole weeks worth of ferts in one go).
Clean the filter once a month
Nice and simple.
All fish and plants are thriving.
Matt was correct in suggesting that the algae will be feeding off your nutrients, but you need to tackle the root cause of your BBA in the first place, and that wasn't caused by your TPN+.
I would strongly recommend that you do not stop feeding the plants. A weak plant due to lack of ferts is another surefire way to induce algae, caused by ammonia leaching from the weakened leaves etc.
Hope this helps, and keep us posted.