Strong stringy algae...

[k3ch0ng]

This algae can get very long and just gets everywhere. Removing by hand is impossible and it's stuck to the rocks.

Is there anyway to get rid of it other than tearing down the tank ? Would i need to bin the rocks / soil ?

 

[wearsbunnyslippers]

this looks cladophora, which is kind of like the herpes of the planted tank world..

you can spot treat it with peroxide, you can excel it, and while it does die back from these treatments, it is strong and brittle, so pieces break off and go everywhere, so it is difficult to eradicate fully.

I have never managed to get this out of my tanks once infected.

hopefully someone else has some better news or a way to remove this..

 

[Connswater]

better news

Not me. All doom and gloom I am.

I've made a right mess of my small tank removing a lot of it, far more had settled around the base of plants than I realised. And now, by thinning thickets of sagittaria where the algae was hiding, I've thrown loads of, no doubt nutrient rich soil, up into the water column which I think the cladophora will love. I think, it likes a good rich substrate and good light and certainly thrives with high CO2 - the perfect plant growing conditions - my only suggestion, and it isn't much of one, is that with regular harvesting of the algae, lots of floating plants - too many really for the heath of rooted plants - it can be kept under control. Having said all that, only an observation, the stuff that lingers clump like in the recesses and on the substrate, which is I think cladaphora, is not the same filament algae - bright green, less brittle, different smell - to the lurking cladophora, so I'm not sure to what extent high light intensity encourages it, it loves lurking around the roots of crypts in my main tank in awkward spots to get to - rear access tank that one, another story of trial and error and more error.

Sometimes no news is good news.