What is this?

[johnjo]

Can somebody tell me what kind of algae this is. It’s a black colour and quite an open structure. It’s starting to take hold in various areas of my tanks.

Also any advice on an appropriate course of action would be much appreciated.

 

[Hufsa]

Very typical Staghorn algae 🙂 Luckily one of the algae most people agree on the cause of: too much organics/dirt/decay in the tank. Increased maintenance and WC, with some mulm removal and pruning of old leaves should do the trick 😊

 

[johnjo]

Very typical Staghorn algae 🙂 Luckily one of the algae most people agree on the cause of: too much organics/dirt/decay in the tank. Increased maintenance and WC, with some mulm removal and pruning of old leaves should do the trick 😊

Ah thanks for clarifying for me 👍

The tank itself is only a couple of months old and I’m doing 60-70% water changes every weekend. I might have to up it to twice a week until it calms down.

Could it be related to adding too much fertiliser. I’m doing EI style dosing with weekly water changes?

 

[Hufsa]

Could it be related to adding too much fertiliser. I’m doing EI style dosing with weekly water changes?

For fertilizer usage and this algae I haven't personally seen any trend whatsoever, people seem to get it no matter if they dose little, medium, or a lot, so I wouldn't be looking at that.

Since its a new tank the staghorn is likely a product of all the plants adapting themselves and decay associated with the stabilization of the new ecosystem.
Ive seen enough staghorn forum threads at this point to no longer be surprised, its often reported around the period of time that you outline. Often soil tanks, but that might be just because soil tanks are much more common these days.

Two water changes a week wont hurt, make sure to dose back some ferts if you do larger water changes to keep nutrients stable. Keeping the plants happy and growing is priority one

 

[Hufsa]

The algae is giving you clues, because its growing both on the glass and on certain plant leaves. Meaning that you should be looking at improving the cleanliness of the water column as well as pruning any old plant leaves that are attracting algae. If the algae moves on to mid to newer parts of the plants, you will need to troubleshoot plant growth conditions further
I also spy dirty filter hose that can be cleaned 😁

 

[Grjones]

Staghorn. Hate the stuff. I did a good clean of filter, pipes and tank. Reg water changes and it resolved the issue for me

 

[Grjones]

Also dosed with excel and spot dosed with APT fix. The combination wasn’t used at the same time but worked signally