red hair algea?

[Fizco]

So it all started with black hair like algae all over my plants, then it
turned greyish in places. To try to rid myself of this blight I have been
carrying out 50% water changes every week with no real effect. Anyway, I
carried out my usual water change yesterday, and this morning I notice that
my Anubias and Java Fern has a red hair algae all over them. Any ideas on
how to rid myself of this without the adding new fish (SAE)?

Fizco

[Sergey Politaev]

This is red algae, named Compsopogon IIRC, unfortunately there are no fishes
or snails, which can eat it. One of the main (in our case) characteristics
is that this algae is mixotrophic, i.e. they use not only their own
(photosinthesized) organics, but also some nutrients from water. So this
algae are in prosperity in water with a lot of organic compounds and
floating organic particles.
No one chemical algae-destroer could fight this one (I only read about some
results obtained with Tetra's "Algimin")
There is also data, that this algae stops growing at pH > 7.5 and dies at pH
> 8.5, so to fight this "Black Beard" You must use joint measures:
1) Try to make pH to 8 or more (of course, it's impossible if the water is
"soft" and rich with organics);
2) Take away from tank all decaying organics;
3) Bring to a minimum population of Your tank (especialy it concernes
digging species) - not more, than 1" to 1 G;
4) Exclude any air bubbling, which can lift organics from the bottom;
5) Change 1/5 - 1/4 of water, minimum once a week, vacuuming substrate
during changes.
Red algae will totally or almost dissapear in 1.5 - 2 monthes. If it will
remain in small amounts, it will be under Your control.
--
Sergey Politaev.
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[Chuck Gadd]

On Mon, 24 Apr 2000 16:21:06 +0600, "Sergey Politaev"
<NOSPAMp...@online.nsk.su> wrote:

>This is red algae, named Compsopogon IIRC, unfortunately there are no fishes
>or snails, which can eat it. One of the main (in our case) characteristics

Not true! Real Siamese Algae Eaters ( Crossocheilus siamensis ) eat
it. And do the job very well. I added several large stems of Bacopa
carolina to my tank. The majoritiy of the leaves were covered with
BBA/red algae. (I bought it sight-unseen at auction, and was rather
dissapointed when I noticed the algae!) Within a day (1 day!!!),
the SAEs had completely cleaned all the leaves.

I've also seen my Japonica shrimp working on BBA/red algae, but they
don't clear it very quickly.

Chuck Gadd
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua

[Mickey Stein]

I had a complete infestation of what you're calling BBA/red algae for several
months so I put 3 real SAE's in the tank and they did spend days working at the
algae covered leaves. Far as I could tell , they couldn't make a dent in it (I
think it was too heavy an infestation) , but eventually I wore the infestation
down by withholding just about all phosphates/silicates during water changes and
maintaining a very low nitrate level.

Now I've got a different problem but I'm curious as to what you think. Every
plant I've got at the moment, seems to have at least some leaves with an
extensive rust colored hard coating. It doesn't appear to be algae nor does it
appear to be the result of over-fertilization. I can't scrape it off without
damaging the leaves and I experimented on a plant by removing it to a bucket and
treating it with Hydrogen Peroxide which didn't do a thing.

Any ideas?

tia
Mick