Black punctate algae in FW tank?

[rowrowlove]

Hey everyone!

So I have this freshwater tank that I've been taking care of for about 5 months now, which I inherited from former club members (tank is school property, I just do the feedings and maintenance). It has had a green hair algae problem for years now, but we manage it with weekly water changes and decreased light (~7 hr a day). However in the last month I've seen small aggregates of black ... Something. Difficult to scrape off, not fuzzy/long like hair algae, and slightly stains after its been removed. For the last three weeks it's just been a little covering a rock structure in the tank (image attached) but I did a water change last Friday (one week ago), have fed the fish Mon & Wed (hardly saw any except the normal rock cover) and now two days later it's covering everything in the tank. The plants are now turning yellow (they've never been the greatest condition because of the green hair algae but were never yellow, just slow growth & fried edges).

Anyone know what it is and how to treat it? Manual removal is difficult without breaking the plants and still leaves them stained afterwards.

65 gallon freshwater tank with mechanical filter pad filtration system, and I add Flourish, Flourish Excel and Flourish Iron (all from Seachem) at times of water change (so one week ago. I have been doing Flourish and Iron treatments for as long as I've had the tank).

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey everyone!

So I have this freshwater tank that I've been taking care of for about 5 months now, which I inherited from former club members (tank is school property, I just do the feedings and maintenance). It has had a green hair algae problem for years now, but we manage it with weekly water changes and decreased light (~7 hr a day). However in the last month I've seen small aggregates of black ... Something. Difficult to scrape off, not fuzzy/long like hair algae, and slightly stains after its been removed. For the last three weeks it's just been a little covering a rock structure in the tank (image attached) but I did a water change last Friday (one week ago), have fed the fish Mon & Wed (hardly saw any except the normal rock cover) and now two days later it's covering everything in the tank. The plants are now turning yellow (they've never been the greatest condition because of the green hair algae but were never yellow, just slow growth & fried edges).

Anyone know what it is and how to treat it? Manual removal is difficult without breaking the plants and still leaves them stained afterwards.

65 gallon freshwater tank with mechanical filter pad filtration system, and I add Flourish, Flourish Excel and Flourish Iron (all from Seachem) at times of water change (so one week ago. I have been doing Flourish and Iron treatments for as long as I've had the tank).

Chinese algae eaters will eat this but the true source of issue is light. Either too much light from light strip or a nearby window
Starving it of light will stop its growth
Seachem Excel is a product this algae hates and Will take away its energy source but will cause other plants to grow fast if you have any
Increase water flow a little and assure your nitrates aren’t high

 

[Uzidaisies]

Beard algae. Awful stuff. Excel may improve the situation, if only temporarily. Peroxide will kill it on anything you can take out. You can also use a spray bottle or something directly on the algae while it’s in the water, with either peroxide or Excel, but I’ve found it very difficult to get rid of all of it. Getting other plants to outcompete it may be the best strategy for the long run.

 

[Nick Steele]

I recently just overcame this in my 55 gallon planted tank. Here’s how I did it.

15 mins before a 40% water change i turned all my equipment off (pumps heaters etc) left lights on. I then syringe 60ml of 3% peroxide onto the black beard algae. This caused massive bubbles showing the peroxide was working (pic below). Over a few days it would die off slowly turning grey then white. My Siamese algae eaters would at this time move in and eat the stuff. It took me about 3 weeks to get rid of it all. I had a really bad infestation due to being involved with my reef tank (go figure).

I’ll get a shot of the tank tonight when I get home to show it’s doing good now.