Black brush algae in my tank.

dave56

Right!! You need to figure out what your tank is getting too much of. The excel is a temporary fix, not a cure.

Byron

Brush algae is the only problem algae I normally see, and it is caused by excessive light. Increasing nutrients beyond what the plants can use will also trigger it, but usually it is the light that controls it.

I used to see it increase in the summer months, until I figured out that the increased light coming into the room during the longer/brighter days was the cause. Keeping the windows well covered solved this for the past two summers.

Once the tank is balanced (light, plants, fish, feeding of fish and plants) the light duration is the control.

Byron.

FuelingFire

Well i have black out curtains and they stay closed i don't open them up very often. but it could be from my room light. after the tank light goes off..

Byron

My point with the summer light was just to show how light can affect brush algae. Not suggesting yours is due to that.

But what is the tank light? And how long is it on? What size tank? What fertilizers are being added and how often?

FuelingFire

The tank is 55g light is two t8 6500k daylight bulbs. on for 8 hrs and the fertilizer is floraPride.

Byron

I would reduce the light duration by an hour a day. Monitor for a couple weeks. What you are looking for is no further increase in the algae; what is there will not go away, but if it does not spread, then you have it under control.

But perhaps before the above, you might want to change fertilizers. Tetra's FloraPride allegedly contains "a combination of nutrients" but they only mention potassium and iron, so I am suspicious. Flourish Comprehensive Supplement or Brightwell Aquatics' FlorinMulti are complete and balanced.

I mention the ferts because plants can only out-compete algae for nutrients if they have all they need and the light is balanced.

Byron.

FuelingFire

Yeah i just started on the flora pride last week i was using NutraFin Plant Gro Aquatic Plant Essential Micro-Nutrients. But i ran out. and it had copper in it. and from what i read my shrimp can't have copper.

Byron

The Nutrafin Plant-Gro is better than the FloraPride. It has several nutrients. I've not used it, but from what I can tell it should be better. But you use a lot of it. Flourish Comprehensive is highly concentrated, so while it may seem more expensive, you use so little it last longer. And it is complete.

The amount of copper in these preparations is no where near sufficient to cause problems for invertebrates or fish. Provided you don't overdose of course. You may well have far more copper in your tap water.

Byron.

FuelingFire

Well honestly that makes more since then what i have been reading. I will certianly go back to the other. I know with florapride it says to dose after every water change or once a month. I normaly do it after a water change. my plants are healthy. And so far the BBA is only on one plant so I'm not stressing to bad about that. as long as i can keep it under control.