Unknown stuff growing on plants - please help identify

[ottawa_fry22]

Hey everyone,

Could anyone tell me what this stuff is on my plants before it gets any worse and how to get rid of it please? And what could possibly be the cause of this? Never seen this stuff before in my life. Doesnt seem to be harming the plants like beard algae does. I still dont have co2 and all the dry ferts yet unfortunately. I have powder equilibrium which is working decently. I have my light on no more than 10 hours and on a timer. Note, I also have a submersed UV sterilizer and have not added any new plants for a long time. My nitrate level read between 5-10 on the Nutrafin liquid test..light pink color. But my 2 canister filters I just cleaned were very mucky which of course caused a loss of a fish from infection. Of curse I understand that could be the cause from this strange stuff growing. The filters are clean now and I now made a note book to keep track of when I do water changes an filter maintenance as I dont have a good memory or sense of time on those things.

So anyone have a name for this stuff? Very strange to me. Please let me know what I should do. I have been pinching some of it off. Removing very little leaves. Oh and I need to scrub my powerheads and input outputs as they have some hair/beard algae always growing on them but not sure if that means anything with this odd stuff growing.

Thank you.

[daworldisblack]

Looks like green thread algae. You can use a toothbrush to manually take it out and might want to look into proper co2 and ferts. 10hrs is a long photoperiod. Keep it to 6-8 hrs perhaps and that could help.

[wrm130]

It looks too thick for thread algae....I'm gonna say staghorn.

[exv152]

I agree with daworldisblack. What you have appears to be one of the many types of filamentous algae that falls under the category of thread algae. These are usually connected to low co2 and low nutrients. Liquid carbon and some ferts would most likely help.

[magnosis]

It looks too thick for thread algae....I'm gonna say staghorn.

Staghorn is more of a greyish color... At least that which I had in my tanks.

I say Green Thread or Green Hair algae, I can't tell without a scale on the picture. Hair is .. hair sized and messy. Thread is a bit thicker.  Look at my gallery for nasty samples.

Siamese Algae Eaters, Otocinclus and even my tuxedo platties will feast on it.
Unstable CO2 and high ammonia are typical causes.

Liquid carbon can help but may hurt (if not melt) some plants especially the finer stemmed ones.

Use H2O2 (hydrogen peroxyde 90% solution, 2$ at the drugstore) as a last resort, though very effective treatment.
- First remove all you can mechanically (twist a toothbrush on it, works wonders)
- 2-5 ml H2O2 / galon of water at most, 3 days in a row. Doze locally right on affected areas with a syringe.
- Clean leftovers mechanically.
- 50-70% water change

[fischkopp]

Staghorn. Up the CO2 or reduce light intensity.

[ottawa_fry22]

Thanks for the help everyone. I never heard of that type before but its good to know now. Yes I still do need co2 pressurized system and a trip out to Kanata R&R Hydroponics to get my dry ferts. So far the plants are looking much bright and more growth since I cleaned out the filters. So I suppose better flow was achieved after and more bubbles/pearling of the plants. Yes there could have been a possibility of a small ammonia spike as I had a small twig cat that disappeared and couldnt find the body..I know for sure nothing ate it. Hopefully this month I will get out to get the ferts.

[sas]

If you don't want to go all the way to Ottawa, try calling this store in Renfrew.

Sweet Hydroponic Gardens
776 Bruce St.,
613-433-9600

I'm pretty sure he carries the dry ferts or can order them in.

Glad to hear you're making headway and your plants are looking happier.

[angelcraze]

Liquid carbon and some ferts would most likely help.

Yes, a type of filamentous algae, staghorn, hair, thread, it's an algae and is rid of in the same manner.  If you didn't want to get a pressurized C02 system right away, there is a product called 'Flourish Exel' which is liquid carbon as mentioned above.  I have read that some people even squirt this stuff on the algae itself, but I would suggest researching it, since overdosing is strongly advised against and as magnosis posted, it can even melt some leaves, but I think it might be more direct dosing, cause I have had no problems dosing my whole tank.

A friend also told me that amano shrimp in particular love to chow on filamentous algae.  Not so much the dwarf shrimp, but apparently the larger amanos cleaned this problem up quickly in his tank.

Definitely reduce your photoperiod to 8hrs for a while, or even look into a split photoperiod, although I have never tried this myself, or know how it works.