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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

BLACK HAIR ALGAE

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05 Apr 2006 14:46 #1 by lampeye (lampeye)
Hello everyone,
Black algae is taking over in my overstocked planted SA tank. Ive reduced the hours of light to 8 (yest) and also plan on reducing the tropica mastergrow doses. Any other ways to reduce it/get rid of it?
i donyt want to add a siamese flying fox as they get too big and like i said its pretty full.

thanks in advance

lampeye

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  • Tumblina (Tumblina)
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05 Apr 2006 15:29 #2 by Tumblina (Tumblina)
Replied by Tumblina (Tumblina) on topic Re: BLACK HAIR ALGAE
More regular water changes will help and check how much you are feeding, over feeding make it grow. High nitrates and phosphate cause this horrible growth. A blade is good for getting it off glass and flat surfaces, but getting it off ornaments is beyond me I can't belive there isn't a treatment out there that you can dip your stuff into to knock it off! Its tough stuff, good luck.

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06 Apr 2006 03:06 #3 by lampeye (lampeye)
actually i think its called brush algae. im doing 25 per cent wchanges every 3 days already, nitrites are always 10 or below, and i feed them twice a day (4 discus, 25 cardinals, 6 hatchetfish, 3 apisto agazzizi, 1 ansistrus). usually nls flake or nls discus granules or tetra prima in the day and beefheart or bs or bloodworm at night (prob every 2nd night)

Its all over the plants and bogwood,,,pain in the hole!! :lol:

lampeye

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06 Apr 2006 03:25 #4 by monty (monty)
Replied by monty (monty) on topic Re: BLACK HAIR ALGAE
The fish solution for me is Otocinclus (Otos). Since I put a small group of them in my tank I've never looked back as they clear algae off everything as well as the plants.

However for you, not being able to put in more fish I'd keep at the regular water changes and stop the mastergrow doses until you have it in check. The fact that this is getting out of hand shows there are plenty of nutrients there for the other plants anyway and that they are not using them all.

Monty.

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06 Apr 2006 03:59 #5 by lampeye (lampeye)
will do monty,
yeah i heard ottos can attach themselves to discus anyway so thats not an option...thanks a mill for your quick responses

:shock:

lampeye

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06 Apr 2006 04:43 #6 by monty (monty)
Replied by monty (monty) on topic Re: BLACK HAIR ALGAE
Siamese algae eaters I believe are the main culprits when it comes to attaching to Discus. I have my Otos in with my 5 Discus - no problems.

best of luck

Monty

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  • conor (conor)
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14 Apr 2006 03:22 #7 by conor (conor)
Replied by conor (conor) on topic Re: BLACK HAIR ALGAE
There are two main contributors to algae growth (fresh & salt)

1. Nitrate
2. Phosphate

Both can be removed with water changes, as you are doing. So why now try
"Elimi-Phos" from Tropic Marin. I use it in my marine tank and it works treat. The only algae I have is the stuff I want : coraline algae.

You may also wish to try other chemical filtrtion such as carbon & zeolite.

Regrds
Conor.

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19 Apr 2006 12:28 #8 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: BLACK HAIR ALGAE
Hair algae is an absolute nightmare.
I had it for ages in my tank.I go it when I put those sticks that you place at an angle in the sand.In the end I ripped them out added some bristle nose and queen nugggets and it is gone now. I had to stop using the plant food I was using too. Phosphate is the main culprit and most algea eating(Limavores) will not eat hair algae.
Remove any branches/leaves that have the algae too.
Hope you get rid of it.

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15 May 2006 12:55 #9 by arabesque (Mick Veale)
you said you had to stop using the plantfood
what were you using.. tropica stuff?
how often were you fertilizing?

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15 May 2006 13:23 #10 by lampeye (lampeye)
yeah the tropica stuff...once a week, dont think i was overfeeding...although maybe cos there wasn't a huge amount of plants... (11)

since i ve reduced the lights it has gotten better but there is still a lot there

lampeye

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15 May 2006 13:29 #11 by georgina (georgina)
Replied by georgina (georgina) on topic Re: BLACK HAIR ALGAE
i'm feeling your pain panda, my tank is wrecked with black hair algae, its a disaster, I've also cut down on the hours of light and doing regular water changes, but i've only started recently so havent noticed anything yet! Its a bloody disaster :(

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15 May 2006 14:20 #12 by conor (conor)
Replied by conor (conor) on topic Re: BLACK HAIR ALGAE
Test for phosphate & nitrate, and post the results.

I bet they are high and fuelling the algae. :cry:

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15 May 2006 14:38 #13 by lampeye (lampeye)
dont have a phosphate tester but the nitrates are 5ppm

lampeye

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15 May 2006 14:41 #14 by conor (conor)
Replied by conor (conor) on topic Re: BLACK HAIR ALGAE
5 initrate is very good. What about the other parameters?

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15 May 2006 14:51 #15 by lampeye (lampeye)
ph 6.7
amonia/nitrite 0

lampeye

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15 May 2006 14:58 #16 by conor (conor)
Replied by conor (conor) on topic Re: BLACK HAIR ALGAE
Again, perfect. You are doing nothing wrong.

I would get some amano shrimp, I have personal experience using them to clear hair algae from my little desktop tank in work.

And the water there is really bad - currently populated by 1 plant & 5 amano's.

Both phosphate & nitrate levels are dire (I've been meaning for 5 weeks to do a complete water change!), and yet there is zero algae!

Amano shrimp, suck em and see :wink:

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