This is amazing I have never seen someone find a problem they have and experiment like this to get rid of it I love it this is exactly what I’m interested in
Thanks for doing the research and putting your findings out here for us! This looks just like what my dad’s tank has, but all I could find online was red slime algae, beard algae, and diatoms.
This algae has been in my family's tanks for literal decades. We got it from a local pet store. My grandma has "never had luck" with plants, no matter how hard she tried to take care of them. Now I have my own planted tank, and my plants are alive but definitely suffering - so I think you're really onto something there. Going to try this method and keep my eye out for your next method.🤞
Just take out the fish! I'm having some success holding the 55 gallon at 6.75 pH while some of my nice Koi Angelfish are in it. I've got a lot of reason to not mess up there.
@@FishyReview ok thx. Not sure my tank can recover, there is so much of the stuff it's like the sides are painted in it, .like can't even see the glass anymore. Took the fish out a long time ago but it would be nice if I could get this tank usable again.
I have had this algae for years now. It loves to grow from the bottom up, underneath the sand and then right up the side. I had been using a double edge razor blade to remove it, in long sheets. Extremely annoying and it gets all over the plants as well. Ugly red circular blotches on the anubias leaves Thanks for this tip. I only have 2 tanks and both are impacted by the algae, so I guess I'll have to put all the fish in a 5 gallon pail. Would ph down also kill the beneficial bacteria in the filters? I hope not. Also, how do I raise the PH back up, before putting the fish in?
I think you would have to move the fish to a cycled tank because they would have to be in the bucket too long. Lowering the pH into the 3s might hurt the beneficial bacteria. I let that 20 gallon tank slowly ramp back up to having fish again over a couple of weeks. This is a harsh treatment but it works.
I have to ask did you try removing everything from the tank and then turning the tank dark for a week or so? I feel that wouldn’t hurt anything in the tank except kill all the algae and this way there would be no risk at all when adding fish back.
I haven't tried that, but I thought about it. One problem would be that you would have to really black out the tank. I bet this stuff can go a while without light. I still have it in some tanks and I'll try that whenever I get where I have somewhere else to put the fish.
Other than taking all my fish out how do I drop the PH without killing mu fish? Also if I did empty my tank of fish and brought them back into would they not bring it back in with them??
You can only drop the pH so far without affecting your fish, especially if you have fish that need high pH, such as mbunas. I haven’t found another way to clear this stuff. That 55 gallon still has it, but it’s not thriving. I have a lot of Java moss and a lot of filtration and the algae has been slowly losing. I have angels and plecos in there that could handle a 5.5 pH but I haven’t lowered it that far yet. I don’t think the fish would carry it back in after moving them. It hasn’t returned to the 20 gal tank.
