Plants covered in Algae - Help

[TxBabyCat]

I just got a new 30g tank for me, but it was set up already at the guys house. We tore it down and brought it home last night. The tank was covered in Algae and the fantastic plant he had in there growing on the driftwood, the algae is almost covered the whole plant. I cant even rub it off the leaves it so thick. The name of the plant is anubias nana. I read about all the remedies you can buy, but is there a way I can get the algae off the plants like before I set them back up in the tank? Can I do a bleach dip on them before even putting them back in the tank? How much do ya use? Or is there some other remedy I can do outside the tank?

[Brackish_Zygote]

If you give a better description of the algae, we might be able to help more.

Are you looking for something to do right before you put them back into the tank as well as a treatment meathod while they are in the tank, or do you not have anyway of treating the algae?

[TxBabyCat]

Here are some pictures of it. And yes, I am looking for a way today to treat it before I put it in the tank. I dont have anything chemical to treat it with. Also I think I will need to be treating it afterwards due to the tank being heavily infested. I cleaned everything real good and scrubbed until 1:00 am last night, and sure I didnt get it all, so I am sure there will be some fighting of the algae while the tank is running.

[greytdobe]

when mine get too nasty, i just rinse them under the tap and rub it off with my fingers or a soft toothbrush. If it's not bad, i just leave it alone.

[Dr. Awkward]

Just stick it in a bucket of water and put it the the closet or somewhere dark for three days. The algae will die and you'll have a clean plant.

[rolloffhill]

If you do the bleach dip method IIRC it is 4:1 (4 parts water to 1 part bleach) Anubias can be submerged up to 3:00 minutes. After that immediately submerge it in a dechlor bucket. Heavy on the dechlorinator. It looks like it could be BBA. If it is after you dip it and dechlor the algae will turn red. You more than likely won't scrub it off even after its dead. The stuff is just so tough and nasty it is hard to remove.

[glostik]

I would leave the algae on the plant and put it in my fish tank.

my fish would eat that algae off in a heartbeat

[Typical Tony]

if all that dont work. you can just cut off the leaves. i do it to mine they grow back pretty fast.

[TxBabyCat]

Ok I decided to leave the algae alone, set up the tank. Went to the LFS tio find something for it and he told me that the bleach could hurt the anubias and to just treat it slowly and that also the ottos would eat it off. It is a very dark green algae and doesnt rub off.

The tank came with 2 emerald catfish, 3 large yellow spotted loaches, 4 ottos, a male betta and 6 shrimp. Since the tank was so covered in algae, maybe the ottos can consentrate on the plants now. I also have some Mollies I can put in there.

I had just hoped there was a quick miracle thing to get the algae off..LOL Shows ya how much I know..LOL

[Typical Tony]

what you can also do now is limit the amount of light time and feed the fishes a little less so they will have to resort to eating the algae and less light will prevent the algae from gettin its nutrients.

[TxBabyCat]

Thanks I will try that also.

[rolloffhill]

Ok I decided to leave the algae alone, set up the tank. Went to the LFS tio find something for it and he told me that the bleach could hurt the anubias and to just treat it slowly and that also the ottos would eat it off. It is a very dark green algae and doesnt rub off.



<----have done it multiple times with no ill affects...

[Kathy]

<----have done it multiple times with no ill affects...

Me too. Anubias can handle bleach dippings pretty well. However, there are other plants that will melt. I've learned to do a test dip on one or two stems to see the effects. If it's BBA, don't waste your money...go for the bleach dip.

[TxBabyCat]

They are in the tank and the ottos are constantly cleaning them as well as the shrimp, dont see them as much, but have seen them eating it. Also the mollies are picking at it. It all seems to be ok for now, I can see some improvment on the leaves.

If it seems or gets to be a problem, then I will take them out and do the bleach dip.. thanks everyone.

[pam916]

what you can also do now is limit the amount of light time and feed the fishes a little less so they will have to resort to eating the algae and less light will prevent the algae from gettin its nutrients.

x2

[niko]

That looks like green encrusting algae. You cannot remove them from the Anubias. Your only hope is to starve them somehow. The suggestion to lower the light and feed the fish is good, but done by itself will not do much to that kind of algae. Your biofilter must be working really well for these algae to fall on hard times.

So lower the light, feed the fish less, but also clean your biofilter if you haven't done that recently. It will greatly help if you increase the amount of Oxygen in the tank too (it boosts the biofilter).

Just for you to know - Anubias is damn close to a cast iron plant. I've had an Anubias in a black plastic bag, the bag in a trash bin with a lid, for 4 months. The Anubias even made a new leaf in the bag! Summer heat killed it. Truly a hardy plant if emersed (in a humid environment with no water) , but under water it can act different. Still - low light will not harm it.

--Nikolay

[TxBabyCat]

Ok I have tried feeding them less, the amano shrimps, ottos and some new golden algae eaters just cant keep up with it. Now the tank has been set up 2 1/2 weeks and now all the sides of the tank are getting the algae back. We can scrape it off the glass and then its back in 2 days. I've cleaned the bio-filter too. And we been keeping the light off during the day. Nothing is helping. What can I do now?

[REYREY]

have you tried to increase the light??? I mean wattage ... not lenght of time???

Alsoo... how old is the bulb???

[TxBabyCat]

It came with the tank, so not sure on the age of the bulb. It is a double bended flouresent type bulb. It lights it up pretty good. There is a 700 stamped on the bulb, other then that we dont know the wattage. If it is 700, that is way too high isnt it?

Well, we trimmed a lot of the leaves off of the anubias nanas, took the plants off the driftwood, cleaned it real good with a brush, turned the driftwood in a different direction, finding it looks pretty cool. Then we put the trimmed nanas on it. We have also scraped most of the algae off of the glass again.
So we will see if it helps getting all those really dark leaves encrusted with the algae. Looking it up, we found some beard algae it might be or one I found called green dot. Dont know for sure, maybe both.

[TxBabyCat]

Here is what it looks like after we trimmed the plant of the highly
infested leaves and scrubbed the driftwood and placed it in
there differently and reattached the plants.

[masroberts9]

this maybe a stupid question, but how did you clean the biofilter? you are supposed to just rinse in tank water. dunk it a few times.

[TxBabyCat]

Oh I just rinsed it under the faucet a couple times, it didnt even
look dirty. I was careful not to break it, it seems delicate.