# Need help identifying and removing algae from shrimp tank



## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

I've had my 2.5 gallon shrimp tank running for about 3 months now, and i went and made the mistake of adding some water lettuce from my dad's outdoor pond, several days after that, i noticed some fuzzy looking growth on the leaves of my anubias nana, anubias barteria, and amazon sword. The algae is also intangled with my java moss and my marimo ball - its even growing around my dwarf hairgrass - atleast i think its dwarf hairgrass. I was hoping someone would be able to identify the type of algae i have in my tank and provide me with some sort of remedy for my problem. I've tried manually removing the algae but it doesn't work. The only inhabitants of my tank are the plants and my red cherry shrimp. I have about.. 6 adults and roughly 40-50 babies. I run a 13 w desk lamp for 9 hours a day and i regularly change 20-30% of the water every week. Any help is appreciated, thank you.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Removal by twisting the algae around a toothbrush to remove as much as possible.
http://www.guitarfish.org/algae#bga
http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
You can use flourish excel or hydrogen peroxide to eradicate this algae.You may want to take out as many shrimp as possible to another aquarium or container. Use extreme caution with these chemicals.
Try the toothbrush method first and after dose normally with excel to eliminate the algae. This should work.


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

Calmer said:


> Removal by twisting the algae around a toothbrush to remove as much as possible.
> http://www.guitarfish.org/algae#bga
> http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
> You can use flourish excel or hydrogen peroxide to eradicate this algae.You may want to take out as many shrimp as possible to another aquarium or container. Use extreme caution with these chemicals.
> Try the toothbrush method first and after dose normally with excel to eliminate the algae. This should work.


thanks for the help, i've tried manually removing the algae but its also destroying the leaves of my anubias at the same time. And with the chemicals, what affect will they have on my shrimp? Is there some sort of fish like an oto that i can put into the tank that can help with the algae? i was also wondering what kind of algae i have, i think i've narrowed it down to either beard, fuzz or hair algae?


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

You don't mention, I assume not, but are you adding any fertilizers?

A new tank takes time to stabilize, and plants to recover from transplanting. The first thing that comes to mind is that maybe there is not enough nutrient for the amount of plant in that little tank once they settle in and start to grow. Algae can grow in water that is a nutritional desert to a plant and the plant in the left hand side of the tank looks a bit yellow which is often a sign of inadequate nutrient.

How about ammonia? Is that something you have been testing for? Every time I I've had algae that looks like that, my filter was in need of cleaning or something is out of whack leading to a slight build up of ammonia. Compound that with plants that may be starving (which means they stop consuming ammonia) and you have a fairly conducive environment for staghorn algae growth. (That's my best guess as to it's type).

In the meantime, if you are not adding ferts, at least up the water changes to maybe 40-50% 1x per week or 20-30 2x per week. Although I don't do it as often as some preach, I admit this can have miraculous effects on plants when they are suffering.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Your welcome 
That algae does stick to leaves for sure. It looks like hair/thread algae. It does say that Amano shrimps, Rosy barbs and mollies will often eat it. Rosy barbs and mollies may not eat the parents but will eat the babies if there isn't enough cover for them. 
As for Flourish Excel it will be okay for red cherry shrimp if you follow the instructions. I have never had a problem yet. If you dose at recommended levels the algae should go away after a while. Excel has a side effect as an algaecide even at recommended doses except it takes longer. It worked for me with a tank from outside in the green house. The daily dosage is 1ml/10gal. so you would use .25ml per day.
Hydrogen peroxide will also kill the algae and it will bubble to show it is working. http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/algae_peroxide.html


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

Mr Fishies said:


> You don't mention, I assume not, but are you adding any fertilizers?
> 
> A new tank takes time to stabilize, and plants to recover from transplanting. The first thing that comes to mind is that maybe there is not enough nutrient for the amount of plant in that little tank once they settle in and start to grow. Algae can grow in water that is a nutritional desert to a plant and the plant in the left hand side of the tank looks a bit yellow which is often a sign of inadequate nutrient.
> 
> ...


No, i'm not using any fertilizers in this tank. It was initially set up as a npt/walstad tank without filtration, just a powerhead for circulation but that failed. There is a layer of aquatic soil beneath the gravel - could this be a source of the algae problem? I'm also experiencing an issue with live bloodworms which i believe most likely came from some of my plants or the soil that i used for the substrate.

You mentioned that there looks to be a lack of nutrients leading to the yellow plants, is there anyway i could add nutrients without having to rely on fertilizers? because i'm worried that some of them may contain copper which would wipe out my shrimp. I'm also going to follow your advice with the water changes and see if that helps - i refrained from doing too many water changes recently because of the babies that hatched not too long ago. Oh and thanks for your help.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

jon021 said:


> No, i'm not using any fertilizers in this tank. It was initially set up as a npt/walstad tank without filtration, just a powerhead for circulation but that failed. There is a layer of aquatic soil beneath the gravel - could this be a source of the algae problem? I'm also experiencing an issue with live bloodworms which i believe most likely came from some of my plants or the soil that i used for the substrate.
> 
> You mentioned that there looks to be a lack of nutrients leading to the yellow plants, is there anyway i could add nutrients without having to rely on fertilizers? because i'm worried that some of them may contain copper which would wipe out my shrimp. I'm also going to follow your advice with the water changes and see if that helps - i refrained from doing too many water changes recently because of the babies that hatched not too long ago. Oh and thanks for your help.


To my knowledge, commercially available fertilizers don't contain enough copper to hurt your shrimp.

Your algae problem is likely due to too much light, not enough fertilizer and co2.

You can clip off the badly affected anubias leaves - they will grow back.


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

Chris S said:


> To my knowledge, commercially available fertilizers don't contain enough copper to hurt your shrimp.
> 
> Your algae problem is likely due to too much light, not enough fertilizer and co2.
> 
> You can clip off the badly affected anubias leaves - they will grow back.


Would you know whether it is safe for me to use pond lily fertilizer tabs (lily gro by tetra)? I have a large bottle of them which i use for outdoor lilies, i've read the label and it does contain copper sulfate.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

A small bottle of ferts from BA is under $15 - better to bite the bullet than lose all your shrimp


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

jon021 said:


> No, i'm not using any fertilizers in this tank. It was initially set up as a npt/walstad tank without filtration, just a powerhead for circulation but that failed. There is a layer of aquatic soil beneath the gravel - could this be a source of the algae problem? I'm also experiencing an issue with live bloodworms which i believe most likely came from some of my plants or the soil that i used for the substrate.


I missed the fact that you have a submerged soil substrate. When you say "aquatic soil", you mean garden or potting soil, not pond potting media right? Don't add ferts if you have soil, the soil will feed your plants at the roots, so ferts in the water are not needed. Soil based tanks can get kind of erratic in the first few months after being set up since soils all have different makeup depending on the compost, loam, peat, etc in the vendors mix that particular day. I would turn up the frequency of water changes for a few weeks, that will help clear the tank of any excessive leaching from the soil.

I've never had issues with worms from soil before, where did you obtain the soil? I notice it looks like you may have more soil (.75 -1 inch) than gravel (.5 inches) is this what I see? That's a lot of soil for that volume of tank if so...with that plus worms you might have a long painful battle ahead of you that would make a tear down (especially of such a small tank) a much less painful route. Let's not go there yet...

Since you want to do something about the algae in the tank now, the only thing I would try in addition to the water changes is to use hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to treat the anubias and shells etc, outside the tank since they are easily removed and shouldn't stir up much soil.

Using drugstore variety 3% peroxide, bathing the leaves with flow from a pipette or syringe for a few seconds like you would a cut will destroy the alage and you can rinse and put the plants back in the tank. The algal cell walls will start to fizz and be oxidized/destroyed by the H2O2 making it much easier for your shrimp to eat...even the thick stuff will disappear. The plants however have a much tougher skin and as long as you don't leave them soaking for minutes, should be fine.

If cleaning up the anubias and water changes don't help enough in the next week or so, you can consider treating the plants remaining in the tank with H2O2. I've done this with mature cherry shrimp in a 7G, but with baby shrimp in a 2.5G I have no idea what a safe ratio of H2O2 to tank water would be and you'd need to proceed very slowly.

I want to help, but I'd hate to harm the shrimp. If anything makes you feel concerned for your shrimp, by all means, don't proceed, ask more questions.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

[email protected] won't be an effective method to weaken the algae in your pico - the peroxide will kill off all the shrimp before it has an appreciable effect on the algae.

If it's possible, I know as unfortunate as it might seem, the easiest thing is probably to tear the tank down - it's hard enough to battle algal issues in larger easier to maintain tanks that enjoy greater stability and more margin for error. Since it's so new and small, I'd just start over, IMO.


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

Mr Fishies said:


> I missed the fact that you have a submerged soil substrate. When you say "aquatic soil", you mean garden or potting soil, not pond potting media right? Don't add ferts if you have soil, the soil will feed your plants at the roots, so ferts in the water are not needed. Soil based tanks can get kind of erratic in the first few months after being set up since soils all have different makeup depending on the compost, loam, peat, etc in the vendors mix that particular day. I would turn up the frequency of water changes for a few weeks, that will help clear the tank of any excessive leaching from the soil.
> 
> I've never had issues with worms from soil before, where did you obtain the soil? I notice it looks like you may have more soil (.75 -1 inch) than gravel (.5 inches) is this what I see? That's a lot of soil for that volume of tank if so...with that plus worms you might have a long painful battle ahead of you that would make a tear down (especially of such a small tank) a much less painful route. Let's not go there yet...
> 
> ...


you mentioned that tearing down the tank being an easier and safer method of dealing with the hair algae, i've decided to do that and at the same time upgrade to a 10 gallon. I think i may be using the hair algae as an excuse to upgrade but i think it would be best for the shrimp anyways and to answer your question regarding the soil, i used pond potting soil for the tank because i thought it would be less messy but i don't think it contains the nutrients that the plants require. I do have a bag of worm castings that i got from my dad's friend who owns a worm farm -would it be a good idea to mix it into the pond potting soil and then use it in the tank? or should i just forget the soil altogether and use a full gravel substrate and rely on plant fertilizers? I'm aiming for a lush and heavily planted tank, so which would be the best route for me?


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## shanexu (Jul 3, 2009)

i have that on my nana too, seems like they like growing on nana. my cherry shrimps seems to be taking them off bit by bit because my baby cherries spend most of their time on the leaves now adays, and they are getting lesser


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

shanexu said:


> i have that on my nana too, seems like they like growing on nana. my cherry shrimps seems to be taking them off bit by bit because my baby cherries spend most of their time on the leaves now adays, and they are getting lesser


Yea, i've noticed my cherry shrimp picking at the algae growth on the nana, but i remember reading somewhere that the shrimp will only eat the smaller strands but will not touch the longer strands.


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## shanexu (Jul 3, 2009)

hmmm maybe. i'm not too sure about that.... but one thing the shrimps don't seem to touch is the algae growing on my glass.


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

jon021 said:


> Yea, i've noticed my cherry shrimp picking at the algae growth on the nana, but i remember reading somewhere that the shrimp will only eat the smaller strands but will not touch the longer strands.


Bigger algae is too tough for their tiny little jaws. IME, if you treat the nanas outside your tank with H2O2 all the algae will start to die off, soften up and the shrimp will be able to eat it all.


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## shanexu (Jul 3, 2009)

i just picked up an amano shrimp. its a little bigger than an inch. it is so interesting to watch, it is SO active. hopefully it'll eat the hair algae too =)


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

shanexu said:


> i just picked up an amano shrimp. its a little bigger than an inch. it is so interesting to watch, it is SO active. hopefully it'll eat the hair algae too =)


Let me know how it goes, i might need a couple amanos mysef if my hair algae problem comes back in the new tank. Good luck with yours.


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## shanexu (Jul 3, 2009)

jon021 said:


> Let me know how it goes, i might need a couple amanos mysef if my hair algae problem comes back in the new tank. Good luck with yours.


hair algae reduced visibly!
i've added one 1.5inch amano to my 2.5 gallon shrimp tank

good results =)


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