# Dark algae on plants



## destructo (Aug 12, 2009)

I have noticed that there is a bunch of dark (almost black) looking algae on my green crypt and water wisteria (pic above) just wondering what kind it is and what to do about it. I have a SAE but he doesn't seem to eat it


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## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

SAE should eat it, try snails? I get that too since I have high lighting with no CO2. Im getting some SAE and snails to take care of it.


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## bluegill (Jan 5, 2010)

what kind of snails ??
my chinese golden algae eater is not doing a very good job after a month.


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## destructo (Aug 12, 2009)

Philip.Chan.92 said:


> SAE should eat it, try snails? I get that too since I have high lighting with no CO2. Im getting some SAE and snails to take care of it.


I have a t5 lighting but I guess its not considered "high" and I use Excel. 
I would rather stay away from snails if I could.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

How large is your tank, and how much T5 lighting do you have over it?


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## destructo (Aug 12, 2009)

Darkblade48 said:


> How large is your tank, and how much T5 lighting do you have over it?


35gal with a Corallife T5 36" 44Watt


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## RaidZero (Jun 15, 2008)

I have the exact same algae on some slow growing plants, and my SAE will not touch them, but will rather die of hunger.


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## Philip.Chan.92 (Apr 25, 2010)

Chinese algae eaters don't do the greatest jobs, don't feed too much and your SAE will definitely eat the algae. Snails are great in my opinion, get Malaysian Trumpet Snails, they eat algae all night long, they are small, they hide during the day so you won't even know they're there. What's not to like? They don't have a population explosion unless you are severely overfeeding, they only breed when there is an excess in food. If they do get too numerous, cut down on the feedings and the snails' population will decline.


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## RaidZero (Jun 15, 2008)

My SAE won't, and it's a SAE according to http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/ . I had 3 of these guys, but 2 jumped out. They were eating other algae, just not these ones.


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

I agree whoever said "snails". I am thinking that the solution isn't to get a particular stem of plant cleaned, but rather find a way to grow it out so it explodes on you, and then put the clean stuff in your show tank. I am having this same issue, and I have decided (during summertime) to attempt a daylight outdoor grow-out tank. The healthy results of this "harvest" will go into my show tank. Basically, as long as that kind of algae is growing on my plants, I am pretty sure that the tank will keep doing exactly that, over time.
If you have no shrimp, try dosing Excel. 

I recently gave up on a tank where algae took over. I changed to a proper planted tank substrate, radically restocked (got all the large fish Outta there), and now things seem balanced and this algae is not returning or taking over. I do have MTS and ramshorns in there, and both are beneficial in my tank.


W


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

In your picture it looks brown?

You say it is close to black? is it close-to-black with blue hues?

I had a similar outbreak in my tank while trying to get algae growth for my stiphodons. I thought it was cyanobacteria. 

The best thing I did was to clip those plant stems. I still have growth on some plants, but it's better there than all over.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

It looks like black-beard algae.
If there is no a lot of that algae on plants, cut 'infected' leaves and branches. Try to remove or clear everything that covered with the algae.


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

igor.kanshyn said:


> It looks like black-beard algae.
> If there is no a lot of that algae on plants, cut 'infected' leaves and branches. Try to remove or clear everything that covered with the algae.


I don't see a beard on that algae at all.. it looks rather flat and 'glued' to the leaf surface.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

You want an army of amano shrimp. A couple of red with black spot nerite snails and a bushynose pleco will round it out.


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

BettaBeats said:


> I don't see a beard on that algae at all.. it looks rather flat and 'glued' to the leaf surface.


I guess it's a young black-beard 
I haven't seen other types of black algae. But I can be wrong.


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