Help, I have let my tank go...

[911mike]

I have been crazy busy the last two months. I performed a water change once in that time. Most of my plants have been uprooted by my plecos, or have been covered in algae and died. My mopai wood drift wood is covered in algae along with the gravel bed. The tank is 75 gallon freshwater, it had 20 or so assorted plants. 2 48" power-glo t8 lights. 2 larger pleco's (who refuse to eat the algae, 5 angel's,15 assorted tetras,5 dannios. I am ready to get back into taking care of them. How do I get the algae under control? I tried using a brush on the driftwood, completely useless. Also a gravel suck does not get it off the gravel bed. I want to plant new plants, but I have to clean it up first. What about Flourish Excel? My plants that I have now have black algae on them and the stuff on the rocks and wood pieces is about 1/2" tall and green in color and stick to the stuff like cement. Thanks for any and all advice.

[EddyTing]

I'm not that experienced but if i were you, I'd try few actions :

1) remove as much algae as I could manually by hand,
2) reduce feeding and at the same time,
3) black out for 3 days and shorter lighting period after that say maybe about 3-4 hours a day.
4) increase water change interval
5) increase CO2 injected into tank

This may take a long period to cure but at least it's a safe and natural way of going about it. Hope this helps....

[911mike]

No co2, Not really sure I understand how to use, or set up a co2 system. I think I would rather go low tech. Also it sounds expensive, co2 bottles, regulators, timers etc. Thanks for the info. I will have make my best attempt to remove the algae today by hand.

[bossteck]

You have any plants attached to your wood?
If not, you might want to remove it and pour some boiling water over it, or soak it in a weak bleach solution. Both would kill the algae making manual removal much easier.

If you decide to use bleach, remember to flush with plenty of water and re-soak the wood in water with PLENTY of anti chlorine solution added. Personally, I recommend boiling water.

[shanexu]

or if you don't mind animals, get a team of amano shrimps =)