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Thread: Scum!!!

  1. #1
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    Scum!!!

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    Having successfully (fingers' crossed) battled BBA, BGA and their like until they become 'Blue Black Algae', a different problem has confronted me in the past month.

    Returning after a 10 tens absence overseas, I found my 3 ft tank rather overrun by a black scumy substance, which accumulates on leaf edges as well as on the surface. It easily disperses when the leaf is shaken, and floats to the surface. Some have guessed it to be BGA, but it has no stench and the feel is different (unless it's a type I haven't encountered before).

    I have to shake off the scum and net it out every few days, and even after 50-60% water changes, the stuff starts to reappear on leaf edges within a day. No adverse effect on plants and fishes is apparent., but it looks like ****. The current setup is about 8 months old, and the problem appeared only this month.

    Tank details are as follows: pH circa 6.5, KH 4, lighting 1.5 wpg, Substrate = ADA Aquasoil, PowerSand + Root Monster, 40% water changes fortnightly with addition of 10 mg/l NO3, 2 mg/l PO4, 30 mg/l K, Tropica MasterGrow, (with additional dose weekly). Plants mostly crypts, ferns, anubias, mosses.

    Any ideas?

  2. #2
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    I suspect that it might be some kind of diatoms. The only diatoms I experienced was brown algae which loosely attached itself to leaves of my plants when my tank was very young (about 2-3 weeks from setup). I did not know what I did, they disappeared by themselves.

    BC

  3. #3
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    Budak, something seems to be running out for algae to appear though. Does the peat effect of the ADA aquasoil still there? Can you be sure your CO2 is really high and good for the entire photoperiod? Maybe 10ppm of NO3, 1ppm of PO4, 10-20ppm of K and 20ml of TMG (assuming tank is 3ftx2ftx2ft though) once a week is better with 50% water change at the end of the week. During the prunning and trimming of the tank, try to remove all the algae and add back plants if the amount of plant mass drops a lot.

    Regards
    Peter Gwee
    Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger

  4. #4
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    I have been maintaining this Co2 level for 3-4 months, during which BBA has disappeared. I change water fortnightly, but the dosing of NPK+traces is weekly. It doesn't look like diatoms though, bclee.

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