How to remove Cladophora algae

[WiNd08]

Hi bros,

I did a search on AQ.com and found few topics related to the Cladophora algae, which I am having problems with now.

The emerged form my gravel due to a silly mistake. I placed my HC together with the sponge into the gravel and all the Cladophora algae from out from there are now it's so difficult to remove them all. Most of them are stuck onto the gravel and some of them are on my moss and hairgrass! They have very adhesive power and when you pull them the gravel comes out along with them!

Do anyone have any idea how to remove them efficiently? I could only find information to balance nutrients & increase/stabilise injection of CO2. I tried the above by rising my CO2 to 4BPS and added another filter to aid in nutrient circulation but to no avail.

They are so fast growing that removal by mechanical means are not efficient and I have to remove them every few days.

[Loopy]

1.) Get a syringe and a needle.
2.) Load it up with Excel (5ML)
3.) Start "shooting" directly in the algae clumps

It "should" help. I did not know I had this problem cause it just stayed on a driftwood. They actually look great if it does not move.

I brought it home from the plant tank at work (without knowing) and guess what; it stayed at the same place for 3 months. And, it is still there!

EDIT & ADD & SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC: I was looking at the pictures of your tank, it is really nice. Love the height, 1.5FT is really the optimal height for planted tanks. Mine is 2FT in height, I wish it was lower. Anyway, what is your sand? It is not a planted tank top right? You have JBL Fert from what you wrote. Anyway, that sand has fouled on me, just watch it closely. You can check with the uncle-owner next to NA (Singapore). He was telling me how bad that white sand was. It is not bioload friendly for some reason. I could be wrong. But hey, just sharing my nightmare.

[WiNd08]

1.) Get a syringe and a needle.
2.) Load it up with Excel (5ML)
3.) Start "shooting" directly in the algae clumps

It "should" help. I did not know I had this problem cause it just stayed on a driftwood. They actually look great if it does not move.

I brought it home from the plant tank at work (without knowing) and guess what; it stayed at the same place for 3 months. And, it is still there!

EDIT & ADD & SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC: I was looking at the pictures of your tank, it is really nice. Love the height, 1.5FT is really the optimal height for planted tanks. Mine is 2FT in height, I wish it was lower. Anyway, what is your sand? It is not a planted tank top right? You have JBL Fert from what you wrote. Anyway, that sand has fouled on me, just watch it closely. You can check with the uncle-owner next to NA (Singapore). He was telling me how bad that white sand was. It is not bioload friendly for some reason. I could be wrong. But hey, just sharing my nightmare.

hey bro, thanks a lot for your help. i will try out with my flourish excel tonight! just have to shoo my shrimps away before whacking i guess.

thanks for your compliments i have much to learn about planted tanks. the gravel im using is Lapis sand, with a layer of GEX green packet below. only problem with them is that the plants (glosso, hairgrass) grow slow on them

[Loopy]

hey bro, thanks a lot for your help. i will try out with
my flourish excel tonight! just have to shoo my shrimps away before whacking i guess.

thanks for your compliments i have much to learn about planted tanks. the gravel im using is Lapis sand, with a layer of GEX green packet below. only problem with them is that the plants (glosso, hairgrass) grow slow on them

With the size of your tank, I think that "shooing" would be good enough for the tank, we have almost the same size tank I like your layout bro, but if you can move that defuser to the left, from the right is my humble suggestion. In fact your tank was the a contributing reason to me revamping my big tank. (again)

The whacking/blasting should work man, so go the guardian and ask for a syringe and needle. It is not said, but every planted-tank aquarist needs one!

Keep us updated. I am sure one of the the old bird veterans will have other valuable input to this.

[WiNd08]

haha, will try to shift the diffuser tonight, as i dont know if my air tube is long enough. lets keep this minimal in this thread to help those who are searching similar solution to this algae problem find their answer without having to sift through other informations

tonight will whack the flourish excel, and luckily i'm working in a lab so i don't need to by my own syringe

[WiNd08]

Tried using excel to ''whack'' the algae last night and manually removed some of them as well.

This are what i observed:

-The strong threads that bundle together break apart leaving behind smaller bundles (i don't know if it's good as they are able to regenerate from smaller strands)
-The adhesive properties of the algae is reduced and they dislodge from the gravels they are stuck on
-No colour or physical change occured to the strands
-Will proceed to use Hydrogen peroxide bombardment tonight if condition persists (thought by a fellow forumer)

Will check tonight and update all you folks out here