There's black fuzz on my aquarium plants. Any ideas what it is?

Question

I have a fresh water aquarium. The plants are bamboo and they get plenty of light and fertilizer. What is it?! How do I get rid of it?!

Answer 1

Bamboo is not an aquatic plant. It can survive submerged for a while, but eventually it will start to rot. But if it's fuzzy and your plant is obviously not dying yet, then that is black beard algae (aka BBA or red algae)
http://www.plantgeek.net/articles/gg_algae_faq/bba3.jpg

The reason you're getting it is too much light and too much fertilizer, probably. Reduce your photoperiod (the amount of time your light is on) to about 8-9 hours per day. You should not have to feed your plants very much - fish waste provides adequate fertilizer for most plants. If you must fertilize, do so sparingly. BBA and other algaes are often fueled by excess nutrients in the water. What the plants can't eat, the algae will, and they will thrive.

BBA is tough to manually remove. You can try to get some off. Once your stop the algae growing, it will stop spreading, but what is there will not die. You can leave it there if you dont' mind it, or remove your plants and wipe the area with a Q-tip dipped in hydrogen peroxide; it won't always work, but it'll help. Worst case scenario, dunk your plant quickly a solution 19:1 water:bleach. Your plant won't look too pretty after, and frankly I would not do it to bamboo, but the new growth will be algae-free.

If you want to venture into CO2, you can help your plants even more. They use CO2, the more you have in the tank, the better (within reason). You can buy pressurized CO2, but that's expensive and unnecessary for a small tank. You can also DIY
http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html
It's pretty easy. If you don't feel up to that, you can buy them pre-made at the petstore. They work the same way but cost 30-50$.

Note that most algae eaters (plecos etc) will not touch BBA. Chinese algae eaters have been known to munch on it when they are babies, but they rapidly grow into aggressive, 6"+ carnivores, and I don't advise getting one for the purpose of eating your algae because it will stop eating algae in a few months.

Answer 2

If the bamboo is fully submerged, then it might be mold. Bamboo is very tricky to keep in an aquarium, and if it is molding try taking it out, cleaning it off and seeing if it will survive in a vase (think of the 'Lucky Bamboo' you see sold everywhere) for about two weeks without more black stuff.

Answer 3

Hey if it looks like dark brown/black fuzz it is most likely black brush algae...it is a pain to get rid of and very hard to remove by hand. I had some SAE's (siamese algae eaters) and they nibbled at it but now ignore it. From my limited experience it is very hard to get rid of but very slow growing....you might try removing the affected leaves.

Answer 4

Why is your basic on at nighttime? Your tank needs to have a nighttime cycle and preserving the basic on in the course of the nighttime receives rid of this. till you've actual flowers, the ambient room basic must be adequate for you fish in the course of the day. in no way go away the basic on at the same time as your dozing at nighttime. As has already been reported, it truly is maximum in all possibility a broom or purple algae. besides to eliminating the food it truly is utilizing to boost (extra nitrates, phosphates, and basic - Do water alterations and turn that straightforward off) you'll favor to proceed to get it off your plastic flowers and different kit if it shows up there. regrettably, how you may attempt this, and kill the spores, is with a bleach wash. purely make extra particular that you've rinsed this stuff with water many times till there isn't any extra bleach. the best element is that bleach is basic to sniff so that you'll keep rinsing till you are able to't scent it anymore then rinse it some extra circumstances to be secure. Then rinse lower back with declorinated water before putting lower back contained in the tank. putting it in a bucket of water and including dechlorinator will be even more effective. for sure, this procedure will kill all constructive micro organism outfitted up on the outdoors of even with you sparkling in this manner, so in case you want to sparkling the clear out in this manner (i wish it truly is purely the flowers and in no way the clear out), then attempt this well-known and wait some days before doing significant water alterations. with any luck the clear out is positive and also you in problem-free words favor to do the water alterations and the plastic flowers.

Answer 5

Algae. Go to the pet store and buy some algae killer. Make sure that you get one that is safe for your type of fish and any live plants that you have!

Answer 6

algae...get an algae eater fish or a snail, they work wonders!