Freshwater Tank, nasty beard algae high hardness!?

Question

I have only a few fish, guppys, neons, cory cats. 150 Gal tank with slate rock, gravel and sand. Live plants (one type, momo?) Fern like straight growing, 74" max. I had an issue with algae, first thin black then green then thick spongy green, now thin and thick green with the bearded brown on EVERYTHING.
Water test says, Nitrate is 0, Nitrite is 0, Hardness is 120ppm, Alka/Buff is 120ppm, pH is looking like 8.4, Ammonia is 0.
Ugh......Am I going Brackish?! What do I do. Add pHMinus? then what? I can buy fish,shrimp and plants for the algae issue as well as scrubbing, but dude, whats up with my water! Could extra conditioner help this? My main issue was and acted like Nitrate issues, but does not seem to be it.

The Green algae began as the famous Blue Green then evolved into the Hairy Brown. Bubbles lover to stick to it, they get to the size of BB pellets! Rocks are not fizzling, and the plants only get the air bubbles stuck to them, mild algae if any. The glass only gets the paper thin green algae. I do use Phos-X, granted only enough for a 30 Gal tank. However it does cut down on the odor. Yucky pond! The hard water/pH and such would make sense to why newly added fish pop up dead within a couple days...I just don't want to be limited by the hardy Goldfish being the only thing able to survive this! lol Oh, my lights are on for 4 hours, and I feed only once a day, 1/2 tsp of granules and 1/2 flake. Everything is gone in less than 3min.

Looks like short feather hair at a few feet, but has a very "can't hold the rock kind of slimy" feel and has a soft/gel look to it. Colors range from bright emerald to tourquise, then theres black, a brown, and baige sand brown. I have darn good photos, I'll get them online if someones interested.

Answer 1

That may just reflect your normal water chemistry. have you tried testing the tapwater, or other water source to see how this compares to your tank readings? I once lived in an area whith what you're describing as my tapwater. I loved it for my saltwater tanks, but also kept freshwater tropicals, and they did well in it also. I wouldn't recommend chainging the pH - you'll only end up with up and down fluctuation that is more stressful to the fish than a steady environment in the conditions you describe. BTW, you're only brackish if there's salt in your water too. You just have hard, alkaline water.

I'm surprised you've got black beard algae in your tank - normally this one doesn't like water with a high pH. And your water chemistry as far as the organics appears perfect. So much so that I'd have to guess that your problem may be one of phosphates in your tapwater (some water suppliers add this to prevent pipe corrosion, it's also a plant fertilizer). The next time you're in a fish/pet store, get a phosphate pad, or polyfilter pad that you can cut to fit your tank filter. The other alternative would be to get a reverse osmosis filter (or a water softener) for your house, or buy RO water for your tank. You can get this at Culligan dispensers at super WalMarts for about $.25-.30 per gallon. You can also control algae some by reducing the time the tank lights are on, but this won't help the plants you want to grow. And since you mention having plants, don't use any plant fertilizers until the algae is under control. Blackbeard also sems to like water with a higher iron content, and aquarium plant supplements like Flourish contain iron that the algae can use as well.

You can clip badly infected leaves, and if there's algae growing on hard substances (rock, plastic plants, ornaments), you can soak these in a 10% bleach solution to kill it. Just rinse the items well and let air-dry before using them in the tank again. Siamese (not Chinese) algae eaters will eat the blackbeard algae - this seems to be the only thing that will.

There are two other things I'd check: 1) Do you know that your water test results are correct? I'd have a sample tested by a second source if they seem to be inconsistent with what you think it should be. 2) If the tank water chemistry differs from that of your tapwater, check the rocks and gravel in the tank. Some of these may be carbonate material that's raising your pH. You can test the different pieces by taking them out and putting a few drops of vinegar on them. If the rocks fizz, get them out of the tank - they would be what's raising the pH.


ADDITION: The turquoise sounds loke cyanobacteria (the infamous "blue-green algae") - see photo: http://www.aquamax.de/Shop/Artikelbilder/Zusatzbilder/Algen%20im%20Aquarium_Blaualgen%20-%20Cyanobacteria_STUG_cyano1.jpg Here a link to info on that: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/algae/cyano.shtml

The other sounds like a brush algae, although this is usually more of a pale/white or gray/black than brown. Maybe if you can identify what it is more specifically, someone can give you better ideas for control. Check this link, as well as the link at the bottom of the page in the link:
http://www.floridadriftwood.com/algae_identification.html

Posting photos (especially any close-ups) could also help.

Answer 2

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