What type of algae is this? How do I kill it?

rbraunberger · Jul 26, 2016

Hello all,

I have been doing great with algae. I dose NOPOX, and had a a bug bloom last week. I turned down my NOPOX for a few days to help with the bacterial bloom, and noticed this algae that I have never seen in my tanks. It looks like some type of hair, but it is clear in color. Not brown or green like hair algae I have normally seen.

What is it? How do I kill it? Should I just up my NOPOX? Thanks for all the advice!

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 26, 2016

I dont think its an algae. I think its a bacterial colony.

brandon429 · Jul 27, 2016

agreed

no pox causes that in many tanks, not cures it.

export it manually until beaten or install uv

rbraunberger · Jul 27, 2016

brandon429 said:
agreed

no pox causes that in many tanks, not cures it.

export it manually until beaten or install uv

Do you think decreasing the NOPOX dosing will help?

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 27, 2016

No pox is carbon dosing. A way to increase bacterial populations, the target being benificial bacteria to increase Po no uptake so they can be removed from the water Colum by skimming. A side effect of that is also feeds other bacteria as well.
So yes, I would stop using Nopox.

shadow1013 · Jul 27, 2016

I think I got that mixed in with hair algea. My NO3 is 4ppm and my PO4 is 0.16 to 0.32ppm. One of my LFS said to use ROWA, raise my Mag to 1600 to make sure no more grows, and to get a sea hare to eat the algea.

jonneyb · Jul 27, 2016

I'm not big on precise measurements and have occasionally dosed to much carbon, vodka/vinegar. I just cut back on the dose and it will clear up, it just happened last week I removed what I could manually and the rest is gone, no other action was taken to clear it up.

rbraunberger · Jul 27, 2016

cool...thanks everyone...I took my NOPOX down by half and will give it a week, and may end up cutting back a bit more....It is not crazy every where I just noticed it and have never seen it before. Thanks for all the info!