fuzz algae vs Excel

Hi,

Recently, I noticed some fuzz algae growing on SOME (not all) of marsilea hirsuta leaves. My RCS havent touched the stuff so I ran to LFS & got 8 oto's. Do they actually like this kind of algae? I was thinking about using Seachem Excel coz Ive heard its effective in eliminating algae but I also run a pressurized CO2 system. Should I shut down the CO2 while I dose Excel & if so for how long? 24 hrs maybe? Or would it be OK to have the CO2 running and dose Excel too? I have 4 X 54 watts T5HO lights for my 100 gallon tank 10 hrs a day (2 hrs break in between). I shut off the CO2 at night and I dose fetilizers with every wc. If I left any other info plz let me know.

TIA,
Sepehr

dundadundun said:

if you're going to spot treat with excel you'll want to turn your filters of to keep it from dispersing too quickly. other than that there is no need to turn anything off. if you're not interested in spot treating you don't need to cut anything off.

most likely you could do without some of that light at least till things level out.
you might want to knock that back to 8 hours daily, maybe 6. should help a bit.

what/how are you dosing? with every water change may not be often enough. may be too much at one time also.

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I use Bio-Vert from Prodibio (www.prodibio.fr) and Flora 24 from Red Sea which is dosed daily. All my plantsare doing fine except pogostemon helferi which arent spreading & th tips of leaves are turning mushy...this is after one month being planted. I have never heard about spot treating the plants, I guess I should use a syringe?

coach_z said:

What color is the solution in your drop checker? (If you dont have one, this is your hint to get one )

you most likely have an imbalance in your co2 and lighting schedule.
you definitely have a shortage of nutrients.

fuzz algae (aka bba) comes around with fluctuating and/or low co2 levels. not the difference between night time and daytime co2. Do you have your co2 on a timer that is in sync with your lights?

What i would do:
8 hours of light/co2
obtain some dry fertilizer and dose according the EI method
make sure your drop checker turns green about an hour after your co2 comes on.
Remove plants/leaves that are infested.

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After thorough investigation on the net, I found out that it's staghorn algae and not fuzz algae than previously thought. Would that make any diff on your analysis that you kindly provided me?

I do have a drop checker that came with the CO2 system (Red Sea CO2 Pro). The manual said to fill the indicator with aquarium water & add 2 drops of the liquid indicator. Eversince the first moment I installed it, the green color has come up. I turn on the lights from 11:30 am to 11:45 pm (2 hrs break inbetween from 4:30pm to 6:45pm). I turn on the CO2 around 10:30 am and I dont turn it off until 10:30 pm. As you can imagine, the Red Sea CO2 indicator might not be reliable but around 8 pm every night a couple of large plants start pearling & release oxygen bubbles. As of now I have set the CO2 at 2 bps but just as you mentioned I need to find a more effective way to measure the CO2 level in my tank. Sorry for the my lack of knowledge...Im still a n00b in this thing. Did I mention its staghorn algae rather than fuzz LOL!

coach_z said:

i would still suggest 8 hours a day, you can do 10 if you would like.

staghorn? i dont know much about that one.
what are your nitrates at?
are you overfeeding?

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nitrates = 0
I dont think Im overfeeding. I have 15 neons, 8 ottos, & around 12 crs and I feed the neons small portions at a time making sure they get all the food before it sinks to the bottom. My tank has been set for a month and a half though, just before this week the ammonia level was .25 ppm but thats gone now. Staghorn kinda looks like deer's antlers and as I mentioned before its growing on some of the marsilea hirsuta leaves.

fishorama said:

I used a toothbrush to twirl out staghorn & water changes but I wasn't using CO2. 12 hours does seen too long, like coach said try 8.

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Its 10 hrs of light. Did you get rid of all the staghorn? I can't imagine using a toothbrush to twirl out the algae. Mine are very small in size...maybe 1/4 of an inch growing on SOME (not all) marsilea hirsuta leaves which are very small as well .