"Bigs" wrote:
Hi,

I have searched the web trying to find the type of algae I have. Not
successful. I think I got if from getting free hornwort from a LFS.
But, stupid me I did not know about the bleaching to get rid of it.
It's a black string that grows like a tree branch. It grows on my live
plants and my ornaments, does not seem to affect my filter or my glass.
My otto does not seem to eat it either. I'm thinking it's algae from a
pond because that's where he grabbed the hornwort. I'm thinking it's
Staghorn algae but it's seems black and not green like I have read.

Should I do a 25% bleach solution and dip them in? How long should I
dip them?

Marc,

Hornwort grows incredibly fast under the right conditions. Adding it to
your tank may have altered your nutrient balance enough to allow the algae
to grow. Do you know what your nitrate level is? I suspect it is too low.
I try to keep my tank around 5ppm and that seems to work for me. I dose the
tank every day with 5ppm and it's completely gone the next day. My hornwort
grows at least a foot a week (no kidding) and the only algae I have is green
water if I forget to dose the nitrates for more than a few days. Well, I
also get quite a bit of green algae on the aquarium glass, but that seems to
be a necessary evil. YYMV - you may have a different nutrient that is
deficient, but nitrate's a good place to start. Green Light Stump Remover
is a good sourer of nitrates. I got mine in the garden section at Wal-Mart.

You can dip the plants in a weak solution of peroxide. I don't remember the
exact ratio, but it's somewhere on the Krib's website - www.thekrib.com .
It will kill the algae, but if you don't correct the underlying nutrient
deficiency it will just come back. I battled the same stuff for quite a
while, but once I figured out what the problem was it went away relatively
quickly.

HTH,

Deb