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Re: grey brush algae



Dave K: "Having an algae creep up that I haven't seen before.  It is looks
grey under the water sort of bluish gray green out of the water.  It has
thin branchy strands like wool.  Grows on any plant or part of plant that
isn't growing fast, mainly anubias, java fern, and micro sword.  But also on
older sections of wisteria, water sprites, and amazon swords."

See:

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/red-algae.html

for a discussion on this algae. (At least it sounds like this one from your
description)

"250watts of light on 14hrs/day"

That's a long photoperiod. The plants usually stop working after about 12
hours, so that extra time is not helping.

I've found that the first step is to get the plants really going well and
then keep them that way. Then harass the algae at every opportunity to
minimize the amount growing in the tank and adding spores. Remove dead
leaves, occasionally vacuum the gravel  to remove dead matter, scrape it off
any surfaces. Anubias can take the bleach treatment. A spot treatment using
a syringe to apply  hydrogen peroxide will sometimes kill it back. There's
an article on this in the Krib's Algae Section:
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/

Now that it is the tank, it will always be there. But you can arrive at a
truce when it's been reduced to a level that it's hard to spot anyway.

TW