aotf Posted January 11, 2018 Report Share Posted January 11, 2018 I recently got some plants from a couple different sources (buce, mosses, carpet plants) and, after letting them settle into a new tank for a week or two, I noticed they had brought along some stringy algae. "Oh well," I thought to myself, "I've handled quite a bit of algae, this shouldn't be a problem." I had already smushed a BGA outbreak in the same tank with no issues and I've had to deal with a lot of different algae outbreaks in my first tank (rough learning curve). Doing some research, I found that it's likely spirogyra and once you have it... well... you have it. Spirogyra seems to thrive in the same parameters as most plants so it's incredibly hard to starve it without killing everything in the tank. The only successful fixes I've seen so far involve dosing the tank with Algaefix. I don't want to use it in my tank, I'm a believer that the vast majority of issues (especially algae-related) can be resolved without resorting to chemical warfare. Spiro has me at a crossroad. Not only is it unsightly but shrimp can get tangled in it and die, so when unchecked it becomes a hazard. I'm thinking I could move my shrimp out to a temp tank for 1-1.5 weeks while I follow an Algaefix regimen and then do a bunch of water changes over the days following the treatment. Does anyone here have any experience with spiro or Algaefix? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy1 Posted January 11, 2018 Report Share Posted January 11, 2018 I don't have any experience with the algae but I did use algaefix a few times years ago when first getting started in the hobby. I quit using it when I realized it was responsible for my fish deaths during that time. Hard to remember that far back but I believe it starved them of oxygen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aotf Posted January 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2018 5 minutes ago, Stacy1 said: I don't have any experience with the algae but I did use algaefix a few times years ago when first getting started in the hobby. I quit using it when I realized it was responsible for my fish deaths during that time. Hard to remember that far back but I believe it starved them of oxygen I've heard that as well. I plan on moving all livestock out of the tank for at least a week after the treatment so I'm hoping it doesn't linger long enough to keep causing trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyzazz Posted January 12, 2018 Report Share Posted January 12, 2018 I wasn't exactly sure what you meant by spirogyra algae when we PM'd back and forth, but googling it really looks like what I'd call string or thread algae. I had this in my cull tank (lots of it) and was able to get rid of it. Daily spot dosing with Hydrogen Peroxide and daily (heavy) doses of Gluteraldehyde did it for me, that and manual removal with a wooden skewer. It took around 3-4 weeks before it all disappeared. During that time I did no blackouts, I did not move any livestock, I had no deaths in the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aotf Posted January 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2018 16 hours ago, wyzazz said: I wasn't exactly sure what you meant by spirogyra algae when we PM'd back and forth, but googling it really looks like what I'd call string or thread algae. I had this in my cull tank (lots of it) and was able to get rid of it. Daily spot dosing with Hydrogen Peroxide and daily (heavy) doses of Gluteraldehyde did it for me, that and manual removal with a wooden skewer. It took around 3-4 weeks before it all disappeared. During that time I did no blackouts, I did not move any livestock, I had no deaths in the tank. Thanks, I'll look into gluteraldehyde. I've heard this stuff is resistant to H2O2 (while the mosses in the tank are not) so I haven't tried using any yet although I guess I should just pull some out, put in in a glass, and see if I can kill it that way. There seem to be a bunch of different stringy algae so I'm not even sure what I have is spiro (although reading about how hard it is to kill, I'd be pretty happy if it weren't). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyzazz Posted January 13, 2018 Report Share Posted January 13, 2018 7 hours ago, aotf said: Thanks, I'll look into gluteraldehyde. I've heard this stuff is resistant to H2O2 (while the mosses in the tank are not) so I haven't tried using any yet although I guess I should just pull some out, put in in a glass, and see if I can kill it that way. There seem to be a bunch of different stringy algae so I'm not even sure what I have is spiro (although reading about how hard it is to kill, I'd be pretty happy if it weren't). The cheapest way to get it is on Amazon (https://smile.amazon.com/Metrex-Metricide-Gallon-14-Day/dp/B0015TF1FY/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1515849826&sr=8-1&keywords=metricide+14) and the dosing is about 1.15ml/gal, but you can buy Seachem Flourish Excel, Easy Carbon, etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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