Is this staghorn or bba? Or neither

[Bluetaurus]

Hi
Can someone identify what I have growing in my tank please.
If its either of the above, best course of action?
I notice it's growing on the slow growing plants. If need be I can trim affected leaves of even remove the plants altogether.
John

[fr499y]

Looks like your average hair algae to me.
Could be staghorn looking at the second pic but not

[Bluetaurus]

Looks like your average hair algae to me.
Could be staghorn looking at the second pic but not

Thank you

Easy to deal with?
I add ferts most days and liquid carbon too.
John

[fr499y]

What’s your lighting period set to?

Usually lowering the lighting to 6-8 hours, spot dosing with liquid co2 or hydrogen peroxide and larger weekly water change does the trick. It should go red once it starts to die off.

[Bluetaurus]

6 hours currently
I did try spot dosing but there is so much of it ii lost heart.
I can certainly up my water changes though.

[Martinspuddle]

As above (@fr499y post) then pinch out the worst leaves for a start, 50% water changes and syphon out any accumulated mulm.

Staghorn Algae. Causes, low CO2, poor water circulation, excess detritus within the aquarium, dirty inefficient filter and overfeeding livestock.

[Bluetaurus]

As above (@fr499y post) then pinch out the worst leaves for a start, 50% water changes and syphon out any accumulated mulm.

Staghorn Algae. Causes, low CO2, poor water circulation, excess detritus within the aquarium, dirty inefficient filter and overfeeding livestock.

Thanks
I will get to work on that right away.
John

[Pleco Fan]

Do you have a clean up crew to help combat the alga, like pleco's or better still shrimps, if you want healthy plants and no BBA or SH increasing your Co2 is your best option, my tank has virtually no water circulation, no Fert's but is high on Co2.

[Bluetaurus]

Do you have a clean up crew to help combat the alga, like pleco's or better still shrimps, if you want healthy plants and no BBA or SH increasing your Co2 is your best option, my tank has virtually no water circulation, no Fert's but is high on Co2.

Thanks for the reply.
I was just now looking into adding Amano shrimp, my only concern is the nitrite spike I get after each filter clean.
I wanted to keep my tank as low tech as possible.
I know co2 is probably my best bet for great plant growth, I'm adding liquid carbon and ferts every day to try and compensate best I can.

[Munchy2007]

if you want healthy plants and no BBA or SH increasing your Co2 is your best option

Ah! If only it were that simple

I used to use injected CO2 on my tanks and I had massive problems with BBA, despite following all the expert advice (for the record, the problems only started after the tank had been set up for a few months).

Now, I don't use CO2, but I do ensure the substrate has root tabs inserted or has a layer of nutrient rich aquatic soil and that the water column has only a trace of nitrate and phosphate at any time. I also dose a small amount (2ml) of micronutrients (chelated trace) every day

I get no algae to speak of at all and the plants grow very well.

Full size image

So unfortunately you may need to try a few things before you find what works for you, and it might take some time. I started playing with planted tanks in 2013 (been keeping fish about 40 years longer than that though) and it's only within the last few months that I seem to have hit upon what works for me.

I hope it doesn't take you that long