# ..............Staghorn...............



## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

*I have staghorn all over the top of my gravel, all over my plants leaves, the slow growing ones that is, and all over my driftwood. I thought they only grow on plants. I took the best picture I can. As you can see its growing all over my cryptocoryne. The cryptocorn is the one with the reddish/brownish leaves. ammonia is 0ppm nitrite is 0ppm, nitrate is .5 ppm. I have 3.45 wpg over a 12" Depth. I noticed its not growing under any shade. And the growth is probably not due to the ammonia. I removed the staghorn from the plants that are unattached to anything by dipping a 1:20 bleach:water ratio. But I obviously cant do that to the plants that have rooted into the substrate along with every piece of gravel. I would turn off my lights to try to kill it but im afaid it will kill my baby tears.

Opinions and suggestions would be great. Would be better if you had actually dealt with it and removed it. *


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## obscbyclouds (Apr 6, 2009)

That's quite a lot of light in a shallow tank, are you using co2? Are you dosing with ferts?


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

obscbyclouds said:


> That's quite a lot of light in a shallow tank, are you using co2? Are you dosing with ferts?


*Yea it better be a lot... or else I wouldve bought those lights for nothing hehe. And yes im using CO2, and Im using mineralized substrate and dosing Fe and K once a week.*


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

Get another fish, one that goes by the name Siamese Algae Eater. I crap you not, it will be the best money you ever spent on that tank, that staghorn will be gone in a matter of days, I had same stuff and BBA and hair algae ect that nasty stuff in my 52g, two SAE's later and 3-4 days later it was all gone and hasnt returned.

get a TRUE SAE though, dont fall for a flying for or chinese algae eater ect, get the true one, if you dont(its the only one with the black stripe from nostrils to tail V and it tapers to a point from the base of the tail to the middle of the tail's V.
they eat every kind of FW algae and never lose the taste for it. Largest one ive seen was 4" and about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. I keep them in all my planted tanks for algae control. much better at it then any pleco ive owned and I got BNP's and RNP's


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## obscbyclouds (Apr 6, 2009)

NursePlaty said:


> *Yea it better be a lot... or else I wouldve bought those lights for nothing hehe. And yes im using CO2, and Im using mineralized substrate and dosing Fe and K once a week.*


Is it a pressurized system? DIY? Basically what I'm wondering is how much CO2 you have going in. I had some algae problems like your describing in my 10 gallon before I upped the CO2 and got rid of surface agitation. 

SAEs (real ones) will definitely munch almost any kind of algae imaginable.


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

*I have a DIY CO2. I probably dont have enough CO2 getting in. Im lowering the photoperiod and i just bought 4 real SAEs this afternoon and will introduce them to the main tank soon. I also went to go buy liquified carbon but I couldnt find Seachem Excel in any of the LFS's around me so I bought Brightwell FlourinAxis instead. Hopefully its the same. When I have more money ill try to invest in a pressurized CO2 system. And by the way, how big do SAE's get and do they eat shrimp? Mine are about an inch long. I value my red cherry shrimps more than the SAE's *


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## choylifutsoccer (Jan 2, 2010)

So I read somewhere that overdosing Excel will help get rid of the algae, but this is because Excel has a compound called glutaraldehyde, which can act like an algaecide. Hopefully your brand of fertilizer also has glutaraldehyde!


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

choylifutsoccer said:


> So I read somewhere that overdosing Excel will help get rid of the algae, but this is because Excel has a compound called glutaraldehyde, which can act like an algaecide. Hopefully your brand of fertilizer also has glutaraldehyde also!


*
Nice to see you agian choy . Nope I just checked and none of my ferts nor my FlourinAxis has glutaraldehyde :'(. My oto's are very effective at eating the soft new algae that forms in my tank (Always pooping green). My Red cherry shrimps on the other hand dont seem like they eat algae.. more like they just are just brushing the algae for food particles or something. My 4 new SAE's better eat all my staghorn... or else imma have to shove some of it down its throat if I have to *


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## choylifutsoccer (Jan 2, 2010)

LOL Great to see you, Annie. *w3 School is just killing me. Haha..
I don't think they put glutaraldehyde on labels because of federal regulations or something along those lines. So don't be convinced that your fertilizer doesn't have any! But then the good ol' Google search says it doesn't... I don't know what to say. lol



> My 4 new SAE's better eat all my staghorn... or else imma have to shove some of it down its throat if I have to


LOL! Good luck with the algae problem though. I'm dealing with the same thing right now! And it's driving me nuts. *Mad*


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## plantitgood101 (Apr 3, 2010)

I've got the same problem with my tank. The stuff just LOVES the java moss... It kills my DIY injection of CO2 also... I thinned out the java moss A LOT and even my anubias nanas are pearling like crazy! ^.^ Darn java moss.

I'm going to watch this one. I've started dosing up a bit more on the excel... so hopefully it helps. Just upgraded to a nova extreme 48W over a 20G high..any suggestions for more plants? i put a thread up but no one has answered :/


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## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

becareful with excel and other plants, too much will kill them.

medium light plants will work for you plantitgood101. reds come into play more as well as lusher darker greens. 

I have found out that any plants will work in any lights, just the amount of flourishing is inhibited.


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

choylifutsoccer said:


> LOL! Good luck with the algae problem though. I'm dealing with the same thing right now! And it's driving me nuts. *Mad*


*I feel you... I have more algae eaters than platys.... I was planning on ONLY platies at first . My SAE's arent eating the algae either... they eat the spirulina flakes that i give the platys.. and they are not the fake SAE's*




plantitgood101 said:


> I've got the same problem with my tank. The stuff just LOVES the java moss
> 
> Just upgraded to a nova extreme 48W over a 20G high..any suggestions for more plants? i put a thread up but no one has answered :/


*I had the same problem you did with the java moss. I had staghorn ALL over it. I had to dip it in bleach:water. It removed the stag but doesnt look as good as before "/. As for the med-light requirement plants. You should get a plant called Red Tiger Lilly Lotus. Its extremely beautiful. My friends low-tech tank looks better than his high-tech because of his lotus's



On the side note. I took a picture of the side of my tank of the plants before I introduced FlourinAxis to see if there was a difference in growth. Only overnight, the water sprite grew half an inch, lugwidgia repens also grew half an inch, but not sure about the baby tears, it probably did but too little to notice. And the staghorn did not decrease in any amount. Excel probably has better advantage because of its "algaecide" ingredient.*


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