# string algae, can I save my plants? (photo)



## sephnroth (Jul 30, 2013)

Its been a battle with the planted tank in my living room - its not had a proper substrate for plants and I havnt been able to afford one and being depressed about it i've just sort of tried not to notice the tank..

today I went out and bought the stuff I wanted despite money situation (gonna get in trouble from missus!) and went to attend my tank. I have some tropica plant growth substrate I wish to lay and also I want to swap the gravel for sand so I can keep cory's again.

That aside, I found that somehow without me ever really noticing some sort of algae had gone MAD in the tank. I thought I had plants that had come out of the gravel floating but no, it was algae. I pulled it out and:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...uthkey=!AO_U6gZl63pqYZs&v=3&ithint=photo,.jpg

flabberghasted. Most my stem plants seem to of been caught up in it. My swords and ferns are fine but the others all tangled. I've spent time untangling them and miraculously the plants seem in great health! But I cant gurantee i've removed every last thread of this algae.. so my question is if i put these plants back in the tank when i've laid the new substrate will the tank quickly over grow with the same algae again?

Thanks


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## chenowethpm (Jan 8, 2014)

What is your lighting cycle. The light is what causes algae mostly. Your lights should be on 6-8 hours a day. After you've cleaned the algae off and replanted the tank try starting with 7 hours of light per day. What lights are you using? Do you use any ferts?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

No, not if you maintain the tank. You cannot setup a tank, plant it, and never do anything with it. You can, but you will end up with something similar to what you have now. That is a serious algae growth that probably could have been mostly halted by just removing it as it formed. This type of algae is tough, but very easy to remove.

In the future just get yourself some "safe-t-sorb" from Tractor Supply and use that as your substrate. It's $6 for a 40lb bag and one bag is enough for a 75g.


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## rtmaston (Jul 14, 2012)

you could try a Siamese algae eater thay eat black beard algee.i bought 2 and thay ate all my algee on my plants in less than a week.im sure about your algee but you could try one or two.i hope this helps.


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## sephnroth (Jul 30, 2013)

The light was on using an electronic timer around 9 hours every day - in a previous thread here I was recommended 8-10hrs so it seemed in the middle! I've reduced the cycle to like 6hrs hoping any remaining algae would be killed off but i don't know how long to leave it on this cycle and if i should increase it again later?

I use liquid co2 ferts (tropica plant growth premium fertilizer). The light is a T-8 full spectrum 6700k bulb.

Now I have reaquascaped the tank there is a bottom layer of tropica plant growth substrate, then sand on top (alot of sand actually. 3 or 4 inches in places but not so high in others - i wanted a hill in the corner!)

I'm hoping the bottom substrate will be enough to turn my plants around - i've basically got rid of all the plants except two java ferns and two amazon swords. All are looking ill with signs of browning and sometimes going transparent but I do not know why


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