Weird algae

[K House]

I want to move a pleco into my 45 Hex but there is this weird algae in there and I want to know if it's ok for him to eat it or if I need to clean the decorations before I move him. It's only on the top of the decoration where it is only about 6 inches from the top of the water where it gets the strongest light, and on a couple of leaves of the fake plant that is also close to the top. It started out greenish-brown (normal looking) but over the past week it has turned very dark with a dark purple tint to it. It is fluffy and actually sways when the one of the fish swims really close to it.

[harif87]

looks like cyano, but its too hard to tell

[MyraVan]

I don't know the proper name for this, but I had something that looked like that on some plants that I moved from my 20g to my new 58g. Once the cycle was over I added a bristlenose pleco to my 58g, and he promptly ate all that black stuff. It certainly wasn't harmful to him, so I'd say go for it.

Isn't cyanobacteria blueish green?

[harif87]

Originally Posted by MyraVan

Isn't cyanobacteria blueish green?

In many cases, but it also comes in a burgendy-red variety. Although not "cyan" in color its still cyanobacteria.

[TheOldSalt]

Yep, that's what it is. Most fish won't eat it, and it has next to no nutritional value, and when broken up, the pieces will settle all over the tank and spread the stuff all the more. You'd be better off pulling that piece from the tank and scrubbing that stuff all off and rinsing well before putting it back in place.

[K House]

Thanks for the info!

I had a friend who had the blue-green kind of cyano in her tank and it was the nastiest stuff I've ever seen. It was like a carpet of slime. I definitely don't want that to happen to my tank!!! I'll scrub the decorations tonight.

[swordtailbreedr]

boiling the rocks is easyier than scrubing and works good

[harif87]

you could also increase flow and do a 4 day blackout

[swordtailbreedr]

if u boil u need to boil for 30 min then the algea will come off easy

[K House]

The affected items are a plastic plant and a resin root decoration. Will they not melt if boiled?

[Baby_Baby]

For the plastic plant you can put it in very warm water and the algae should pretty much peel off after a little scrubbing

Or in a bucket or container add some aquarium salt (there should be a recommended dose for cleaning on the back of most bags), stir it, and let the plastic plants soak in the salt water for about 10-15 minutes, then scrub wash them.

It works for me just fine, as does the first method.