Excell for brush algea. Want 2 kill B algae, not my plants.

[garman]

I have a 100 gallon planted tank with some large carnivorous fish in it and I have this brush algae. I removed 90% of the leaves, bleached equipment and bare wood and rocks, and the tank was fine for a while.

3 months goes by and it's coming back.

This algae is very hard to physically remove and eventually covers all leaves and other areas in tank, esp where there is current. I have Phoscheck in one of the canister filters, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates are zero, pH is about 7.0 and I have about 3 watts per gallon of light with a combo of VHO's and PC's running 10 hours a day.

I want to save my plants, so I thought of removing the fish, take the wood that's covered with nicely pruned java moss, anubias, and java fern, and along with my rooted plants(will uproot), and treating all with Excell.

I was thinking of spraying EXCELL all over the wood and plants and letting it sit for a while to kill the brush algae, and bleaching EVERYTHING else including the gravel.

I can remove all the bleach so don't worry about that. I just want to know about the EXCELL idea. Will it kill my java moss or other plants, and will it kill the brush algae? I'll have to get a new cycle going, but I've never had any problem with that. I just hate to lose all my beautiful plants and the carpets of java moss completely covering some of the wood stumps in this 100 gallon tank.

Thanks in advance for advice. Garman

[siymdapolio]

I know bristlenoses will eat lots of algea specially if not feed. HE will scavenge around for algea and i have read some places it will it the brush algea if not over fed. MY bristlnose never disrupts my plants at all and if he began to i would feed him some algae wafers and spinach,lettuce. this should keep them away from plants but have not had this problem yet

[garman]

I don't want to add anymore big fish to the bio-load in this tank. I have a 7 inch pleco and 2 tilapia, one 9 inches and one 7 inches, and all these fish are great at ripping and tearing at it, but the brush algae is so tough they can't make much impact.

I can't put small fish in as they will be eaten by the gars.

I have 8 SAE's in my other planted tank, and there's the same brush algae in there, and they can't do anything to this stuff.

I was told that if I were to lower the water and expose the leaves, pour EXCELL on the algae on the leaves, that it would turn purple and the SAE's could then eat it. He was able to keep it from coming back with the SAE's.

[siymdapolio]

Iw ould give that a try then and consider about cutting back on lighting also.

[garman]

I think I will. I removed the 14 inch arowana due to its temperament a month ago, and I'll put the 2 big tilapia back into the lake I got them from as babies and that should really cut down on the waste production in the 100 gallon tank.

I have 4-5 inches of gravel which needs to be soaked in bleach water, an under-gravel filter to remove, clean, and reinstall, 2 huge canister filters, 2 huge power-heads, and all the nets, siphons, hoses, etc.

The anubias and java fern and moss grown on wood and along with other uprooted plants will get a serious dose of Excell and possibly a dunk in a more diluted bleach bath, I'll rinse well and slap it back together.

I want the anubias bartari Forest to have roots flowing down and around the huge wood stumps, and the java moss covered stumps looking like valleys and peaks of lush green jungle ferns. It took a long time to grow what I have and I don't want to start over.

This all started when I put a lilly pad plant in my 100 gallon tank from a friends pond. I thought the fuzziness on the stems was part of the lilly plant. Big mistake!