How to Kill Black Beard Algae and Staghorn Algae (EASY METHOD)
Every Fish-Keeper/Aquascaper has experienced the Challenge of dealing with Black Beard Algae and Staghorn Algae during the initial stages of setting up our Tanks. The main reason for these algae to arise is due to the ‘Low-CO2’ and ‘Low-Flow’ of water. Some of the easiest ways to kill algae are regular water changes, using Hydrogen peroxide on algae spots, and adding more shrimps and fish.
Can Tap Water Cause Algae?
Algae buildup in aquariums is usually caused by too many nutrients, such as tap water with high nutrient levels, overfertilizing your plants or neglecting to perform water changes and/or filter maintenance.
It takes a long time to clear out the algae and still a small amount of it stays within the aquarium glass or hardscape. We’ve realized some ‘Efficient Ways’ to Deal with this Algae in our Nano Tanks and aquariums in the following manner:
1. Supplements
One of the best working Liquid Supplements that has been effective for the Algae in my Tank is the ‘Flourish Excel – Seachem’ and ‘Hydrogen Peroxide H202’. You can try using the dosage as per the instructions provided in the bottle, and simply pouring it in the areas where you experience the ‘Algae Growth’. I Used an ‘Ink-Droppers’ to pour the concentrated liquid right onto the spots where I have ‘Algae Growth’. You need to keep doing this for a few days and wait for a couple of weeks to see the result. After a couple of weeks, you will see that the algae are almost out of your hardscape and have disappeared at a significant rate from the aquarium.
2. Increase The Water Flow
Once the algae have reduced make sure that you are able to increase the flow of water in your aquarium or add on an extra ‘Sponge Filter’ to make sure that you have disrupted water flow all over your tank. This will prevent or reduce the further growth of the algae in the old spots.
3. Water Changes
Perform water change in the tank at least ‘Once in 3 Days’ after ‘1 week’ of adding the liquid supplements.
4. Brush Off The Excess Algae
I used a common ‘Tooth Brush’ to brush off the excess algae or the dead algae from the driftwood and the hardscape, and use a pipe to suck out these algae and prevent them from falling into other spots in your aquarium. This helps in removing the algae from the base and prevents any further growth of the algae.
5. Add More Fishes And Shrimp
This is ‘Not Mandatory’ but it just helps in removing and clearing off the ‘Excess Algae’ at a faster rate as a whole. I would suggest you ‘Add Siamese Algae Eaters’ as they are highly effective in removing the algae by eating off the dead moss and the other clinging algae.
It needs to be understood that each step depends on the other in the above process and you will not see the results immediately.
But however, you will experience the significant change and enhanced growth of other plants and reduction of the ‘Black Beard and Staghorn Algae’ in a span of a few weeks. The consistency of the process is important and making sure you perform water change will bring about faster results.
6. Wait & Repeat
Getting rid of Black Beard Algae or algae of any type is not a one-time thing. It will keep appearing for some time, and you will have to follow these steps again and again until your fish tank set up finds an equilibrium. That is, the fish and shrimp eat the algae as soon as it grows.
This can take a few weeks to a couple of months. But if you want to speed up the process, supplements will definitely help you but are usually never the permanent solution. Also, consider using RO water or at least treated water as maybe the algae are coming from the water every time you do a water change.
Resources – I wrote this article using what I have learned from my own experience but also referenced other articles to be more accurate and help you understand better. The links below are the references I’ve used to write this article –
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