If you have shrimp, then you may have heard about the merits of Moss Balls, Marimo moss balls to be exact.
It is widely reported that Moss Balls are great for shrimp, and its true, they love then, they pick the detritus out of the algae ball and things are great, until… You want to set up a full planted tank.
What people don’t tell you is that Marimo Moss balls are actually balls of Cladophora, if you haven’t heard of this kind of algae before it is evil. t only takes a strand to replicate itself and it works it’s way around your tank attaching itself to the roots of everything and taking over.
Cladophora is released when the moss ball finally breaks up through being too large or disturbed and then the trouble starts.
You may well have heard that Amanos love Clado, I had too but tbh I’m not seeing much progress.
So far the only way I’m dealing with it is manual removal (not great as pulls up my HC Cuba roots) and spot treatment using Flourish Excel.
Many online OD their tanks with Excel, however I don’t want to go too overboard as I have shrimp in there.
So far I’m having some success applying 2x daily dosage of excel directly to spots of Clado on a daily basis with a small syringe. The Clado goes white and dries up allowing it to be removed or break down.
The Excel is said to general limit the growth of Clado and help kill it as the algae cannot use the carbon available, although plants can so just ensure when doing this you don’t use CO2 injection too.