# hc covered in algae



## creg (14 Jul 2011)

60 litre tank
fe co2
aps 1000 l/h filter
i dose 2ml of tpn+ and 2ml of flourish excel daily
was running 2 x 24w t5 lights but have recently started using just the one, for 7 hours a day
i manually remove as much as possible without uprooting everyday and its back within 24 hours


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## ceg4048 (14 Jul 2011)

Hello,
        It's almost a certainty that you are suffering poor flow to the front of the tank. Is that an optical illusion or do you have a white filter mounted on the front glass? It almost looks like a building. The filter should be mounted on the back wall pointing forwards, not on the front glass. You have enough flow rating but the HC is not seeing it, and therefore suffers CO2 and nutrient related algae. I would double or triple the tpn+ dosage and work on getting better flow distribution to that part of the tank.

Cheers,


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## Mark Evans (14 Jul 2011)

ceg4048 said:
			
		

> I would double or triple the tpn+ dosage and work on getting better flow distribution to that part of the tank.



I'd agree with that. I'm dosing at least 10ml daily of TPN+ ...TPN, alternate days, on my 60cm


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## Radik (14 Jul 2011)

It also looks like brown algae you could introduce few amanos and oto to clear it out.


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## creg (14 Jul 2011)

ceg4048 said:
			
		

> Hello,
> It's almost a certainty that you are suffering poor flow to the front of the tank. Is that an optical illusion or do you have a white filter mounted on the front glass? It almost looks like a building. The filter should be mounted on the back wall pointing forwards, not on the front glass. You have enough flow rating but the HC is not seeing it, and therefore suffers CO2 and nutrient related algae. I would double or triple the tpn+ dosage and work on getting better flow distribution to that part of the tank.
> 
> Cheers,



thats a reflection of my window, the filter is external with a spray bar. i have a koralia nano for flow, heres a better pic so you can see.


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## creg (14 Jul 2011)

Radik said:
			
		

> It also looks like brown algae you could introduce few amanos and oto to clear it out.



i have 3 ottos but they dont touch it, just added some cherry shrimp yesterday and hopefully will get a few amano`s this weekend


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## creg (14 Jul 2011)

Mark Evans said:
			
		

> ceg4048 said:
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i actually just ran out of tpn+ and ive bought some sera florena which has the same dosing instructions as tpn, so should i try double the dose then? say 4ml a day


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## viktorlantos (14 Jul 2011)

Radik said:
			
		

> It also looks like brown algae you could introduce few amanos and oto to clear it out.



+1 vote on this.
Toss in 15 amano shrimps they will clean it up in 2-3 days.


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## ceg4048 (15 Jul 2011)

creg said:
			
		

> ...thats a reflection of my window, the filter is external with a spray bar. i have a koralia nano for flow, heres a better pic so you can see.


OK, thanks, I can see that now. The spray bar only seems to cover half the length of the tank. Furthermore, the length that it does cover is being blocked by those tall stems on the right. Carpet plants have a very difficult time because they are usually CO2 hungry and at the same time they are in the worst location for CO2 and flow. The tall plants are diverting your flow energy towards themselves leaving the carpet to fend for itself. I would do a serious trim of all tall background plants and find a way to get more flow down to the substrate.

Sera Florena is just a micronutrient so it will be almost completely useless in a high tech tank if used without any macronutrients. Stick with the TPN+ and just ad a lot more than you are adding now.

Cheers,


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## Tom (15 Jul 2011)

viktorlantos said:
			
		

> Radik said:
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This looks like the exact algae I was having trouble with - My amano's didn't touch it (or any algae that I saw!) They just hid under the log all day.


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## creg (15 Jul 2011)

thanks for the advice guys


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