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Algae, algae, algae

C

Chuunofish

New Member
Joined
8 May 2020
Messages
20
Location
Rugby
Hi

I have a juwel rio 350 (2x 29w leds) with both standard internal and oase 350 external filters.

Water parameters are as follows:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Ph6.5
Kh 4.2
Phosphates <,0.1ppm.

I am using ro water changed 30% weekly with seachem stability. Filter maintenance weekly/monthly as required. I have been dosing with trace elements and seachem flourish as per manufacturers recommendation. Plants seem to be growing ok albeit some species appear a little pale.

I have a severe algae problem, particularly on slow growing plants. I have recently started dosing co2 which is around 30ppm.

am I on the right track or do I need to increase dosing with higher dosage. I am also considering using s dosing pump, can anyone recommend a good fert strategy for auto dosing?
20210220_185550.jpg
 

Please read the guidelines for Algae help!

Dear Member Please give as many details as possible regarding your aquarium set-up, when requiring advice/help! The above will be posted at the start of each help request. Why do we ask these questions? It will stop the member posting multiple times, plus adviser's don't need to scroll through...
www.ukaps.org www.ukaps.org
 
Hi
Some more information will be helpful.
Is there a reason you are using RO?
Whats your tap water parameters?
Larger water changes will benefit the system....50% or even more if you don't have shrimp!
Remove as much algae infested leaves as possible.
General husbandry will reduce various algae......liquid carbon will help in the short term.
Seems your dosing two lots of trace/micro elements!
The plants look like they are suffering from Nitrate shortage giving them a lighter green colour.
You need to dose NPK macro fertilizer especially now your adding Carbon Dioxide.
hoggie
 
Chuunofish said:
Hi

I have a juwel rio 350 (2x 29w leds) with both standard internal and oase 350 external filters.

Water parameters are as follows:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Ph6.5
Kh 4.2
Phosphates <,0.1ppm.

I am using ro water changed 30% weekly with seachem stability. Filter maintenance weekly/monthly as required. I have been dosing with trace elements and seachem flourish as per manufacturers recommendation. Plants seem to be growing ok albeit some species appear a little pale.

I have a severe algae problem, particularly on slow growing plants. I have recently started dosing co2 which is around 30ppm.

am I on the right track or do I need to increase dosing with higher dosage. I am also considering using s dosing pump, can anyone recommend a good fert strategy for auto dosing?
Click to expand...
GHNelson said:

Please read the guidelines for Algae help!

Dear Member Please give as many details as possible regarding your aquarium set-up, when requiring advice/help! The above will be posted at the start of each help request. Why do we ask these questions? It will stop the member posting multiple times, plus adviser's don't need to scroll through...
www.ukaps.org www.ukaps.org
Click to expand...
My apologies, I am new to this.

Tank is 350 ltrs
Lighting schedule is 6 hours per day.
Not sure how to classify planting density but I would say medium. All easy tropica plants sorry I have forgotten about of names, but anubis, crypts and java fern are the ones I can remember.

Gravel over tropica substrate.


Fish density is highish 1 x plec, 3 gourami, 3 rams, 5 derphae tetra 10 rummy nose tetra and 11+ ,otocinclus (started with 4).
 

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GHNelson said:
Hi
Some more information will be helpful.
Is there a reason you are using RO?
Whats your tap water parameters?
Larger water changes will benefit the system....50% or even more if you don't have shrimp!
Remove as much algae infested leaves as possible.
General husbandry will reduce various algae......liquid carbon will help in the short term.
Seems your dosing two lots of trace/micro elements!
The plants look like they are suffering from Nitrate shortage giving them a lighter green colour.
You need to dose NPK macro fertilizer especially now your adding Carbon Dioxide.
hoggie
Click to expand...
Hi, thank you for the feedback.

I am using RO as water is very hard kh 17+ and not suitable for fish species I keep. I thought ro was better than chemical treatments.

I remove the plants on rocks and treat with bleach solution 1 per month but the algae returns very quickly.



I will try a NPK Fertiliser, any recommendations?

Thank you once again
 
Have a listen to Georges podcast.....his coarse of action towards algae issues are everything I would endorse.
podcasts.apple.com

011. Algae in the Planted Aquarium

Podcast Episode · The George Farmer Podcast · 06/10/2020 · 43m
podcasts.apple.com podcasts.apple.com
hoggie
 
Chuunofish said:
am I on the right track
Click to expand...

Unfortunately no.

Chuunofish said:
do I need to increase dosing with higher dosage.
Click to expand...

Yes, esp with CO2 injection.

Commercial ferts will soon work out expensive with 350l tank, Less than 100litres then TNC complete would be the product I would advise, For your tank a starter kit from APFUK would provide ferts at a better levels and cheaper (out of stock 😱), Short term some TNC then dosing at x3 to x6 standard dose (standard dose works out at about £0.50 a week for your tank)
 
I wouldnt use a bleach dip.....never found that it worked long term!
Have a look at this article below!

Using stem plants as a filtering aid at Start Up!

The subject of using fast-growing stem plants as part of a filtering aid has cropped up a few times recently. This idea has been around for a long time so not new, it has benefits, especially for a new setup. 1. Improves water quality. 2. Reduces excess light. 3. Reduces diatoms. 4. Reduces...
www.ukaps.org www.ukaps.org
hoggie
 
Hi all,
Welcome to UKAPS.
Chuunofish said:
Filter maintenance weekly/monthly as required.
Click to expand...
Which media do you have inside your filter? It might be a bit of a strange question, but while we don't know <"what is the trigger"> for the growth of any type of algae, but we think that an outbreak of Stagshorn Algae might be preceded by high levels of <"dissolved organic matter">.

Because plants are very effective at taking up <"fixed nitrogen"> we don't want the biological filter media <"to develop a thick biofilm">.
sparkyweasel said:
But I suspect a lack of macronutrients. Seachem Flourish is basically trace elements, no nitrogen or phosphorus.
Click to expand...
Probably <"part of the answer">. Again we don't know exactly why, but a <"large biomass of plants"> (in active growth) seems to deter algae.

cheers Darrel
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,
Welcome to UKAPS.

Which media do you have inside your filter? It might be a bit of a strange question, but while we don't know <"what is the trigger"> for the growth of any type of algae, but we think that an outbreak of Stagshorn Algae might be preceded by high levels of <"dissolved organic matter">.

Because plants are very effective at taking up <"fixed nitrogen"> we don't want the biological filter media <"to develop a thick biofilm">.

Probably <"part of the answer">. Again we don't know exactly why, but a <"large biomass of plants"> (in active growth) seems to deter algae.

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...
In juwel stack I have 1x carbon, 1 x seachem phosguard1 x seachem purigen, 2 x coarsefoam and 1 x filter floss

In the oase 350 2 x seachem matrix, 1 x coarse foam 3 x medium foam. The pre filter has 40ppm sponges
 
GHNelson said:
Have a listen to Georges podcast.....his coarse of action towards algae issues are everything I would endorse.
podcasts.apple.com

011. Algae in the Planted Aquarium

Podcast Episode · The George Farmer Podcast · 06/10/2020 · 43m
podcasts.apple.com podcasts.apple.com
hoggie
Click to expand...
Having listened to George the great, am I better off binning all the plants and starting again or will the algae reduce over time with an improved regime?
 
Chuunofish said:
In juwel stack I have 1x carbon, 1 x seachem phosguard1 x seachem purigen, 2 x coarsefoam and 1 x filter floss

In the oase 350 2 x seachem matrix, 1 x coarse foam 3 x medium foam. The pre filter has 40ppm sponges
Click to expand...

I would remove everything except coarse foam, medium foam and the pre filter sponges, may a hand full of ceramic but not much. As @ceg4048 often says 'FLOW is KING' in the high tech tank, have a strong King to rule everything
 
Zeus. said:
I would remove everything except coarse foam, medium foam and the pre filter sponges, may a hand full of ceramic but not much. As @ceg4048 often says 'FLOW is KING' in the high tech tank, have a strong King to rule everything
Click to expand...
Based on between the 2 filters I have 6 x flow 2100ltrs per hours how much more should I aim for?
 
About 10x the volume of the aquarium.
I don't think you need to bin your plants yet!
Have a go at upping the filter cleaning.....and reduce your lighting intensity if you can, get some floating plants or use fast growing stems as floaters also plant some of the stems!
Remove algae infected leaves as much as possible.....Staghorn Algae can be due to a build up of organics in the filters.
You have green spot algae which is an indicator of low phosphate!
Get your drop checker to a green colour before lights come on.
You need to dose NPK.....purchase dry salts from eBay this will save you money....... and you can tailor which ferts you need to add to the aquarium!
 
For 350litre tank we would advise x10 so 3500Litres per hour, it can be done with less and some users do manage with x5. With your staghorn the higher the better IMO and good surface agitation. will see the fastest results in combination with ferts a good clean removing worse leaves and frequent WCs.
Starting again would give the fastest result, however you may find you didnt resolve the issue which caused the staghorn :banghead::banghead::banghead:.

So getting things to improve first would be my goal
As @GHNelson mentioned checking CO2 drop and a pH profile would/may help
 
GHNelson said:
The plants look like they are suffering from Nitrate shortage giving them a lighter green colour.
Click to expand...
Would guess Nitrate is 0 ppm!
 
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