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Algae on hardscape and Epiphytes

J

j.smet78

New Member
Joined
19 Jan 2025
Messages
16
Location
Belgium
Good evening,
Since a year i picked up the hobby again with a 60p.
It runs on co2 inline diffuser, Chihiros wrgb II 60 10th aniversary, Eheim pro 3 250. 7hrs 30 min light, RGB 80-60-80.
Chihiros dosing pump with Masterline micro 2ml/d, macro 2ml/d and carbo 2ml/d
Gh 5, Kh 2, K >15, No3 <10, Po4 <0.2
No matter what i do i always seem to get green hair algae on the hardscape materials, which i can clean off with a brush but it's annoying.
What botters me the most is that it seems i can't keep any epiphyte plants like annubias or narrow leaf. They always become smothered with algae. I trim away the infected leafs but at a certain point there are no more leafs to trim anymore.
What i'm i doing wrong?
 
Happy to be corrected, but I think many epiphytes can often have a dusting of algae on them due to being slow growers. That's a lot of light you're sending their way, is it an epiphyte only tank? If so my first port of call would be to lower your intensity and seeing how it affects them. Are they well positioned? Can you put them in more shaded areas of the tank perhaps? Do you have an image of the tank so we can see?
 
FrozenShivers said:
Happy to be corrected, but I think many epiphytes can often have a dusting of algae on them due to being slow growers. That's a lot of light you're sending their way, is it an epiphyte only tank? If so my first port of call would be to lower your intensity and seeing how it affects them. Are they well positioned? Can you put them in more shaded areas of the tank perhaps? Do you have an image of the tank so we can see?
Click to expand...
I've recently lowered the light intensity while i was away for two weeks on holiday, it resulted in an even bigger algae explosion that i'm still trying to recover from.
You can see some pictures of the algae infest3d epiphytes here together with a general overview of the tank.
 

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Hi all,
j.smet78 said:
I've recently lowered the light intensity while i was away for two weeks on holiday, it resulted in an even bigger algae explosion that i'm still trying to recover from
Click to expand...
It looks like it maybe Stagshorn algae (Compsopogon sp.), these are red algae (Rhodophyta) and will grow in low light.
j.smet78 said:
You can see some pictures of the algae infest3d epiphytes here together with a general overview of the tank.
Click to expand...
We think that "outbreaks" may relate to high levels of dissolved organics and a fully stuffed filter may be their source.

Cheers Darrel
 
I've upped the co² a bit and it seems to be clearing up a bit. The annubias look a bit cleaner now so i'll give it some time to see where it goes. Also ordered some masterline nitrate as my levels seem to be too low. I'm hoping it will help with little bit of hair algae that i seem to have here and there but that's very minimal. Thanks for the replies!
 
Hi all,
j.smet78 said:
I'm hoping it will help with little bit of hair algae that i seem to have here and there but that's very minimal.
Click to expand...
j.smet78 said:
No matter what i do i always seem to get green hair algae on the hardscape materials, which i can clean off with a brush but it's annoying.
Click to expand...
It may grow more strongly, in terms of <"physiology and photosystems"> the green algae are just "plants". The green algae growth tells you that you are supplying <"all the nutrients necessary for plant growth">.
j.smet78 said:
Also ordered some masterline nitrate as my levels seem to be too low.
Click to expand...
Honestly this is just a very, very expensive way of buying a dilute solution of potassium nitrate (KNO3)
  • MasterLine Nitrate contains nitrate and potassium: 0.69% N, 1.89% K
Click to expand...
Even if you call it £15 a litre for the MasterLine <"Nitrate 1000ml">, and KNO3 is 39% potassium (K) and 14% N (61% NO3). There are 1000g in a litre and this means that there is 6.9 g of nitrogen (N) and 18.9 g of potassium in a litre of "MasterLine NO3", so that is 49 g of KNO3 (49 * 0.39 = 18.9 for K and 49 * 0.14= 6.9 for N). Call it 49 * 21 = 1000g (1 kg) and that is 15 * 21 and ~ £306 for a kilo of KNO3.
j.smet78 said:
Chihiros dosing pump with Masterline micro 2ml/d, macro 2ml/d and carbo 2ml/d
Gh 5, Kh 2, K >15, No3 <10, Po4 <0.2
Click to expand...
You would be, financially, much better off with a complete horticultural fertiliser. There aren't really <"any special aquarium fertilisers">, they are all ordinary fertilisers with the magic word <"Aquarium"> added that turns base metal into gold. Have a look at <"Solufeed 2:1:4 and Solufeed Sodium Free TEC or Solufeed Coir TEC Combination">.

cheers Darrel
 
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j.smet78 said:
I've recently lowered the light intensity while i was away for two weeks on holiday, it resulted in an even bigger algae explosion that i'm still trying to recover from.
You can see some pictures of the algae infest3d epiphytes here together with a general overview of the tank.
Click to expand...
Can you give an approximate ratio of Ca : Mg : K?
When was the filter last cleaned?
In my opinion, leaves that are heavily infested with algae are already half dead anyway. At some point they will serve as readily available fertilizer for the algae and cyanobacteria and all kind of stuff you don`t want to see.
 
j.smet78 said:
annubias
Click to expand...
Never managed to keep it clean in my main tank. I think because my main tank runs with very intense light, plenty of Nitrate around 10 ppm when things are going well, good filtration, fairly high CO2, around 20 ppm - in such an environment slow growing plants simply can't compete with the fast growing plants, they get too little shade and blasted with light, way more than they can utilise, then too much shade as fast growing plants take over, and sooner or later slow growing plants weaken and get invested with algae. With shade loving plants low light and medium CO2 around 10 ppm works for me, but then, for me, fast growing plants can't be used with low light and medium CO2, they weaken and get covered in algae. In the garden we keep shade lovers for the shade and lime loving (corrected a little slip there!) plants for alkaline soil, in the aquarium we really do push things. Good luck.
 
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Hi all,
Connswater said:
With shade loving plants low light and medium CO2 around 10 ppm works for me, but then, for me, fast growing plants can't be used with low light and medium CO2, they weaken and get covered in algae. In the garden we keep shade lovers for the shade and lime loving (corrected a little slip there!) plants for alkaline soil,
Click to expand...
I <"agree with that">, it is the <"horses for courses"> argument.

My Anubias barteri plants will all be free of any visible algae, but I think they are <"tucked away in the jungle and don't get much light">. I actually know when I bought some of the ones I still have, it was in 2010 <"after my holiday disaster">, other will predate that and were probably bought in 2008.

cheers Darrel
 
You might need more phosphates. You can add all the nitrogen you want, if there are no phosphates, the plants won't uptake the nitrogen.

How on earth do you measure potassium?

Also, check your CO2 ! Seems to be the root of all the problems!
 
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