• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Algae problem.

Thanks for your reply, I am injecting CO2 colour is a very light green, I can drop the nutrients down and lower the light however I’m only at 60% on the light, this tank has been causing me issues for nearly 6 months now and I really getting cheesed off with it.

I will lower the nutrients and see how that goes, but this hair algae had only appeared about two weeks ago.
 
Hi @Wilksy

I was just looking at the following from @Dr Mike Oxgreen :
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
The “double-triple” dose of TNC Complete is giving:

40ppm nitrate (EI recommends up to 30)
3.7ppm phosphate (EI recommends up to 3)
30ppm potassium (EI recommends up to 30)

So the nitrate and phosphate are a little higher than the upper level of EI. Potassium is bang-on the upper level.
Click to expand...

I have never used the EI method in any of my tanks. But, I'm shocked to see that EI recommends up to 3 ppm for phosphate. In my non-EI tanks, I would be aiming for up to 30 ppm nitrate and up to 20 ppm potassium. I would limit phosphate to, perhaps, 0.4 ppm. And I would monitor this using the JBL phosphate (PO4) test kit. What is odd to me is that I would be aiming for similar figures for nitrate and potassium but only one tenth of the phosphate level. Rightly or wrongly, I associate high phosphate with increased likelihood of algae growth.

JPC
 
Hi @Wilksy

Both algae and cyano/BGA take up iron from the water column. Do you know what the iron concentration is likely to be based on your dose of TNC Complete? And, please remind me which lighting system you have.

JPC
 
jaypeecee said:
I have never used the EI method in any of my tanks. But, I'm shocked to see that EI recommends up to 3 ppm for phosphate. In my non-EI tanks, I would be aiming for up to 30 ppm nitrate and up to 20 ppm potassium. I would limit phosphate to, perhaps, 0.4 ppm. And I would monitor this using the JBL phosphate (PO4) test kit. What is odd to me is that I would be aiming for similar figures for nitrate and potassium but only one tenth of the phosphate level. Rightly or wrongly, I associate high phosphate with increased likelihood of algae growth.
Click to expand...
Remember that the EI recommended levels are dosages, not target values for the water column. The plants should be sucking up a good proportion of the dosage that you add, so the water column probably won’t reach 3 ppm. And normal practice is to add the dosage in three chunks throughout the week, so at no point should your water column reach the EI dosage level. Last time I measured, I think I had a PO₄ level of around 1.5 ppm in the water column, despite dosing 3 ppm per week.

And of course the weekly 50% water change keeps a lid on any unused fertiliser dosage (as well as, perhaps more importantly, removing dissolved organics).

As it happens I think I’ve reduced my PO₄ dosage to 2 ppm per week since then, and I haven’t recently done a PO₄ test. I’ll try to remember to do one tomorrow. The reduced PO₄ dosage is part of my ongoing investigation to see if BGA is affected by the NO₃ / PO₄ ratio, so currently I’m dosing 10 ppm per week of NO₃ and 2 ppm per week of PO₄. I was half expecting this to bring back my small amounts of BGA, but so far nothing!
 
Hi @Dr Mike Oxgreen

Fair point. I interpreted the figures as target levels. Will be interested to know what your PO₄ test reveals. I'm pleased to hear that your experiment to see if BGA is affected by the NO₃ / PO₄ ratio is still continuing. My experiments also continue in trying to keep cyano at bay. I've very recently discovered a scientific paper with a proposed method for dealing with this. So, I've set up a tank in which I'm purposely growing Oscillatoria. It's only been going for a few days but the blue-green menace is growing nicely. Another ten days and I should have a result.

JPC
 
The light unit is a Twinstar 600SA Light with controller coming on for 6hrs a day at 60%, I don't know what the iron content is but I have reduced the TNC complete to 3ml/day as of this morning (its automatically dosed). I will be away for two weeks shortly so should I drop the light intensity down so I don't come back to a green nightmare.

I really need to get this sorted out as my good lady is getting fed up with my stress levels in trying to get this right, I've had fish tanks for years and have never experienced algae like this before - the really annoying thing is this is the most money I've ever spent on a tank yet its the one thats giving me a nightmare.
 
I'm running my 900s at 50% for 6 hours a day with a 30 min ramp up/down..and an hour"sunset"
Am using co2..but nowhere near 30ppm.
Standard dose of tnc complete.
All easy plants
Algae free and low maintenance.
 
No,I meant 30ppm of co2.
You can use the drop checker and/or a ph profile to determine how much co2 you have in the tank.
 
Hi @Wilksy
Wilksy said:
I really need to get this sorted out as my good lady is getting fed up with my stress levels in trying to get this right, I've had fish tanks for years and have never experienced algae like this before - the really annoying thing is this is the most money I've ever spent on a tank yet its the one thats giving me a nightmare.
Click to expand...

I really feel for you. Unfortunately, the situation that you find yourself in is all too common. The combination of water, CO2, lots of light and lots of fertilizers needs very careful management. It's the difference between so-called 'low tech' and 'high tech'. How about starting afresh following your two weeks away? That's what I'd be tempted to do. Others may have alternative suggestions.

Try to remain positive!

JPC 🙂
 
There was a good journal on here,a few years ago,by a member called pinkmummylady.
This may be of use to the op.

Maybe someone(more tech savvy)could provide a link.
 
Update, I came back from just over two weeks away to a tank that was not too bad, there was a growth of green hair algae emanating in the direction of flow but nothing overly bad.

So I clean the algae up, do a water change and then I get brown algae on all the plants, this comes off very easily with either a waft of the hand or using long bamboo skewer type sticks to wrap it around.

Unfortunately it keeps coming back day after day, which I a real pain as the tank is nice apart from this - plants are growing well, no algae on the glass or items inside the tank just this brown stuff that just returns day after day.

Any ideas will be gratefully received
 
Thought its about time I updated my algae issues I was having which almost made me give up, but I persevered and no have no algae at all which is such a relief after months of problems. So what did I end up with and I must state that I have no idea which of the changes I made sorted it out all I can say is that something did.

The lighting is now on 55% and on for 7 hrs a day
I have installed a UV light system into the return to tank feed
I cut the TNC Total to 3ml per day dosed in 1ml segment's during the course of a 24hr period
I do a quick clean and 50% water change every Tuesday, and a longer clean a plant trim plus another 50% water change every Friday
I have a breeding colony of Cherry Shrimps - bought 20 now have god now's how many
I dose the tank every clean with 10 drops of Phyton Git

The plant growth is fantastic, the moss that looked like a bad case of algae is now flourishing and covering most of the wood, and I'm letting it cover some of the lower edges of the rocks.

The Elecharis Mini is totally covered the desired area, the Java Fern has great growth as does all the Bucephalandra
So basically I didnt give in and all is now well
 
Hi @Wilksy

I'm delighted for you!

Wilksy said:
I have installed a UV light system into the return to tank feed
Click to expand...
Out of interest, why did you install the UV system in the return feed?

I also use UV-C sterilizers on a couple of my tanks. Dependent on what I am trying to achieve by using them, I switch them ON or OFF, as required. It is likely that your UV-C sterilizers eliminated some of the algae by killing the algae spores.

JPC
 
Wilksy said:
Thought its about time I updated my algae issues I was having which almost made me give up, but I persevered and no have no algae at all which is such a relief after months of problems. So what did I end up with and I must state that I have no idea which of the changes I made sorted it out all I can say is that something did.

The lighting is now on 55% and on for 7 hrs a day
I have installed a UV light system into the return to tank feed
I cut the TNC Total to 3ml per day dosed in 1ml segment's during the course of a 24hr period
I do a quick clean and 50% water change every Tuesday, and a longer clean a plant trim plus another 50% water change every Friday
I have a breeding colony of Cherry Shrimps - bought 20 now have god now's how many
I dose the tank every clean with 10 drops of Phyton Git

The plant growth is fantastic, the moss that looked like a bad case of algae is now flourishing and covering most of the wood, and I'm letting it cover some of the lower edges of the rocks.

The Elecharis Mini is totally covered the desired area, the Java Fern has great growth as does all the Bucephalandra
So basically I didnt give in and all is now well
Click to expand...
Is it possible that you waited long enough for the new sterile aquarium to establish a flourishing suite of necessary microorganisms and that is why the balance has now tipped in favour of the higher plant/microbe system and less in favour of algae?

I see and experience the same issues with excruciating regularity when I set up a completely sterile tank regardless of whether it is high energy or low energy. In fact I would truly question whether anyone has set up a completely new sterile tank and not had any issues with algae at all. The more I see these posts and issues regarding algae in new tanks the more I’m convinced the only true ‘cure’ for persistent algae is time.

I’m glad you are finally winning the battle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top