Another algae thread... Sorry

[wet lettuce]

34 gallon/155 litre tank
2 x HO T5's 7 hour photo period
Pressurised co2 connected to reactor
Cristalprofi E1501 filter (1400lph with reduced flow from co2 reactor), 2 x power heads (900 and 1000lph)
EI dosing
Currently double dosing easycarbo
Ada amazonia substrate
Co2 on 11am, lights on 1pm, co2 off 7pm, lights off 8pm

7 rainbow fish, 8 danios, 1 dwarf gourami, green tiger barbs


Hi guys just looking for some advice for removing the algae from my tank. I've been reading around the forums the last few months and I've managed to improve my tank slightly but just can't seem to get rid of it all. I have BBA covering filter pipes, power heads and dotted around the glass and growing on the substrate, a bit of hair algae on my plants and I'm getting green dust algae covering my glass for the second time in 5 weeks! I've recently made a lot of changes to my tank which made my algae unmanageable (I've always had some). I swapped my co2 inline diffuser for the Sera co2 reactor 1000 connected to my filter which reduced my flow rate a bit but I have 2 power heads (900 and 1000 lph) running alongside my spray bar. Would I be better off getting a separate small filter for running my co2 reactor to up my flow again? I've also changed my lights from 2 T8s to 2 HOT5s is that too much light? I started double dosing easylife easycarbo for the past 10 days as well. And I haven't had time to check my pH levels all day yet but i checked every 30 mins between 2 and 5 and it was a steady 6.2 then at 10pm it was 7.1 hoping to get a full day off soon to to it properly. Is my best option to reduce lighting even more or try to up co2/circulation? All my plants have a light sway to them from the water flow. I'm wanting to remove my plants for a re scape but I dont want to buy anymore till the algae is sorted or do you think it would be easier to remove everything and give my tank a big clean then stock it full of algae free healthy plants? Any and all help is really appreciated as you must be sick of these questions. Thanks

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[Manuel Arias]

I would check nitrates levels...having several types of algae usually targets an excess of nutrients somehow.

 

[ian_m]

I've also changed my lights from 2 T8s to 2 HOT5s is that too much light

Bingo you have spotted it. Reduce to one tube and maybe even reduce the level on the one tube (foil rings) and reduce time to say 4 hours until things settle down. The slowly over say a month increase the light levels.

In the meantime, removed as much algae as possible mechanically, tooth brush, cloth etc. Things like rocks and powerheads can be scrubbed in Easycarbo to kill algae.

You can remove it off plants by dipping the plants briefly in a 25% (or more or less ?) Easycarbo solution, though is too strong and/or plants are certain types it will kill the plants. But I have just done this to my plants after over feeding produced excessive BBA. The BBA goes red/pink after a day or two and is picked off by the fish especially Ottos.

Also you need to sort CO2 levels and distribution by using a drop checker located in different places in the tank to verify you have got CO2 levels and distribution right. I was really surprised I could have a yellow drop checker in once plae and a blue in another.

I get through about 15gr a day of CO2 on my 180l tank with a green/yellow drop checker.

 

[wet lettuce]

OK will I have to switch off my co2 earlier as well before the lights go off? Or should I keep my co2 levels up as long as my fish aren't suffering?

 

[ian_m]

Switch CO2 two hours before lights on and off 1 hour before lights off.

You will need to fiddle with spray bar "angling" and surface agitation and CO2 injection rate to try and get a steady CO2 level during the lights on period.

Turning needle valve up raises CO2 level.
Increasing surface agitation (spray bar pointing slightly upwards) reduces CO2 level.
Decreasing surface agitation (spray bar point downwards) increase CO2.

 

[wet lettuce]

OK I've sorted all that and removed the majority of the algae there's still bits of hair algae on bits of my plants will they slowly die off over time with the reduced light and light period and double dosing easycarbo or will it keep spreading so ill have to remove 100% of it?