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Black algae in new setup :(

Sirkavu

Sirkavu

Member
Joined
15 Apr 2018
Messages
174
Location
London
Hello all,

I have a tank that I started as DSM. Last week I filled the tank with water and this Monday I went on a short business trip for 4 days. All was good until I realized that I had forgotten to turn down the lights from 10h to maybe 6h so when I looked at the tank I found our black algae :(

My filter is Eheim Classic 600 on a 180L Juwel tank.

I thought of keeping the lights off today as I don't have CO2 with me but I also have in mind to take 50-70% of the water off, brush the algae off as much as I can and apply the CO2 (has to be liquid CO2) and maybe after 1-2 days I would fill the tank with water again? Any advice??
I also have no idea what's on the grave el but it just looks like O2 bubbles.
 

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Sirkavu said:
Any advice??
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Liquid CO2 won't help with diatoms and the best thing you can do is just to wait, it will disappear itself in two - three weeks. Reducing light duration will help to reduce appearance of other sorts of algae including BBA. If you hate any sort of algae in any amount my advice would be to wipe the glass, take toothbrush and wrap around it as much diatoms as you can, then do big water change and maybe rinse pre filter as loads of diatoms will stuck in there after disturbing them.

If ammonia and nitrites are in check then amano shrimp and snails could help a little to clean those out of reach places.

Cheers
Dan
 
MrClockOff said:
Liquid CO2 won't help with diatoms and the best thing you can do is just to wait, it will disappear itself in two - three weeks. Reducing light duration will help to reduce appearance of other sorts of algae including BBA. If you hate any sort of algae in any amount my advice would be to wipe the glass, take toothbrush and wrap around it as much diatoms as you can, then do big water change and maybe rinse pre filter as loads of diatoms will stuck in there after disturbing them.

If ammonia and nitrites are in check then amano shrimp and snails could help a little to clean those out of reach places.

Cheers
Dan
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Hey Dan - thanks a lot for your help!

I will do as you said and I will clean the glass and rinse the filter, do a 80% Water change and after 3 days I will check ammonia and nitrites and if good I will add the Amanos and wait a few weeks to see how things go.

Thanks a lot
 
I did a 70% WC, grabbed a toothbrush, and cleaned as many stones, plants, and the glass. I emptied the filter, cleaned it inside, and then filled everything up.
The water is a little blurry as you can see in the pictures attached - the first 3 are the tank before cleaning and the last 2 are the tank now at the moment.
I have added Fluval Biological Enhancer, Prime Concentrated Conditioner, and H2O2 food-grade and now playing the waiting game.
I will measure Ammonia in a day or two and see if it will be ready for shrimps but definitely do another WC in 3 days.

Any other advice please do let me know :) I don't have any liquid CO2 but did order some and will add. I have also reduced the lighting to 6h.
 

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No experience of DSM, method ,but diatoms is usually par for the course in a newly set up aquarium . What works best for me is 50%water changes daily the first week ,then weekly every other day till one 50% week per week after3 weeks. Gently remove by hand what you can and very gently hose above running hand through plants ,.Water changes can be less later, but this seems to work for algae too .When you can add a algae crew snails,shrimp
 
PARAGUAY said:
No experience of DSM, method ,but diatoms is usually par for the course in a newly set up aquarium . What works best for me is 50%water changes daily the first week ,then weekly every other day till one 50% week per week after3 weeks. Gently remove by hand what you can and very gently hose above running hand through plants ,.Water changes can be less later, but this seems to work for algae too .When you can add a algae crew snails,shrimp
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Thanks! I will do a daily WC for now and as you advised and see how it goes :)
 
Sirkavu said:
I will do a daily WC for now
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It should be mentioned that some experienced aquarists don't do much in this situation and simply wait. That what you're experiencing right now is nothing unusual. It's almost impossible to establish an aquarium which is stable from the beginning. Microbes (incl. algae) must colonize the tank, proliferate, and demarcate "spheres of influence". These processes are almost totally beyond our control. We can only introduce and support plants which interact with microbes, but that's about all.
Vigorous water changes are not universally accepted as a way to improve these particular situations. Sometimes the new water just feeds the algae and bacteria. Personally, I prefer oxygenation with the goal to support aerobic metabolism as much as possible (in contrast to anaerobic which produces reduced, often harmful products). Another principle which I follow is establishing new tanks with as few nutrients as possible. Microbes develop less dramatically and oxygen demand is lower.
 
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Hey All - So an update.
The tank was doing well and algae was clearing. I was doing a WC once a week.

A week and a half ago I went on holiday and when I came back the situation got worse and I am now getting really sad as this was the only scape I have done that looked really nice.

I don't know what to do anymore. I need to get a better siphon and for tomorrow I am thinking of just doing a 50% WC and cleaning the filter again full-on. My Nitrite, Nitrate, PH, and Ammonia are all good. I don't add any CO2 at the moment.

I now have what I think is black algae and I cannot figure out what the hairy or slimy thing is.

I have 6 Ottos in and 6 Amano shrimps (wanted to get a few more tomorrow, Sunday, to see if they could help as much with algae once I do a nice clean again tomorrow.

If anyone has any suggestion on what to do I would honestly appreciate as I would love to succeed on this 180L.

You will see pictures of when I came back - last Tuesday (had some of the white little worms too which I think are harmful): IMG_8344.JPG IMG_8345.JPG IMG_8346.JPG IMG_8360.JPG IMG_8361.JPG

Then today - I can see black algae appearing: IMG_8619.JPG IMG_8620.JPG IMG_8621.JPG IMG_8622.JPG IMG_8623.JPG
 

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dw1305 said:
Hi all,
The black "algae" is Cyanobacteria, it is also <"pearling on your substrate">.

What <"filter media do you have in your filter">? I'll be honest I would never run a canister filter without an <"intake pre-filter sponge">.

cheers Darrel
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Hi Darrel,

Thanks for popping in - really appreciate it!

I have an Eheim Classic 600 External Filter. Regarding the intake pre-filter sponge, how can I do this? I do have the old filter head that came with the tank and I could attach a filter to it and just have it in, so the bad stuff accumulates on that filter, if this is what you meant?

I also see that not giving nutrients to the plants can be a huge cause of why I am having such bad problems with the algae - correct? I may have read it wrong...
 
Thank you bot @dw1305 and @LightingBamboozled !!

I am about to do a full clean on the tank and tomorrow I will go get one of those and put it in the filter bit in the tank and add a few more Amano to make a total of 10. I am also doing EL dosing from today.

Hopefully, it will help and ina. few weeks I can have a better looking tank re algae.
 
Sirkavu said:
I also see that not giving nutrients to the plants can be a huge cause of why I am having such bad problems with the algae - correct?
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Generally, there's a poor dependence between the amount of nutrients and algae. In part, it is definitely caused by the fact that there are innumerable species of algae and for any possible conditions, there are some species which love just those in your tank.
By the way, I've established a tank in August this year, and right now it's going through a period of intense growth of green thread algae. In young tanks, this happens quite often. In most instances, the algae just disappear in time. (Sometimes not...)
 
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