Brown Algae

[Dinesh]

Hi Guys, my tank has been running for about 3 months, 1st month only with plants and few guppies. Later i moved out the guppies and added 50 Cardinals. NOW im having a big problem with the brown algae on the glass. Can anyone please advise the cause. Below are my descriptions,

Tank Size : L180cm X W50cm X H90cm
Lighting : Aquasonic T5 lighting 4X80Watts - 12000K for about 8hrs
CO2 : None
Fert : Ferka (4 pumps each day)
Plants : Anubias and Java Fern
Filter : Eheim Classic

 

[Dinesh]

If you need any further information to be clearer please let me know i will provide them.

 

[ian_m]

Brown algae tends to occur in new tanks, see here James' Planted Tank - Algae Guide. Otto's ate all mine (and wiping off surfaces using filter floss) when it appeared a month or two after setting up and not been seen since.

However looking at your tank volume (180 UK gallons/210 US gallons) and light power (320Watts) and light time (8 hours) and no CO2 and not having x10 flow (8000litres/hour) and not using enough fertz you are in edge of disaster territory for an algae take over. You need to seriously reduce you light time/power, please read the Setting up a “higher” tech planted tank | UK Aquatic Plant Society for details.

 

[Dinesh]

I guess you are right as may tank is new algae may seem to take over but please advise if it will go away slowly as the tank matures ?? Alright I will reduce my lightning period to 6hours a day .. Is this still too much of light?? Aquashade by Ferka is the fertilizer that I'm dosing.

I do not want to get this into a High Tech planted tank. So guys please let me know what would be your choice if you were to Get balance in tank with specification.

I'm planning to add few more plants such as Crypts and giant vallisneria to my tank to take away the extra bit of nutrient on which these brown algae's are surviving. Do you think its a wise idea.

 

[ceg4048]

Hello,
Algae only go away when you fix the root cause. As stated previously, you really have much too much light. You should disable AT LEAST 50% of your bulbs, and it probably wouldn't hurt to do a 3 day blackout.

I'm planning to add few more plants such as Crypts and giant vallisneria to my tank to take away the extra bit of nutrient on which these brown algae's are surviving. Do you think its a wise idea.

Your premise is unwise. AS noted by Ian, algae is not caused by the presence of nutrients. It's caused by too much light combined with LACK of Nutrients. Therefore adding more plants without addressing the fundamental cause will not fix your problem. It will only cause more poor plant health.

It's always good to add more plants, but they should not be massacred by overabundance of light and they must be fed. When you reduce the light intensity you will also reduce the need for CO2 and nutrients. In the meantime, a blackout, additional scrubbing and cleaning, plus extra massive water changes should curtail the bloom.

Cheers,

 

[linkinruss]

Stupid question, but does a blackout also mean that you stop dosing your liquid/dry salts?
Would that also mean turning off the co2 or drastically dialing it down?
Thanks!

 

[ceg4048]

Not a stupid question at all. Plants can uptake nutrition regardless of light so dosing isn't a problem, however, it's easier to shut down CO2 and to not dose during the blackout. That way you can keep the tank completely dark. Prior to the blackout do a massive water change and dose NPK.

This also means no peeking and no feeding fish. After the blackout, mechanically remove debris and do a super-massive water change, then increase the CO2 and dosing but keep the lights at a low intensity for at least a few days.

Cheers,

 

[Dinesh]

Thank you ... So i would use only 50% of lights on my tank. But when you say blackout, should i never use lights for 3 days until this situation kills all the algae ? I will then do a 70% water change after the blackout ... Hope it works.

Another one for you guys, when i add Aqua shade by ferka which has elements like magnesium, phosphor, nitrogen, sulphur and potassium and other trace elements, all the anubias old leaves tend to turn brownish with few brown patches and new budding leaves become crinkled and tips pointing downward. But i have lots of new budding leaves coming out every 4 or 5 days but none of them are growing good ?? What is the case here guys ? Any idea ??

 

[Dinesh]

Y this that i can't upload any pictures for your reference ?

 

[ceg4048]

You must upload your photos to a third party site such as Flikr or Photobucket, then embed the link here.

To perform a blackout you need to totally cover the tank and to avoid turning on the lights. Black plastic bin liners are good for this. Wrap the tank as if it were a Christmas present. After 3 or 4 days remove the cover.

Regarding you Anubias, these are all the same related faults. Poor CO2 and poor nutrition. Once you reduce the lighting intensity then the Ferka becomes more relevant. High light = High demand for nutrients/CO2.

Cheers,

 

[triumphcarnut]

Would this problem be sorted by doing the opposite of the related faults? ie improve the CO2 and Nutrition or is a blackout the only way to go. Just interested as i have just set up my own tank again (300l tank, AP 1400 +UV filter, with twin T5 54Watt 10K Daylight bulbs pressuirsed CO2 system in the making!)

 

[ceg4048]

Hello,
Well, performing both actions, addressing nutrition as well as a blackout, will improve the overall chances of recovery. Improving CO2 and nutrition will fix the root cause of the OP's troubles, however, algae like CO2 and nutrition as well. Nutrition and CO2 are required of all plants, but algae can thrive with very low levels of CO2/Nutrients. They can thrive at low levels.... levels which obliterate plants. So the improvement of nutrition helps the plants to recover from starvation, however plants recovering from starvation does not, in-and-of-itself eliminate the algae that is present. So the blackout functions to remove the light which algae need to produce their food.

So when there is overzealous lighting algae can produce their food. They are very small and need only very small levels of nutrient/CO2. Plants, being much more massive require hundreds or even thousands of times greater mass of nutrient/CO2 in order to produce food for that mass.

Therefore, nutrient/CO2 delivery improvement using injection, dosing, flow/distribution optimization etc., will address the long term health issues of plants and the blackout will help to eliminate the algae that is there. If you do not improve the nutrient/CO2 delivery sufficiently, and have not achieved the long term fix, then the algae will return because their spores are always present in the tank. As soon as the health of the plants deteriorates the spores will be triggered into growth at the drop of a hat. So keeping an algae free tank is all about maximizing the health of the plant. That objective is NEVER achieved by maximizing the light, only ever by maximizing nutrition.

If you have a similar setup in the making, then I highly recommend that you wait until you have the CO2 and fertilizers before flooding the tank. In fact, if you have never run a CO2 tank before I suggest that you flood the tank before you buy plants and just play with the injection technique, dropchecker, diffuser placement and filter outlet positioning. After the few days or a week or so that it takes to figure things out, then drain the tank and plant. This way it allows you to discover the silly mistakes we all make, such as leaks or pinched hoses or gear not responding as we think it should. When you do finally add plants you will have the kinks straightened out and will make fewer mistakes. This will give you plants a better head start.

Cheers,

 

[Dinesh]

Thanks.. i will soon upload a picture for our reference.

Alright i will cover the tank with a black fabric or something for 3-4 days... During this period can i continue to feed my cardinals and add Ferka ? Please clarify.

 

[Dinesh]

This is how my new anubias leaf looks.

Like you said its because of poor CO2 and Lack of nutrients. I agree with you on the 1st point .. As i do not have CO2 injection there may be poor CO2 but how is lack of nutrients possible when i still give Aquashade by ferka dosing.

 

[ceg4048]

Alright i will cover the tank with a black fabric or something for 3-4 days... During this period can i continue to feed my cardinals and add Ferka ?

No, forget about the cardinals. They do not need to be fed and the pollution caused by feeding is part of the problem.

how is lack of nutrients possible when i still give Aquashade by ferka dosing.

I cannot see the photo. It doesn't appear in my browser. In any case Ferka, like ALL commercial fertilizers is very dilute and does not provide enough nutrition, at the bottle suggested dosing, for plants that are being bombarded by so much light. If you were dosing 10X as much as suggested on the bottle then that might be sufficient. You've basically paid for water in a bottle. Again, this might be OK under low lighting. The combination of your Ferka plus food and fish waste would be OK. Under strong lighting the demand for nutrients rises sharply.

Cheers,

 

[triumphcarnut]

Hello,
Well, performing both actions, addressing nutrition as well as a blackout, will improve the overall chances of recovery. Improving CO2 and nutrition will fix the root cause of the OP's troubles, however, algae like CO2 and nutrition as well. Nutrition and CO2 are required of all plants, but algae can thrive with very low levels of CO2/Nutrients. They can thrive at low levels.... levels which obliterate plants. So the improvement of nutrition helps the plants to recover from starvation, however plants recovering from starvation does not, in-and-of-itself eliminate the algae that is present. So the blackout functions to remove the light which algae need to produce their food.

So when there is overzealous lighting algae can produce their food. They are very small and need only very small levels of nutrient/CO2. Plants, being much more massive require hundreds or even thousands of times greater mass of nutrient/CO2 in order to produce food for that mass.

Therefore, nutrient/CO2 delivery improvement using injection, dosing, flow/distribution optimization etc., will address the long term health issues of plants and the blackout will help to eliminate the algae that is there. If you do not improve the nutrient/CO2 delivery sufficiently, and have not achieved the long term fix, then the algae will return because their spores are always present in the tank. As soon as the health of the plants deteriorates the spores will be triggered into growth at the drop of a hat. So keeping an algae free tank is all about maximizing the health of the plant. That objective is NEVER achieved by maximizing the light, only ever by maximizing nutrition.

If you have a similar setup in the making, then I highly recommend that you wait until you have the CO2 and fertilizers before flooding the tank. In fact, if you have never run a CO2 tank before I suggest that you flood the tank before you buy plants and just play with the injection technique, dropchecker, diffuser placement and filter outlet positioning. After the few days or a week or so that it takes to figure things out, then drain the tank and plant. This way it allows you to discover the silly mistakes we all make, such as leaks or pinched hoses or gear not responding as we think it should. When you do finally add plants you will have the kinks straightened out and will make fewer mistakes. This will give you plants a better head start.

Cheers,

Thanks for the reply and I sort of had that figured.... you cant fix somethings without undoing the damage.

If you live in a glass house and stop throwing stones then the glass will no longer get broken but the glass that was already broken wont fix itself!

 

[Dinesh]

Thank you... im not going to feed my cardinals during the blackout. Will start from tomorrow.

 

[Dinesh]

No, forget about the cardinals. They do not need to be fed and the pollution caused by feeding is part of the problem.

I cannot see the photo. It doesn't appear in my browser. In any case Ferka, like ALL commercial fertilizers is very dilute and does not provide enough nutrition, at the bottle suggested dosing, for plants that are being bombarded by so much light. If you were dosing 10X as much as suggested on the bottle then that might be sufficient. You've basically paid for water in a bottle. Again, this might be OK under low lighting. The combination of your Ferka plus food and fish waste would be OK. Under strong lighting the demand for nutrients rises sharply.

Cheers,

I have created a profile in flckr and it was there were i had uploaded the pictures. Will try sending few more pictures to you. Bro i will keep the lighting as low as possible going forward after the blackout... like only 50% (2X80watts) for 5hrs everyday with 5 pumps of Ferka as suggested on the bottle .. But tell me what would you do to attain a lush green environment with good plant growth in a tank of my specification. I'm really struck not able to go back to my Malawi Cichlids tank at this movement. Please share your thoughts.

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

Wow.. 4x80 watts without co2 is asking for problems

 

[Dinesh]

I've edited the hyperlink to show the image inline.
CEG.