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Green spot algae treatment and prevention?

Neil6

Neil6

Member
Joined
12 Dec 2020
Messages
74
Location
Uk
Dosing ferts using E.I. in heavily planted tank. Green spot algae is coming back weekly on glass, stones and plant leaves. I've increased phosphate levels to 1ppm as been told this can help two weeks ago and not seen any improvement? Removing as much as possible weekly. Use Chihiros doctor for last 2 months.
Co2 inline injection -lime green. Filtration is a bit of an overkill- biomaster 600 and Eheim 4+ and a wave maker set to the lowest setting as had a dead spot. Using seachem matrix in both filters.
Chihiros WRGB2 Lighting is on for 6hours - 'shrimp' setting approx 80%
Any pointers to suppress green spot algae? 4 new photos by Neil Robins
 
Forgot to mention doing 40% weekly water changes with RO water. mineralising RO water to 120ppm beforehand. pH around 6.6. nitrates, nitrites and ammonia zero. Clean up crew: 8 Amanno shrimps, 8 cherry shrimp. 6 nitrite snails. And 6 Octo. catfish.
 
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Call me a liar, but I’m almost positive every tank has some spot algae. I dose pretty heavy on phosphates and still get it, but it’s increased when conditions are not healthy for your plants. You can spot treat it as well with excel or H2O2 if you wish. It also likes direct light, slowing growing plants, and decor.
 
Just looked at your pics, as I mentioned it looks like most of your buildup is on your slow growers like crypts and anubias. It happens, you can just cut those affected leaves or try to scrub it off the anubias.
 
Mr.Shenanagins said:
Call me a liar, but I’m almost positive every tank has some spot algae. I dose pretty heavy on phosphates and still get it, but it’s increased when conditions are not healthy for your plants. You can spot treat it as well with excel or H2O2 if you wish. It also likes direct light, slowing growing plants, and decor.
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That's a shame. Just seems I'm getting it coming back very quickly.
I've got easy-life Easycarbo isn't this the same as seachem Excell? Will It do the same job?
 
Yes same thing. I wouldn’t use it on anything but decor, a high concentration could melt the plant leaves. Anubias is more resilient, but crypts not so much.
 
Are you dosing full ei? Just curious as you've said you increased phosphate levels to 1ppm.

I only run low tech so might be different with co2 injection but the only time I get noticeable gsa on the glass is if I have the light settings to high or where the sun light catches it in the morning.
 
Neil6 said:
Dosing ferts using E.I. in heavily planted tank. Green spot algae is coming back weekly on glass, stones and plant leaves. I've increased phosphate levels to 1ppm as been told this can help two weeks ago and not seen any improvement? Removing as much as possible weekly. Use Chihiros doctor for last 2 months.
Co2 inline injection -lime green. Filtration is a bit of an overkill- biomaster 600 and Eheim 4+ and a wave maker set to the lowest setting as had a dead spot. Using seachem matrix in both filters.
Chihiros WRGB2 Lighting is on for 6hours - 'shrimp' setting approx 80%
Any pointers to suppress green spot algae? 4 new photos by Neil Robins
Click to expand...
Hello,
GSA, from the plants perspective is caused by some combination of poor PO4 and poor CO2. As usual, saying that you have a lime green DC does not really mean that you have avoided a CO2 issue. If you are dosing EI level of nutrients and you are getting deficiency syndromes then this means you CO2/flow/distribution is at fault. Of course, lighting plays a key role, so if the lighting is too strong and if CO2/flow/distribution is not good enough to compensate then problems will arise.

To investigate, we would need to determine your gas ON/OFF times in relation to the lighting times and we would need to see photos or sketches of your injection method as well as the filter output configuration.

Reducing the light intensity is the first step in attacking any algal bloom, of course, since light causes algae.

Cheers,
 
ceg4048 said:
Hello,
GSA, from the plants perspective is caused by some combination of poor PO4 and poor CO2. As usual, saying that you have a lime green DC does not really mean that you have avoided a CO2 issue. If you are dosing EI level of nutrients and you are getting deficiency syndromes then this means you CO2/flow/distribution is at fault. Of course, lighting plays a key role, so if the lighting is too strong and if CO2/flow/distribution is not good enough to compensate then problems will arise.

To investigate, we would need to determine your gas ON/OFF times in relation to the lighting times and we would need to see photos or sketches of your injection method as well as the filter output configuration.

Reducing the light intensity is the first step in attacking any algal bloom, of course, since light causes algae.

Cheers,
Click to expand...
Co2 is turned on 1hour before lights on and 30mins before lights off. Co2 Distribution seems very good using a inline defuser. Micro bubbles seen at the bottom of the aquaruim. Filtration system- inlet and outlet in the same corner but outlet pointing away so creating a circular motion in the whole aquaruim. Got a wave maker to aid this action still further.
 

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John q said:
Are you dosing full ei? Just curious as you've said you increased phosphate levels to 1ppm.

I only run low tech so might be different with co2 injection but the only time I get noticeable gsa on the glass is if I have the light settings to high or where the sun light catches it in the morning.
Click to expand...
This maybe my problem thinking about it. I also get a bit of sunlight into the room on a sunny morning. I've used a blanket as a sun block, but it's easy to forget.
 
Neil6 said:
Co2 is turned on 1hour before lights on and 30mins before lights off. Co2 Distribution seems very good using a inline defuser. Micro bubbles seen at the bottom of the aquaruim. Filtration system- inlet and outlet in the same corner but outlet pointing away so creating a circular motion in the whole aquaruim. Got a wave maker to aid this action still further.
Click to expand...
Hi,
We need to see how the outputs are actually arranged in order to analyze. It happens often that hobbyists imagine the flow path and their imagination turns out to be only a dream not based on hydrodynamics. If the flow path is not coherent then there can often be flow cancellation at certain areas. resulting in pockets of stagnation.

Cheers,
 
Hi,
I can see from the video what appears to be two filters and what appears to be two filter outlets in the rear corner both pointing at the opposite diagonal. Appears to be a third outlet lower down along the rear wall pointing in the direction of the other two. It's not clear. In any case the GSA appears to be a result of the lighting level based on it's presence on the hardscape so it might be worth reducing the intensity.

Cheers,
 
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