Tank specifications - Juwel 180 Vision / 123litres.
Lighting - T8 2x 25w (As of two days ago Changed from 2xT5 35w).
Lighting period- 7 hours day.
CO2 - Excel Flourish daily 6ml.
Filtration – Standard juwel compact Bioflow 3.0 filtation system including Bioflow 600 pump
Fertilisation routine – Flourish ¾ single dose twice a week, Flourish iron ½ single dose twice week , flourish trace ¾ single dose once a week.
Water used – Tap water which is hard 133.7 mg/l ca, Nitrate 20 mg/l no2, Potassium 10.2 mg/l k, Phosphorus 822 µg/l P/l. 25% water change weekly.
Water temp- 24c.
Tank critters- Glow light danio, X-ray tetra, Green fire tetra, Corys, 5 amano shrimps x5. (Tank is up to the limit with fish stock when they all fully grown)
Tank photos with OLD T5 lamps a few days ago.
Close ups Left hand side.
]
Close up Right hand side near filter.
Polysperma close up (sure the snails love eating this plant, always have holes in leaves!)
The tank has been setup for about 1.5 years.
Up until a few days ago I had the 2xT5 35w lamps above which I knew where too bright but have now managed to change for some T8 25w type lamps x2. This I am hoping will help a great deal. With lower CO2 need and slower growth.
98% of the algae grows on the back 3D background and the plants stay mostly clear, but it is spreading on the back ground and not looking very nice (wish it was a green algae if I had to choose I could probably put up with that).
It looks like BBA but it is a lot longer and more like a hair type algae. It is soft and slimey to the touch and grows to about a couple of cm’s or so.
When out of the tank it has a brown/black, dark green look to it (some websites says BBA grows to 0.5cm.) http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
I have read most of the forums with regards to BBA (which I am not positive it is) and that it is a CO2 issue.
Steps I have taken so far.
1) I tried shielding light with diffusers- did not really work. (so changed the lamps to T8 from T5)
2) I cut down the time from 10 hours 6 to 8 months ago to 7 hrs – Helped a small amount I think.
3) Dosed excel 3x dose for a week – did not really do anything to the algae.
4) Spot dosed onto the algae – killed algae BUT also bleached the 3D back ground permanently which looked terrible (would not use back ground again even though it looks very nice to start with).
5) I would have more shrimp but the little sods keep stealing the corys food.
What is this algae?
Without getting into CO2 gas and RO water is there anything else I can do ? Any advice. Comments please?
Please ask if you need more information or if I have not made myself clear (I hope I have not made this post too long)
Lighting - T8 2x 25w (As of two days ago Changed from 2xT5 35w).
Lighting period- 7 hours day.
CO2 - Excel Flourish daily 6ml.
Filtration – Standard juwel compact Bioflow 3.0 filtation system including Bioflow 600 pump
Fertilisation routine – Flourish ¾ single dose twice a week, Flourish iron ½ single dose twice week , flourish trace ¾ single dose once a week.
Water used – Tap water which is hard 133.7 mg/l ca, Nitrate 20 mg/l no2, Potassium 10.2 mg/l k, Phosphorus 822 µg/l P/l. 25% water change weekly.
Water temp- 24c.
Tank critters- Glow light danio, X-ray tetra, Green fire tetra, Corys, 5 amano shrimps x5. (Tank is up to the limit with fish stock when they all fully grown)
Tank photos with OLD T5 lamps a few days ago.
Close ups Left hand side.
Close up Right hand side near filter.
Polysperma close up (sure the snails love eating this plant, always have holes in leaves!)
The tank has been setup for about 1.5 years.
Up until a few days ago I had the 2xT5 35w lamps above which I knew where too bright but have now managed to change for some T8 25w type lamps x2. This I am hoping will help a great deal. With lower CO2 need and slower growth.
98% of the algae grows on the back 3D background and the plants stay mostly clear, but it is spreading on the back ground and not looking very nice (wish it was a green algae if I had to choose I could probably put up with that).
It looks like BBA but it is a lot longer and more like a hair type algae. It is soft and slimey to the touch and grows to about a couple of cm’s or so.
When out of the tank it has a brown/black, dark green look to it (some websites says BBA grows to 0.5cm.) http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
I have read most of the forums with regards to BBA (which I am not positive it is) and that it is a CO2 issue.
Steps I have taken so far.
1) I tried shielding light with diffusers- did not really work. (so changed the lamps to T8 from T5)
2) I cut down the time from 10 hours 6 to 8 months ago to 7 hrs – Helped a small amount I think.
3) Dosed excel 3x dose for a week – did not really do anything to the algae.
4) Spot dosed onto the algae – killed algae BUT also bleached the 3D back ground permanently which looked terrible (would not use back ground again even though it looks very nice to start with).
5) I would have more shrimp but the little sods keep stealing the corys food.
What is this algae?
Without getting into CO2 gas and RO water is there anything else I can do ? Any advice. Comments please?
Please ask if you need more information or if I have not made myself clear (I hope I have not made this post too long)