Huge Algae Problem

Hey people. As you may be aware, i have had an on going algae problem in my tank. In the past few days, the algae has really started to take over the tank. Literally, covering masses of plants.

I have 6 brisslenose plecs in my tank, 1 otto and 2 algae shrimp, but still algae wins. Also i have a UV sterilzer which is apparently meant to kill algae (biggest con of the century)


Can anyone advise what to do? I run EI and DIY CO2, (which i'm upgrading as of wednesday when i get paid) Temp is 26c and lights are on for about 12 hours a day. Oh and lighting is 2.1wpg and uv sterilizer is a vectron 8w. (origonal version)









Thanks all.

My thoughts? Knock your lighting down to 8 hours per day, 12 hours is a massive amount of lighting - my plants do really well at 2.5wpg and 8 hours per day of light. Much of those images show staghorn and that LOVES loads of light and will really attack slower growing plants like crypts, anubias and java fern.

UV sterilizers will only kill off water-born algae spores - algae already growing on leaves etc will not be affected.

Light is now being set down to 8 hours. What is better, 8 hours straight, or 2 hours in morning, 6 hours in the evening.

Also pretty stupid question but its the fool who doesnt ask the question.... will moonlight effect it in the slightest?


(oh and congrats on the 1000th post answering my question )

Firstly Otos prefer to be in groups. Now I've said that there are a few things that are probably the cause of this algae.

1. DIY CO2 - The inconsistency with 2.1WPG can help this algae. Your drop checker is almost blue. You should really be looking for a light green (limeade) but if it gets to a urine yellow back off with it. Also move the dropper down 3 inches. It shouldn't be touching the surface, as there will more CO2 at the surface giving you a less accurate reading.

2. LIGHT - As stated above 12 hours is a long time when you are a master let alone still getting the balance right. I use 6 hours @ 2.5WPG with 3 hours each side of 0.6WPG. Keep a straight 8 and let it be more natural The sun doesn't shinefor 2 then disappear to come back later for 6 hours.

3. 6 PLECS - even small bristlenoses are going to pump out a shed load of poop. Make sure you clean the substrate surface well each water change.

4. I'll bet you've been moving the plants around or planting new ones. Large water change needed directly after. Also 6 Plecs will be lifting the substrate when they play.

5. UVs definately work but as said they only kill water born parasites and algae. If a parasite or algae is already attached to it's target then it can't go through the UV can it?

6. 1 Oto and 2 algae shrimp are not much anyway. How big is your tank?

Finally point 4 was the response given to me on the same problem by Tom Barr & JamesC.

I read a post on cathodes causing algae months and months ago. I was having this problem then but was also having CO2 problems. I turned the cold cathodes off but I also got the CO2 sorted. The algae cleared!! I'm pretty sureit was the CO2.

Leave it off. Get the CO2 sorted. See if that kills the algae. If so turn the Cathodes on again. See if it grows back. Do like Tom Barr and test to see if it's true or not but give time for each stage to happen.

Sorry for being so sharp. I'm playing poker and replying as quickly as I can.

Andy

I've not found that moving plants around causes staghorn, more high light coupled with low/unstable CO2 and slow growth - moving plants around etc seems to trigger the greener algae like hair/fuzz etc. At least in my experience! I now move plants then do the water change which seems to help.

Firstly Otos prefer to be in groups. Now I've said that there are a few things that are probably the cause of this algae.

Click to expand...

Going to buy 2 more tomorrow when i get paid

1. DIY CO2 - The inconsistency with 2.1WPG can help this algae. Your drop checker is almost blue. You should really be looking for a light green (limeade) but if it gets to a urine yellow back off with it. Also move the dropper down 3 inches. It shouldn't be touching the surface, as there will more CO2 at the surface giving you a less accurate reading.

Click to expand...

I'm going to buy the hi-tech CO2 that you reccommended a few weeks back, tomorrow. I moved the drop checker 3 inches down.

2. LIGHT - As stated above 12 hours is a long time when you are a master let alone still getting the balance right. I use 6 hours @ 2.5WPG with 3 hours each side of 0.6WPG. Keep a straight 8 and let it be more natural The sun doesn't shinefor 2 then disappear to come back later for 6 hours.

Click to expand...

Set it to the straight 8 hours

3. 6 PLECS - even small bristlenoses are going to pump out a shed load of poop. Make sure you clean the substrate surface well each water change.

Click to expand...

Need some advice with this. If i clean the substrate too much, then the tetra complete substrate gets mixed up with the other black gravel. I've been using a 1cm /O pipe to skim the bottom. Its not too efficient but does the job.... sorta.

4. I'll bet you've been moving the plants around or planting new ones. Large water change needed directly after. Also 6 Plecs will be lifting the substrate when they play.

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This is all done on the sunday with 50% water change after i prune the plants. Although admitidelly, the intention of the partial water change was not for the moving of plants.

5. UVs definately work but as said they only kill water born parasites and algae. If a parasite or algae is already attached to it's target then it can't go through the UV can it?

Click to expand...

Guess your right.

6. 1 Oto and 2 algae shrimp are not much anyway. How big is your tank?

Click to expand...

12x12x24 inches

Finally point 4 was the response given to me on the same problem by Tom Barr & JamesC.

I read a post on cathodes causing algae months and months ago. I was having this problem then but was also having CO2 problems. I turned the cold cathodes off but I also got the CO2 sorted. The algae cleared!! I'm pretty sureit was the CO2.

Leave it off. Get the CO2 sorted. See if that kills the algae. If so turn the Cathodes on again. See if it grows back. Do like Tom Barr and test to see if it's true or not but give time for each stage to happen.

Click to expand...

:'( I'll leave it off for now.

Sorry for being so sharp. I'm playing poker and replying as quickly as I can.

Andy

Click to expand...

No worries and thanks for the help. Hope you won! I once won £8,000 (well 6,000 if you exclude my buy in) on 888.com for my mate. Then his gf played 3 other games in succession and lost!

I'm going to remove as much algae as i can see. Should i remove all the leaves which still have a little algae on them, or hope the brisslenoses can sort that out?

Remove affected leaves. I have 3 oto and 6 shrimp in my 15-gallon tank (12x12x24), they both stay small so are not a major addition to the filter load.

After lowering the CO2 checker, i noticed that the checker dimmed to dark blue. Theres my problem. Having just passed my driving test and getting car insurence, i am pretty empty pocketed, so i need to convince the parents to subsidise me £40 to help towards a hi-tech CO2 system.

For now, i've added a 3rd bottle of CO2 mix and changed all of the other CO2's I never seen sooo much CO2 bubbling. Hopefully it will turn the thing light green, (its now green)

I'm also getting blackbeard? i think its called. Thats forming on my wood, tomorrow, i'll take it off and annoy the khulli loaches and clean it!

For the long term you need stable CO2, as you know. For the short term, Flourish Excel will kill staghorn and BBA, especially if you spot treat the affected areas whilst the filter is off for a minute or two.

Dave.

Its practically the whole tank I just got rid of the wisteria though as that was blocking a lot of light to other plants and its seeming to grow less.

I will try this flourish excel and buy it tomorrow after work. As its the whole tank, do i treat the whole tank ass a general whole.

Be careful... it will melt some plants. It is good stuff, but some plants just can't deal with it. Check the plants first to be sure you don't have one that it kills.

Flourish Excel seems to affect plants at random though - it is said that it often affects vallis, riccia and one or two others. Personally it has never done anything bad to my vallis, I've had it with a plant similar to riccia (monosolenium tenerus) and it also did nothing bad. It may be related as much to different peoples water conditions as anything else.

3 cannisters seems a bit excessive for a tank of that size (same as mine, around 15 UK gallons) - I had two Nutrafin cannisters and with the Nutrafin ladder or a ceramic diffuser it managed happily to keep my drop checker green. What filter do you use and where is the ladder/diffuser placed in relation to the filter output? is there a lot of water surface agitation?

I think moving plants around too much, too much fish/or waste is a good cause for Staghorn.
There may be more, but those I've managed to show do cause this algae.

How to resolve that and move plants/uproot etc?

Did you do a large water right away after moving gthe pkants around or did you wait for 2 or more days?
If you move plants around, add too much food, have too many fish etc all of a sudden, do a water change, like 50-80%.

This will prevent the staghorn.

If you move plants around and do not do this step, then often times you'll get the staghorn.

I've never seen it unless I did things like that or progressively over loaded tanks. I have some rather high levels of fish, but if you keep pushing things(as I like to do and explore what happens when you do), you will get GW, BBA and staghorn all at once.

Staghorn is easy to deal with though of the 3, causes more damage to plants than GW, but is not as tough.

My suggestion:

Lots of water changes
DIY, you don't have the $ yet, so change the DIY CO2 bottle weekly and keep mup on nit really good, consider the DIY CO2 reactor venturi I designed for DIY folks for 2$ plus a small powerhead(which you might find lying around or can nab one for cheap).
http/www.barrreport.com/articles/41-diy-...-co2-users.html

This will greatly improve the CO2 and the stability of the CO2 supply.
These work better than any other device for DIY users BTW.

I used DIY CO2 for 10 years
I'm well aware of the pitfalls and methods to get things to run correctly.

Excel will help some, just follow the instructions, that ought to kill it off.
Use a turkey baster pipette etc, slowly squirt on the infested spots good with the filters off, wait 2-5 minute, turn things back on.

That's about it, be patient and slowly prune off/out the remaining algae over the next 2-4 weeks.

Regards,
Tom Barr

plantbrain said:

I've never seen it unless I did things like that or progressively over loaded tanks. I have some rather high levels of fish, but if you keep pushing things(as I like to do and explore what happens when you do), you will get GW, BBA and staghorn all at once.

Click to expand...

Pushing things in relation to livestock levels/numbers or something else?

plantbrain said:

I think moving plants around too much, too much fish/or waste is a good cause for Staghorn.
There may be more, but those I've managed to show do cause this algae.

How to resolve that and move plants/uproot etc?

Did you do a large water right away after moving gthe pkants around or did you wait for 2 or more days?
If you move plants around, add too much food, have too many fish etc all of a sudden, do a water change, like 50-80%.

This will prevent the staghorn.

If you move plants around and do not do this step, then often times you'll get the staghorn.

I've never seen it unless I did things like that or progressively over loaded tanks. I have some rather high levels of fish, but if you keep pushing things(as I like to do and explore what happens when you do), you will get GW, BBA and staghorn all at once.

Staghorn is easy to deal with though of the 3, causes more damage to plants than GW, but is not as tough.

My suggestion:

Lots of water changes
DIY, you don't have the $ yet, so change the DIY CO2 bottle weekly and keep mup on nit really good, consider the DIY CO2 reactor venturi I designed for DIY folks for 2$ plus a small powerhead(which you might find lying around or can nab one for cheap).
http/www.barrreport.com/articles/41-diy-...-co2-users.html

This will greatly improve the CO2 and the stability of the CO2 supply.
These work better than any other device for DIY users BTW.

I used DIY CO2 for 10 years
I'm well aware of the pitfalls and methods to get things to run correctly.

Excel will help some, just follow the instructions, that ought to kill it off.
Use a turkey baster pipette etc, slowly squirt on the infested spots good with the filters off, wait 2-5 minute, turn things back on.

That's about it, be patient and slowly prune off/out the remaining algae over the next 2-4 weeks.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Click to expand...

This is a very interesting post Tom, never fail but to learn from your posts.

nry Tom likes to induce algae in his tanks so he can identify the causes and then learn the cures (and pass the info on to us thankfully) this is why he will push the limits that most of us would think of as abnormal, I expect he does pushes lots of parameters in the course of research.