Algae Issues....

[mdwheeler]

In my ten gallon aquarium I have a couple of rotellas. There's an unsightly spotted algae growing on the plants leaves and It wont seem to go away. My two little loaches can clean some of it off, but it always comes back.

Should I just bump up the co2 a little more for a day or two? I've got about five bubbles a second (during the day) and the plants have been growing and have perked up quite a bit. I had a blade of some sort of grass (dont know what it is) grow about 3 inches in four or so days. I've got just about 100% diffusion rate using my homemade reactor with a spraybar (under the water, not above).

ONE more question should I put an air pump on after the lights go out that way I balance the yatta yatta whatev and all that??

 

[loraxchick]

check this out...might be helpful...
http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

good luck...algae is the worst.

 

[mdwheeler]

check this out...might be helpful...
[URL="http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm"]http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm[/URL]

good luck...algae is the worst.

Got black brush and blanket weed.

Its not out of control (yet) but I did go ahead and bump up my co2.

Thnks!!!

 

[loraxchick]

scrape it off the plants and water change. increasing ferts sometimes helps, but im not sure about the types you have.
maybe get some really fast growers like elodea to try to outcompete the stuff.
good luck

 

[mdwheeler]

scrape it off the plants and water change. increasing ferts sometimes helps, but im not sure about the types you have.
maybe get some really fast growers like elodea to try to outcompete the stuff.
good luck

I dont use ferts (dont even know what that is actually ). I have a bunch of rotellas and some type of thin, long bladed grass.


I upped the co2, and everything, and I mean EVERYTHING (except the algae), is growing like crazy!!! The algae seems to be going away, and my loaches are helping a little by eating it off the leaves.

 

[Cro-Baller]

I dont use ferts (dont even know what that is actually ). I have a bunch of rotellas and some type of thin, long bladed grass.


I upped the co2, and everything, and I mean EVERYTHING (except the algae), is growing like crazy!!! The algae seems to be going away, and my loaches are helping a little by eating it off the leaves.

The long grass is most likely Vallis, but without pictures it's hard to say.

Are you using a drop checker to measure how much Co2 you have in the tank? Running it at that rate, and during the night too, maybe filling the water column with too much of it. This isn't a bad thing for the plants, but may well kill your fish.

[URL="http/www.ukaps.org/drop-checker.htm"]http/www.ukaps.org/drop-checker.htm[/URL]

Ferts is short for fertilisers, you can buy ones like Flourish Excel, Tropica Plant Nutrition + (TPN+) and there are others too. The far cheaper method is to use the Estimative Index (EI) takes a little while to get your head round, but once it clicks you realise how chaep and easy it is.

[URL="http/www.ukaps.org/EI.htm"]http/www.ukaps.org/EI.htm[/URL]

One other thought, how much flow do you have around your tank? In order to maintain a good planted tank with little or no algae, then you need to be aiming at a flow rate of approx 10X your tank capacity. It's most likely that your filter isn't giving you this rate so you may want to look at adding a power head or 2.

Hope this helps.

 

[mdwheeler]

I dont use ferts (dont even know what that is actually ). I have a bunch of rotellas and some type of thin, long bladed grass.


I upped the co2, and everything, and I mean EVERYTHING (except the algae), is growing like crazy!!! The algae seems to be going away, and my loaches are helping a little by eating it off the leaves.

The long grass is most likely Vallis, but without pictures it's hard to say.

Are you using a drop checker to measure how much Co2 you have in the tank? Running it at that rate, and during the night too, maybe filling the water column with too much of it. This isn't a bad thing for the plants, but may well kill your fish.

<a href="http/www.ukaps.org/drop-checker.htm" target="_blank">http/www.ukaps.org/drop-checker.htm</a>

Ferts is short for fertilisers, you can buy ones like Flourish Excel, Tropica Plant Nutrition + (TPN+) and there are others too. The far cheaper method is to use the Estimative Index (EI) takes a little while to get your head round, but once it clicks you realise how chaep and easy it is.

<a href="http/www.ukaps.org/EI.htm" target="_blank">http/www.ukaps.org/EI.htm</a>

One other thought, how much flow do you have around your tank? In order to maintain a good planted tank with little or no algae, then you need to be aiming at a flow rate of approx 10X your tank capacity. It's most likely that your filter isn't giving you this rate so you may want to look at adding a power head or 2.

Hope this helps.

I have a hob filter with a flow rate of about 100 gph, and small fluval internal filter with a flow of 50 gph, and a powerhead with about 150 gph. Think I got that down .

I knock the co2 down to one bubble a second a night. I've got three bottles of diy co2 but thev'e got quite a bit of pressure under them so even with the valves are closed it still leaks a little into the tank. I'm not worried about it though because my hob filter has a wet/dry water polisher that partly aerates the water. I was thinking about putting a small bubbler on a timer to reverse the co2 (i've done a lil research but don't fully understand co2 processes at night).

 

[Nick16]

this is where you want to look mate


HERE

 

[snowflake311]

this is where you want to look mate


HERE

Awesome link. Great info and photos.

 

[twin54]

this is where you want to look mate


HERE

Awesome link. Great info and photos.

I second that! Amazing link!

 

[mdwheeler]

The link (both of them were the same) was extremely helpful!

So the algae is luckily starting (thank GOD) to disappear. The blanket weed seems to be the only thing that stays the same. I have a good co2 rate (during the day) and was experimenting with a co2 diffusion system but basically stuck with the 'ole 'bubble into the powerhead.' I made a spray bar attachment that runs the back of my tank and makes a good circular current and moved my small internal filter so that it would put a good current atop and across the front of the tank. The bubbles that are spit out of the spray bar graze the top of the water but almost all of them are so small that they are blown down and dispersed throughout the tank.

Pics to come soon!

ALSO I have Vallis, Hygro Rosa and some other plant similar to the hygro rosa.

One gold platy, to loaches (small ones, dont know what kind though....not clown loaches either), and two other pretty fishies.


Now you know why i'm putting pics up