Hi folks. I posted this topic in tropical chit chat and was advised to ask here. I have various tanks set up from last November up until my newest tank, 3 months ago. All tanks are planted, some heavily and I do weekly water changes of 25% ( twice weekly for fry tanks). My weekly water stats are always ammonia and nitrites nil but I tested for nitrates and all tanks are nil. Some tanks are showing cyanobacteria growth, strangely my very heavily planted 45g has just developed it. I don't use plant fertiliser or co2. I have a 2 hour siesta lighting break in all tanks with the lighting on for 5 hours am and 6 hours pm after siesta. The lighting is a 50/50 mix of freshwater and tropical lamps. No blue lighting. Can anyone shed some light on my problem please?
Algae problems
- Thread starter glolite
- Start date
George Farmer
ad aqua
http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=106371
The last section is most relevant although the whole article will help you undertand you problems. You may want to print it out.
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=106371The last section is most relevant although the whole article will help you undertand you problems. You may want to print it out.
How many WPG have you got over these tanks, the ones with the problems?
Do you get any other types of algae?
How ofton do you feed the fish and how heavily stocked are the tanks with the problems?
You will have to start fertilising these tanks when you get the cyanobacteria under control, with 0 nitrates and no plant fertilising the plants are starving and the fish are not providing enough fishwaste to feed them either, you may not have to fertilise very much at all but they will need something.
Do you get any other types of algae?
How ofton do you feed the fish and how heavily stocked are the tanks with the problems?
You will have to start fertilising these tanks when you get the cyanobacteria under control, with 0 nitrates and no plant fertilising the plants are starving and the fish are not providing enough fishwaste to feed them either, you may not have to fertilise very much at all but they will need something.
Hi Zig, thanks for replying. In answer to your questions:
The main tank affected is 45g with 2 x 30w lamps
I have had hair algae in that tank which disappeared on its own. Have brown algae on a new tank which I scrape off as it appears, before water changes. The only other algae is the small green spots that stick to the glass. This I scrape off before water changes.
I feed my fish twice a day, 30 seconds for the cichlids and 5 mins for the community fish. All food goes rapidly and the fish are always hungry.
The tank affected above has thriving plants, I'll try and download a pic.
The other tank affected is my dwarf puffer 40l tank. I've treated it 3 times with no effect, despite scraping the tank spotless after each treatment. The 40l has 1 lamp of 14w.
Any help gratefully accepted.
The main tank affected is 45g with 2 x 30w lamps
I have had hair algae in that tank which disappeared on its own. Have brown algae on a new tank which I scrape off as it appears, before water changes. The only other algae is the small green spots that stick to the glass. This I scrape off before water changes.
I feed my fish twice a day, 30 seconds for the cichlids and 5 mins for the community fish. All food goes rapidly and the fish are always hungry.
The tank affected above has thriving plants, I'll try and download a pic.
The other tank affected is my dwarf puffer 40l tank. I've treated it 3 times with no effect, despite scraping the tank spotless after each treatment. The 40l has 1 lamp of 14w.
Any help gratefully accepted.
Ok this is a difficult one for me to answer its only in the last while i have become interested in low tech low light planted tanks so my knowledge in this area is limited but i will answer as best i can.
Cyanobacteria or bga usually thrives in tanks with poor circulation or low nitrate enviroments, and you seem to have 0 nitrates so this will explain how the bga has taken hold.
What i cant understand is how you have 0 nitrates, low light tanks will normally rely on the fish food and fish waste for the nitrates and phosphates in order to feed the plants, and there is usually very little you need to add in order for the plants to survive and grow, these nutrients (nitrates and phosphates) usually build up over time to manageable levels in more mature tanks, and i would have thought your tank was now mature enough to contain enough of these for the plants if the tank has been set up since last november, now having said that with low light tanks you normally do very little water changes in order not to strip the water of the organic fertiliser, so i think by doing 25% water changes each week this must be the case, that you are stripping the water of the nitrates, or else the plants themselves are stripping the water of the nitrates (which is possible) but contrary to the idea of low light tanks ie. low plant growth will have low nutrient uptake.
But again this does not make sense to me as you feed your fish twice a day, some would say you overfeed, so therefore i would expect some nitrate buildup in this tank.
For the bga or cyanobacteria you can follow gfs algae guide, and either try a 3 day blackout or the antibiotics maracyn.
You also appear to have some form of bba which could also be a nitrate issue or lack of, i dont know how to eliminate this from a non co2 tank, in a co2 injected tank this is relatively easy to control.
Im sorry i cant help you any more the only things i can suggest are to do less water changes as planted tanks provide excellent biological filtration anway and this way you may be able to build up organic nitrates over time, you could also buy some KNO3 Potassium nitrate and this would enable you to add nitrate directly to the tank.
The brown algae is normal in new setups and should clear up and green spot algae is also normal and is best dealt with by a scraper.
Edit: just as i think of it heres a very good link to a method of fertilising a low tech low light tank, this is the same guy who came up with the EI method that a lot of us in this section of the forum use for our high light tanks and it works very well, so this is his equivelent for low light tanks although i have not tried this method i think i will shortly, you may find it useful.
Tom Barr non co2 method
Anyway good luck with the tanks.
Cyanobacteria or bga usually thrives in tanks with poor circulation or low nitrate enviroments, and you seem to have 0 nitrates so this will explain how the bga has taken hold.
What i cant understand is how you have 0 nitrates, low light tanks will normally rely on the fish food and fish waste for the nitrates and phosphates in order to feed the plants, and there is usually very little you need to add in order for the plants to survive and grow, these nutrients (nitrates and phosphates) usually build up over time to manageable levels in more mature tanks, and i would have thought your tank was now mature enough to contain enough of these for the plants if the tank has been set up since last november, now having said that with low light tanks you normally do very little water changes in order not to strip the water of the organic fertiliser, so i think by doing 25% water changes each week this must be the case, that you are stripping the water of the nitrates, or else the plants themselves are stripping the water of the nitrates (which is possible) but contrary to the idea of low light tanks ie. low plant growth will have low nutrient uptake.
But again this does not make sense to me as you feed your fish twice a day, some would say you overfeed, so therefore i would expect some nitrate buildup in this tank.
For the bga or cyanobacteria you can follow gfs algae guide, and either try a 3 day blackout or the antibiotics maracyn.
You also appear to have some form of bba which could also be a nitrate issue or lack of, i dont know how to eliminate this from a non co2 tank, in a co2 injected tank this is relatively easy to control.
Im sorry i cant help you any more the only things i can suggest are to do less water changes as planted tanks provide excellent biological filtration anway and this way you may be able to build up organic nitrates over time, you could also buy some KNO3 Potassium nitrate and this would enable you to add nitrate directly to the tank.
The brown algae is normal in new setups and should clear up and green spot algae is also normal and is best dealt with by a scraper.
Edit: just as i think of it heres a very good link to a method of fertilising a low tech low light tank, this is the same guy who came up with the EI method that a lot of us in this section of the forum use for our high light tanks and it works very well, so this is his equivelent for low light tanks although i have not tried this method i think i will shortly, you may find it useful.
Tom Barr non co2 method
Anyway good luck with the tanks.
Thankyou very much Zig, you've been very helpful. I may try and set up a co2 system in my heavily planted tanks and try less water changes as you suggested. The other thing someone mentioned in the chit chat forum was that my nitrate testing kit may have gone out of date. I'll be renewing it ASAP.
Spencer
New Member
My stratigy for algae problems, get a catfish. Pleco probably keep your tank very clean. But it depends on how many gallons your tank holds. They get big.
Dubby
His legend will never die
glolite,glolite said:
Besides the algae I can also see that your plants maybe having some nutrient deficiency. Take a look at http
/www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm to help you rectify this. Cause once your plants start growing well the algae will not be able to compete.Thanks dubby, helpful link. I've got some eSHa cryptoplus plant growth booster but reading that link makes me think the plants need nitrogen and phosphate fertiliser with perhaps a few others. Can you recommend a good liquid fertiliser please.
Most reactions
-
419 -
291 -
240 -
207 -
203 -
198 -
170 -
159 -
157 -
139 -
117 -
112 -
108 -
104 -
99