Any suggestions for my algae problem please

[Elena82x]

OK, things are becoming clearer with the information. First on the light, the Kelvin which is the "colour temperature" of light (nothing to do with heat/cold) is given as 9000K/6500K. The 6500K is perfect, the 9000K is not and probably your main issue with the problem algae. The Kelvin number indicates the spectrum wavelengths of light; "warm" light has more red and less blue, while "cool" light has more blue and less red. A 6500K is very close to the sun, so not surprising it is good light for aquatic plants. The 9000K is very "cool" and this much blue without much red to balance will feed algae. I had this play out several years ago when I was trying different tubes over tanks. When I got rid of the 10000K tube, problem algae decreased substantially.

So the first question is, can you reduce the 9000K light and leave just the 6500K? White light at 6500K is good. Any blue diodes will only add to the problem.

Second on the plants dying...are you using any fertilizers? And how long is the light on each day? Having good light is fine, but without food the plants will not thrive but again algae will.

Third, the nitrates. I assume there are no nitrates in the source (tap) water, in which case all are occurring from the biological system. I previously set out factors to correct. A more substantial (volume) water change and good vacuum of the substrate should help reduce these, and less food for the fish. Mollies are gluttons and will always seem hungry. Feed sparingly, each of them only needs one or two small flakes at a feeding, and fasting them (and the other fish obviously) one, two or even three days will not hurt.

Thank you!
So the light - yes I will try that
I do regular huge water changes but will vacuum the substrate more. I had worried I was maybe cleaning it too much and so will put that back into a twice weekly routine.
In terms of feeding - I typically put in a decent pinch of flakes for the mollies and guppies in addition to the bottom feeder food. I will cut that right back as this sounds like it could be a big cause.
So removing the bulb, reducing amount of food, reducing the morning sunlight, and improving substrate maintenance I might have some wins.. I will let you know how I get on…
Should I cut off all the leaves and stalks affected by the algae or leave them to right themselves? Also I could clean it off the stones etc too or just leave it and hope it dies off…
(Edit- didn’t answer your question re plants - I have been reducing light to 6 hours a day due to the algae, and I use Flourish Comprehensive the weekly dosage written on the bottle.)

 

[Essjay]

The Juwel website says the Multilux light come with a Day tube at 9000K and a Nature tube at 6500K. If you replace the Day tube with a second Nature tube, that would help.

 

[Elena82x]

The Juwel website says the Multilux light come with a Day tube at 9000K and a Nature tube at 6500K. If you replace the Day tube with a second Nature tube, that would help.

Didn’t think of adding a second nature one - will do thank you

 

[Byron]

Make sure you know which is which...it is the 6500K tube you want, I'm not sure if this is the Nature or the Day, but it is the 6500K.

 

[Essjay]

Juwel LED Day tube

LED Day

The special light spectrum of the energy-saving LED Day makes the most of the natural colours in your animal and plant world.

www.juwel-aquarium.co.uk

Juwel LED Nature tube

LED Nature

The energy-saving LED Nature creates a warm and natural light.

www.juwel-aquarium.co.uk

 

[Elena82x]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate all the help. I’ve been in this hobby for about 9 months now and have learnt loads from this forum and it has been a tough journey at times as I thought it was going to be so easy and it’s been a steep learning curve. It’s really selfless that people give up their time to offer advice.

 

[Playsander]

Duckweed

No more algea, it wil just be replaced with insane amounts of floating plants.

 

[threecharacters]

FYI, the algae looks like staghorn algae.

In my opinion there was some pretty bad advice in this thread. There was some good advice too though.

Seachem Excel can be used to treat algae, but you have to be careful because it can reduce dissolved oxygen levels to the point that fish suffocate. I have used it to spot treat algae with great success but it will melt sagittaria and vals (in my experience it can also melt crypts).

Hydrogen peroxide can be used to spot treat algae in the tank. It neutralizes very rapidly (in like 20 mins or so), and it doesn't represent a threat to fish unless it is dosed at large levels.

Physical removal of algae is always good too. Aggressively removing the algae can give your plants the advantage allowing them to out-compete the algae.

Physical removal, excel and hydrogen peroxide can be used to remove algae, but you ultimately need to figure out what caused the algae outbreak in the first place or the algae will grow back.

Do not use bleach, this is just bad advice.

Reducing fertilizer and light is not always the right thing to do. You want your plants to out-compete the algae and they need the fertilizer and light to do this. It's only the right thing to do if you have too much light or too much fertilizer, but that needs to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Do not reduce flow, this is just a crazy pants suggestion. Water flow is important for plant growth, and some algae actively flourish in low flow conditions (e.g. blue green "algae", but some others e.g. black beard algae do like high flow). Plants need the water flow to deliver oxygen and fertilizer. How much flow is needed depends on the species of plant. You want something like 5x turnover or more. Most filter companies rate their flow without media. A good rule of thumb is to divide the quoted flow rate in half to get the flow rate with media. Your filter is quotes at 303 gal/hr so the effective flow is more like 151 gal/hr, which is just 2.4 times turnover. You may want to add an additional powerhead or a second filter (depending on what your stocking is).

Someone said that better media = better filtration not better flow = better filtration, and that's just not correct. Flow is the cornerstone of filtration. A filter with no flow cannot effectively remove ammonia because the ammonia in the water column never makes it to the filter! The faster the water gets to the filter the faster the ammonia is removed from the water. Filter media can just be simple sponges, and the fancier media's are mostly just a marketing ploy.

 

[seangee]

IMO flow should be dictated by the needs of the fish and you can work around that.
I think its important to say that this thread is only 10 days old. When making changes change one thing otherwise you won't know what made the difference and by changing multiple things you could fix the original imbalance and introduce another.
By all means remove what algae you can. Then change one thing and assess after a week. If it has improved don't do anything and review in another week (you may have done enough but it takes time). If it gets worse go the other way and repeat. If it makes no difference put it back to where it was (reduce the variables) and try something different.
Lots of advice on here and all well meant. Its not conflicting, its just that we have all had different experiences when dealing with problem algae (and we all have at some point).
Unfortunately it does take time and patience to get it right, you will get there in the end.

 

[Byron]

Water flow has nothing whatever to do with "problem" Algae. I had a fish room of tanks, one with no filter, several with sponge filters that have minimal flow, and the three largest with canisters. Interestingly the three canisters had black brush algae around the filter return where water flow was strongest, but it never spread over many years. It is the light/nutrient balance that matters, nothing else.

 

[sharkweek178]

Water flow has nothing whatever to do with "problem" Algae. I had a fish room of tanks, one with no filter, several with sponge filters that have minimal flow, and the three largest with canisters. Interestingly the three canisters had black brush algae around the filter return where water flow was strongest, but it never spread over many years. It is the light/nutrient balance that matters, nothing else.

I've posted about attaching a water bottle to a HOB filter to disperse the water flow. I periodically replace these because algae developes inside them directly where the water hits.

 

[brendonjw]

I have the same tank and am fighting a bit of algae too. It grows on my wood as well as some plants. (looks like a different type but still annoying.)

To save money for now I have used electrical tape around half of my Day bulb to reduce the intensity. I'm thinking of blocking it all off as I don't have the cash to buy a replacement nature bulb right now. Apparently you cant just take a bulb out as it stops both of them. My lights are currently running for around 8 hours I think (can check tonight.)

I use 1 cap of seachem flourish a week.

 

[Elena82x]

Make sure you know which is which...it is the 6500K tube you want, I'm not sure if this is the Nature or the Day, but it is the 6500K.

Just popping back to say that the light bulb change fixed the problem within a couple of weeks.. thank you

 

[Byron]

Just popping back to say that the light bulb change fixed the problem within a couple of weeks.. thank you

Thank you.

 

[StevenF]

I would discontinue using Prime, this has a chemical in it which "detoxifies" heavy metals, but the plants cannot use the nutrients that are heavy metals, namely iron, copper, zinc, manganese. This means the fertilizer (Flourish Comprehensive) is nullified with respect to these nutrients. Seachem told me that this lasts up to 48 hours.

It is possible that at the water conditioner make the micro nutrient unusable for plants. But In my tank I found that the the micro ingredients in flourish comprehensive react with KH in the water resulting in in insoluble micro carbonates that the plans cannot use. Also Seachem uses sodium molybdate as a micro ingredient. Sodium molybdate also reacts with the other micro ingredients in the bottle making the molybdate nutrient unusable for plants. How long that takes depend on the kH and chemistry of your tape water. But in general people have had success dosing once a day to once every other day. Indicating on average it last 24 to 48hours. Despite the the dosing instructions on the bottle of the fertilizer it should be added frequently.

Algae problrmes are in general at there worst when one or more nutrients are deficient. If only one nutrient is deficient plants will not grow and will not consume the other nutrients. This means the common cause of a nutrient imbalance is some nutrients being deficient and other being well in excess of what plants. need. Nitrite is often in excess because plants need a lot of nitrogen and fish produce a lot. With fertilizer stopping the use of a fertilizer and water changes often don't work and dosing more often makes the problem worse The best solution is to identify thedeficient nutrient and add more of that nutrient until the nutrient deficiency is resolved. Once one nutrient deficiency is resolved another may appear. So you might have to work through several deficiencies before you get good results. if there are no deficiencies gone algae growth slows or may even stop.. However it is very difficult to identify the which nutrients are deficient. And there is no way to test for each of the nutrients plants use.

The most common solution in use is to dose a micro fertilizer separately from the macro nutrients. Commonly the micro nutrient is dosed every other day and on the other days the macro nutrients are added. This is known as Estimative index dosing (EI). This can be done with seachem iron plus Seachem trace for the micro nutrients. Then using sachem nitrogen and Sachem phosphate the the macros and if you have very soft water add sachem Equilibrium. However most people prefer to buy the ingredients for the macros (Nitrogen, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphate, and Sulfur). Most people buy a mix of micro nutrients (Chlorine, iron, Boron, Zinc, Copper, Molybdenum, and nickel)