Green Algae Growth - Must Get Rid

[sophos9]

Hi Dave,

This is a quick plan...

Sunday - 25% change and Flourish Excel Dose
Monday - Flourish Dose
Tuesday - Flourish Excel Dose
Wednesday - Nothing
Thursday - Flourish Dose
Friday - Flourish Excel Dose
Saturday - Nothing

Look good?

 

[Dave Spencer]

Make sure you keep an eye on your plants and make sure they are benefitting from what you are doing. If they are, keep it up and keep things stable.

Everything I do in my EI tank is now done by observing how my plants are doing. I recently over pruned and removed my Hygrophilia polysperma at the same time, which caused a drop in pearling for a day or two. Hair algae started to appear which got me a little worried. All I did was carry on with my dosing routine, but at smaller doses until the pearling came back, and now dosing is back to normal and the hair algae is no longer increasing. The tank now has its stability back.

I now know not to carry out such dramatic upheaval to the balance of my tank. All of us on this forum make mistakes, but try and learn from them and come up with a plan to rectify the problem. Give your plan a go and modify it as you see necessary.

Keep this thread updated.

 

[sophos9]

Cool!

Must admit, whilst my plants are still pearling, they do not pearl as much as they used to... Guess when that comes back, their metabolism is good!

For sure, I hope that my mistakes can add value to people

 

[2pods]

Hi Dave,

This is a quick plan...

Sunday - 25% change and Flourish Excel Dose
Monday - Flourish Dose
Tuesday - Flourish Excel Dose
Wednesday - Nothing
Thursday - Flourish Dose
Friday - Flourish Excel Dose
Saturday - Nothing

Look good?

When I was using Excel I used it daily at twice the recommended dose and it definately shifted the BGA I had at the time, just keep an eye on your fish and some plants don't like Excel overdosing either.

I also used Flourish twice weekly at a normal dose.

Water was changed 25% weekly.

Peter

 

[sophos9]

Hi Peter, thanks for that info...

What fish did you have and what were the symptoms. Did you also run CO2?

Cheers

 

[2pods]

Hi Peter, thanks for that info...

What fish did you have and what were the symptoms. Did you also run CO2?

Cheers

It was a very low tech affair

The same tank I have now (Rio 400 with the original 72w), plus a Rio 240, and a Rekord 60.
All with plants, all originally with algae.
The 400l was the worst, but cleared the fastest.

My fish were OK with the 2x Excel, but my SAE's were gilling quite hard. Once I went back on the normal dosage they were fine.
The overdose totally melted my Anacharis (no great loss there !)
I had (and still have) Angels, Clown Loaches, Corys, Danios, Platys, and SAE's.

I foolishly thought it would be cheaper using the Excel as a substitute for "proper" co2.
Three tanks, mail order ?
Far too much.
So I bit the bullet, sold the 240, got the Juwel light expansion 2 more 36w's, and have just recieved my Aquamas kit,

The Excel and Flourish were working quite well, although there was always one plant with "dirty algae" leaves.
I'll continue with the Flourish but won't use the Excel again unless I need more algae shifted and can afford it.

Peter

 

[sophos9]

Excellent, thanks for the detailed post...

Will keep this thread updated!

Cheers

 

[SuperColey1]

Just to note that I am currently about the same lighting as you although this weekend am upping it and I had some algae issues. I have a very heavy fish load and just dose at current (since 2 weeks ago) M/W/F K2SO4, T/T/S Plant Nutrition and it seems that it was the K missing because the pot sulphate (K2SO4) is helping the hair algae decrease.

Can't help further becuase after saturday I will be on 2.8WPG and Pot Nit and MKP dosing.

These were worthwile findings though in my transition period (waiting for the 55W bulb 4 weeks) so I hope this helps

Andy

 

[plantbrain]

I'd always suggest more water changes if the algae is ever an issue or see it coming on.
I'd do 50% weekly as a routine and 2x or more a week to beat the algae back.
Tap can add a lot of CO2, removes all the organic matter and NH4.

Both good for plants and bad for algae.

You are not adding PO4 near as I can tell.
I dose a 1.6 w/gal tank I have.
About 1/2 EI, and then only 1-2x a week, the TMG I dose 2x a week.

If you add CO2, then you likely can/should add some macros.
Even a fully loaded Discus tank with 2w/gal of PC lighting needed 50% of the N/P from KNO3 and KH2PO4.

So an 150 liter tank might suggest 1/2 teaspoon 3x a week, would only get say 1/4 tsp 1-2x week of KNO3 etc. 1/16th of the KH2PO4 etc 2x a week.

The traces, about 10 mls 2x a week etc

CO2 is the rest of it.

See the hair algae natural method thread for more about Excel, lighting and a 3 day blackout for it.

Adding just excel alone is not going to help. That alone will not drive plant growth, which is why you have algae in the first place.

Algae are like weeds, if you do not provide good conditions for the crops and their health suffers, weeds will invade. If you take good care of the crops, no weeds............

Our goal in good plant growth, not learning how to kill algae.
So focus on that, the algae are much easier to deal with and go away in a week or two if you do this.

Large, as in 50-80% water changes, how ever tall the fish are so they are not swimming on their sides etc, back to back with the blackout/no CO2 for 3 days really beats up most all algae.

Correcting the issue thereafter is critical, otherwise you have to keep coming back and wasting your labor each time.

Sometimes folks get lucky and the algae was not quite that bad and they fixed something else, so then it goes away easily.

Purveyors of algae snake oils rely on that correlation for their sales.
Don't do it.

It leads you down a bad path and distracts you from the real root cause.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[sophos9]

M/W/F K2SO4, T/T/S Plant Nutrition and it seems that it was the K missing because the pot sulphate (K2SO4) is helping the hair algae decrease.

Thanks Andy, good advice to keep hold of! Good luck with your new lighting!!

Tom, Hi

I've read quite a few of your articles - thanks for replying (Do you still play Bass Guitar?)

Ok, I've read through your post and the majority makes sense, for the areas that did not - I've spent some time reading up on them.

I want to see what getting the right plant growth does to algae so before going for a black-out can I confirm that initially to give the plants good growth is:
-------------------------------------------------------
Sunday - 50% water change, KN03 = 1/4tsp (1.2ml), KH2P04 = 1/16tsp (0.3ml) & Flourish Excel
Monday - Flourish Dose
Tuesday - 20% water change
Wednesday - KN03 = 1/4tsp (1.2ml), KH2P04 = 1/16tsp (0.3ml) & Flourish Excel
Thursday - Flourish Dose
Friday - 20% water change
Saturday - Nothing
-------------------------------------------------------

Apart from actual growth, are there any other indicators that the plants are thriving?

Many thanks for your reply

 

[George Farmer]

Apart from actual growth, are there any other indicators that the plants are thriving?

Pearling.

 

[sophos9]

Thanks George!

I guess the fact that plants are not pearling like they used to indicate lack of 'something'... Fingers crossed with all the information from this thread I can get on track with getting my plants growing well!

Thanks for all the assistance from everyone - will keep you updated!

 

[BINKSY]

Im in a pondering thought here, may be the dry powder trace mix from aqua essentials would work for you, i dose this on a very regular basis in my tank (every other day) but i have a high light tank. but you could reduce the amount you dose to suit your needs, it also works out very cheap.




Cheers Gordon

 

[sophos9]

Hi, thought I would give an algae update and ask for some more help

Since dosing (5days ago) the algae is changing, before it was a thick green beard (almost like a well made lawn) now its all turning jelly and sloppy like and some of what I pulled out with a toothbrush (dont tell the missus, I did put it back - she will never know ) looks brown rather than green and the green algae thats on the sides of the tank has started to get brown patches over it (diatoms?)

Someone, please tell me this is a good sign?

 

[plantbrain]

Yes, seems like it, make sure to clean the tank 2x a week and do a water change each time after.
That will help reduce it. stay after it, you cannot over do the water changes and dosing, CO2 from there and some patience.


Yes, still play bass, got a nice 8 track recorder with a great drum machine, full top of the line SWR amp/cabs and have 3 basses(2 ex factors and a thru neck thumb warwick), trying to get one more (5 string fretless Pedulla or Dolphin warwick) and later an upright once I move to a larger place. Maybe a Modulus 6 string fretted too. I'm out of control here

As well as some larger well designed aquariums of course!!

I've given myself a 6 good sized tank limit.

225 gal
180 gal
120 gal
120 gal
80 gal
80 gal

That's it.
I have one or two other designs for a super tank for a sun room/hot house/greenhouse, depends on if I can afford to put that in, it's something I've wanted. I'll build that myself though.

Regards,
Tom Barr