Green Algae Growth - Must Get Rid

[Dave Spencer]

My guess behind this is the plants are no consuming the quantity of micros and the algae is using it?

Andy,

In my tank I dose everything to excess. N, K, P.....everything, but the algae doesn`t get to use it. The algae is being outcompeted by my plants. It`s the EI way. With everything in excess your plants are not wasting time and energy looking for nutrients, so they just grow at an accelerated rate and don`t give the algae a chance.

Maybe your algae is due to a plant deficiency.

Dave.

 

[baboo_jenge]

lol my tank was GREEN last summer cuz i was too busy to take care of it and it was right beside a big window receiving more than 14h of direct sun light everyday.
Of course, after about 2 weeks, i could barely see the fishes (think of it as a tank wrapped in green paper). And since i was too busy to deal with it, i just left it alone till my mom saw it and FREAKED out.
She yelled at me for like an hour and told me to get it cleaned up. --___--

And of course, being a lazy boy and looking at a disgusting tank, i've decided it would take a huge amount of time to get it cleaned up.
So that day i went to pet store, just bought 6 algae eaters and dumped them in.

Peoplez listen. When some other people say algae eater dun eat sh!t, they are lying. Algae eaters are one of the most hungry fish in this world. They are the fish that never stop moving and never stop eating. My algeo eaters ate non stop for about a weak (and i would always see a line of poo behind them). And after that week, my tank has clean. Of course they couldnt clean gravel and some corners, but the walls were CLEAN.

If you have algae eater and expect them to eat algae, plz dun feed them any crap that ur petstore 'requres' you to feed.
Algae eaters are indestructable. I've even had 1 jumped out of tank, which was ike 20cm, and was still alive when i woke up in the moring and put it back.

They ONLY die if you take it out, and chop the head off.
And until they die, they will eat algae.
so. yea try them

 

[sophos9]

Hi all, thanks for the replies...

What Dave is saying is entirely correct, with the correct lighting, nutrients in excess will be fine. My problem is I'm not high-light and I'm not low-light, I'm existing somewhere in the middle (probably part of the problem)

I've also got a confession to make.... (omfg, here goes)

Right, now I cannot fully confirm this yet but I think I may have not been getting enough CO2 in the tank over the last week, I've been relying on the live tester and I *think* some of the CO2 bubbles from the diffuser may have screwed the reading

Tap water PH is 7.6 therefore target PH to make approx 30ppm should be 6.6 - current PH is 7.0 (which would also confirm some staghorn I have seen appearing)

Will confirm this later....

I think I'm going to junk the plants and make an algae farm

 

[nry]

My tester is at the opposite end of the tank to the Nutrafin CO2 ladder. I figure this should give me an average reading of the CO2 levels, the ladder is placed almost right next to the filter outlets which seems to work well getting the CO2 flowing around the tank.

 

[sophos9]

Latest update:

I've sorted the CO2 thing. The live tester goes light green and say I'm OD'ing however it does this at around 25ppm, this would explain why if I don't have a siesta period, algae starts to take over...

Now I've got the CO2 running at a rate around 30ppm, pretty close I would think and my lighting period has changed to 10hrs straight, there is enough CO2 to carry this now. Around 7pm, the tank is like a champagne glass and the fish are not affected (well apart from the bacterial problem I have but thats another story)

Plants are growing faster than I've ever seen, algae growth is stalled but algae still lives in the tank, fingers crossed over the next few weeks...

I saw my new clear CO2 tubing turn up yesterday which means my glass diffuser/Bubble counter will be here in a day or so, great!

 

[sophos9]

Well today I noticed the first appearance of some dark brown/black stag horn algae

Now I'm fairly certain this is not due to low CO2 levels so most probably a nutrient deficiency? So I checked my nitrates and they are >0ppm <5ppm

My theory, the increase photo-period and CO2 have kicked the plants metabolism therefore searching for more nutrients than I normally dose, tonight I will add another 1.33ppm of KNO3 but NO K2SO4 and see what happens, fingers crossed my theory is correct - means I'm on the right path!

Please comment on if this is plausible or BS...

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh most likely the low NO3, however I would up it by more than 1.33ppm, wack in another 10ppm. If its running low then you'll need a fair bit to get it back up. Aim for 10-20ppm NO3

Sam

 

[sophos9]

Hi Sam. strange you say that! I was just working out the consumption of nitrates and was about 5mins from posting up...

At the current consumption, I'm looking at consuming 10.5ppm of nitrates per week - is it coincidence that EI lite for low light recommends 2 x 1/4 teaspoons of KNO3 per week (each teaspoon will equal 4.77ppm)

Amazing, I've come full circle and arrived at dosing via EI, the destination is good but not as good as the journey - I've learnt loads!

 

[Dave Spencer]

Thanks for the PM Sophos,

Always remember that we are here to grow plants, not become experts on algae. Whatever you try to deny algae regarding nutrients, you always deny your plants first.

Funnily enough, I find myself no longer looking to my plants for signs of what it is happening in my tank. I look to the threads of algae that appear the moment anything is in short supply for the plants. It appears so much sooner before my plants have the time to tell me anything. This is proof for me that stability of plant nutrients is the key, because the algae will always react so much faster.

Dave.

 

[sophos9]

And thanks Dave for the continued help

This experiement has been valuable in my learning, instead of doing becuase thats what I'm told or have read, I can now do because I understand what it is I'm doing....

As for phosphates, 1/16 teaspoon of KH2PO4 = 1ppm, I will be dosing 2 x per week

The discovery really came after I upped the CO2 and got rid of the siesta period, fantastic plant growth and pearling was noticed. I now firmly believe that following EI lite, with the correct lighting period, correct CO2 and correct planted mass will grow plants well of which a by-product will be reduced algae

 

[Dave Spencer]

The discovery really came after I upped the CO2 and got rid of the siesta period, fantastic plant growth and pearling was noticed.

Bingo!

 

[sophos9]

Can someone please tell me what the effects are on algae if overdosing CO2 please?