Help Alage Problem

[Bailey_Bob]

I have a problem with some algae that somebody might be able to help me out.

I have a green algae which is covered my tank that I cannot get rid off. Initially it covered all my plants and bogwood, and after struggling to get rid of it had the idea to take all the bogwood and replace with rocks. This worked well for a couple of weeks but now it is back.

My water stats are OK and read
pH 7.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0
I have done this twice, at the top of the tank at the bottom

I have also lost some fish during this period
2 x Corys
4 x Bristlenose
2 x SAE
3 x Discus
1 x Congo

I have attached a picture so show this algae. I did at one time think it was BGA and did a blackout for a few days but this didnt work either

Help!!!!!

and another picture.....

another

 

[three-fingers]

Looks like BGA to me.

Odd that you have lost fish with those stats, what did it look like they died of? I doubt it would have been the BGA.

What type of test kit do you have, what brand is it and how old is it?

Also, how old is the tank, what filter do you have, what plants do you have (I think I can see cabomba in there) and what lighting do you have?

 

[Bailey_Bob]

I have a Rena 250l tank with external XP2 filter which has been setup for about 3 years and have used an API test kit. I did take a sample of water to my LFS and they got the same readings. I changed the tubes about 3 months ago and have 1 plant and 1 fish colour (?) tubes as per Rena spec.

I am not an expert on plants so dont know the names but have recently changed them due to having too much algae on the previous ones.

I thought BGA was easy to remove when cleaning but this is stuck to the rocks, also the blackout didnt do anything.

 

[three-fingers]

I have a Rena 250l tank with external XP2 filter which has been setup for about 3 years and have used an API test kit. I did take a sample of water to my LFS and they got the same readings. I changed the tubes about 3 months ago and have 1 plant and 1 fish colour (?) tubes as per Rena spec.

I am not an expert on plants so dont know the names but have recently changed them due to having too much algae on the previous ones.

I thought BGA was easy to remove when cleaning but this is stuck to the rocks, also the blackout didnt do anything.

The BGA would just come back if the conditions were still favourable, a blackout would work if you removed the algae from then tank, then got the conditions right for the plants before doing the blackout.

Can you take pictures of your plants?

What wattage and type of lighting does the tank have, T8 bulbs I presume?).

What are the lot numbers on the ammonia test bottles?

One thing that would help get rid of it would be to add more water turnover, the XP2 is only giving you about 4x turnover per hour, while to help avoid algae and give the plants an advantage over it, planted tank people are using at least 10x per hour rated turnover as a rule when setting up a tank. Adding a powerhead or whatever other kind of pump you can get should help . It wont fix it alone though, to do that, removing as much of it as possible before another black out will be nessesary.

But before you do that, you should get the conditions for the plants perfect first, and sort out any other issues that may be contributing toward the BGA .

 

[Bailey_Bob]

Hi, I have the T8 Aqua-Glo and Life-Glo tubes (20W) fitted and the date code of the amonia test kit is 83B1206 and 84B1106, but the reading were the same as our LFS

I did have a bout of BGA about 1.5 years ago, and thought I had got rid of it through clearing and blackout and havent seen it since.

What is the best method to get the conditions right, do I need to do a total clear of the tank?

 

[three-fingers]

Hi, I have the T8 Aqua-Glo and Life-Glo tubes (20W) fitted and the date code of the amonia test kit is 83B1206 and 84B1106, but the reading were the same as our LFS

I did have a bout of BGA about 1.5 years ago, and thought I had got rid of it through clearing and blackout and havent seen it since.

What is the best method to get the conditions right, do I need to do a total clear of the tank?

A total clean of the tank is probably the worst thing you can do, it would come back again eventually, and depending on how you cleaned the tank it could get worse.

The sad fact is that unless you go for a very high maintenance set up with lots of various types of filtration - you are going to get some sort of algae.

That is, unless you have thriving plants. To get the conditions right for the plants, you need to first know what species you have (pics?). Or scrap those ones and get species that you know will work well.

I take it your lights don't have reflectors either? You have a very low light tank, which isnt ideal for plants but with the right species you should be able to cope.

If it was me I would upgrade the lighting though, just makes things easier. How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?

Your test kits are in date, 6 months until you need a replacement . That means that right now your water conditions aren't bad (although the low turnover is probably resulting in localised ammonia at low levels, which would contribute to the algae). Considering how many fish you lost, this is odd, over what kind of time period did the fish die, and how did it look like they died?

 

[Bailey_Bob]

Hi, your right I dont have a reflector on the lights just the 2 T8 lamps. I am currently doing a 25% water change each week, one week I just take the water and every other week give the filter a good clean.

This fish have died within the last couple of months but and they didnt look to have any disease.

Would you suggest giving the tank a good clean, getting some good plants in place with good lighting?

The tank is near to a window in the house, although never in direct sunlight, would this cause a problem

Thanks for your help its much appreciated

 

[three-fingers]

Any window light would certainly contribute to algae, but with the right plants, it would also help tackle it.

Yep, sounds like a good action plan, just scrub off the algae and remove as much debris from the tank as possible, add some easy fast growing low light plants and get some more water movement in there in the form of a powerhead (avoid air pumps). Adding more light would make the process much faster, either add reflectors or add another lighting tube .

All of that, implemented just before a blackout, should solve the problem .

If there was anything wrong with the water quality that test kits couldn't measure (or if they were wrong), doing all that would also solve that propblem.

Also going to say just in case, if you have any carbon in your filter, stop using it and replacing it with ether filter floss, foam or ceramics.
Also, just in case this was an issue, be careful not to wash any biological media under the tap.

Plants classed as 'easy' from this list would be great:[URL="http/www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_list.php?category=1&filter_by=3"]http/www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_list.p...amp;filter_by=3[/URL].

 

[Bailey_Bob]

Thanks for your help, its much appreciated, I think a trip to our LFS is in order.

I will let you know how we get on

Once again, thanks for your help