How To Sort Out My Algae!

[mifty12]

Hi Guys

I have a well established tank of about two years old. Just recently I have been getting quite a bit of problem with algae. You can see it in the picture below where it seems to almost be a light fur on the leaves of my plants.

I have also put below a couple of full pictures of my tank so you can decide whether i am underplanted, I was hoping that the plants i have would be enough to cope with the algae. It is a 240 litre tank which i normally do around an 80 litre water change every week although i did miss the last two cos of a holiday. Water parameters are fine being filtered thro a juwel built in filter and a fluval 305. Light wise i have two 38 watt tubes with reflectors operating at 5 hours on, 2 hours off ,5 hours on. Also as you can see from the pics a bit og a snail infestation !!!! Just gotta keep picking em out.

Cheers

Justin

 

[nry]

1) Lower the lighting period. I personally found that the on/off/on sequence made no difference to plants or algae, my current 7-hour on period seems the best balance for my low light tank, with minimal algae growth and good plant growth
2) You have what I would consider a decent amount of plants
3) Consider some nerite snails, they have cleared the algae from my larger plant leaves, rocks, pebbles, glass etc superbly. Not had to clean pebbles, glass etc since they went in.

Do you have any plant substrate and a liquid fertilising routine? Any CO2 going in at all?

 

[Themuleous]

We need some more tank specs to be able to help; lighting and duration, fish load, any water readings you're able to provide, PO4, NO3, etc, fert regime. The more the better.

Sam

 

[mifty12]

Hi Guys

To answer your questions-

I have two 38 watt tubes for a five on 2 off 5 on period. I use a liquid fertilizer every couple of weeks.Fish wise i have 3 clown loaches,5 diamond tetras, 9 glowlight tetras, 2 gold gouramis, 1 black phantom tetra, 1 algae eater, 1 bristlnose and a whole heap of MTS. I haven't been able to take any readings recently apart from nitrate which is 40 ppm. It is a 240 litre tank which gets an 80 litre change weekly. I have no co2 running.

Hope that is enough info.

Cheers

Justin.

Ps just read something about using willow twigs to get rid of algae, any truth to this?

 

[Themuleous]

Not heard of the willow twig idea, more than likely the willow would just grow and take over the tank. Its a tricky one on the algae front, have you made any changes recently, fish load? New filter, power cut etc?

The key to algae control as far as I can see it, is stability.

BTW your clowns don't eat the snails then? MTS wouldn't last to seconds in with my clowns!

Sam

 

[sophos9]

Snap, my clowns would lose them in a day!

Although I cannot help directly, check out some of the posts in my journal - they may help?

 

[SuperColey1]

The willow twig idea won't work for this problem. The idea of the willow twig is it gets rid of green water. I've read quite a few good reports on it's use, but I'll stick to my UV I think as its much easier and it kills floating diseases.

I have loads of this leaf fur. As far as I can tell it happens on the larger leaves like my swords which are directly beneath the centre of the back light. The amazon which used to be on the right hand side of my tank and not directly under the light didn't have the fur, so I think I can safely assume that the positioning directly under the brightest part of the light was to blame for it.

I have a teeam of pitbull plecs, mollys and MTS working it away at the moment, but you know how these hourly paid workers take their time. lol

Hope this helps
Andy

 

[mifty12]

regarding my clowns and the snails, they're about two years old now and i have only just recently seen them taking an interest in snails although at the mo they just suck em up and spit em straight out.

I haven't made any changes recently although the algae has been around for some time its just that it seems to have got a bit worse recemtly. Do you think it could be down to my missing the last two changes? I thought it would be pretty much okay to leave for a couple of weeks............unless my mother in law who was doing the feeding has been overdoing it hence algae and boom in snails. Is that a plausable theory? I generally only feed once very other day, one to stop build up of excess waste food and two to keep the fish 'sharp'. Do you think this'd be okay or should i change my feeding regime, what about adjusting the timing on my lights? Will reducing the photoperiod help with the algae?

Thanks for the help guys



Justin

 

[cleekdaFish]

doesnt he need a co2 system?

 

[Themuleous]

He doesn't need co2, he's only at 1.266666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666WPG (Sorry being stupid )

Based on what you've said, there are two possibilities, either over feeding while you were away with could have thrown out the nutrient levels in the tank which were previously stable. Or the water changes. My first thoughts would be over feeding, have you checked with the person?

How long are the light on for and are they on separate control/starter units?

Sam