Urgent! Algae On Plants Problem

[ak>47]

Hi all ladies and gents..
I have never noticed this problem before but algae is growing on my plants. Some algae is brown and on other plants the algae is a light green-blue tinge. I have one flying fox and hes eats the algae but the blue algae i'm seeing is not growing off the plant, its growing on the plant. (what i mean is its flat, not like hair strands. It covering my plants (especially ambulia) and makes them look ugly.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Thank you

 

[SuperColey1]

Hi all ladies and gents..
I have never noticed this problem before but algae is growing on my plants. Some algae is brown and on other plants the algae is a light green-blue tinge. I have one flying fox and hes eats the algae but the blue algae i'm seeing is not growing off the plant, its growing on the plant. (what i mean is its flat, not like hair strands. It covering my plants (especially ambulia) and makes them look ugly.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Thank you

Tank details would help here size, lights, filter, amount of plants, ferts, CO2 etc as much as you can give.

If the 'algae' is indeed bluish green its not algae its cyanobacteria. nothing will eat that.

Algae doesn't suffocate plants. The presence of algae indicates the plants are suffering. The plants run defficient of something and then the algae appears not the other way round

AC

 

[ak>47]

Firstly thanks for replying

The tank size is 54 liters (30x60x30). My filter is vitaPET (internal power filter, with activated carbon). Light around 3 1/2 hours of bright light (2x 60watt globes) The remainder of the day, there is just the normal cloudy weather of Melbourne. The tank is near a full length windows (that covers one side of the wall). Just yesterday i bought plant food (its a liquid) and i added that yesterday. I dont use CO2 injections at all.

So how exactly do i get rid of the algae which is on the plants. I have 1 bunch of Ambulia, Hornwort, Indian Fern and purple Waffle.

Hold on, i googled the types of algae and its seems the indian fern has green spot algae. Hope this helps.

Thanks

 

[SuperColey1]

Firstly the sunlight is a problem. a thick dark background may help you no end here.

Are the globes tubes? or what I would consider globes meaning spherical in shape?

Its quite a lot of wattage for a non CO2 tank IMO

GSA is normally a phosphate shortage but can be triggered by something else. Meaning the plant can't take up enough phosphate because it has run out of something else.

Check this site to ID your algae:
http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
When I know the lights then more answers will help.

I see you are in Australia. I seem to remember it is pretty hard to get dry ferts over there

AC

 

[ak>47]

sorry for my lack of description

Ok so the globes i am using are the normal spherical in shape 60watt. They produce a yellow light.But yesterday night i changed them to cool daylight bulbs, energy efficient light globles.
Click here for the image -- http/www.i-fink.com/files/article_images...saving_bulb.jpg
They are only 18 watt but produce the same amount of light. I use two of them.

Should i maybe start a CO2 injection if it will increase plant growth.

Anyway them Ambulia got a little brown algae and the indian fern definately got green spot algae.
Also the liquid food i bought yesterday contains phosphate iron and other nutrients and trace elements.

Thanks

 

[SuperColey1]

I see that you now had incandecent before (normal 'pearl' lightbulbs) and now you are using CF (compact fluorescent)

The incandescent would have been of no use at all over a planted tank. These will be OK but I have no experience with them. However with your tank being so small (I think around 15USG) then you should be OK with 36W of these.

Try and block the sunlight. Add the ferts and then wait 2 weeks to see how the plants react. The increase in light may make things worse for the first week while the plants adapt but then improve once they have adapted.

Did you see much plant growth before you got these? or were they just 'holding' on while the algae grew?

AC

 

[ak>47]

Ok thanks, ill try block the sunlight first and they never had algae before i got them. Today i made diy co2 and added ferts
Ill update you on any changes.

Thanks

 

[ak>47]

well after a week they're starting to grow green but only a little algae -very little is growing. You can barely see it on the plants. They are stating to grow more quickly now with the diyco2 and ferts.

Anyway thanks

 

[SuperColey1]

np