# Tetra Algae Control



## Pseud (Oct 19, 2005)

Saw some of this in the shop today. I've been battling green water for a little while now. Thought I'd pick up a bottle of this stuff and use it as an almost last resort. At the moment I've decided to try 50% water changes every 2 days for two weeks with carbon filtration and reducing my photoperiod. Of that fails, I'll give this stuff a shot.

Anybody ever used it? Successfull?

I don't usually go for adding chemicals to combat problems as I feel they don't solve the problem, just mask it, but, I'm really getting kinda desperate.


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## Pseud (Oct 19, 2005)

Okaaaaaaaaay...

...anybody have any experience with ANY type of algae control medicine?


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Pseud,

Have you tried a 3 day blackout? UV filters will take care of it as well. Then check your fert scheme to figure out what's out of whack to have caused it. 

As far as algae medications, can't help you there, no experience with it. Other than the stuff for bba.


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## Pseud (Oct 19, 2005)

I haven't tried a black out. I really loathe the idea of depriving my plants of light for 3 days. But if I have to, then I will.

I'm pretty certain that it was an overdosing of Phosphate that caused it.

Is it impossible to cure GW with water changes and carbon filtration alone?


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## fisherelli (Oct 22, 2005)

Blackouts work and didn't harm my plants. They went a bit leggy and needed a quick trim when I took the covers off after 4 days. The water was crystal clear.

However - One 50% water change later and the next day I could see the water getting ever so slightly cloudy again. 2 days later it was slightly more cloudy. This time I didn't wait for the full green pea soup to appear and went for an pre-emptive 4 day blackout. Currently at end of day 1.

My first green-water appeared when I did some major re-planting and thinned the plants out a lot. I disturbed the substrate a lot too. oops. At the end of the current blackout I will be reducing light from 10 hrs to 9 - we'll see what that does.

My tank has only been running for 2 months and being a beginner I have really been messing around with it.. ferts, replanting, adding fish, you name it I've done it. I believe that when I reduce my fiddling, stabilise my ferts and let the tank grow into itself things will get eventually better.

Until then, the odd blackout seems to do no harm and is very easy to do.

Good luck with your green water! 

Oh.. and I'm no expert but I don't think loads of water changes will help. Dunno about carbon filtration.


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## Pseud (Oct 19, 2005)

Well, I tried the algae control and it really cleared the water. After just two doses my water is crystal. I'm dosing again today to be on the safe side, then a big water change tomorrow. I'll report back wether the GW returns or not.


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## fisherelli (Oct 22, 2005)

Glad it worked.  What kind of fish/frogs/snails/shrimp do you have? Did they all make it through ok?

I took the covers off my blacked-out tank Sat morning and the water is already clouding up. Can't tell if its a bacteria or algae or because of the Flourish micros I'm dosing. I have also been double-dosing Excel for 8 days (for staghorn algae); but don't know if this contributed to the cloudiness. 

Excel Info : 2 shrimp died around day 6 of the Excel dosing, but the fish and the frogs look fighting fit.

I am going to continue stubbornly with blackouts for a while,.. see where that gets me.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Pseud said:


> I'm pretty certain that it was an overdosing of Phosphate that caused it.
> 
> Is it impossible to cure GW with water changes and carbon filtration alone?


I doubt it was the PO4 overdose unless you were not adding NO3. GW seems to be caused by ammonium (NH4). By overdosing PO4 you should have increased the uptake of NO3 and I would imagine NH4 also, if the NO3 got low enough.

GW needs to be filtered out (diatom filtration) or blacked out. I have had it disappear on it's own one time, but it took a couple of weeks of looking at a thouroughly green tank before it went away.

In order to keep it from coming I would look into what may be causing your NH4 levels to rise...filter cleaning, substrate disturbance, re-scaping your tank, etc. Once you figure out what caused it, you can figure out how to prevent it 

How are the plants doing since you added the algeacide?


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## Pseud (Oct 19, 2005)

fisherelli: My profile has all the info on plants and fish in my aquarium. Everyone made it through fine, in fact, I've noticed that their activity in the clear water is accelerated!

The plants appear totally fine too. It may take a day or two for any apparent side-effects to be noticed, but things look promising.

Matt: You know, it's hard to recollect exactly when the GW started but, I'm renowned for uprooting, moving stuff around, disturbing the sand (ALOT - I removed a heap for my nano tank), and I'll confess to slacking on filter cleaning, so it could be any/all of those....


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## Pseud (Oct 19, 2005)

Well, it's been nearly a week since the last dose. I didn't get around to doing the water change but I'm about to do that now. The water is crystal clear now. In fact, one day I dosed 10ml Trace, and noticed the next day that the water was even clearer! I dunno if the two are related, but it was interesting.

Anyway, this stuff really seems to work.


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## fisherelli (Oct 22, 2005)

Glad it worked for you! I envy your clear water! 

Mine went the full green again (as expected). Changed 50% water yesterday as usual - will probably only take 2 or 3 days to go to the full pea soup.

There is a weeping willow tree next door and I've read on this forum that willow can clear water sometimes. Only thing is,.. it's winter and obviously no leaves on the branches so I don't know if submerging the branch will bring it back to life or if it will just rot. Gonna give it a shot anyway.


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## Gumby (Aug 1, 2005)

Glad to hear that flocculating agents (clumping agents) worked for you. When I had a GW outbreak on my tank I used a whole bottle of Seachem Clarity. It worked for about 2-3 days then the GW was back. I ended up having to borrow a friend's UV sterilzer. The UV killed it off and it never came back.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

If you have a peristent problem with GW save yourself alot of hassle and if possible get a UV. I had GW come and go once I hooked up the UV my green water was gone and many sensitive fish like cardinals did much better in the tank because the UV destroys pathogens in the water column as well. Many advanced aquarists use them 24/7. If you try to adjust certain parameters you might cause a different set of reactions to develop.

I did the willow branch thing and IMHO it's no different than throwing a bunch of floating plants in the tank to soak up excess NH3. Just for the record I used branches with no leaves that were cut from both the top and the bottom and I did grow roots. It took about 10 days to start developing the roots.


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## Gumby (Aug 1, 2005)

houseofcards said:


> If you have a peristent problem with GW save yourself alot of hassle and if possible get a UV. I had GW come and go once I hooked up the UV my green water was gone and many sensitive fish like cardinals did much better in the tank because the UV destroys pathogens in the water column as well. Many advanced aquarists use them 24/7. If you try to adjust certain parameters you might cause a different set of reactions to develop.
> 
> I did the willow branch thing and IMHO it's no different than throwing a bunch of floating plants in the tank to soak up excess NH3. Just for the record I used branches with no leaves that were cut from both the top and the bottom and I did grow roots. It took about 10 days to start developing the roots.


Does your UV filter affect fert levels(iron) in the aquarium? I tried the willow thing too and my branches just died within a week and the water was still green


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## Pseud (Oct 19, 2005)

3 weeks later and the GW didn't return. So the Tetra Algae Control really got rid of it. I'm happy.


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## fisherelli (Oct 22, 2005)

Thats good news!  

My 3 willow branches are alive and well. They have grown good roots and leaves have appeared. Green water algae also doing well! I am going to give it until next Sunday then give up on the willow thing.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Gumby said:


> Does your UV filter affect fert levels(iron) in the aquarium? I tried the willow thing too and my branches just died within a week and the water was still green


I have not found the UV to have any real effect on my plants. My rotala rotundalia and e.stellata are both reddish. I don't even dose a dedicated FE fert, I dose regular flourish every other day.


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