# help me to identify this algae



## patter (Oct 4, 2006)

Hello all,

I have algae attack in my aquarium, but I can't identify them.

Thea aquarium is 100 liters and I use 2x36W Philips T5 light tubes. It was started 3 months ago. I use OTTO's Aqua-plant Iron Plus once a week after 30% water change. No CO2





































These algaes are on old leaves of all plants. Seems that they like light because on shadow they are less or missed.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

It appears to be Green Spot algae. A quick glance at the Algae Finder may be able to confirm this for you


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Yes, could be Green Spot Algae though the spots being so large and round is a bit strange...

You're running about 2.7 watts per gallon of light on that tank. With this much light and no CO2, you could end up with even more algae problems. All that light makes the plants try to grow faster but they don't have enough carbon to do so...

I'd recommend either lowering your lighting to under 2wpg or adding CO2 to the tank.


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## patter (Oct 4, 2006)

Thank you for the reply.

I've used AlgaeFinder before my post, but I was not sure what they are. I think that they are some kind of diatoms or cyanobacterium.

May be I made one general mistake with the lighting. Till now I had 2 lighting periods : 10h - 14h and 16h - 21h summary 9h lighting. A friend of mine told me that this dark period is not good for the plans. 

Before to add CO2 I'll try with adding fats growing plans , few Otocinclus and lighting without dark period.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

patter said:


> I think that they are some kind of diatoms or cyanobacterium.


Both Diatom Algae and Blue Green Algae (Cyanobacteria) will wipe off of the plants easily. My vote still goes for Green Spot even though they do appear to be larger than normal. I had something very similar on my Anubias barteri before I converted to high light and CO2.



patter said:


> May be I made one general mistake with the lighting. Till now I had 2 lighting periods : 10h - 14h and 16h - 21h summary 9h lighting. A friend of mine told me that this dark period is not good for the plans.
> 
> Before to add CO2 I'll try with adding fats growing plans , few Otocinclus and lighting without dark period.


I've never used the mid day "siesta" and don't see how it would help the plants. I think you would be better off running the light for 8-10 hours straight. I usually start with the lesser time period and gradually increase it.

Laith gives good advice on the light. You may want to decrease the intensity (turn off a bulb) or lessen the photoperiod if you do not plan on using CO2 or at a minimum, using some Excel.

I'm not familiar with OTTO's Aqua-plant Iron Plus either. Does it contain any nitrates or phosphates? If not, do you have NO3 and PO4 in your water supply?


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

I've never had problems caused by a 3 and a half hour midday "siesta" so I doubt if that is causing/contributing to your algae problem. I use it so that the lights will be on when I can see my tanks instead of when I am at work. 

I've used Excel to help rid my tanks of algae and usually see results within a week. Good luck on kicking the algae problem!


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## patter (Oct 4, 2006)

I use midday "siesta" for same reason - 10h lighting and light on when I'm at home 

I think that this can be a problem just for one reason. When the light is off plants "goes to sleep" and vise versa, but this process is not "just in time" and I have 2 periods with light when the plants doesn't use it. From other side algae use the light at 100% and they can use day light too.


I don't know what exactly contain OTTO's Aqua-plant Iron Plus and what I have in the water from water suply :-( Yes I know that this is important and I'll take some tests to check them soon.


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