# I seem to have a problem with dust algae



## JaySilverman (Jun 19, 2005)

25 gallon
55w PC
0.5 ppm PO4
5 ppm no3
DIY co2, bottle changed every week. Don't know the ppm due to test kits being inaccurate.

I seem to have an issue with green dust and green fuzz algae. The fuzz is going away with help of exel (besides the fuzz on my moss, my moss is full of fuzz algae). The dust algae is really bothering me, I can't seem to find any information on it and I seem to be the only person I know that has this issue.
Now the problem might very well be co2, but as you can see I only have about 2.2 wpg over this tank plus I add a good deal of exel So I don't think my plants can really use any more co2. Most of my plants pearl every night before bed.

Currently I am not dosing anything besides csm+b twice a week with 50% water changes every Sunday. Every time I try and dose a little bit of either no3 or po4 I get double the algae over the course of one day. I've tried the ei method and it didn't work out. I just don't have the plant load and light or co2 to keep the algae from taking over first. I Think my test kits are faulty and giving me false no3 or po4 readings. So I rely mostly on my plants and algae to tell me if I do something wrong. I used to have every algae in the book in this tank and with messing around and observing I've managed to rid the tank of bba and green thread algae. All I have left is this dust and a Little bit of fuzz on my moss.

I was thinking of getting a UV Sterilizer and running it 24/7 and just try to kick up as much dust as possible for the UV to kill. Do you think this might help? Worth a try?


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

I would say you do not have enough CO2. At 2.2wpg you do need to make *sure* that your CO2 levels are up around 30mg/l during lights on. Get a KH and pH kit and measure them to get an indication of where you stand with CO2.

When you have decent light and not enough CO2, adding extra NO3 and PO4 doesn't help the plants as much because they're starving for carbon so do not uptake the other nutrients. One needs to makes sure one has the following in sufficient quantities, *and in this order*: Light - carbon (CO2) - macros - micros. So adding more macros without enough carbon...


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

Several folks that had GD improved their CO2 levels/delievery methods and it went away. Perhaps this is why I've never been able to grow/culture Green dust.

Not sure, but the observation and correlation seem to fit.
I'd need more examples first where this occurred but it's possible.
Say 20ppm of CO2 does not retard GD but 30ppm etc does......


Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

It is absolutely not true that higher co2 won't help tanks with lower light. You can have a really healthy and super stable tank with moderate lighting and plentiful co2 injection. 

But remember that your lighting is PCF! 2.2wpg of that is a whole lot different than 2.2wpg of normal output florescent. As Laith mentioned, your plants will not use the macros you're adding without enough co2. 

I'd spend money on a pressurized co2 setup before a UV.


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