# lots of different algae



## houndour (Mar 18, 2005)

I have a 19 uk gallon (22 us gallon) tank.

Nitrates range from 5 to 10ppm
Phosphates are barely in existance at the mo
Iron...0.5 to 1
CO2...have been struggling with about 15ppm, but have just today got a 2nd nutrafin unit to try and get around the 30ppm mark.
Lights, on 5 hours, off 2 on 5. 55 watt daylight interpet t5 compact.

I have hair algae, black brush algae, the algae that grows on the glass...

I'm hoping the extra CO2 will help. Just wondered if I should be looking at my nitrate levels...or should I see how the extra CO2 goes first?

thanks


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## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

GSA (green spot algae) is the kind that grows on the glass, and is usually limited with more phosphates.
I'd defintely go with more CO2, more nitrates (20-30 ppm), as well as the increase in phosphates. Give it a week or two with these changes.

-Dustin


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Increasing your C02 will greatly help with the algae. Also you need to get some phosphates in the water, if you can stabilize your nitrates to 10ppm and keep P04 at 1ppm this will also decrease algae growth. 

In the mean time clean as much off by hand as possible, removing badly affected leaves, scrubbing decor and equipment (if needed).


Welcome to APC


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## Simpte 27 (Jul 16, 2004)

Welcome to APC. I would also keep the lights on for 10hrs straight vs on/off/on.


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## houndour (Mar 18, 2005)

thanks for the advice. I've been thinking of using dry ferts...EI??

Would you guys recommend this? At present I'm dosing with kent grow and kent fe. At the time of starting my nitrites were about 15ppm. And phosphates were about 1.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

I would definately get the dry ferts and use EI. EI is very easy for beginners to use. Your nitrate range looks good but you need some phosphates in the tank. 

As mentioned, keep your light routine a straight 10 hours. This will be much better for the plants and it doesn't really do anything for the algae by turning the lights off for 2 hours. 

Extra CO2 will help as long as you can get it in the 30ppm range. Manually remove as much of the algae as you can, do a water change, and add the fertilizers to your tank. Start doing this at least weekly (maybe twice weekly for the first wek or two) and you should see the algae reduce or disapperar in a couple of weeks.


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