# Gsa



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

i've had this algae for a while. and i don't have a phosphate test kit. so should i just keep dosing phosphates until it goes away? i don't know how much to dose, im looking in the ei thread right now. so basically my question is: when there is enough phosphate GSA should go away right? pretty much should i keep dosing phosphates till it goes away?


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

wait so gsa may not necessarily be caused by low phosphates, i usually dose 5 drops of fleet enema into a 20 long that has 56 watts running 6 hours a day. co2 is diy yeast about 1 bubble per 3-4 seconds. dosing about 1-2 ml of flourish comp, 3-4 ml of excel, and about 5 drops of fleet enema 2 times a week. i switched to dry ferts, monopotassium phosphate and dosing about 1/2 mL. doing 25 percent water changes *every week i sometimes forget


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

Not so. If you go too far with the PO4 you will always have GSA and have it bad. Look into the MCI algae control thread. Rubilar just went thru GSA with a member.


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## darkoon (Jun 7, 2010)

low CO2 and PO4 are the two main reasons of GSA. but there may be other causes too. 
I always have some GSA, not a lot, but it's annoying, i know I have enough CO2 (my drop checker is yellow-green), and my po4 is always >2 (my tap water has 2ppm of PO4), i still get GSA. now I am thinking that the ambient light might be the cause here.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

i just bought a test kit for po4 as well for nitrates and stuff. stuff should be here next week, and ill finally know what my water params are. ive seen it mentioned alot of times that the imbalances between lights, etc. but isn't that cause of algae? we wouldn't be complaining if our tanks were perfect. this times GSA is different than the one i got some time ago. last time, after i dosed monopotassium phosphate, it turned clear and died. this time :/


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

last time i even had a tank that had GSA growing on the walls with GDA shielding it (covering it) and so my po4 dosing did nothing. if only aquatic life wasn't so vulnerable to algaecides, then this would be a lot more fun.


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

Read this: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/algae/69737-method-controlled-imbalances-summary.html

It explains what imbalance causes what algae. It is quite accurate.


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## darkoon (Jun 7, 2010)

I had > 5ppm of Phosphate in the water, and I still got GSA on the glass. Once my new plants settle in, i will continue to add it to see if GSA would eventually disappear.


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## darkoon (Jun 7, 2010)

Light and flow seem to be the cause of my gsa problem. had lights on for extra 2 hours 2 weeks, GSA boomed, i wiped the front glass clean, reduced lighting period back to normal, and added a Hydor Koralia power head last week, still got some GSA, but far less than what I even had. Will try to add a more powerful powerhead and further reduce the lighting period to see if I can totally eliminate gsa. and possibly start adding excel to see if that helps too.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

i managed to fix all of the algae problems in my tank 
start testing your water and drop or raise the nutrients to the right level. get or make a drop checker and make sure its at least green. make lights 6-8 hours. turn off filter and squirt hydrogen peroxide where needed (be generous). after a day or two, all algae should be quite dead... after stabilizing my nitrates and co2 my GSA went away as well... this GSA was not from low phosphates because my phosphates were a good 8ppm. also if you have a carpet plant, pull it out and vacuum like hell...


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

an observation I made with a GSA troubled tank was the more active MTS i had, the less GSA.
a GSA free tank just got GSA again after all my snails died. I just ordered a fresh batch of MTS,
I will wipe off the visible GSA with an abrasive pad, then see if it comes back with MTS around.
I'll post my observations on a journal thread in a few weeks. I don't think the MTS eats GSA,
but the MTS activity under my substrate may indirectly retard GSA. substrate was vacuumed.


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## darkoon (Jun 7, 2010)

i have good co2 based on the drop checker. both Nitrate and Phosphate are at good level, 10ppm and 5ppm respectively. 
I suspect lighting to be the culprit in my case because there are ambient lights that I can't control. The tank is in the living room, i turn on the lights in the living room when I get up at 7am, the tank lights come on at 11, turn off at 7pm, but the lights in the living room stay on until 10pm at least. 
I did try spot treat with hydrogen peroxide in the past, did not seem to do anything to gsa.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

gsa is unfazed by h2o2 my mts seem to lessen it as well... im not completely rid of gsa but it has mostly disapeared on my anubias leaves but i still see a little bit on my walls... a quick scrape i don't mind. however, in the past for a different tank i once got a rubber lip pleco and it ate the gsa but the second time i got one, it didn't. also another time when i had it in a different tank i dosed fleet enema and it died and went away. so i guess its which kind of GSA you get. last time in yet another tank i got one that grew beneath the GDA so my phosphate doses didn't work against it.


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## darkoon (Jun 7, 2010)

neilshieh said:


> gsa is unfazed by h2o2 my mts seem to lessen it as well... im not completely rid of gsa but it has mostly disapeared on my anubias leaves but i still see a little bit on my walls... a quick scrape i don't mind. however, in the past for a different tank i once got a rubber lip pleco and it ate the gsa but the second time i got one, it didn't. also another time when i had it in a different tank i dosed fleet enema and it died and went away. so i guess its which kind of GSA you get. last time in yet another tank i got one that grew beneath the GDA so my phosphate doses didn't work against it.


what is your PO4 level now?
I read one of Tom's thread about algae control, he pointed out that it is not the high concentration of PO4 that kills GSA, but by not limiting PO4, allows plants to out compete GSA.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

i think its still 8... i did a huge water change and it dropped considerably but i dose like 3 drops and then poof back up again. nothing seems wrong though... alls good.


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

darkoon said:


> ........I read one of Tom's thread about algae control, he pointed out that it is not the high concentration of PO4 that kills GSA, but by not limiting PO4, allows plants to out compete GSA.


With EI fertilization there is no "out competing" for the simple reason the ferts are always available to both plants and algae. Out compete infers one or the other gets the upper hand and gets the 'food'. If you go too high with your phosphate you will always have GSA, and have it bad. It also has to do with an imbalance with Ca and Mg - not enough Mg.


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## darkoon (Jun 7, 2010)

Newt said:


> With EI fertilization there is no "out competing" for the simple reason the ferts are always available to both plants and algae. Out compete infers one or the other gets the upper hand and gets the 'food'. If you go too high with your phosphate you will always have GSA, and have it bad. It also has to do with an imbalance with Ca and Mg - not enough Mg.


Newt, are you saying too much PO4 also can cause GSA?
and what does Mg deficiency have to do with GSA.


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## Aquaticz (May 22, 2009)

darkoon said:


> Newt, are you saying too much PO4 also can cause GSA?
> and what does Mg deficiency have to do with GSA.


That certainly has been my experience. I do the EI thing and if I dose 15 ml I am sure to get it. At 10 ml I do not get it, trying to find that balance. Best of luck


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

darkoon said:


> Newt, are you saying too much PO4 also can cause GSA?
> and what does Mg deficiency have to do with GSA.


Its all about imbalances. Thats one reason EI doesnt work for everyone. Its not just about N,P &K.

If you go too high (like I did recently) with P and there is an imbalance with Ca and Mg you get GSA BAD and it shows up on the plants not just the glass.

If all you have is GDA on the glass and you have to scrape once a week - be happy.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

yeah, just unbalanced ferts... i dose according to rex grigg's info and so far its been working for me, remaining GSA has stopped spreading or is spreading very slowly, also after upping up nitrates and lowering phosphates the GSA on my anubias leaves disappeared or lessened considerably. After a while of dosing ferts and checking nutrient levels, you pretty much know how much to dose and it deviates from EI or other methods.


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## darkoon (Jun 7, 2010)

I am pretty sure I am not overdosing PO4, my weekly dosage of PO4 is <2ppm, my tap water also has 2ppm of PO4, so the max i can have is 4ppm. anyway, I will try not to dose any PO4 this week to see if it will make any difference. I will also up Mg dosing, my current Ca/Mg ratio is 4/1.
I had gsa boom when I extended lighting hours from 8 to 10, I have gone back to 8hours, as well as reduced from 3wpg to 1.5wpg, I don't have any noticeable gsa growth on the leaves anymore, but there are still some on the glasses.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

i always had my lights on for 6 hours only... partially to discourage algae, and partially because my parents weren't to happy about paying electricity bills


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