# suggestions on blue green algae problem



## trodi (May 25, 2007)

Hello,
I am hoping some of you may be able to help me with this blue green algae problem I am having. My tank had minimal algae difficulties for a while. About two months ago I started getting what looks like blue green algae. 

Tank specs:
55 gallon tank 
120w of NO fluorescent for 7 hours (8-9 hours on 80W) 
76-77 degrees F
PO4: 1.0
NO3: ~20-25 ppm
Kh: 9
Ph: 6.8
CO2 injection with a DIY diffuser at 1 bubble per second
(I have no other measure ie. drop checker)
I’ve been dosing using PPS PRO over the past four to five months of MICRO solution 
Flourish comprehensive 2 x week for MACRO solution
and daily Flourish Excel (I started dosing about seven weeks ago with the algae problem) 
usually the tank gets a weekly 20% water change 

This algae seems to have begun around the time I added some fish. The blue green algae has been so consistent I feel I need to make some adjustments. I have had this tank going for about six months now and have only added some plants and fish more recently. Two of the fish I added are loaches, which I purchased to help get rid of a quickly multiplying snail problem. They fixed the problem and ate all the snails. However my algae eating crew is dwindling as I lost some ottos recently too. I realize I may need to get some algae fighters for my tank and could use suggestions.

Current bio load: 2boesmani rainbow fish
2 juvenile red rainbows
1 ornate rainbow
2 Columbian Red Fin Tetras
3 Neons
1 cory catfish
2 ottos ( I lost several ottos a few months back)
2 danios
2 loaches

My plants include mostly bushes of rotala indica, a center red rubin, wisteria, pogostemon, foregrounds of lobelia, mid grounds of crypt petchii and wendtii, anubias, bushes of midground subulata, background crypt spiralis, and sporadic hornwort. At least 75% ground cover. 

I know I need to make some adjustments and would appreciate some feedback and thoughts particularly regarding dosing, lighting and an algae crew. This algae has been persistent and begins to come back only a day or two after a brush off and water change. Thanks


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Blue green algae, cyanobacteria generally shows up with low nitrates and/or very high light intensity. If you are depending on Flourish for nitrate and phosphate, your tank is starved for nitrates. Don't go by your test kit result unless you have calibrated it in water with a known concentration of nitrate. Seachem's website, http://www.seachem.com/products/planted.html, doesn't show a product called flourish comprehensive, but I think they used to have that, and it was still just a trace element mix. For nitrates and phosphates they now have flourish nitrogen and flourish phosphorous. Those, along with flourish potassium, are what you should use for macros if you use all fluorish ferts. Much cheaper is to use KNO3 and KH2PO4.


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## erijnal (Apr 5, 2006)

See if you can add a pump or powerhead to your tank to add circulation. For some reason (better circulation of nutrients?), that seems to help BGA go away.


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## trodi (May 25, 2007)

correction:
Iv'e b een dosing dailt PPS PRO *Macro* solution
and flourish comprehensive for the *Micro* solution
Would you still feel that my nitrates and Phosphorous are too low? should I make some adjustments to my micro solution or macro or both?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

PPS Pro dosing is intended to be a "just enough" fertilizing method, so it is possible that you are short of nitrates. If it were my tank I would just double dose the PPS pro macro solution for a week or two to see if that helps.


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## trodi (May 25, 2007)

thanks Hoppy I appreciate your thoughts


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