# Help, im overwhelmed by algae



## aviator300 (Oct 24, 2013)

New to planted tanks. I have a fully cycled 20 gal tank with Flora Max substrate. Medium bio load of community fishes. Rocks, driftwood and plants. Lighted with Fluval plant led putting out about 1400 lumens.. Have developed some green algae that Ottos took care of but now have the following.

Numerous Black splotches on plant leaves that are almost impossible to wipe off and seem to be mostly on the lighted side of the leaves. These same spots are all over the rocks, decorations and airline tubing. On the tubing they are jet black as on the leaves but on the rocks they appear to be brown to red splotches. Water has always been clear and remains so.

started with high light for 10 hrs daily but after algae appeared, light time was reduced to 4 hrs of high light and 10 hrs of low light daily. Also, the tank and algae has developed an unusual pungeant odor since the black stuff started. 

I have been dosing with liquid C02 and some iron and also some API algaecide but it continues to worsten...

I need advice. Im also brand new to this forum


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

Welcome to the forum! 

Unfortunate to hear you entering the forum with problems, but algae can be conquered. A picture is always helpful to put things in perspective and see the type of algae etc. For now I assume it is BBA (black beard/brush algae). You already describe you light as high light (which can not be described by lumens but this is a different story), but the only 'CO2' you mention is liquid. This is an impossible combination and will always lead to algae. If you are really in the high light you'll need pressurized CO2 and quite a lot... 

It sounds like you can switch off certain light, for now I would only keep to low light for a while, even 1 hour of high light is too much without CO2. Second, besides iron and CO2 there are plenty of other nutrients your tank needs you don't mention as well. Certainly in high light, you'll need a lot of it. A decent trace mix is 1 (not only containing iron, but Mg etc. as well) and NPK (nitrogen, usually as nitrate, NO3, phosphor, usually as phosphate and potassium). My best advise would be keep it on low light, till you read a little more about these things. This way the algae will not spread anymore, but if it is really BBA, you need to remove/kill it manually.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Good info in Yo-han's post. A decent picture would help a lot.

Also, describe your lighting, is it LED only or do you have additional lights? What is the wattage on the light, where did you buy it, how large is your tank and how is the light spread evenly over your tank or is it focused at one point?

Is your light this type?
http://www.reefs.com/blog/2012/07/12/product-review-hagen-fluval-sea-led-light/


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## aviator300 (Oct 24, 2013)

My light is a Fluval 24 to 36". its like the one in the review you attached but the Plant one instead of Marine. Im unsure about the wattage but that can be easily found. Its on a 20gal planted tank and I ran it about 10hrs a day. I now run it 3hrs along with a small marineland strip light that I run 10hrs as a low light alternative. thinking of buying gas cylinder co2 system also and have been told this would help reduce the algae growth...


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## Jeppedy (Jan 11, 2013)

I have to ask... It sounds like you're doing almost nothing with micros and macros. Trust me when I tell you I've experienced great highs and terrible lows with my planted tanks, and it rises and falls on proper fertilization. 

Look into EI dosing, ask questions, don't look back...


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