# algae problem



## foreverknight (Jul 8, 2010)

i was look at my 75g tank today and it seems to have bone crazy on the algae on the glass and just about everything in the tank. no green water though thank goodness. so i will probably be takeing the tank and cleaning the algae today and trying to figure out what had caused it and what i can do to prevent more of it. i have 10 oto's in there and 3 black and 3 golden mystery snails. and they can't keep up. 

any ideas to help keep the algae down. nitrate is about 0-10ppm nitrite 0ppm hardness is 0-25(gh)ppm alkalinity is between 0-40(kh)ppm ph is about 7.

even more funny it looks as though the algae is pearling.


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## tug (Jul 23, 2009)

What are you using for light and were are all of your plants?


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## foreverknight (Jul 8, 2010)

as of right now i don't have anything but a "beta plant" and a lilly plant in it. there are a few other plants in another grow out tank (bulbs) that arn't ready to go in there yet they have barely sprouted.

as for light i have 4 T5HO 54 watt bulbs in it. 2 ultra sun super daylight <zoo med> and 2 flora sun max plant growth <zoo med>

also doseing about 70 ml of flourish twice a week


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## tug (Jul 23, 2009)

The substrate looks nutritious. Will you be injecting CO2?
Either way, adjust your lights. Two of those T5HO lights should be enough to grow plants. I have found no reason for nitrate to drop below 5-10 ppm with planted tanks. Flourish (you must go through cases of it) will not give you enough per dose, nitrate (0.2ppm) or phosphate (0.03ppm)., Potassium? Have you looked at your municipal water quality report? 

Water changes, cleaning things, healthy plants, and reducing the light should help.


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## foreverknight (Jul 8, 2010)

i use RO water in all of my tanks


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

You're getting algae because you have light, water, nutrients and no plants. You need more plants. Either cut back on the lights and stop fertilizing, or add more plants. Something is gonna grow in there... it might as well be plants instead of algae. Why do you need a plant grow out tank when they can grow out in this one?


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## foreverknight (Jul 8, 2010)

honestly i was thinking it would be easier to grow out the bulbs in a seprate tank.


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

lower your lighting period to 6-8 hours with that much light. you need lots of plants, stuff that tank with plants jason, and when you have the money by the dry power ferts, liquid just feeds the algae. there's no plants to suck up the ferts, so the algae is getting fed by the ferts, and that is alot of light.


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## tug (Jul 23, 2009)

I get the impression you like to make work for yourself. Getting plants to grow in one tank is work enough. Some of this stuff is so basic I forget to focus on the obvious. Take the plants in your grow out tank and add them to your new setup.


tug; said:


> Water changes, cleaning things, healthy *plants*, and reducing the light should help.


What is the reason for RO water? Do you think your LFS is keeping fish in anything other then tap water? What do you do to replace Ca and Mg to the water?


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## foreverknight (Jul 8, 2010)

actually i hate makeing work for myself lol today i'm going to be rescapeing the 75 and cleaning as much algae off as i can and redoing the substrate a little bit.. and a big cleaning ... and waterchange and filter cleaning. i will post some pics after i'm done.. hope i can get alot of the algae out..


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

If you need a cheap scraper for the tank, Big Lots have gasket scrapers in the tools section for $3. It uses standard utility razor blades. Just wash it off before using to get all the machine oil off of it. 

Just as everyone said, reduce your fertilizer and turn to light down to one bulb. If you need any snails, I can hook you up with Meliasian Trumpet Snails and Ramshorn Snails. They would help to keep that algae down.

--Robert


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## MacFan (Jul 30, 2006)

Nothing wrong with RO water, but realize you have to put Magnesium and Calcium back into it or your plants will be unhappy. Typical fertilization doesn't add those things. 

If you're not using CO2, then you're using too much light and nutrients. And as others have said, not enough plants. Especially if you're just starting out, you can't have too many plants in a tank. Many of us can give you some "weed" plants that will grow like crazy and balance out the nutrients in the tank. You can also do water changes... can't really do too many water changes as long as you're putting water back with similar hardness, etc. 

The quickest way out of algae (except BBA) is to turn the lights and CO2 off and cover the tank from light for 3 days or more. But unless you fix the core issues, it will be back. 

Michael


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## kimcadmus (Nov 23, 2008)

+1 on Macfans's comments


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## tug (Jul 23, 2009)

Nothing wrong with RO water, depends on what's in the tap water,


MacFan; said:


> Magnesium and Calcium...


 salts, etc. + 1 Michael


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## foreverknight (Jul 8, 2010)

after talking with digital i decided i really needed to reduce the size of my substrate also so i'm in the process of redoing that a little and working on getting some plants and mosses in there to enjoy the lights. the substrate is the old red flourite and some black gravel and it isn't planting well at all.... this is the reason for redoing it... takeing the gravel out and some of the flourite. considering doing a mix of 1/2 black gravel and 1/2 black diamond being the gravel granuals are really large but at the time it was my only choice for black. i have also decided with my fiance that we are going to be doing angels in this tank so i'm going to probably need somekind of broad leaf plants and i wanted to do baby tears for a carpet on the tank.. any other ideas from anyone would be cool

tnakx everyone for the help. also on a side note the "10g shrimp tank" isn't doing so hot in water or light quality for some reason. but i know the biggest problem there so i'm working on that one < it is sitting in front of a window with no background to cut out the sunlight>

cant wait for the meeting hope to see everyone there

oh ya i can't find what i used to use to add elements back into my ro water anymore any sugestions.

Jason


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## tug (Jul 23, 2009)

Probably a little warm for shrimp over by the window, sorry to hear that.
:mod: Tap water, you should be able to get your local water report. RO/tap combo.


foreverknight; said:


> oh ya i can't find what i used to use to add elements back into my ro water anymore any sugestions.


 What do you use for water in your grow out tank?


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## foreverknight (Jul 8, 2010)

YEAAAA i found a place that carry's Kent Marine RO right today so now i can add my trace elements back into my RO water i'm actually excited lol.

i want to thank Digital Gods for all the help he has given me in the last two days over txt msging and everything else he has done for me... you are the man...

fiance's tire blew out shortly after i met with him earlier today and been working on that lol 3 tires in less than a month and countless nails in them<one of the tires had 5 nails in it> i'm really bast at changeing her tires now lol....

anyway thankx everyone.. and tug i have to current Fort Worth water report. i asked for then to send me one every 6 months and they said no problem 

Back to work on the tank after i get nice and clean hands and forearms


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

czech red angelfish with amazon swords, with a micro sword carpet would be nice.. your going to need warm water plants if you do angelfish... also with the angel fish get ready for water changes...


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

Forevernight, your welcome. Hopefully with the addition of plants and few snails, that will help reduce the algae issues. Can't wait to see a few photos.


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## foreverknight (Jul 8, 2010)

i'm thinking some ghost angels


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## foreverknight (Jul 8, 2010)

tanks as of 4am this morning

i'll get some more clear pictures later


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

You need 20 times the number of plants in there.


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

yes It does need more plants, but I heard Jason(foreverknight) is unemployee looking for work. that might be why there is not a lot of plants in the tank right now.... jason what plants do you like, I would be welling to buy you some... the fish gallery have 4/10.00 on rotala indica.
I could also pull out some dwarf baby tears from my tank to help you get started with some ground cover.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

Oh, I got forevernight hookup with some of the fast growers. Give it a few weeks, and we will be seeing him posting with clippings to give away. I made sure he got some of the aquascaping favorites like: baby tears and dwarf baby tears, dwarf hair grass, Christmas moss, Anubis Nona, crypts, and a variety of stem plants. It was not enough to scape his whole tank but it got him started growing plants and not algae.


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

cool cool that is awesome robert... any one got hiking boots and wants to go to the lake let me know. I might go to white rock and looks for wood tomorrow...


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## foreverknight (Jul 8, 2010)

digital_gods said:


> Oh, I got forevernight hookup with some of the fast growers. Give it a few weeks, and we will be seeing him posting with clippings to give away. I made sure he got some of the aquascaping favorites like: baby tears and dwarf baby tears, dwarf hair grass, Christmas moss, Anubis Nona, crypts, and a variety of stem plants. It was not enough to scape his whole tank but it got him started growing plants and not algae.


yes you did and i'm verry grateful for that.


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## tug (Jul 23, 2009)

Does anyone else think using just RO water is overkill for Angelfish?
http://www.fortworthgov.org/water/info/default.aspx?id=10542
Don't make the hobby more complicated then it already is. Try not to work too hard. Oh, that's right. Sorry.


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## foreverknight (Jul 8, 2010)

tug said:


> Does anyone else think using just RO water is overkill for Angelfish?
> http://www.fortworthgov.org/water/info/default.aspx?id=10542
> Don't make the hobby more complicated then it already is. Try not to work too hard. Oh, that's right. Sorry.


my reason for useing it is because i have it why not use it?


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

he had it because he used it for saltwater fish. why not use it if you have it, I love drinking ro water. taste alot better then tap. in my opinion.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

@ foreverknight - if you come to the DFWAPC plant meeting this coming Sunday you'll go home with plants. There are always tons of plants that we all share with one another.

All you that are coming and are new, make sure you bring any spare clippings you have to share. If you have none that's ok too!


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

I'm clipping my rotala, and i will stop off at wallmart for soda and cookies. is any one diabetic and need me to bring diet soda, or sugar free drinks...


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Thanks for the offer Fishyjoe24. We will have diet drinks for folks. It's very kind of you.


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## tug (Jul 23, 2009)

fishyjoe24 said:


> he had it because he used it for saltwater fish. why not use it if you have it, I love drinking ro water. taste alot better then tap. in my opinion.


 I can say the same thing about tap water. Why not use it if you have it, less work, more economical and Kent Marine RO right is expensive compared to free electrolytes from the tap. Keep an open mind while you watch these wheels spin.


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

it's a straight line race... what does a drag car have to do with water?


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