# water current and algea



## hellbent72 (Jan 28, 2006)

does water current affect anything in a planted tank. i thought i had read some where that slow water current can cause black spot algea? does current really matter? thanx


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## hellbent72 (Jan 28, 2006)

and also i run my filter on low because if i turn it up my tank doesnt seem as clear and i do 50 percent wc a week. has anyone had this problem


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## rich311k (Jun 24, 2006)

Blue green algae, aka cyano can form in areas of your tank with low circulation.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

> ...does current really matter?...


 Emphatically, YES! About a year or two ago, someone posted some pics of their tank where they divided it up in such a way that water didn't circulate through a portion of it. The portion which got no circulation had a variety of algaes growing, while the one with good circulation was spotless.


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## hellbent72 (Jan 28, 2006)

hey thanx for your help. and thanx to anyone who has helped me in the past my tank looks better every week with all your help


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

Most algae hate water current with filtration, the other is easy to control. Keep your aquarium completely planted not giving algae any substrate to grow on.


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## voshod (Mar 22, 2007)

I seem to be having the algae problem due to lack of the water current (the plants are so large that they effectively cut off the current from the filter). I was going to get a small powerhead to get water moving. In the last message, Edward mentioned that algae hates "current with filtration". So, my silly question is - what about current with out filtration - like from powerhead ? I would never think that algae knows the difference between current from the filter and current from power head. What do you think ?


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

You should be fine adding the powerhead along with your other filter.


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

Using power heads without filtration causes two problems. Snails and plants get sucked up clogging intake. And any little part of algae is shredded by the propeller, divided to million pieces and returned back to infest the aquarium.


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## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

Yup, agree with Edward. Soon you'll get all these hairy filaments growing on all your plants if you mess up on some dosing. That's why I gave up on CO2 reactors + powerhead combos.


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## voshod (Mar 22, 2007)

So, I guess that's why people recomment having strong filters.


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## voshod (Mar 22, 2007)

standoyo, how did you get over this "fuzz" problem ? I understand you removed the powerhead that was making it worse, but what did you do with hairy fragments that were already there ? Did you have to remove the affected parts or did they just went away on their own ?

My problem seems to be that after I do water change and trimming this stuff grows for next couple of days and then stops growing. But the parts that grew stick around for a while.


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