# Green spot algae, New tank setup



## rachpreach (May 23, 2006)

HI, I am experiencing some greet spot algae on some of my plants and driftwood. To accomidate for this problem I have changed my lights from 2X96watts and 2X36 watts running from 8-6pm to---> 2x96watts coming on at 8am and then the 2X36watts coming on at 12pm and both sets going off at 6pm. Here are my tank specs:

100 gallon tank
pressurized co2
I dose dry ferts:
Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday: 1.5tsp of kno3/ .5tsp phosphate/ .5tsp potassium
Monday, Wednesday, and friday: .5 csm+b
saturday: nothing
wc on sunday.

I have since increased my phosphate to a little over .5 tsp. (along with the lighting) and those two things are the only thing Ive changed. 

Are my fert amounts in order? What else can I do to get rid of the gsa??

thanks.


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## jazzlvr123 (Apr 29, 2007)

Well the only thing you can do to remove the GSA that is already there is physically remove it. I read there is only one species of snail that is available to the hobby that can actually break down and eat GSA it was a zebra snail, I forget the scientific name. GSA is caused from excess light and low Phosphates in the water, You gave good info but there are some holes, you told us what you fertilize which is good but you did not tell us your plant load. if you have a very large plant load or lots of fast growers your plants could be taking up all your ferts in a matter of hours. I would prepare a dosing scheme that allows you to dose your macros daily especially phosphate and Nitrogen. if you skip a day with dosing no nitrogen or phosphate then the plants do not have any elements to utilize and grow this will leave GSA to take advantage of the excess light and other excess nutrients in the water that the plants cannot take up because of low macros


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## rachpreach (May 23, 2006)

i do have a pretty high plant load. What do you suggest as a regimen of ferts for each day?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I'm dosing my ferts every day now, and I figured out how much to dose by: use the EI recommendations for 3 times a week, multiplied by 3 to get a weekly amount, then divided by 7 to get the equivalent daily amount per dose. My tank is too small to accurately dose these dry, so I use a bottle with a known capacity, say 250 ml. I figured that I wanted to dose 15 ml at a time to make it easy to measure. 250 divided by 15 is about 16 doses per bottle full. So, I added 16 doses worth of each fertilizer (except traces) to the bottle, filled it with water and shook it up. That gets dosed 15 ml per day. For traces I did the same for CSM+B, and dose that every day too. Both are small enough doses that I have no problem dosing them on the same day. So far it is working well.


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## rachpreach (May 23, 2006)

whoa hoppy...that was kinda confusing. I personally prefer to dose dry. I dose ferts everyday, just alternating what i dose, like my schedule says. I got it from the EI dosing thread. So far it seems to be working very well except for the gsa. All of my plants are growing well with no deficencies. Ive had this higher lighting now for about 2 1/2 weeks now(2wpg to 3wpg). 

Isnt there a ratio of nitrate to phosphate? Is mine accurate?


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

I'm just reset up my tank recently, with a lot higher tech(except not co2 yet). I now have 2x 55 watts on my 55 gallon, and after I installed the new lights(a day after!) I start to notice GSA too. I'm dosing PPS Pro daily at 5+- ml, normally less. So yeah, no clue, but I also dropped 4 drops of fleet enema


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

rachpreach said:


> ...So far it seems to be working very well except for the gsa...


Someone once suggested to make up a KH2PO4 solution in a spray bottle. Then when you do your water change; just spray some on the GSA. It's supposed to make it go away then.


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