# Algae coming back again :/



## Carlos1583 (Jul 7, 2006)

Well, a week after rescaping the tank and switching completely to dry ferts, the algae is coming back again. I know I have to give it a few weeks before I see improvements but I thought I would take pictures and see what you guys thing this is and what the problem may be. I posted on another thread the specs but I'll type them again: 20g, 65W (w/ 9325K bulb); on for 9 hours, CO2 (day only), ferts (I listed the doses on the other thread). Even after trying to remove all infected leaves/plants, the algae is coming back as if it were never gone. Here are some pics. Any clues what this is and what to do? I'm leaving for spring break tonight so I'll be gone for 9 days. Thanks

p.s. Sorry for the bad pics but I just took them and didn't do any photoshopping.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

After doing a rescape, especially if you up-root plants, you will have algae occure afterwards. This is because you stir up all the mulm/nutrients that help feed the algae. From your post I'm assume your tank is relative new & the rescape was to get rid of the algae you had. So pretty much your back at square one. 

What you need to do at this point is to make sure that you are consistent with dosing ferts, C02 injection, water changes & tank/filter maintenance. You going away for nine days at this point is going to make the situation worse, I'm sad to say. 

From your pictures it does not look as if you have the tank heavily planted. I would definately get some more fast growing plants in there. Also a variety of algea eaters is always helpful.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

If you are going away for 9 days you need to reduce the amount and duration of the light while you are away. You can drop the lights-on period to about 4 hours, for example. Before you leave do a good cleaning, and change at least 50% of the water.

Float a lot of hornwort or other plants to help block some of the light and absorb more of the ammonia that must be generated by the fish/plant waste.

When you return you will likely have more algae, but hopefully not so much you can' t recover.


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## Carlos1583 (Jul 7, 2006)

I did a 50% change today and just fed them as well. I do have some more plants than what you see but you are right, it is not heavily planted (it was when the algae outbreak occurred). I'll go ahead and bump down the light to 4 hours and we'll see what happens. 

On the plus side, all the plants are growing nicely...but so is the algae


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## Carlos1583 (Jul 7, 2006)

Update: Well thanks to hoppy and trenac, my algae problems have been controlled. Leaving for spring break was the best thing that happened to this tank because I left it alone. I cut the hours to 4 a day for about a week and cut back the CO2 and now there is hardly any algae. I thought I would post pics here and say thanks to Hoppy and Trenac for their help...




























Hopefully I'll have similar success in my new 75G...


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Looks great... Glad I could help


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