# Is this algae in the first place?



## darkages (Jul 30, 2006)

HELP HELP

I'm still very new to planted tank and I started a 5 gallon approx 3 months back.

I was away for a week and left my tank to my bro just by asking him to feed the fish. When I came back, it turn brown everywhere.

I believe is some sort of algae but I dont know which type. It looks brown on the plant and when its taken out and place on tissue paper, its quite dark, almost black.

What's happening and any remedy?

I have rasboras, a panda cory, an oto and quite heavily planted.


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## LindaC (Nov 7, 2005)

Could be diatoms, are you running CO2 on this tank? How much light is over it? Do you dose ferts? People will be able to help you out a little better if you give a little more information. 

I'm currently dealing with some type of algea in my 10 gallon, this it's due to lack of CO2 and new high lights I just added.

Planted tanks need 3 essential ingredients, light, CO2 and fertilzers. Depending on how much light you have over the tank will determine whether or not you need to inject CO2, or where it's such a small tank (5 gallons), you could get by with Seachem Excel if the lights not too high. It will also determine how much ferts you need to dose.


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## darkages (Jul 30, 2006)

LindaC said:


> Could be diatoms, are you running CO2 on this tank? How much light is over it? Do you dose ferts? People will be able to help you out a little better if you give a little more information.
> 
> I'm currently dealing with some type of algea in my 10 gallon, this it's due to lack of CO2 and new high lights I just added.
> 
> Planted tanks need 3 essential ingredients, light, CO2 and fertilzers. Depending on how much light you have over the tank will determine whether or not you need to inject CO2, or where it's such a small tank (5 gallons), you could get by with Seachem Excel if the lights not too high. It will also determine how much ferts you need to dose.


Thanks for the reply.
I'm running a DIY CO2 plus 11watts of light.
A couple of weeks back I was having abit of this problem and I thought it might be overdosage of Forropol. So I have stopped adding that in my tank for about 2 weeks. I'm not dosing any other ferts fyi.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

You need to provide the plants the nutrients they need to grow. You can use fertilizer tablets shoved under the rooted plants, or you can add fertilizer to the water, but the plants will only remain healthy if you do one or the other. Your lighting is pretty low, so fertilizing once a week is probably all that you need. You need to provide nitrates, phosphates, potassium, and trace elements. Read Rex Grigg's website about fertilizing for more information. Rex's Guide to Fertilizers Once you get healthy growing plants, any algae issues will be greatly reduced.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Another good read for fertilizing non CO2 tanks is Tom Barr's Non-CO2 Methods. He gives specific dosing instructions near the end of the article for a 20g tank. Of course, you would only want to add 25% of his recommendations for a 5g tank.


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## LindaC (Nov 7, 2005)

BTW, what is Forropol?


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## darkages (Jul 30, 2006)

Thanks for the replies.
But any idea on what algae I'm currently facing?

@LindaC
Its JBL Ferropol.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Ferropol is an Fe + trace product (also has extra K). Similar in function to Flourish, CSM+B, TMG etc. 

I've tried it in the past and find I get better results with the other products.

And JBL, while it has some very good products, is another one of those European companies that refuses to list the exact contents  . 

It's difficult to tell from the pictures what exactly this is but could be diatoms. Read some of the links provided by others in this thread and you probably do need to take a look at adding nitrates and phosphates... in small quantities though as you don't have that much light...


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