# How quickly algae (bga) can grow...



## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

I have been fighting some gd algae recently and one of the 'smart' things I have done is hook up a uv on line to see if it would work (part of this thread) . When I did my water change last night, I cleaned all the glass as always, and decided to slow down the filter flow (XP2) way down to give the uv more exposure and hopefully be more effective against the gs.

When I got home from work today, I noticed the tank was a little cloudy (I had done some uprooting/pruning/replanting), which seemed odd because in the past it usually clears up by next day. As I looked closer, I see little tufts of bba sprouting all over the place. 

I checked my pH and it was normal where it usually is indicating CO2 levels of around 40+ (using the degassed water vs tank water method). All I can think of that might have caused this was the decrease in water flow with me trying to up uv exposure. I know dead spots flow-wise = algae, but the speed at which this occurred was very surprising to me. I have two sae's in there - makes me wonder if they are ignoring the stuff or it would be so much worse if they weren't there.

So flow rate went back up to high! I set this tank up in December, and I have yet to get it to stabilize algae wise. Up until now it had only been a gd algae problem. Now it's bba. AARGHH!!!

Has anyone else had any problems hooking up uv's and created more problems than they solved? :icon_hang


----------

