# Algae troubles



## Olivia (May 5, 2006)

I am having some algae problems with my tank that I was hoping someone could give me some advice with.

Specs:
46 gallon tank
79 watts of T5 lighting on 9 hours a day with 79 more watts on for 4 hours in the middle of the day
Pressurized CO2 at 30ppm
Lots of plants
10 neon tetras and 1 female swordtail and a lot of little hitchhiker snails that came in on plants

I added 5 ottos about 3 weeks ago but haven't seen any in 2 weeks. Also added 20 cherry shrimp but only see one on occasion.

I dose ferts using EI method: KH2PO4, KNO3, K2SO4 3 days a week and trace nutrients other days.

This algae has been increasing in amount over the past couple of weeks. It is growing on all the plants, driftwood and even on the snails. I've tried bleach dips but it just comes back. I pull as much as I can off but it is on the borders of the plant leaves and I can't get it off there. It looks like BBA and perhaps another type of algae to me as some of it also has long strings (5 or so inches long) that reach from driftwood to plants.

Here are some pictures. Not great quality but I hope you can see what I mean.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Olivia

BBA type?









Other type? Longer strings, not as fuzzy.









Hard to see but all along the outside of the onion plant leaves.


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

How old is the tank?
Are you doing 50% PWC/week?
How do you know you're at 30PPM CO2 (important)?

If it's a newer tank and you're doing your PWCs and you're using a drop checker then this is all fairly normal & common, all I can suggest is:

1) cut back on the burst (try 1 or 2 hours)

2) Keep doing dips. Leaves in ~5% Clorox w/ a gentle rub for 20-30 sec. & a quick, thorough rinse should eradicate the algae. If not, try a quicker dip in 1:1 tap water / 3% hydrogen peroxide (3%) (again, leaves only).

3) If the above fail, a stiff dose of Flourish Excel (on the order of 1/2mL per gallon) once or twice in a week should hinder algal growth (but may also be bad for inverts & some Vals).

Most of this advice is really aimed at the greener, stringier (Clado?) algae as BBA is actually one of the easier species to get rid of (a little more CO2, or more consistent CO2 frequently does it).


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## Olivia (May 5, 2006)

Thanks!

1) The tank is 2.5 months old.
2) Definitely doing the 50% water changes, using tap water to replace the water I remove.
3) I'm using a dropchecker to measure CO2, it's green, indicating 30ppm. It occasionally goes higher, into the yellow range but I try to keep it green.

I'll try the dips again, I'm just afraid that dipping every other week is going to kill the plants. They always look a little sad after their dips.

Thanks again,
Olivia


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

Olivia said:


> Thanks!
> 
> 1) The tank is 2.5 months old.
> 2) Definitely doing the 50% water changes, using tap water to replace the water I remove.
> ...


You can also try hydrogen peroxide treatment as described in the links below. I always like to remove the plants if they are removable and treat them in a bucket of water with HP before placing them back. The HP is not as potent as bleach and while many have safely used it, I have read some horror stories of people who lost fish when they injected directly on the plants inside the tank. If your fish get too close when you are injecting, it could damage their gills. But again it is safer than bleach.
http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/algae_peroxide.html
http://www.aquariumboard.com/forums/aquatic-plants/4314.htm
http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/H2O2


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Most of the time when it's a new tank and you have algae like that it's caused by the light being too intense and not enough biofiltration to deal with any organics that are in the water column. Did you start off with a shorter duration than the 9 hours, like 6 hours? Did you use carbon in the filter and/or literally fill the tank with plants? The carbon is necessary initially to make up for the lack of a biofilter unto the plants get established. 

What you could do now is through more plants in, cut back on duration as the others have mentioned to 7 hours keep the co2 up and do water changes several times a week for a few weeks unto the tank really get going.


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## Olivia (May 5, 2006)

Thanks everyone!

houseofcards,
We did start off with a lot of plants and carbon in the filter with the lights on for 6 hours a day. I turned the lights up to try to make the plants grow better so they would take up more nutrients and out-compete the algae. Bad idea? The CO2 has also been present from the beginning.

So I guess my plan now is to cut my lights back to 7 hours a day, do 2-3 water changes a week for a couple of weeks and keep the CO2 where it is plus treat out of tank with H2O2? Should I go to 24 hour CO2?

Sound good?

Thanks again.
Olivia


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Olivia said:


> Thanks everyone!
> 
> houseofcards,
> We did start off with a lot of plants and carbon in the filter with the lights on for 6 hours a day. I turned the lights up to try to make the plants grow better so they would take up more nutrients and out-compete the algae. Bad idea? The CO2 has also been present from the beginning.
> ...


Are you using Aquasoil?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Olivia said:


> Thanks everyone!
> 
> houseofcards,
> We did start off with a lot of plants and carbon in the filter with the lights on for 6 hours a day. I turned the lights up to try to make the plants grow better so they would take up more nutrients and out-compete the algae. Bad idea? The CO2 has also been present from the beginning.
> ...


Plants and algae don't compete for food, only for light. Algae require very little in the way of nutrients to grow, compared to plants. It appears that most algae start blooming in response to "signs" that indicate it is a good time for them to be able to grow to the reproductive stage before there is too much light competition from plants. The "signs" include increases in ammonia in the water and wildly fluctuating CO2 concentrations. In nature a surge in ammonia in the water might indicate that it is spring and more water is flowing into that body of water, from tributaries where there are lots of rotted plants and animal life - indicating that it is too early for plants to have begun rapid growth. CO2 fluctuations could indicate that only sporadic rains are falling, or natural springs are low, but starting to flow - again indicating that it is too early for plants to be in vigorous growth.

Algae need light and lots of it to grow really well, so reducing the light to only what the plants need can stunt or stop algae growth. Having lots of fast growing plants in the tank can allow those plants to very quickly absorb all ammonia secretions before the algae spores detect them. Maintaining the same concentration of CO2 in the water every day obviously removes that stimulus to algae blooms.


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## Mr. Fish (Oct 24, 2007)

I have the same exact problem...and that looks exactly like my leaves...
Im going to try cutting back my lighting to 8 hours a day. What is the minimum hours of
light plants need to grow and assorb the nutrients?


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## Olivia (May 5, 2006)

houseofcards,

No aquasoil. For a substrate I'm using Flourite. 

Olivia


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