# Will I ever win? Please help...



## Paul Munro (Aug 5, 2007)

Hello, below are a couple of pics of my tank.



















I went away for five days and left someone to feed the fish and turn co2 on and off.

When I came back I had lost a fish (which I still can't find, less than an inch long), and had loads of algae.

I spent almost 3 hours removing the algae, did a water change, and resumed my dosing regime.

But within 24 hours or o all the algae was back.

I really don't know what to do, I have been double dosing Excel with not much improvement.

My tank is a mess and I have hardly any money.

Any tips to get rid of this monster? All I want is a nice looking tank, I was planning to get some Juncus Repens, and some more foreground plants in a couple of weeks maybe, but don't want to add them just to be covered in algae and die :sad:


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

Do you have any algae eating shrimp or fish in there.

I in the past have had algae like that hair algae and kept removing it every day and it was back the next even with large water changes.
Somebody once told me that that type of algae loves FRESH WATER, and to cut out the water changes until it was under control.

I did that and added a Flag fish and that algae was NO MORE.

However, there is some other algae (cyano really) that grows really stringy like thread on java fern and mosses that I can only get out with frequent removal, but it is thick and doesn't fall apart when using tweezers so it comes out easy enough.


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## Paul Munro (Aug 5, 2007)

Really? Hm, well I won't change the water for a while anyway as I'm out of RO.

I have 3 amano shrimp, but they don't eat it.

My ottos don't touch that stuff either.

I can't really add any more fish as it's a very small tank anyway and most fish that could eat this tend to grow too big for me.


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## Paul Munro (Aug 5, 2007)

any other suggestions? :sad:


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## Markalot (Feb 14, 2007)

What about lowering the light levels and cutting the co2 for a while? Slow everything down. Looks like your plants are mostly low light anyway. With moderate light and some excel I would think you could stop dosing ferts and everything would still be fine, and growing.

To add, and I don't know the history of your tank, why RO water? With RO you have to be sure to add nutrients back, especially the traces as I understand it.

Your Rummy Noses look happy.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I know excell will kill it in spot treatments, but it is pricey. Also Hydrogen peroxide will kill it too. I have done both through a syringe or turkey baster. Can you lift out your wood and put it into a sink or something and do a higher HO2 treatment than you could in the tank? HO2 is much cheaper than excell. Here is a link to read about it:
http://www.gpodio.com/h2o2.asp


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## Paul Munro (Aug 5, 2007)

Hi, well I use RO mixed with tap water, about 50/50, because my tap-water is extremely hard and ph8, so mixed with RO, it comes out at about ph7 and softer, this just seems better for the tank.

So if I lower lighting and stop dosing, will the stuff die? 

I might have to try the H202 route, but won't that kill my plants? Problem is that all the algae is on the plant leaves, and those fern were expensive - £14.00 or $28.00 from Tropica, looked amazing when they arrived


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

Well, from what i see after re-checking your tank shot is that you have low light low demand plants in there. Java fern and moss can almost grow from ambient room light with no ferts. Not ideal, but it can grow like that.

You might want to add some fast growing stem plants in the background to suck up some of the nutrients or as Tex-girl suggested, lower your light (time or wattage) and limit your dosing to once a week.


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## Markalot (Feb 14, 2007)

Paul Munro said:


> Hi, well I use RO mixed with tap water, about 50/50, because my tap-water is extremely hard and ph8, so mixed with RO, it comes out at about ph7 and softer, this just seems better for the tank.
> 
> So if I lower lighting and stop dosing, will the stuff die?
> 
> I might have to try the H202 route, but won't that kill my plants? Problem is that all the algae is on the plant leaves, and those fern were expensive - £14.00 or $28.00 from Tropica, looked amazing when they arrived


I see no need to use RO water just to lower PH, fish can adapt. You have low demand plants and the fish and fish food might supply everything you need. I ran my 46 gallon with 2WPG and no co2, haphazard excel and ferts for 6 months and I had higher light plants. There were some things I could not grow, but I though it looked great.

http://markalot.org/fish/tank46/tank46_2007-08-03A.jpg

That's a picture from August. At the time I was dosing Excel every other day IF I remembered. I had some algae but it, like the plants, grew slowly. I would go low tech for a while, have fun with it, see what grows and what doesn't.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

You mentioned having someone turn CO2 on and off every day. Do you not have the CO2 set on a timer? If not, that's a cheap investment worth making.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

H2O2 will not kill your plants. You need to read the link I sent you.


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## isu712 (Feb 8, 2008)

Try the spot treatment with either excel or H2O2. I had some hair algae in my tank and spot treatment cleared it right up.


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## Paul Munro (Aug 5, 2007)

Hi, thanks for all your suggestions everyone, I have now thoroughly read the link you sent me Tex Gal, and hope to obtain some H202 in the next couple of days and remove all plants and spot treat it all.

*How many hours light do you think I should use?* I have 4x24 watt T5, but only ever have 2 of them on, at the moment for 9 hours a day (reduced from 10).

I will add stem plants as soon as this algae problem dies down a bit, as the plants I want aren't cheap over here in UK, and want them to have the best chance possible.

I'll slow down with the ferts and will turn down CO2, but still have it running lightly. I have a whole new co2 system waiting to be put together for my two tanks, (this contains a solenoid valve), I just need to buy a fire extinguisher and work out how it all goes together!

Thanks again, I will show you the results in a few days hopefuly


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I think you need the stem plants now. They help to out compete the algae. Surely there are people on this site that can ship/sell to you that are in London. Post in the Sale/Trade column WTB/London and see what happens. If I were near I would give you some.... 

I'm also not sure I would turn down the CO2. According to Tom Barr and others that is the one sure thing at the right levels, that will keep algae from coming back. If your fish are ok then there is no harm in your CO2. 

Try taking an hour break in your photo period. I have read that it helps. So you would light for 4 hours, off for an hour, and back on for an hour. People say the plants can gear up faster than the algae and it helps out compete. OR just keep experimenting. The H2O2 will kill the algae. If you see it coming back cut your light period down further. You'll find your happy medium. I venture to say that when you get some fast growing stem plants in there then everything will balance out on it's own.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

FWIU and read,
The hour break is because that the plants can keep photosynthesizing for up to two hours after the light go off. Algae will stop growing pretty much immediately when the light go off. This way if you take an hour break in the middle of the photoperiod, you stop algae for a full hour while the plants continue to grow.

Oh and I agree, don't wait on the stems.

You can get cheap fast growing ones for the time being. then replace them with the more expensive ones as the tanks balances out.
Or you can get away with getting the ones you want right away, they will live thru algae and you can always propagate them.
But whatever you do, get some in there right away.


Oh also, with the low light plants, you could probably cut the light down to 4 or 5 hours while you are fighting this.


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## Paul Munro (Aug 5, 2007)

Hello people!

SO, I tried the H2O2 thing, removed the bits of driftwood (with plants attached) and put them in a bucket of water (about 10 liters), and added about 15ml of H2O2 solution, (at 9% concentration), and stuck a pump in there for an hour or so to get the water moving around the algae. (this was repeated for each individual piece.

Basically it completely killed it, and now there is hardly any is left. I also pruned the Java fern and attached moss to the stones at the front.

I got the stems I wanted: Juncus repens, and Rotala rotundifolia, just waitng for them to fill in more, they have grown a bit.

Started using dry ferts - KNO3 (1/6 tsp every other day) K2PO4 (1/16 tsp on same day) and then a trace mix on the other days. (1/3 tsp)

BUT............ I have an ALGAE PROBLEM AGAIN!

This is my tank at the moment:










And this is a pic of algae on the Juncus repens (this worries me a lot):










Two different types in this pic:










And lastly, a nice picture 










I want to nip this problem in the bud before it's a mess again so any suggestions would be fantastic


Thanks for your support so far


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