# Help! :(



## Danielle (Jan 26, 2008)

Except for standard brown algae on the substrate and driftwood (mostly all eaten by otto) I didn't have any algae really. Until now. I'm using the full seachem routine now, although only for about 2 weeks and I've also noticed I'm starting to get some kinds of algae. Before I was only dosing the excel and iron with flourish once a week. The CF lighting has been on the tank for a month. Before that was a single 14w strip light.

Heres some pictures of it




























Here are the tank specs:

5.5g
24w CF 9hrs day 10:30-7:30.. (according to this website and other articles I've read.. this = just over medium light)
Seachem black onyx sand
Aquaclear mini HOB with 2 sponges and biomax (no carbon) and prefilter on inlet (baby shrimps!) set to half flow
temp = ~76f
KH = 5
PH = 7.4
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate, phosphates and GH not known (don't have real test kits) but I did previously use 5-1 strips and GH was around 250ppm and nitrates 20ppm or less
No CO2 but daily dose of excel
50% water change every sunday.

So far it's concentrated to the right side of the tank.. and mostly only on the ludwigia and mayaca. I don't see any of it on the driftwood, crypt or lobelia on that side, although there is some on the glass. I thought perhaps it might be from the bit of indirect sunlight creeping through the blinds on that side so I've now blocked that by covering that side of the tank with black paper (the back was already covered). Could this have caused the issue?

New filter is on the way because I don't like how the HOB doesn't give even circulation and it sucks at filtering out some things so I get chunks and bits of stuff floating about the tank sometimes. New filter is an eheim 2213. I was also thinking I should add carbon back in? I've heard high amounts of organics will cause algae. Perhaps this would help too? I'm worried about it sucking the ferts out of the water though.

I was thinking of getting a couple of olive nerite snails. Would they eat it? My red cherry shrimps and otto don't touch the stuff.

I've thought about re-dipping plants or trying peroxide or misting with excel mixture but these plants are full of red cherry shrimplets so I can't do either.

Here's a full shot picture.. pre- algae










Any thoughts on what is causing this, how to stop it from spreading further, and how to get rid of it?
thanks!


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## inareverie85 (May 5, 2008)

I have algae just like this, so answers would be helpful


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## Kaieisis (May 17, 2008)

I havent encountered that type of algae before, nor have i seen it in pictures.

My initial guess would be the filter is not going a good job or not having co2.


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## jmontee (Feb 7, 2008)

There are probably a couple of reasons for algea. With the new lights you have increased tremndously the amount of light going into the tank. If you are using the same dosing regimen as you did with the other lights you would be way under dosing these plants.

Also with that amount of light I would suggest adding CO2. I know it's a PITA but will help tremendously. With a 5.5g you would probably be able to get awy with a DIY set up and a pollen glass diffuser. Definitely look into it if it all possible.

Also many people on the forum are going down to only 8 hours of light per day for algae control issues. That is what I do and the plants are doing very well.

Another thing that helps is increased circulation to get the ferts that you are putting in to the plants that need it. You are already taking care of this with the filter upgrade. Is the 2213 a little large for a 5.5 gallon? I have never worked with these filters but there are also some nano canisters that work well too.


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## bgzbgz (Jul 6, 2007)

It looks like bacteria to me. Could be your filter spitting stuff out, or if theres not enough "filtration" going on the denitrificating bacteria will grow elsewhere.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

I've had this same (or very similar) algae in two tanks, both of which were higher KH tanks with Tanganyikan cichlids. That is the only similarities between the two tanks. One tank was a heavily planted (mostly stem plants) 75g, with CO2, EI fertilization and about 2.5wpg the other is a 125g tank, sparsely planted with mostly slow growers (Anubias, Java Ferns, Vals and Hornwort) , no fertilization (the tank has about 40 juvenile Tanganyikans in it and they get fed 3-4x a day) no CO2 and about 1wpg of light. 

Manual removal and bumping up the CO2 a bit was the cure for the 75g. This algae started after I quit dosing Gluteraldehyde in my 125g. I ran out and figured I would see what happens without a carbon source in the tank  I'm currently reducing the photoperiod on the 125g tank to about 6 hours to see if this helps but I think the only way to remove this stuff is manual removal and adding/increasing your carbon source. I think I will try a 3 day blackout and see if this has any effect on the algae. 

Unfortunately, I don't use test kits anymore so I don't have any NO3 or PO4 levels available, but I would guess this, like most algae, starts as a result of low or insufficient CO2 levels for the amount of plants in the tank. One thing to remember, CO2 needs will rise as plant mass increases. Depending on plant mass (lots of stem plants) this can happen in the course of one week. What was enough CO2 (or Excel/Gluteraldehyde) at the beginning of the week, may not be enough at the end of the week 

I don't think it is your filter, the AC minis are pretty decent filters. If you have a lot of particulates in the tank, try adding a bit of floss in place of one of the sponges to help filter out the smaller stuff.


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