# Algae farm



## fastlight8101 (Mar 12, 2015)

Hi all, 
Where to begin?! There is so much knowledge out there, and if it's on the internet it has to be true right? My aquarium is driving me nuts right now. I feel if there is an algae out there, I have it. I can't say I'm properly iding all the algae I'm seeing. But I believe I have brown spot algae, black brush/beard algae, blue green algae, green spot algae and hair algae. I have zero ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I change my water once a week 15 gallons with treated city water. My substrate is eco complete. I don't run co2 and I had hoped not too. My aquarium isn't heavily planted but my plants are growing . I know this won't be solved over night. I just don't know where to begin. Should I get more test kits? Any and all help is appreciated.


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## Aquarist (Jul 23, 2014)

What size is the aquarium? What kind of lights are you using, and how far are they from the substrate? How long are you lights on for? Are you dosing any fertilizers? If so how much are you dosing? What temp is your water? Also some pictures would help.

Without knowing these factors it would just be a shot in the dark to say what you should do to help get rid of the algae. I would suggest that you go ahead and start doing 1-2 50% water changes weekly this will help even out your water parameters and if there is any excessive nutrients it will help remove them. You will also want to manually remove as much algae as you can, prune the leaves that are highly effected by the algae and give the glass a good scrub. This is a time consuming process but it is much easier to help fix an algae problem when there is less algae in the aquarium to start with.

Another key factor with algae is too much light, depending on what lights you are using you may want to go ahead and cut back on how long you have them on. If the aquarium is near a window you could possibly be getting some direct or indirect sunlight which can also grow algae.

Some of the main causes of hair algae are a poor biological filtration system, too much light and too cold water. 

Black beard algae in an aquarium with no co2 is usually caused by poor circulation and excessive light. You should check out the circulation in your aquarium and try and get the best water flow as possible. Also having the lights on for a shorter photo period would be helpful, sun light can also play a factor here as well. 

Some causes of blue-green algae are excessive lights, high levels or organic waste and anaerobic conditions. Some steps you can take to help get rid of this algae is to clean your substrate really well and give it a good mix in the places you can. Also you can try and get some more surface agitation to help aerate the water, or put an airstone in. In all aquariums it is a good idea to mix your substrate about once a month to release built up gasses and allow some oxygen to get into the spaces between the particles of substrate. If you haven't done this before you may want to do half the aquarium, preform a water change, then do the other half and do another water change. In densely planted aquariums you can do the same thing, just turn over the substrate in areas you can, and then poke a chopstick or something similar into the substrate where it is too dense to turn the substrate over. Also if you are not opposed to the idea, go ahead and get yourself some A-sexual snails, they will do a great job of making sure your substrate bed stays aerated.

Green spot algae is usually caused by low phosphate levels, if you are dosing fertilizers you want to make sure you are getting enough phosphate in there. Poor water flow and excessive lighting can also be a factor with this algae as well, address your water flow and adjust your lighting.


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## fastlight8101 (Mar 12, 2015)

Wow Aquarist, thanks for the long reply. I can't do picture just yet but I can give some specs. I have a 72 gallon bow front aquarium. My filter is a marineland c-360 the out flow is pointed up on right side of tank causing a ripple. Intake on left. I have an additional hydor nano on left side doing same thing. I also have a 13w sun sun uv sterilizer in center with outflow pointed right at front of tank. All cause surface ripple. I don't use co2 I don't use water column fertilizer. I just recently add seachem flourish tabs, but the algae was there before tabs. My lights are on 7 hrs a day at full strength. I have current usa plus pro. 60w of leds. 3800lumens. My tank does not get direct sunlight. 
I have 5 corscrew vals that are starting to shoot off runners, 5 jungle vals that are starting to grow back and shoot runner's. I have 5 little dwarg sag. An Amazon sword, 3 crypt red wenditti, about 15 rotala indica growing real well and an annubas. . My fish there are twenty neon, 5 red phantom tetra, 1 male gbr that killed his mate. 5 platy fish, 3 small Angel fish, two panda cory, and 3 octo algae eaters. 
The tank is only about two months old. So I know it's in its infancy stage. And I really didn't start getting this algae until I started doing these weekly water changes three weeks ago. It's like the algae is feeding off the new water. 
Still think I should be doing 50% water changes now?


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## fastlight8101 (Mar 12, 2015)

Just to give an idea of the terrible situation


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## fastlight8101 (Mar 12, 2015)

So bga is actually a bacterium. Wonderful. I did a 50% water change, reduced my lights to 65% and removed as much as I can. So I read it's caused by excess light, high phosphates and poor aquarium conditions. I don't believe that last part. It wasn't until I started those weekly water changes did this occur. I can't help but wonder with my water from lake Erie and the fact that in Toledo they had a water crisis, if I need to start testing my city water


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## fastlight8101 (Mar 12, 2015)

Bought water sprite and hornwort gonna suck up any excess nutrients. Bought two new test kits. Phosphate and gh/kh both by api. 
Phosphates I thought would be high. Nope I believe it's zero maybe .25. 
Gh is 10dkh and kh is 4dkh. I also know my aquarium water is 7.5.

Any of this help with figuring out what in the world is going on?


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## fastlight8101 (Mar 12, 2015)

Give this one last try see if anyone is willing to respond. I'm confused about things concerning blue green algae aka cyanobacteria. I read that it thrives in high phosphates high nitrates. Anaerobic conditions and high light. My aquarium shows no nitrates no phosphates I have lots of water movement. I do have water ripples but not agitation. My lights are led. I have already dimmed then to 65%. I thought about temporarily adding an air stone. What really throws me is I have been reading a lot about what plants need to thrive. I got reading the e.I method and dry fertilizers. Is phosphorus the same thing as phosphates? The e.I method works assuming 30ppm co2. How come I'm supposed to add things to my aquarium that cyanobacteria supposedly thrives off of. I really don't want to add erythromycin to kill this stuff id like to solve it naturally but I'm at a loss.


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## Silvering (Jun 10, 2011)

Hmm, I don't have any "magic bullet" (If anyone finds one, tell me where you got it!) but your tank is quite new and may well settle down as the ecosystem finds its own balance. In your shoes I would not do anything drastic like medicating - just continue cleaning up excess algae when you do your water changes. It sounds like your plants are growing, just not quite up to the job of out-competing the algae yet. I'd monitor the situation for a couple weeks with the decreased light and see how the system responds.

Also, for a tank that size, you could get some SAEs and/or a bristlenose pleco as part of your cleanup crew!


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## fastlight8101 (Mar 12, 2015)

Thanks for the reply silvering. I'm not looking for a magic cure, just some understand. Seeing as bga isn't algae I believe a clean up crew won't touch the stuff. I just don't understand how it's growing so rampant without phosphates and nitrates in the water.


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## Silvering (Jun 10, 2011)

You're welcome! The cleanup crew is just part of my "standard tank setup" that I figured I'd share. Though I do have to say that my particular BN is not exactly a plant-friendly guy all the time; I just tolerate his occasional snacking. :lol:

As far as algae and bga and nutrients: the explanation is simple. Magic. That and none of the algae and microflora/fauna read their own internet profiles; they're all illiterate. 

My money would be on the planted tank version of "new tank syndrome" aka the ecosystem isn't balanced yet. Since you've tweaked the lighting, in your shoes my next step would be "sit back and wait awhile to see what happens while doing regular maintenance." Or at least, that's what my better judgement would say; my impatience would be saying something completely different!  haha


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## fastlight8101 (Mar 12, 2015)

can't take it anymore, nothing is working on this stuff. I'm gonna nuke it with erythromycin


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## fastlight8101 (Mar 12, 2015)

huge improvements to my aquarium since last post. The erythromycin really put a stop to the cyanobacteria. And as an added bonus, my three Siamese algae eaters have practically decimated the black brush algae. Plants are now growing well and my aquarium seems to have reached a balance.


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