# The Inevitable!



## apc789 (Jan 7, 2010)

The Inevitable has happened! I am experiencing algae outbreaks of all kinds! Not to say I wasn't expecting this as it is my first attempt at a high tech tank. Any helping me diagnose where my imbalance is coming from would be extremely appreciated.

In the past 2-3 weeks I have had several different types of algae spreading through my tank. On some of my java moss I have BBA popping up and also on a good portion of the substrate. I have had very minimal amount of cyanobacteria ever since the first month(strangely it is only on 1 piece of wood, and is not spreading). I also have what looks to be like a staghorn algae, and some green thread algae growing on my wendtii crypt, and green thread algae growing on my anubias. Oh and not to mention the diatoms on the crypt, anubias, and walls of the tank. And now I am noticing what looks like a green dust algae growing on the walls as well. 

I am having some kind of major imbalance here but I have no clue where it is coming from. I thought I was on the right track but I guess not lol. It is a 50 Gallon aquarium home to 4 Julii Corys, 3 Peppered Corys, 6 Amano Shrimp and a few hitchhiker snails that came in off the plants(seriously understocked lol). I am using 2 AquaticLife T5HO Freshwater fixtures. Each fixutre houses 2 39w bulbs. 1 6700k and 1 Roseate lamp in each. I have a good 3 inches of Eco Complete in there, somehwere around 100 lbs. I am using the Eheim Ecco 2234 Canister filter plus a Hydor Koralia powerhead for extra water circulation since the filter has very low gph. Pressurized CO2 at 4 bubbles per second using a glass diffuser. Cal Aqua Labs double Drop Checker. I have been dosing with Seachem's line of liquid fertilizers and following their dosing chart found in the ferts section..

Any and all help would be much appreciated.  I can post my water specs if it will be any help as well.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

It never hurts to post your water specs.

It really sounds like you are short on dosing, at least on your macro nutrients; the staghorn algae is something that only shows up under those conditions. The recommended doses given on the bottles are rather conservative, so that may be the source of the confusion. T5s are strong! You are dosing their macros too? I love their Excel, Flourish and Flourish Iron, but for macros, I use powders, which are far more economical.


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## apc789 (Jan 7, 2010)

Hi Cavan Allen. Thanks you for answering. 

My water specs are as follows:

pH >7.6(My test kit only goes this high)
KH 10 dkh or 179 ppm
GH 12 dkh or 214 ppm
Ammonia 0ppm
NitrIte 0ppm
NitrAte 5ppm
Phosphate 0-0.25 ppm(I can't really tell it seems to be somewhere in the middle of the 2 colors on the chart) 
CO2 30 ppm(. Does my water hardness affect the reading of my drop checker? If I remember correctly I have seen people refer to the indicator solution as 4 dkh?)

I knew T5's were strong hahah but am I possibly using too much light? Would you recommend me using 3 of the 4 bulbs for 117w of lighting? I am not too sure what exactly macros are. Is that the trace? I have been dosing with what I think is the full line of Seachem Flourish. I have nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, excel, iron, trace and one that just says "Comprehensive Supplement for the Planted Aquarium". I am assuming this one is referred to as just Flourish? I also might add I was not using the Flourish excel until the recent week.

Again, thank you very much. Your help is greatly appreciated.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Call me Cavan, please. 

It's not so much that your lighting is too strong, but that the ferts you're adding aren't enough to keep up with it. 

Macros are nutrients used by plants in much larger quantities; nitrogen and phosphorous are key among them. You'll at least have to double and probably triple the amounts of both. This is where the value of dry ferts comes in; it can just get too expensive to buy the liquids for that. And 5ppm is pushing the low side of the acceptable range for nitrate levels. Unless you have a really accurate kit/have water of a known value to compare, etc, it's not always safe to assume that's what it really is. Aim a bit higher for a greater margin of safety. Phosphate should be around 1ppm or a bit higher. 

And yes, that was what I meant by Flourish. The Trace is kind of a waste I think, as it is basically the same as the Flourish but without the iron. 

If the water in yur drop checker is at 4dKH, it will be green when your water has 40ppm of co2 (someone correct me if I'm wrong on that number). I can get into that a bit more later (at work).


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## apc789 (Jan 7, 2010)

Thanks again Cavan. I think you are right about the validity of the test kits. Today was a Nitrogen dosing day and at the end of the night here when lights went off I decided to do some tests. First test I did read 5 ppm. So I added 2.5 mL(recommended dose for 40g) and tested about 10 minutes later. 5 ppm again. So next I decided to fill the test vial with aquarium water, and then add 1 drop of nitrogen to it. Boom! 160 ppm. So I decided to add 2.5 mL once again to see if I could get another reading and test again. Nope.. no luck. Still 5 ppm.

I am using the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kits. Are there any brands in particular that are highly spoken of? Or should I possibly try to pick up a non aquarium test kit from the hydroponic store?


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

You will be better off going by how much you're adding, what the plants look like and what, if any, algae appear. That's not nearly as difficult as it sounds. Just try trilpling what you're adding now and see how that goes. A water change every week will mitigate mistakes to a large degree.


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## apc789 (Jan 7, 2010)

Would you recommend tripling my phosphorus and potassium dosage as well?


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

tigerbarb420 said:


> Would you recommend tripling my phosphorus and potassium dosage as well?


Yes. And the day may come when you switch to the dry ferts. You'll likely need more micros too.


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## apc789 (Jan 7, 2010)

I'm gonna take a trip to the hydro store today. Hopefully they are open. 

If so I am going to buy dry ferts and try switching to the EI method..... or maybe I should use these current ferts up first.... or I'm sure my mom can make use of them for her houseplants. She is quite the gardener. Indoor and Outdoor.

Anyways thanks for the help Cavan!!! Much appreciated! I'll let ya know how this goes in a week or so. I manually removed most of the BBA growing from the substrated, along with some of the actual substrate itself so we'll see how it goes.


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## apc789 (Jan 7, 2010)

Wow! After just 2 days of upping my macro dosing the BBA is no longer looking lush and healthy. It is now drooping down into a mushy pile!!

.... but it looks like it is being replaced with cyano or some other kind of algae. Either way this is good news so far because the BBA was by far the worst of it in my tank!


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Well, if it's being replaced by something else, it may be wise to back off a bit. But two days isn't a whole lot to go by, so being patient and carefully observing what's going on will really help. EI should work for you. Just be sure to stick with it. In the meantime, read, read, read. When you've got more experience under your belt, you can experiment with things if you like.


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## apc789 (Jan 7, 2010)

Hi Cavan! It is now nearly 10 days later and my big lush patch of BBA is all but a small little lame patch growing on my java moss! It is very strange when it seems to melt it seems to be replaced by a small amount of cyano which quickly recedes to next to nothing, ever slightly denting the patch of BBA. I manually removed the plants heavily affected by the thread algae and it has not shown itself since. I just want to say thank you for the advice you gave me to up my macros. It really seems to be working! I know 10 days is a short stretch but I see short term results so far. I will keep my fingers crossed!

The gda has also slowed it's roll, but that might be due to the snail poplulation boom and my 4 otocinclus!

Also a side note I saw my otocinclus rippin away at the BBA tufts growing from the substrate. Is this normal?


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