# algae problem



## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

So i have a 3 month old planted w fish setup, 30gal x high, 4 bulb t5ho 6500k, cascade 1000 filter running carbon, purigen and sponges, 3bps co2, and probably 30 or so .5" fish. i was getting some brown algae but then got some amanos and increased flow and it went away. very little accumulation on glass but algae is getting on the leaves of the plants especially the moss. can someone identify what type this is and also help me out w a cure? i feed 2 small meals a day do almost daily water changes. ph 6.5, kh 3, nitrates and ammonia zero.


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## Aquaticz (May 22, 2009)

4 T5HO on a 29 is the problem  Try one bulb- it works for me


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## Maryland Guppy (Mar 5, 2015)

funghi2 said:


> running carbon,
> 
> nitrates and ammonia zero.


I agree with too much light.

Carbon I would question in a planted tank.

Zero NO3 most likely means no K or PO4.
Macro dosing would be a must with high light and CO2.
Micro ferts can be minimized to some degree.

Suggest PPS or EI dosing of some proportion.

How heavily planted is the tank? Pics?


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

that's staghorn algae. For me staghorn algae came from high organics. More WC and some gravel cleaning along with spot treating with H2O2 did the trick for me. There are also fish that'll eat staghorn as well. best of luck!


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

In order of important: 1: way too much light (staghorn loves light). 2: too little nutrients (with so much light, you need enough traces, with CO2, you need NO3 and PO4, you got none). 3: I think you still feed to much, resulting in too much organics (staghorn is usually found in tanks where the filter can't catch up with the amount of food) 

So add fertilizer, reduce light and feed less. Do a few large water changes to reduce organics and remove as much as possible. When everything is right this algae will perish by itself.


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

boy did i get some bad advice, thought the more light the better.

plants wise i have:
3 stalks of the florida 
2 x vietnam Eriocaulon
5 x 2x2 fontanus regular 
4 x Tonina Fluviatilis " Lotus Blossom 
4 x Ludwigia " Pantanal “ 
4 x Ammania “ Bonsai 
3 x Rotala Mini " Butterfly 
1 x anubias
3 x jungle valls
3 other plants i forget the names of


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

also was told w a deep tank like the xtra high, i needed more light.

i asked about the ferts, was told since i put 20lb base layer of fluval stratum that i wouldnt need to fertilize for a long time. I have flourish trace and the flourish root tabs, will that do? any reco's on how much to put in would be very much appreciated i dont have the time i used to scour the sites.


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

dont knwo why pic went sideways


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

video


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

With a rich substrate you might not need to dose NO3 and PO4, but you do need traces and K. However, moss and Anubias can't use the substrate so with those plants you need to add everything into the water. Vallisneria prefers nutrients via it's leaves too.

The plants you've are quite light loving (not the easiest btw) so for those plants you perhaps better use 2 bulbs, certainly not 4 unless you are very experienced and in case algae are visible, I would always return to 2.


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

ok great stuff, the vals are growing like crazy, had to trim them 3 times in 3 weeks and they made 2 new plants

i have a phosphate test kit coming in two days will test for that. funny i was into saltwater for a long time and there zero phos zero nitrates was always the goal!


so im now just going to use 2 bulbs...going to dose liquid ferts but not root tabs...


and will lower feedings to once every 2 days?? is that ok?

thanks for all the help


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

also someone mentioned a fish that eats this stuff, can u tell me the name?


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

oh one thing i forgot to mention my lights are on a 12 hr period 8am to 8pm...should i drop it to 10 or 8?


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## Aquaticz (May 22, 2009)

To long in my opinion. I bet if you ran the lights at a 6 hr photoperiod and possibly worked your way to an 8 hr photoperiod. I lighting for 6 hr on my tanks, I dose and about ½ of them have CO2. Works well for me. 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

man 6 hours....i like to look at the tank after work ..id have to do 1pm to 7pm...is that enough for th eplants i have?


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## Aquaticz (May 22, 2009)

Just use a timer and if you go to bed at 9pm , then set them to go on at 3 pm . 


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

The only fish that eats it is Crossocheilus siamensis, and those get too large for your tank. But this algae is jou hard to remove manually.

About the light, I would recommend 6 hours for now too. When everything is algae free you can slowly ramp up to 8 to 10 hours. Plants never receive 12 hours of full strength light in nature and have a hard time adapting to it. It can be done but when you want to enjoy your tank longer it's a better idea to use dimmable light. 

Zero NO3 and PO4 is never good, not even in a reef tank. But in a reef tank you want to be as close as possible, in a planted tank this can only be done when all plants are in a rich substrate. Also, fluval stratum is not as rich as they claim. It's very low in PO4 and you'll notice that all PO4 you throw in is gone a few hours later. That is because the soil binds the PO4. So you'll need to add small amount daily to keep your epiphytes happy untill the soil is saturated.


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

OK set lights from 1-7pm
stopped feeding and will do once every two days (will do frozen cyclops and mysis)

i dosed root tabs , half cap of flourish, and half cap of flourish trace

are these good ferts or should i get flourish phos and nitr separately to dose?

Also doesnt the food i add contribute heavily to nitrogen and others??


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

Yo-han said:


> The only fish that eats it is Crossocheilus siamensis, and those get too large for your tank. .


o man, my lfs sold me 2 of those saying they only get 3 inches!! in any event when they get too big ill give them away i guess. havent seen him mess with the algae yet but just put him in yesterday


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

They do only get 3 inches... in the next 3 monthsThey grow like crazy! Second, most lfs in the US sell other species under this name, so when they don't eat algae, it might well be you receives another species.


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

great


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

help me understand this though...the lfs said phosphates were high thats what made the algae grow...but you guys say the phosphates are low. if i raise phosphates wont the algae out compete the plants?


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

shoot, so the lights kicked on 5 of my 10 shrimp are dead on the ground. any idea why this would happen? was it the ferts?


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

and one platy dead :-(


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## Maryland Guppy (Mar 5, 2015)

funghi2 said:


> help me understand this though...the lfs said phosphates were high thats what made the algae grow...but you guys say the phosphates are low. if i raise phosphates wont the algae out compete the plants?


How many ppm of PO4 did the LFS find?

Typical ratio of NO3 to PO4 is 10:1

A great site to read through.
https://sites.google.com/site/aquaticplantfertilizer/home

Explains many fert related topics.

Flourish trace and comprehensive and close to being the same. Micro-nutrients.
N,P, & K are your largest consumed ferts.


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

they didnt test my water. i just told me what was happening in the tank.

i tested my nitrates at zero, my ammonia at zero as well. i ordered a phosphate test that gets here tomorrow


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

I think you should read up a little yourself instead of buying what the lfs says. It doesn't sound like they know anything about plants (or fish) to be honest.

Algae need the same nutrients as plants. Algae can only outcompete plants when plants come something short. When one nutrient is missing, there is always an algae species that pops up. So PO4, or NO3 or whatever nutrient does not cause algae. Algae needs it, but plants even more!


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

Unless you dosed 20x the recommended dose of traces or 200x the recommended dose of PO4, or NO3, this did not kill your fish or shrimps.


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

no, i did the dose as per the bottle instruction. i bought some gla ferts and will start doing the macro as well which i never did b4


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

here are some more pics, we sure its staghorn and not bba?


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

adjusted pics


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

Definitely staghorn. The purple color is usually an indication it's dying.


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

great news! thanks again for all your help.

how often should i dose flourish and trace?
macros en route to my house


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

just got the api phosphate test... came back between 0 and .5 the colors are too similar to tell. where should it be?


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

For now, I would recommend PO4 1 and NO3 10 for now. 0,5 or 3 PO4 doesn't matter much, as long as they are never 0.


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

it may be zero so hard to tell


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

i dont know what it is


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## Maryland Guppy (Mar 5, 2015)

Maybe .5ppm???

I tend to use the stop light approach for NO3.
Yellow it's time to dose.
Orange all is well.
Red it's time for a water change.

For PO4 a hint of blue in the time for test and I am happy.

Check out the site I posted, it is a great reference read!


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

o man i binge read that entire article portion of that site, indeed a great read. i didnt entirely get the process for setting up the 0 and 10ppm, 0 and .5ppm ref ranges though.


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

so i started dosing 3ml of the macros....im noticing some orange threads in w the staghorn...anyone know what this is?


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## huhu89151734 (Feb 21, 2011)

funghi2 said:


> so i started dosing 3ml of the macros....im noticing some orange threads in w the staghorn...anyone know what this is?


Large and frequent water change got rid of mine. They just turned red and died off. Your problem is Co2 by the way.


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## funghi2 (Feb 17, 2016)

huhu89151734 said:


> Large and frequent water change got rid of mine. They just turned red and died off. Your problem is Co2 by the way.


too much, too little CO2?

man i was doing 30% wc's daily andit was getting worse and then someone told me that i shouldnt do daily, just once a week. things seem to be getting better but i have no idea what those orange threads are, dead staghorn??


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

You can do daily but need to add extra nutrients when you do. If you don't you export too many nutrients, leasing nothing for your plants.


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