# Algae ID please



## davesnothere (Oct 14, 2008)

29 gallon cube.
2 x 40 watt Dual Daylight 6,700k/10,000k
Pressurized CO2
EI dosing.

Mostly Seachem Flourite, some Tahitian Moon on top.

Used to run 8 hrs light & CO2, since I saw the algae growing I reduced it to 6 hrs. My plants had been growing like crazy.










The algae on the left is mostly brown in color, some green. The one in the back is totally green, has some long threads .

Back Wall :









Side Wall :










My office wall is a shade of green, makes it really hard to take good algae pics on glass.

Is this brown algae and GDA ?

Tested Water yesterday : Ammonia and Nitrite is zero, Nitrate looks like 40. PH varies of course. Early morning my drop checker is totally blue, later in the afternoon it is around 6.4. This tank is only about 2 months old. I can't take any drastic measures as I have 1.5 weeks old guppy fries and some pregnant cherries.

Please help !!!


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## Crispino Ramos (Mar 21, 2008)

It may be Brown Slime Algae or Diatom algae. Probable cause may be silicate in the water or fluctuation in CO2 level. You can avoid silicate by using RO water. Running CO2 24/7 with a CO2 monitor/controller may solve the problem. Turn your filter off, scrape the algae and do a large water change, then turn your filter on again.


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## davesnothere (Oct 14, 2008)

Did that, added 2 Oto, they ate whatever was left 

Thanks for your suggestion.


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## farrenator (Dec 21, 2008)

Diatoms also tend to disappear on their own after they have used up the source of the silica. I had this when I first set up my tank. The Ottos cleaned it up and it hasn't returned now that my tank has aged. Is that a new setup in the tank?


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

You need to test the water more often. Also you need to start adding more ferilizers as soon as you can. As we all know proper plant nutrition leads to healthy plants which erradicate all algae.

Make sure you have close to 30 ppm CO2. 

The more fertilizers you add, the more water changes you do, the more CO2 you have the better. EI has been proven to work over many years now. One just needs to keep up with the maintenance and algae will never have a chance. 

That's all.

At some point you may consider adding a filter. The smaller the better. With EI you are in control and a filter is not really needed because you and the plants are doing all the cleaning.

--Nikolay


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## davesnothere (Oct 14, 2008)

The tank is a little over 2 months, may be that's why.

I do have a Eheim 2217 on this one and I am doing 50% water change weekly. 

If it comes back I will slowly start increasing fertz and go from there.

May be all I need is patience.


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