# The worst diesease of planted aquarium is in my tank



## dukydaf (Aug 31, 2004)

I recently redo my 62.5G aquarium because of the hair algae
I bleached everything aquarium, pieces of wood and plants. There were only 2 things that i didn't bleached fish and filtration media ( I let the media to dry out for 15h)

Somehow hair algae is back. As you can imagine my plants are not dong very well because of the Cl.( Ludwigia lost almost all leafes)
Yesterday I scraped it off the glas,
today i have it on the plants.
I know that this algae is often caused by PO4 but I don't realy see how that much PO4 can acumulate so fast in a planted tank.The folowing things I now and can measure ( I don't have acess to other test kits).

Aquarium started: 05.11.2005
NO3 <0.5mg/l
NO2<0.1 
PH 6.5
GH 5dH
Lighting 4*36W Philips cool daylight
1*40W Aqua-Glo
Filtration Eheim 2215 
JBL Cristal Profi 250
CO2 4*2l bottles in Aqua Medic Reactor M (internal)
it's enough because my fish gasp at the surface
Substrate 2cm of Aquabasis from JBL
1cm sand+FloraPol from JBL
4 cm 1mm sand
Fertilization 06.09.2005 60ml of Flora Pride from Tertra
from 11.11.2005 2ml of Flora Pride every day
Fish food:Nutrafin basix
Fish:Corydoras aeneus 1	
Corydoras paleatus 4
Gymnocorymus ternetzi 2
Gyrinocheilus aymonieri 2
Hyphessobrycorn callistus 2
 Megalechis personata	(catfish) 12cm 2
Paracheirodon innesi	4
Pterophyllum scalare 3 

The nigtmare just started out but it is spreading fast please help!!
No other alage is visible in the aquarium.The fish are fed once a day.
The lights are on for 12h and the CO2 for about 14h.

Is scraing the algae off only helping the algae to propagate??
Should I stop adding fertilizers??


Help !!


----------



## oceanaqua (Oct 24, 2005)

get an SAE or Floriday Flag Fish, that should take care of all your hair algae.


----------



## Megil Tel'Zeke (Nov 7, 2005)

Also I believe your NO3 is rather low for a planted tank. The nutrient deficiency might be the root of the problem. Since the NO3 is low the plants won't be taking inmany of the other nutrients so that could explain a rise in PO4. Also since you say your CO2 is high enough that your fish are gasping for air, seems to suggest that the nitrates are in fact to low in comparison to the other nutrients.


----------



## imatrout (May 12, 2005)

It seems you are not doing any macro fertilizatio ( N, P, K). You have a lot of light and CO2 and micros, but you don't have enough Nitrate, Potassium or Phosphorous. You can get these from gregwatson.com.

If the plants do not have enough nutrients or even limited by one nutrient, it gives the algae a chance to take off. I think if you add macros to the recommended levels (See Fertilator Button on this Page) and inject as much CO2 as possible, your algae problem will go away. Good luck!


----------



## dukydaf (Aug 31, 2004)

Thank you all for the fast reply ( it's 1:05am &) here so i have to stay up to this time to chatch you guys  )
There was a mistake on the date of starting aquarium it is 05.11.2005 ( it was corrected). 
Unfortunately I can't get those fish.The reason is this "Location:Romania"
I'm aware of greg's fertilizers but i'll probably have to pay 2X to get them.The reason is this "Location:Romania"
I'll try to find the macros Monday on local Drug stores and the local botanic garden.
They say on the back of the FloraPride that they it containes K (i don't think it's enough).

Hope that the algae won't grow so severe during this time.


----------



## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Ask Greg what he would charge for shipping to Romania. I received ferts from Greg and the shipping was not that much...

Greg cannot ship KNO3 outside of the US though. I've found that I can get most of what I need from the local pharmacies as well. They usually order it for me.

In the meantime I would reduce your light intensity and lower the photoperiod to 10 hours.


----------



## zeek (Jan 5, 2005)

For KNO3 you can try your local home improvement store or garden center. Look for "Stump Remover". There are several brands, I use 'Green Light'. Contact the manfacturer if you are unsure if the product is pure KNO3.
That should also provide enough K, but if not look for potassium pellets for water softeners.
For the Phosphate your local drug store may sell 'Fleet Enema', which you know what that's normally used for


----------



## anonapersona (Mar 11, 2004)

*salt peter in drugstore, or KNO3*

Your drugstore may be able to get KNO3 for you.


----------



## dukydaf (Aug 31, 2004)

*Didn't found KNO3*

As I said today I went at allmost every drugstore in downtown and I couldn't find KNO3.It is difficult to find anyone that trusts you when you are 15 years old.

One seller asked me for what do I need it and when i gave the answer she said that she hasn't , one confused it with ammonium nitrate (how this guy got gis degree??). Some said that she will get it but i'll have to wait ( for a long time).In a word you can't buy KNO3 in romania.

The best thing I could find is a terestrial plant fertilizer.They say that it is 100% natural and it is used for spraying the plants leafes.This product has the following: N 20% P 0.06% K 0.01%, microelements ( the most important) Fe 0.036% Mg 0.092% and Mo 0.134% it also contains multivitamins, organic enzimes, growth regulators.It is brow in color.

I managed to keep algae growth at check but with 1 hour each day of cleaning. And couldn't find any stump remover.

Should i use this product?


----------



## John P. (Nov 24, 2004)

I believe your fish are gasping because the plants are not being fed (nutrients), which means they aren't photosynthesizing, which means they aren't producing O2.


----------



## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

dukydaf said:


> ...
> The best thing I could find is a terestrial plant fertilizer.They say that it is 100% natural and it is used for spraying the plants leafes.This product has the following: N 20% P 0.06% K 0.01%, microelements ( the most important) Fe 0.036% Mg 0.092% and Mo 0.134% it also contains multivitamins, organic enzimes, growth regulators.It is brow in color.
> ...
> 
> Should i use this product?


Does it say what form the N is in? Many terrestrial plant ferts use urea/ammoniac as the source of Nitrogen and this wouldn't be the best solution for a tank.

This is a UK company that says it ships worldwide and they have KNO3:

http://www.kno3.com/home.asp


----------



## dukydaf (Aug 31, 2004)

*Pics*

Someone came to me with a dig camera and i didn't have much time to take the pics and the camera was a bad one so the pics aren't very high quality.

Thet don't say in what form the nitrate is.Thanks for the link, i'll take it in consideration.I also have problems with brown slime which I think that confirmes your replies that i have low N.But amazingly some sort os spot algae starts growing now.


----------



## Don Smolev (Sep 27, 2005)

*Anyone Know This Algae Type?*

I've had my 90g tank set up for about 3 years. High tech CO2, ultraviolet and high light (4.2 watts per gallon). Heavily planted. Never a problem with algae except first few weeks it was set up. Since then crystal clear water and excellent plant growth. Have the usual algae eaters, cats and two small schools of tetras. Recently purchased hard to get plant from store with good reputation. Washed it before planting as usual and did not see any spots on plant. Within a few days the plant was covered with grey spots which soon started spreading to others. Went back to store and saw that the plant tank that plant was in was emptied even of substrate and had been disinfected. Two large clumps of my Anubias on rocks were covered with spots as were some of the other species. Several species of Rotala not touched, the crypts not much and the large swords not much except for E. Tennellus which was covered with many blackened. The spots are not slimey. They are hard and impossible to scrape off. Anyone have any idea what this is and how to treat it? The store never saw it before either.


----------



## buz2au (Nov 6, 2005)

dukydaf, try a hydroponic store for your macros, thats where I got my Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) & Mono Potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4), Potassium Sulphate (K2SO4), trace elements & chelated iron form garden/hardware store, Magnesium sulphate (MgSO4+7H2O)(epson salts) from supermarket/drug store


----------

