# Typical for plants to cause algae bloom in new aquarium?



## crcurrie (Dec 30, 2013)

My son and I are setting up a 28-gallon aquarium after getting our feet wet, so to speak, with an angelfish in a 1-gallon tank for the past several months. 

We are beginning a fishless cycle. We added water and gravel, waited two days, then introduced about a dozen plants (Java swords, Java ferns, water wisteria, a crypt, and a marimo fern ball). Most of the plants came in individual containers, but a couple were taken out of a large tank in a LFS. (The sales clerk cleaned off snails, and I rinsed them again at home.) Within a few hours after I introduced the plants to the tank, along with several root tabs, the water began to cloud up. The same evening I planted the tank, I started a HOB and added a heater and aerator. The next morning, I turned on a lizard light over the tank since I was worried the plants were not getting light. The water continued to get cloudier. By the evening (this evening), I noticed that a greenish film was forming on the filter media and the filter outlet. 

This morning, I added a teaspoon of pure ammonia to the tank to begin the cycle. I also deposited a couple scoops of gravel from the angelfish's small tank, hoping this would jump-start the growth of bacteria. Yesterday, after adding the plants, we conducted water testing and confirmed that there was no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates in the water. 

The only additional measure I'm planning to take at the moment is starting a Fluval canister filter that I purchased used with the other equipment.

I'm assuming that the cloudiness is the result of an algae bloom that was introduced with the plants. It doesn't seem likely that there were enough bacteria in the tank yet to cause any kind of bloom, and I doubt such a bloom would have had the yellow-green/tan coloring that I'm seeing.

My question is this: Was there something wrong with my plants, or the way I introduced them or fertilized them, that encouraged this bloom? Or is this something that typically happens when a brand new tank is planted?

Also, is it likely that the cloudiness will go away on its own, or will the algae just keep getting worse? Since I won't be adding fish for at least a few weeks, are there any steps I should be taking now to control algae? 

Thanks in advance for any advice!


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## Tugg (Jul 28, 2013)

There are several bacterial and algae blooms that can occur for a variety of reasons during the first few weeks of a new tank. If you're concerned a out it getting out of hand, you can use Seachem's Flourish Excel (commonly just called Excel). Its marketed and purposed as a carbon source, but its a pretty effective algaecide.


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## Method (Aug 18, 2011)

Zero ammonia, zero nitrites, and zero nitrates mean your tank isn't cycled. It won't be until your ammonia and nitrites are zero and your nitrates are NONzero. One group of bacteria eats ammonia and excretes nitrite, another eats nitrite and excretes nitrate. You have 'new tank syndrome'. Be patient. It will pass. 

By the way, can you give us information about your lighting?


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## crcurrie (Dec 30, 2013)

I have a 150w metal halide lamp -- it's the standard one with the NanocubeHQ. 

My tank is a couple months established now, and in the past few weeks, the algae has exploded -- first on the glass, then growing on the plants and rocks, and in the past few ways, tinting the water green.

We've been running the light 10-12 hours a day, since it seemed that the plants were in trouble after having had the tank without the light source for the first few weeks while we sourced a replacement ballast. The plants still don't look great, but now we have tons of algae. 

My son scrubs down the glass once a week and we do a 15% water change weekly. We don't have a clean-up crew since we have a small tank (28 gallons) and already have a pretty heavy bio load (we got the larger tank for my son's angelfish and he wanted to add half a dozen neon tetras and four glass catfish). We also put some ghost shrimp in the tank but they disappeared pretty quickly. We wanted to add snails but when we bought the fish the snails at Petco were all dead. We have a marimoo moss ball, too, since supposedly that would help with algae.

Maybe we're overfeeding and there's too much light. Maybe also too many fish?


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## Method (Aug 18, 2011)

You have *way* too much light, and you're running it for too long every day. That light is designed for growing corals in a marine tank. Freshwater plants need much less.

Your tank is 22" high. You will be able to get by just fine with a dual-strip T5 (normal output) or a single T5HO (high output). 

Am I correct in assuming you don't want to add pressurized CO2 to the tank?


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## crcurrie (Dec 30, 2013)

Thanks for the advice!

Unfortunately, my cover won't take anything but the metal halide bulb, and I don't have the funds to buy another cover for this tank.

Can I get the same results by using the current light for fewer hours per day?

Actually, my son's angelfish hates the metal halide bulb -- or, more specifically, the blue part of the spectrum that comes on several seconds after the ballast is turned on. He would be much happier if that light were on much less of the day.

(He also hates the Nanocube's current-generating pumps. I'm really regretting not realizing that we were buying a reef tank when we bought this used set-up on Craigslist.)

I've thought about trying to sell this on Craigslist and just buying standard freshwater equipment, but now, with this algae problem, I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy it.


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## Method (Aug 18, 2011)

Unfortunately even running this for a minimal amount each day will still result in massive algae blooms. 

Sorry...

That is a nice tank, and there are a lot of reefers around looking for tanks. If you decide to thoroughly clean it out and re-Craigslist it I'm sure someone will buy it. The algae WILL NOT go with the tank.


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## crcurrie (Dec 30, 2013)

Wow, bummer. Well, best to know the facts -- thanks for giving me the straight dope.

Guess I need to find someone who can house my son's fish for awhile so we can clean out and try to sell the tank. 

Live and learn ... :|


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

You can actually add a metal mesh (window screen/some other type of mesh) between the light and the aquarium. The metal will absorb at least half of the light the bulb puts out, thereby reducing the light to acceptable levels.

Also, the cloudiness is likely from the ammonia you added, bacteria eat ammonia and look white/tanish when they bloom. The plants have nothing to do with this, bacteria is everywhere even in the air we breath this is where it came from. It multiplies exponentially so within a day or two after adding a food source bacteria can be at extremely high levels.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Algae and plants. Which one will grow? This is the central question in our hobby even today, at least 15 years after the Japanese revolutionized the hobby and "high tech" setups (high light, CO2, fertilizers) became commonplace.

Look at a planted tank this way - you want the plants to grow so you need to provide food for them. But that same food is also food for algae. So how do you work it out then to where plants grow but algae does not. As of today no one can give you a straight answer why algae grows. The most popular approach in the US is to blast the plants with high light, excessive CO2 and fertilizers. The idea is that if the plants grow very well algae will not grow. Why is that no one can really tell you. On the internet you will find many pictures of tanks run that way that are clean. What you will not see is the huge numbers of tanks run that same way that have failed because no one wants to show their failures too much. There are no easy answers and that's why most people with problematic tanks just stop asking questions and the bad tanks vanish. We are left with the good tanks only and no answers. 

The Japanese and pretty much all Asia does things differently - rich substrate that feeds the plants and water with minimal fertilizers. 95% of tanks you see on any aquascaping contest is run that way. Especially the Japanese contest - the best one in the world. But these tanks also get algae, don't be mistaken. What you see quite often photographic tricks, preparation for taking the picture on a certain day, play with light, planting plants in the last moment, forced maintenance schedules leading to the photo day etc.

So we are back to square 1: What makes plant grow and at the same time does not allow algae to grow.

The most logical approach is to follow common sense procedures that old school aquarist have been following for decades
- the best mechanical AND biological filtration you can use (what is that is also unclear)
- flow pattern that makes the leaves of the plants IN THE ENTIRE tank to move gently
- stable state of the entire tank at all times (for example: smaller but more frequent water changes and being aware how your water company adds chemicals to your tap water depending on weather or other things)
- the lest number of fish (but at least some, planted tank without fish usually do a little worst for some reason)
- substrate that feeds the plants ("hiding" the food from the algae in a way)

Fertilizers - the smallest amount of fertilizers in the water that lets the plants thrive, mid level CO2. Keep in mind that plants and algae can utilize minor concentrations of fertilizers just fine. For example extremely low Phosphate of 0.1 ppm is plenty IF everything else is setup right. In the US Phospate of 0.5-2.0 is considered good for a planted tank. Along with Nitrate of 5-20 ppm. Both of these values for P and N qualify the aquarium water as "polluted" or "toxic". Draw your own conclusions why we have accepted that as a norm. Also note that no plant in Nature lives in waters with such parameters. There has got to be something that we can learn from Nature, as usual.

That is where we are today. You can say that if plants bring algae the opposite is true too - algae brings plants because they both like the same environment.


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