# Ideas on Algae on a couple month old tank...



## fl4ian (Jun 30, 2009)

I have a moderately planted 100g that I fishless-cycled with pure ammonia and some SeaChem Stability. The cycle completed, and I fed ammonia for about a week prior to adding fish. During this time, the plants were growing some.

I turned on the pressurized CO2 and have a photo period of 10 hours with a little less than 2wpg of CFL light, and had some quick growth that has since seemed to slow way down. Many plants are still pearling though. As the plants slowed down... I had an enormous brown diatom outbreak, which usually seems to happen when I setup a tank (even though all the gravel and the tank had been used before)... However, now I am getting some thread algae and some blue-green algae as well, on leaves that are dying of the plants somewhat, but especially the gravel. And the plants are still growing, but not the fast growth I was expecting.

I have decent circulation with powerheads, and I aerate/off-gas and breakup the surface film with an HOB that runs overnight only. Other than that I have a gigantic sponge filter with a powerhead on it.

The algae, esp. the cyano is starting to take off on the gravel, and I'm not sure what I should do at this point? Should I reduce the photoperiod? Should I reduce the wattage? Should I do something else?

Any help would be appreciated.


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## fl4ian (Jun 30, 2009)

any thoughts?


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## swhite (Feb 17, 2010)

I am no expert by a long shot .. BUT
I have always had algae blooms and of course cleaning walls and a few bits of plastic from the algae...

I bought a UV sterilizer, a basic one, $60 but they also have $40 ones .. green killing machine from one of the chain LFS. Not endorsing the product, imagine any UV should work. Mine was the 24w one. In tank and complete. Just plug it in. The externals might be better, certainly cleaner looking, but i was concerned about to fast a flow rate with external.

Anyways... 3 days an the aquarium sparkles!... even the walls aren't building up almost any algae.
It kills the stuff in the moving water so must reduce the amount of spores or whatever from spreading the algae. Says it will reduce ick levels and a few other things so all the other benefits of less sick time in fish.

Running a 55 gal with 2/wpg 120watts lighting

To me, a UV sterilizer should come standard with every aquarium!


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## flashbang009 (Aug 6, 2009)

Swhite's advice is a good tip, but uv sterilizers don't take care of algae that's not in the water column. It's primarily for green water and fish diseases.

To treat your BGA, first start by killing it. You can manually remove it, or my favorite H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide). Simply add up to 2 ml/gallon, spot treating or simply dumped into tank. Make sure to turn off any filtration for a little while so it goes where you want. Now, people always say "I can't spot treat my entire tank", and the answer to this is that they don't _want_ to. I did it to my 75 gallon, and within 2 days, all BGA was gone. and it didn't come back.

Now, you should address the main cause too. Lack of water flow, or dead spots, are often a culprit. There are other issues that can cause BGA, and you can read up on them in the algaefinder at the top of the page.

Your wattage is an issue for someone more experienced than me in lighting, but in a tank over 18" tall, the wpg rule is out the window. Do you have any kind of a fertilizing regimen going?

BGA is related to a nitrogen imbalance, of which i am still confused. BGA has a tendency also to stunt plant growth, which may be why you are having differing plant growth rates.

Is the sponge filter the only filter you have going?


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## fl4ian (Jun 30, 2009)

@swhite - I actually have a green killing machine, but along the lines of flashbang, I didn't think it would do much for it - but thank you for the comment!

@flashbang009 - I only have the sponge filter running full time. It's rated for 1500 gal pond or some hellaciously large aquarium. I figure it's probably filtering about 85 gallons of water. It's on a pretty strong powerhead, and I have another powerhead on from time to time as well on the other side of the tank. The HOB only runs during the night, not so much for biological filtering, but for the physical filtering, and it has a purigen pack in it as well to help pull some excess nitrogenous waste from the column as the initial brown diatom subsides. The side benefit of the Penguin 350b is that, being a HOB, it helps drive off the CO2 at night which I like as well. I also have another powerhead doing CO2 reactor duty in the tank as well, on a timer.

So, I don't think the flow is an issue, as it is also some places where the flow is near it's strongest.

I do have dry ferts, but have not been using them since I set this tank up again (just moved). I did test the Nitrates and got two different values, so I used a newer pair of bottles, and validated one of the readings, which was definitely on the low side for a planted tank, ~5.0-7.5... I mixed up macros and traces last night and dosed (EI) the macros. I will continue the dosing at least for a few weeks and see if it helps.

My hope is that by giving the plants optimum conditions, they will out compete the BGA and other various algaes that I'm seeing start in the tank, and the BGA and others will go away on their own. Is this a fair assumption?

And as for the light, I'm willing to adjust intensity or duration, but don't know which or both, and how much to change - that I don't have much idea...


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## flashbang009 (Aug 6, 2009)

Ok, you're filter could be a little better, but if your nitrates are fine, the tank should be too.

Fertilizing is still a hotly debated topic. I've tried e.i., i've tried pps pro (a more specific fertlizing regimen), and with plant success but algae issues, i'm now trying mci, or method of controlled imbalances. For your tank, e.i. should be fine, but i'd go lighter than most people because your lighting and co2 (excel) is less than most. 

For light, over my twenty long, i have two ~15 watt cfl swirly bulbs. They work good for the 20 long, but due to the height of the twenty tall, it might not be the best. It's more of a preference and willingness to lay down the big bucks. I'd probably say some t5HO.

Your assumption about the algae is basically correct. It can get complicated, but by increasing light, and adding ferts, you should be good. The only major thing I'd worry about is the extra nutrients that the plants won't be taking up. E.I. is "dosing the tank" not the plants. But for your tank its the best option, as long as you do water changes every week.


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