Algae- who actually likes it and leaves it?

[Eggheadfish]

Hahahaha

 

[BBradbury]

Algae Growth

I just can't stop my algae attack so I have just given up. I know how to reduce it's growth but it is too rapid a growth. Anyone else let there algae grow or actually enjoy the natural algae look?


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Hello Cal...

I don't fret over the growth of algae. It's a great water filter, it's a good supplement to my fishes' diet and is a natural part of the tank. To me, it looks good. I change out a lot of tank water and keep a thick growth of Common Pond Weed to keep it under reasonable control.

B

 

[trennamw]

I was asking our LFS how they made these "beautiful" walls on one of the tanks ... I thought maybe they put cork on the glass, then had moss grow on it.

Such a noob ... Lol ... They have a sponge over the entire side tank wall for filtration and the sponges grow BBA.




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[Caliban07]

I read that algae grows back faster every time you scrub it. I also read that all healthy tanks will grow algae. As long as the algae is green and grows in to a type of hair algae then this indicates no really water quality issues. It says that algae that grows red or brown could indicate a water quality issue.

I have no problem with the decor I algae. It's just that glass! I am going to heavily stock the tank with live plants to try and compete for the nutrients.

I also read that water companies add some kind of phosphates to tap water to protect against lead and other heavy metals forming in pipework as whatever they add is a cheaper method than changing all the piping.

I don't know how true all this is. Tuesday is plants day at the LFS.


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[Alan79]

I have some green hair algae issues in my kuhli tank and because it grows everywhere it annoys me. Localized algae isn't as annoying. Along the back glass is fine as are the side walls in my tanks. I hate seeing algae on my plants. I had a black hair algae outbreak that was one of my first big outbreaks. That was something i hated having to see. I have a million snails that keep most of my tanks clear of most forms of algae but when i think i have controlled each type a new one baffles me. When you get on top of scraping the walls and clearing up leaves algae will decide to take on a new form like greenwater

I think heavily planted tanks do go a long way to minimizing the amount of algae that grows, but it makes it harder to clear the algae up when you can't just scrape the walls and be done with it.

 

[Sk3lly]

I read that algae grows back faster every time you scrub it. I also read that all healthy tanks will grow algae. As long as the algae is green and grows in to a type of hair algae then this indicates no really water quality issues. It says that algae that grows red or brown could indicate a water quality issue.

I have no problem with the decor I algae. It's just that glass! I am going to heavily stock the tank with live plants to try and compete for the nutrients.

I also read that water companies add some kind of phosphates to tap water to protect against lead and other heavy metals forming in pipework as whatever they add is a cheaper method than changing all the piping.

I don't know how true all this is. Tuesday is plants day at the LFS.


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Theres so much wrong here Cal im afraid.

Algae is the result of an imbalance of light, co2 and ferts.

If you look at most 'pro' aquascapers tanks you will not see algae, or very little algae at the most. This does not mean their tanks are unhealthy.


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[Caliban07]

Theres so much wrong here Cal im afraid.

Algae is the result of an imbalance of light, co2 and ferts.

If you look at most 'pro' aquascapers tanks you will not see algae, or very little algae at the most. This does not mean their tanks are unhealthy.


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Yes I think you misunderstood what I was saying there skelly. I didn't mean that tanks with no algae were unhealthy ones just that tanks with algae that look dirty are not necessarily unhealthy tanks either.

I was under the impression that algae require minimal amounts of nutrients and accompanied with light and co2. The plants I did have died. I think that was mainly because my algae was taking over. I think co2 and nutrients (not added) are too in abundance with little to no plants available to take some of them in. I'm hoping that when I add some new plants the algae will cut back to the reduced amounts of these nutrients and light competition.

When you say imbalanced what exactly do you mean? My heavily planted tank in the front room has no algae and the set up is practically the same. The only difference is the lighting is t5's with the algae issue as opposed to t8' without.

I didn't mean that water companies adding stuff to water was a direct cause of the problem but more adds to it.

I'm going to add plants and watch the algae disappear slowly.


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[Alan79]

Yes I think you misunderstood what I was saying there skelly. I didn't mean that tanks with no algae were unhealthy ones just that tanks with algae that look dirty are not necessarily unhealthy tanks either.

I was under the impression that algae require minimal amounts of nutrients and accompanied with light and co2. The plants I did have died. I think that was mainly because my algae was taking over. I think co2 and nutrients (not added) are too in abundance with little to no plants available to take some of them in. I'm hoping that when I add some new plants the algae will cut back to the reduced amounts of these nutrients and light competition.

When you say imbalanced what exactly do you mean? My heavily planted tank in the front room has no algae and the set up is practically the same. The only difference is the lighting is t5's with the algae issue as opposed to t8' without.

I didn't mean that water companies adding stuff to water was a direct cause of the problem but more adds to it.

I'm going to add plants and watch the algae disappear slowly.


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Maybe the t5s you are using are old enough that the light color is no longer useful. Maybe the light color is wrong in the first place. I always buy a bulb with about 7500k light color every 9 months to ensure they're getting good light. The color is important. Below 5000k is supposed to be useless for plants but good enough for algae. Something to check out anyway. The t5s should give you far better plant growth. Do you use CO2?

 

[Caliban07]

Maybe the t5s you are using are old enough that the light color is no longer useful. Maybe the light color is wrong in the first place. I always buy a bulb with about 7500k light color every 9 months to ensure they're getting good light. The color is important. Below 5000k is supposed to be useless for plants but good enough for algae. Something to check out anyway. The t5s should give you far better plant growth. Do you use CO2?

The tubes were replaced a couple of months ago and are 2 x 6500K tubes. I don't dose co2. The tank has 6 firemouth cichlids. I'm just waiting for a pair before I take some out. The tank is a 47 and there is good surface agitation.


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[Sk3lly]

Caliban the tubes wont be the issue.

Are you aware that a t5 fixture produces higher intensity light than a t8 fixture.

Depending on duration of lighting and distance of fixture might be generating higher lighting levels and causing the imbalance.

Light level is what dictates a plants growth pattern.

High light - plant grows fast (more energy available to it)

Low light - plant grows slower (less energy available to it)

If a plant is growing slowly its not requiring co2 or ferts at a great rate. This is why in a low tech setup the fish can create the necessary ferts and co2 is present in high enough levels through surface agitation/gaseous exchange and fish respiration (contribution small)

Now if this light level is increased the growth is sped up. Plants start demanding higher levels of co2 and ferts. So much so that the naturally occurring levels are not sufficient. The starvation of the co2 supply is what causes the algae. Starvation of ferts shows in plant deficiencies.

Hope its making sense so far!

So if you think you may have too much lighting then you can either raise the lighting if its suspended or dim if its LED. As you said you had t5 i suspect you can do neither. So the only real difference you can make is to provide more co2/ferts.

Now i dont know anything about your tank so i dont know what you already dose, if anything...

If your doing nothing with co2 then a simple liquid carbon such as excel is a good start. This can be dosed higher than the instructions suggest. If this is still not sufficient then diy yeast co2 or pressurised co2 are options.

For ferts simple liquid ferts like seachems range may prove adequate. Again if not there are better alternatives. Dry salts that you mix yourself are very effective. I think your in the UK so aquariumplantfood.co.uk is the place to look.

You are thinking in the right direction though. Plant mass is very important. The more healthy thriving plants you have, the less algae seems to be present.

The hobby is not all about getting fast growth, but healthy growth is the aim

Hope this helps somewhat


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[Caliban07]

Caliban the tubes wont be the issue.

Are you aware that a t5 fixture produces higher intensity light than a t8 fixture.

Depending on duration of lighting and distance of fixture might be generating higher lighting levels and causing the imbalance.

Light level is what dictates a plants growth pattern.

High light - plant grows fast (more energy available to it)

Low light - plant grows slower (less energy available to it)

If a plant is growing slowly its not requiring co2 or ferts at a great rate. This is why in a low tech setup the fish can create the necessary ferts and co2 is present in high enough levels through surface agitation/gaseous exchange and fish respiration (contribution small)

Now if this light level is increased the growth is sped up. Plants start demanding higher levels of co2 and ferts. So much so that the naturally occurring levels are not sufficient. The starvation of the co2 supply is what causes the algae. Starvation of ferts shows in plant deficiencies.

Hope its making sense so far!

So if you think you may have too much lighting then you can either raise the lighting if its suspended or dim if its LED. As you said you had t5 i suspect you can do neither. So the only real difference you can make is to provide more co2/ferts.

Now i dont know anything about your tank so i dont know what you already dose, if anything...

If your doing nothing with co2 then a simple liquid carbon such as excel is a good start. This can be dosed higher than the instructions suggest. If this is still not sufficient then diy yeast co2 or pressurised co2 are options.

For ferts simple liquid ferts like seachems range may prove adequate. Again if not there are better alternatives. Dry salts that you mix yourself are very effective. I think your in the UK so aquariumplantfood.co.uk is the place to look.

You are thinking in the right direction though. Plant mass is very important. The more healthy thriving plants you have, the less algae seems to be present.

The hobby is not all about getting fast growth, but healthy growth is the aim

Hope this helps somewhat


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Thanks skelly. I know the tubes are not the issue and I am aware that the t5's have a higher output. The tank isn't very strategically placed either. It is in direct line of a window however, the curtains remain closed.

I only intend to use low light plants. I only had 4-5 swords in there and the algae took over them and killed them basically.

It makes sense that the low light plants use nutrients at a slower rate and so grow slower. I can understand that if a heavily planted tank does not have sufficient nutrients/light/co2 available for the plant stock then deficiencies will occur and algae will take over since algae can manage on very little of these.

I think the same applies for an over abundance of ferts/light/co2 where there are no plants present. The algae will take over the same but probably grow at a much faster rate.

What I'm trying to say is a believe there are enough ferts in my water to sustain many plants regardless of light intensity. But with no plants to compete the algae is having a free reign. If however I heavily plant this tank and still suffer from algae and deficiencies then I would agree with you that I need to start dosing.

My living room tank is thriving with no dosing and my fish are doing great. It seems quite a stable environment. The plants must be pulling in more nitrates etc the larger they get keeping the water cleaner before the next water change.

I need to throw a load of plants in to take in the nutrients in my water and try to achieve some stability and hopefully starve out the algae.

I can see your logic though. Must be difficult to starve something that requires very little.


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[Sk3lly]

The ferts are the easy bit to get right.

Co2 is normally the main issue in tanks with algae.


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[PB_Smith]

the first couple months I had mine going algae was always an issue. Then the tank finally hit it's "sweet spot" and settled into it's own rhythm and the BBA disappeared, but nice green started growing.
Two otos and a billion little pond snails later and I have not had to clean any algae for almost 2 months now.
At most there are pinhead sized spots on stuff, but not even worth the effort of a magnet scraper. LOL
It is at that perfect balancing point where it grows fast enough that the otos always have full bellies and the snails are thriving (almost too much), yet the tank always looks clean.

 

[Fresh2o]

...
Light level is what dictates a plants growth pattern.
High light - plant grows fast (more energy available to it)
Low light - plant grows slower (less energy available to it)

If a plant is growing slowly its not requiring co2 or ferts at a great rate. This is why in a low tech setup the fish can create the necessary ferts and co2 is present in high enough levels through surface agitation/gaseous exchange and fish respiration (contribution small)

Now if this light level is increased the growth is sped up. Plants start demanding higher levels of co2 and ferts. So much so that the naturally occurring levels are not sufficient. The starvation of the co2 supply is what causes the algae. Starvation of ferts shows in plant deficiencies.
...
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Probably the best explanation of the balance of lighting, ferts, and CO2 in regards to plant growth and algae.


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