algae and nitrates

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bosshogg

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 16, 2013
Messages
15
Location
citrus heights ca.
Maybe someone can help. My nitrates are at 5.0. Could this be affecting the diatoms and algae. Are the nitrates too low. I use excel, not co2. Black algae on larger leaves of anubius and sag. Brown algae or diatoms I guess on the sidez and bottom sand level, also on higher leaves of the water sprites. Frustrating. But the tank has only been running for 2 mo. With plants.
 
Diatoms are common in new tanks and will go away on their own once excess silicates are used up. Running your lights only 6 hours max will help cut down on the amount of diatoms and other algae. A picture of the black algae would be good so we can identify it and possibly advise on spot treating it. Your nitrates should be at least 10-20ppms and phosphates .5-1.0ppms. So what type lighting do you have and how long each day do you run it? How much Excel do you use and how often are you dosing it?
 
Im dosing excel everyday. Ferts 2 times a week. It's a 90 gal. 2 feet deep. 2 kessil A150W-AMAZON SUNs, 9 hrs a day. Im trying to get ground carpet plants, but I kinda want to take care of the algae problems first. They seem to attack the low plants especially.
 
I don't know anything about those LED's but do cut your photoperiod down to 6 hours. How much Excel are you dosing daily? You may need to increase it. The more plants and light you have the more Excel you need. It sounds like you have Black Beard Algae which does tend to grow on slowly growing plants in higher light tanks. You can spot treat the BBA with Excel or Hydrogen Peroxide 3%. Pull up 2-3ml of Excel or Peroxide in a needless syringe, slowly squirt the algae as close to it as possible. If using Peroxide turn off the filter and lights for 15-20 minutes. If you have alot to treat you will have to treat an area each day until it's all treated. Also what ferts are you dosing? In a higher light tank and one using Liquid Carbon or CO2 you need to be using a balanced macro-micro fert regime. Dry ferts are recommended to give you that plus they are very economical to use in a large tank. I run a 220g 100% planted high light tank, use a Liquid Carbon, and use Dry Ferts dosing PPS-Pro daily. Also what type carpet plant are you wanting?
 
Im using flourish comprehensive. I have riccia attached to some riccia stones. And I was thinking also glosso or dwarf hair grass to fill in spots. And I like the look of ludwigia for added color in the background.
 
My experience has been that cheaper LEDs over two feet of water = algae. The cheaper LEDs don't penetrate deep enough to benefit the plants, and they don't have the correct spectrum for plants- but algae (especially blank beard algae in my case) thrive under them.
 
I'm using high end LEDs. Kessils. But I am concerned that it's not enough light for ground cover plants. But my riccia is growing.
 
Algae Problems

Maybe someone can help. My nitrates are at 5.0. Could this be affecting the diatoms and algae. Are the nitrates too low. I use excel, not co2. Black algae on larger leaves of anubius and sag. Brown algae or diatoms I guess on the sidez and bottom sand level, also on higher leaves of the water sprites. Frustrating. But the tank has only been running for 2 mo. With plants.

Hello boss...

I had problems with various forms of algae in my 45 G for several months. I figured the plants and fish were trying to figure out the new water conditions in my tank.

I tried to be conservative on my feeding and avoided flaked foods with high phosphates. I was told back then, that fish didn't need much food and to change large amounts of tank water weekly.

For the most part, the water changes helped keep my tank's water chemistry stable and and the algae wasn't so much of a problem.

B
 
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