algae problem

[heather1]

hi everyone, I am having trouble still with algae. my water perimeters test perfect: PH-7.3 , Ammonia-0, Nitrite-0, Nitrate-0. Now I heard that phosphates will cause algae so I went and bought API Phosphate test. OMG, my phosphates are 10+. I have been using PhosLock for a week as well as doing 40-50% water changes every 3 days BUT I still have algae and my phosphate are still 10+. Oh I have tested the water I use and it tests 0 on everything including phosphates. I do not add anthing to my tank accept floursh 1xweek. I do use nitra-zorb, bio-zorb, and ammonia chips in my filter.

If any has any suggests/help please let me know, ty

 

[NanoJack]

How long are the lights on?

 

[DMunoz84]

All Algae's are plants. In fact they are very simple plant type, that's why they're so easy to grow the phosphates & lights will do it. What plants do you have?

 

[Billbug68]

It's best if we get some more info. Do you know what kind of algae you're having problems with? Can you post pics? What was your wc schedule like before the algae problem? How long do you run your lights and what kind of lights are you using? Are you using co2? What's your feeding schedule like? How long has the tank been set up? 10+ phosphates is pretty high for only dosing flourish once a week. What size tank and what kind of live stock do you have?

 

[heather1]

I have moderate light plant. swords,ambius,java fern,jungle grass, penny wort,wisteria, and allot of others that i do not know what they are called. my lights run for 8 hours a day because I am running 2 x 54 watt 12,000k and 2 x 54 6,500k lights (t-5 light fixture). as far as phosphates I am doing 40%- 50% water changes every 3 days with water that tests 0 across the board. my plant are starting to dye back(they are new plants about 2-3 weeks) and I have pruned the infected leaves most of them anyway. I also have 2 hob filters and a sterilization pump running. so honestly i am at my wits end here.

 

[heather1]

reply to BillBug68

I seem to have beard algae. Before this i did water changes 1x week. I have always had algae problem. so what i did was removed all plants and did a 60% water change then bought all new plants. I am using quad t-5 lighting running
2x54 watt 12,000k and 2x54watt 6500k. I run them 8 hours. I feed plants 1x week with flourish complete. I was told until things get stable to stop using co2, but i did add it after my last water change on 4/11. My tank has been running for about 3 years now. I have a standard 55 gallon tank and my tank is overstocked mainly tetras, snails, clown loches, and catfish. Before this I was using Natural Regulator only to find out from the company it is made with phosphate. so i stopped using it on 4/6 as of 3/30 I stopped using tap water and flipped to cistern water that is pure water. understand I have only recently in the last 1 year started working with live plants and this is my 3rd time replanting. apparently I am really good at growing algae and killing plants

here are a few pics

 

[clarkm]

What size tank and what are you using for co2

 

[heather1]

55 gallon api co2 booster

 

[reign]

You'd probably do better with 2 higher watt 6500k lights in my opinion

 

[clarkm]

That's really a lot of light for only using api co2 booster. Should look into pressurized co2 if your going to run that much light.

 

[clarkm]

How often do u do water change ?

 

[Mebbid]

Just looking at your parameters I can see what the problem is. Your nitrates are too low starving your plants, stunting their growth, and allowing the bba to grow. I'm dealing with the same issue in my planted tank. Increase the nitrates in the tank and you should be fine. You should shoot for about 10ppm nitrates in your tank.

Once that is under control I would suggest getting a gallon bottle of metricide 14 day sterilizing solution and using that rather than the co2 booster. The metricide can be dosed at half the amount of excel to have the same effect. I.e. 1 ml / 20g daily rather than the 1ml / 10g that excel suggests. Then you can slowly increase the amount up to 1ml / 2g of tank volume. That should have a strong inhibatory effect on any algae growth

 

[Rivercats]

Just so you know your using a liquid carbon which is not CO2. That being said Mebbid is correct but you are going to need to spot treat the BBA you have to get rid of it. Also reduce lighting down to 6 hours or do 3 hours on, 2 hours off, and 3 hours on. Using a siesta period interrupts the algae photoperiod making it very hard for algae to grow since they need longer photoperiods to grow. You also may want to consider using only 2 bulbs for a while to further reduce lighting.

Something else to consider is when you have higher light and use either a liquid carbon or pressurized CO2 you need to be using a fertilizing regime to supply all the needed macro and micro nutrients plants need. Right now your levels are out of kilt which can also contribute to algae.

use these ferts.... http://greenleafaquariums.com/aquarium-fertilizers-supplements/micro-macro-fertilizers.html.


I also suggest 3 of these dosing bottles... http://greenleafaquariums.com/aquarium-fertilizers-supplements/dispenser-32oz.html


Read this thread about dosing PPS-Pro but only read the opening post and not all the comment posts... http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/pps-analysis-feedback/39491-newbie-guide-pps-pro.html.


There are two things I do differently than the thread is that I split my macro nutrients up using one dosing bottle for nitrates, and one dosing bottle for phosphates and potassium. This allows me for better custom dosing to the needs of my tank. I shoot for 10-20ppm of nitrate and 1-5ppm phosphates. The thread also has MgSO4, magnesium sulfate in the macro mix. If your tanks Gh is 4 or over then your tap water has enough magnesium in it that supplementing it is not needed.



Algae is caused from an imbalance between, lights, ferts, and CO2. Since you have high phosphates that aren't going down with WC's it means something is adding phosphates to your tank. Has this been an ongoing problem since the tank has been set up or is it fairly new? Have you tested the water your using for WC's to see if it has phosphates in it? That would be my first guess.

 

[Rivercats]

To spot treat the algae get a syringe and pull up 3ml of hydrogen peroxide 3% for every 1 gallon of tank water, turn off filters, slowly squirt the algae, leave filters off for 20 minutes. Then use your daily amount of liquid carbon after this to hit algae with a 1-2 punch. If you have a lot of algae you will have to do an area a day. BBA will usually being turning white, pink, or red within 24 hours after treatment which means it's dying.

 

[heather1]

hi thank you all for your comments and suggestion. To answer some of the questions asked i do not know what my level of phosphates were prior to 4/5/2014. This is when I learned about it and bought a test and have been working ever since to reduce my phosphate through water changes. The water I use is pure as stated before. I was told that the phosphates is what is causing the algae. This is when I stopped using everything except my plant food 1x week. I just stared using my co2 booster again but only every other day. As far as my light I can take the 2 x 12,000k lights out and change them to 2x 6500k lights. but once again i was told i needed higher lighting. Now I do now my nitrates are suppose to be around 10ppm but i figured once I got the phosphates under control then my take would reestablish itself with the need nitrates from the plant food. I did pull as much of the infected leaves as I could from the tank and my next step is to do a dip to clean the rest of plants. oh someone asked how often i do my water changes, right now I am doing water changes every 3 days to help pull the phosphates out of my tank and am using pura phosolock as well.

 

[Mebbid]

Phosphates don't really cause algae in freshwater systems. It's caused by an imbalance between ferts, carbon, and light. Follow rivercats advice and you can't go wrong.

 

[heather1]

yea just test my other tank that is algea free and see this. I am going to work on what he said. I just added florinmulti to my tank and am following the rest ty all.

 

[heather1]

update/question

Omg I just looked at the plants I treated and the algae is reddish brown
should I retreat them or no?? also i did manage to get my nitrates up to almost 5ppm.

 

[DMunoz84]

That's awesome good to hear!!

 

[Rivercats]

If they are changing color that shows they are dying and there is no need to retreat them.