co2 vs algae

[nitrous]

well my lights are 48 watts over 20 gallons of water and my algae is still not going away. on my rock cave i made there is slime algae over it with bubbles in the algae and the same algae is on my plants
the only algae that went away with the co2 was diatom and spot algae but how cna i get this algae away. i keep going on the things and wiping it off but it still is there

thanks and i have the hagen co2 system

 

[Lonewolfblue]

For the algae, you probably don't have your nutrients in balance yet. But as for diatoms, they will go away on their own. I found the fastest way to get rid of diatoms is to leave it alone. When I wiped it off, it kept coming back. But once I just left it alone, it came back, stayed a couple weeks, then disappeared.

 

[CherylR]

Is it brown slime or green slime? Brown slime is diatoms as the other poster mentioned. Otocinclus cats love the stuff.

If it is green slime, it is cyanobacteria, which although called blue-green algae, is actually a bacteria. Often this is caused by low water circulation and/or low nitrogen. A quick fix would be any antibiotic tablet that contains erythromycin. Half doseage should preserve your biological filter.

Cheryl Rogers
www.aquatic-gardeners.org

 

[7Enigma]

I have a 20gallon and my 2 Oto's keep the tank completely free of diatoms. I've found diatoms in my filter intake and my breeder cage, so I know they are present in the main tank, but have never seen ANY. I fully believe it is due to the Oto's. Every tank should have a couple IMO as long as the conditions in the tank are not extreme. (brackish, really high or low pH, etc)

As for the algae, it takes a long time for them to go away once all the nutrients are balanced properly. Remember, algae can feed off of undetectable levels or nutrients, so they are very difficult to remove once they are established. If you have a properly setup tank from the start (most people don't/can't) it is quite tough for the algae to establish itself.

I have a 20 with ~2-2.5wpg and have green spot algae that started to grow when I was on vacation and my CO2 died on me. It was easy to wipe off the glass (its back though), but on my ceramic pots I took it out of the tank and scrubbed and scrubbed with little to no luck. What I did was rearranged my tank a bit so that the algae is no longer in the direct path of light (put a plant in between the light and pot) and we'll see what happens now. My Oto's also seem to do a good job of preventing the spot algae from growing faster, but there is just too much of it for these 2 little guys.

Also, depending on how established your plants are (good root system, healthy looking leaves) you could do a blackout for a couple days. I would not do this if your existing live plants don't look so hot.

 

[Purrbox]

This algae sounds like BGA algae (bacteria) to me as well. Sometimes you can get rid of it by blacking out your tank for 3-5 days. May be worth a try before medicating the tank.

 

[nitrous]

ya its not the diatoms anymore that went away but the bg algae is still there so ill try the blackout but wont that hurt all my plants in this tank?

 

[azn_fishy55]

To get rid og BGA I was told to black out the tank 2-3 days,then start raising your nitrate levels.You can do this by adding Flourish Nitrogen or KNO3.If your just starting to dose nitrates,take it slowlly to prevent the fish from getting stressed.

 

[nitrous]

nitrogen that becomes nitrites? and the only type of ferts taht the lfs has here is flourish and not flourish excel or anything just flourish.. will that help? and i dosed some plantgro that i got with my co2 kit and it has nitrogen in it

 

[Purrbox]

Nitrates are a form of Nitrogen. The amount of Nitrate in a Comprehensive or Trace mix is so small that in order to get sufficient levels you would be overdosing the rest of the ferts in the mix. You can either ask your LFS to special order Flourish Nitrogen for you or order Flourish Nitrogen or KNO3 online.

I'm not sure what type of algae that is on the rocks, but it doesn't look like BGA. Of course the pic is a bit blurry, which makes identification harder. Visit Steve Hampton's site or PlantGeek.net to try to identify which type of algae you are actually dealing with. Both also suggest a variety of treatments depending on which type of algae you are dealing with.

 

[nitrous]

i read that it is thin sheets of green slime and that is what it looks like but what causes it, im oging to check my water perameters tomarrow to see how low my nitrates are
looks like this
http://tnreefer.com/content/images/stories/articles/bluegreen.jpg
green slime with some bubbles

 

[7Enigma]

ya its not the diatoms anymore that went away but the bg algae is still there so ill try the blackout but wont that hurt all my plants in this tank?

That's why I mentioned in my last post to make sure your plants are already healthy with a good root system. They will suffer a bit from the blackout, but if they are healthy to start with, they will be fine.

The picture of the green algae on the rock looks very similar to what I had (its out of focus so I can't tell for sure). My stuff wiped off the glass very easily, but on my ceramic pots (since they are porous) I couldn't do a thing other than reduce the algae a bit. Mine is most likely green spot algae.