Hair algae outbreak

[Mebbid]

Well in my "Go big or go home" amurican ideology I guess I went a little TOO big. In my 10g betta, cory, and shrimp tank I made a 8 bulb Cree LED light fixture to go over the plants and absolutely love how bright it is. BUT then came the algae! It seems like overnight my glass got mostly covered with green algae and slower growing plants got covered in hair algae. I was expecting an algae bloom while I got my levels corrected (Just got things under control in my 55) but never expected something of this magnitude. The bloom is mostly caused by a lack of co2 coupled with high phosphates.

Thankfully I made the fixture dimmable and have been dimming it slightly over the past few days but am wondering if I should do a two pronged attack of both dimming and dropping the number of hours my light is on. What else would be a good idea to do in an attempt to get things under control?

Currently I am dosing daily with a micro / macro fert from Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - , , , , Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - , , and am trying to get a DIY co2 running. While I am fiddling with the DIY co2 I am also supplementing with Excel.

On an amusing side note, I've never seen my Nerite snails quite soo active before, I think they LOVE it

 

[Billbug68]

How long are you running your lights? How high is your nitrates and phosphates?

 

[Mebbid]

How long are you running your lights? How high is your nitrates and phosphates?

I am doing a 10 hour light period at the moment. My nitrate is at 30ppm and my phosphate was 2 at the time of the bloom but it is now at .5

 

[Billbug68]

Params sound good even with phosphate at 2ppm, shouldn't be the cause of your problem.

I'd knock the photoperiod down to 6 hours until you get it under control. Then slowly ramp back up to 8 hours, all the while, playing with the dimmer to dial in the right amount of light. 10 hours is a bit much.

 

[Mebbid]

Params sound good even with phosphate at 2ppm, shouldn't be the cause of your problem.

I'd knock the photoperiod down to 6 hours until you get it under control. Then slowly ramp back up to 8 hours, all the while, playing with the dimmer to dial in the right amount of light. 10 hours is a bit much.

Yeah, I figured I'd give 10 hours a try since I do a 12 hour period on my 55g with hardly any algae growth. But I will do. I have the lights dimmed to approx. 50% now so I will see how that works

 

[Rivercats]

Yep, do cut lights down to 6 hours but also how much liquid carbon are you dosing daily? Have you thought about doing some spot treating?

 

[Mebbid]

Yep, do cut lights down to 6 hours but also how much liquid carbon are you dosing daily? Have you thought about doing some spot treating?

I dose 1 - 2ml of excel daily. I've thought about the spot treating but haven't gotten to that point yet, although I might do it tomorrow. My glossostigma is absolutely covered in it

 

[Rivercats]

With such high light you might want to go to dosing 3-5ml of Excel daily. The higher the light the more liquid carbon or CO2 the plants need. 1ml Excel per 2g of water with high light like you have will yield much better results.

 

[Mebbid]

With such high light you might want to go to dosing 3-5ml of Excel daily. The higher the light the more liquid carbon or CO2 the plants need. 1ml Excel per 2g of water with high light like you have will yield much better results.

Hopefully if I can get my yeast to finally ferment I won't need the excel any more in that tank. But until then I will increase the amount I use. I read somewhere that you mixed something to use as an alternative to excel. What was it?

Also, here is a pic of some of my glossostigma to show how bad the problem is.

 

[Rivercats]

I use Metricide 14 Day solution, which is glutaraldehyde. A gallon costs $20 plus shipping, you mix it with 1 gallon of RO or Distilled water and get 2 gallons for around $27 total. That is as cheap as you can get! Be sure to keep Glut in light blocking containers as light breaks the Glut down and then it's useless. I just use empty Excel bottles to store my Glut in.