Is Algae growing on my plants bad?

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It's not good but often happens to plants with slow growing leaves such as those you mentioned. You mentioned that it's brown algae - does it come off of the leaves easily? If not, it's likely something other than your run-of-the-mill brown (diatom) algae. Brown algae can often be countered by increasing lighting.

I've found that green algae is the most common type typically found growing on plants like Anubias. This can be countered by maintaining PO4 levels at 1.0-2.0 ppm. It also helps with green spot algae on the glass. HTH :)
 
Hi, I have some of the same kind of plants you have, Dude, and the same problem but worse... My red lotus is totally green, and so is the amazons sword, and the anubias. My plants are all growing very slowly, the only one going like crazy is the onion bulb.

I got rid of green water when I installed a UV filter, but the algae on the plants is as healthy as ever. The plants... no so much!

I dose with Leaf Zone once a week, Fluorish excell every other day. Last week I put Flora Dose tablets under the plants.

My water parameters are : PO4 - very very low between 0 and .25 mg/lt but the blue in the charth of my Nutrafin (Hagen ) kit is so light that is hard to read.
NO3 -.2 - For this I use a Mardel - Master test kit

What am I doing wrong and how can I fix it? :?
 
Hey Big C, stop dosing. At this point I bet it is causing more algea than helping your plants. The only thing causing my algea to grow Is my lights. I am pretty sure because it only grows on things facing up toward the lights. I never dosed once and my plants are doing great excep for my hyro and it is because my fish eat it. (I feel obligated to tell you I am fairly new to plants, but have had success and dont dose) :oops:
Simonson that is VERY helpful. The algea comes off easily so I can usually brush it off the leaves. I was wondering if it prevetns them from getting enough light. I know plants like anubias, java, sword and hygro get their nutrients from their roots or rhizome, is this true for light too? Will the algea make a significant difference? :mrgreen:
 
Brown algae is common in newly set up tanks (because of lack of an established bio-filter which provides O2 and removes excess NO3) and will generally go away on its own if sufficient light is provided. I would recommend brushing it off of the plants - you are correct, it will interfere with light absorbtion. Try to clean it off right before or during your water changes so that you remove a lot of it with the old water.
 
Yes I just did and it does come off easily. As I brush it off it creates a sort of brownish cloud of tiny brown particles. Are you sure extra light will help? It only started when I got my plants and started leaving my two 65 actinius pc lights on. IT also only grows on decor directly facing up towards the light. There is nothing growing on the bottom of my decor.
 
So if I'm right here you've got a 55G and are running 2x65w actinic lighting? If that's the case you should switch out the actinic lights for lights with a Kelvin temp between 5000-10000K. Actinic lights do not provide much PAR (photosynthetically active radiation - i.e. light that your plants can make use of) and even though you're running 130w of power to your lights you're getting very little useful light for growing plants.
 
Well travis since you have already started helping me I will give you all the information. I am unclear as to what the lights actually are. They are roughly 20" Power compact lights. There are two of them, and behind them is a bent U shaped mirror directing the light downwards. Each light has two glass tubes, one shines bluish and one shines whitish. So I dont know if this means that only one of the bulbs on each light is actinic or if both on both are or what. If I had to guess I would say that only the blue one on each light is actinic (I really have no idea, i just know that only one of the tubes shines blue, the other shines white). Does this mean that I have 65 watts of usefull lights total or what?
 
It sounds like your lights are 50/50. Most of the 50/50 CF lights I've seen that use actinic (like yours) have 10000K in the other tube, which works just fine for growing plants. You are correct, you've really only got about 65 watts of useful light. You will get some benefits from actinics, but not much at all when compared to a normal spectrum tube. I would suggest replacing your tubes with some that do not have any actinic element.
 
Where do you suggest I get them and how can I make sure that they will fit in my setup (so I only need bulbs). The fitting on the ends are kind of wierd, I think I would need the twin tube setup again so the new bulbs would fit. Then fittings on the ends that plug in have four places where they plug. (You put the bottom in at an angle, then they snap into place.) SeaLife made them but they went out of business. I think I will switch to a planted tank before a SW so I dont mind making the change if I can be sure I can get bulbs that fit. By the way, your tank is unbelievable!! Impressed!
 
Thanks man :) I would recommend checking out www.hellolights.com to find the bulbs you want. They've got pics of all of the plug types you're likely to need and great explanations of the details involving all aspects of their lights. Plus they've got excellent prices.
 
WOw, great website travis. Thanks alot. I am going to go home and check out my lighting fixture. I have a few more questions though. If I do switch out my 50/50's with a 55/65 watt from their website (8,800 k) Am I going to have to get some CO2? The switch will put me at 110 to 130 watts for a 55 gal. (2 wpg) I dont have any CO2 right now and what I have (listed in my sig) seems to be doing fine. I have no problem changing substrate or adding CO2 eventually, but I really want to avoid having to constantly dose nutrients and monitor nutrients. (Testing, dosing, purchasing, and monitoring of all the nutrients scares me) I also heard that CO2 messes with ph as well. I would not mind adding or any other all in one fertilizer.
My dilemma is that I would really want a nice planted tank like yours (well ok, ill be honest, one like yours isnt really realistic for me) with ground cover. It is my only tank and I could give it enough attention, however as I am fairly new I want to make sure I have a hold on my tank as is before I make a major change into a complicated planted tank. I enjoy the low maintenance of the plants I have and they are indeed growing well.
I guess what I am asking is how much of a hassel would making the move be? How much additional financial and time allocation is there? Do you find it to be worth it? Once you get set up does it become fairly easy? Have you completely abandoned grave vacs? that would be something else I am going for with ground cover. I know it is alot of questions but i really want to know what I am getting into. :lol:
 
You would probably be OK at 2wpg without CO2, but CO2 would make things much easier. It really puts a whammy on the algae and your plants growth takes off like crazy. If you get a CO2 system with a pH controller, it's pretty much 'set it and forget it'. I recalibrate my controller once a month and have to get the CO2 refilled about every three months, but that's it. Cost wise a pressurized set up will run you anywhere from $150-$250 (someone please correct me if I'm wrong here). CO2 will lower your pH, but that's not too hard to work with (unless you're keeping hard water fish like me). 2 wpg and CO2 may allow you to grow some of the trickier carpet plants, but I wouldn't count on Glosso carpeting unless you've got 2.5+ wpg and CO2. I haven't gravel vac'd my tank since I started running CO2 with carpet plants and I really like that :wink:
 
Yeah you are fortunate (and skilled) to have such great plant growth. They probably eat up everything that gravel vacs are needed for. What do you use as substrate? 150-250 is a little much for my wallet right now. Maybe I will try a DIY system using two 2 liter bottles. Do you think this will be sufficient? Is it necessary to remove carbon when using CO2? If I get those lights and a DIY CO2 system, Will I also need a special substrate to grow riccia and glosso? What do you suggest and how much? I think I have 20 lbs of gravel it is uncoated I think, Estes I believe. It is mostly brown but multi colored, rounded like river gravel. I have heard to just mix in Seachem's flourite or eco complete with my gravel in a 50/50 mix.
 
From what I understand a 55G or bigger tank can be a real pain to use DIY CO2 with because it requires so many fermenters (or whatever process it is by which CO2 is produced). You might post a question regarding DIY for a big tank on the forum and see what the DIY experts have to say.

As far as substrate goes, both Flourite and Eco-Complete are great, although I like the looks of Eco-Complete better (very dark/black as opposed to Flourite which is sort of red). Figure on at least a pound of gravel per gallon of tank space probably more. Ideally you want a 3" gravel bed so your plants will have plenty of room for root growth. And you'll want at least 50% of your substrate to be Flourite or EC to achieve best effect. www.AquariumPlants.com (a sponsor here on AA) has some of the best deals on Eco-Complete that I've seen. Even with the additional shipping charge for the weight, it is still likely cheaper than you can find it at your LFS. I did, however, just read that there was a contamination problem with Eco Complete so it might be wise to email the guys at AquariumPlants.com to find out what's up. There's a thread here in the Plants forum concerning the problem. Opiesilver is one of AquariumPlant's reps here on AA and can tell you more than I can.

Well HTH :)
 
Ok, I am just going to use this to ask additional questions about my planted tank even though it isnt about algea because there is so much useful information in this post.
I guess I need to start testing nutrients. I will do this to get a hold of algea and to have a quality test kit for when I set up my new lights, substrate and pressurized CO2. You mentioned a good test kit before. I want the best. Where is a good place to get it and how much? How many tests can you get?
 
LOL - no screwing around with you is there? LaMotte and Hach make the best test kits around - bar none. But you'll have to pay quite a bit for them. I use LaMotte because I want to know exactly what my water parameters are, not just a ballpark figure. When I first got my LaMotte kits I put them up against my cheapo kits and found out that the cheap ones were WAY off. I'm not just talking a few ppm either. Some the cheap kits were off by as far as 20-30 ppm on the NO3 test! That's enough to really screw your tank over. LaMotte is always consistent and fairly easy to read with their 'comparator' so you'll probably like them. They cost around $50 per test type and you can buy refills for much less than that. Here's the best place I've found to get them:

http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/listings.categories/ssid/13
 
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