What are ways to keep algea down???

[Fishdreamz]

What are ways to keep algea down while trying to grow plants?

Fishdreamz

 

[jpchin]

limit lights to about 8 hrs. a day.

 

[aquandrew]

you need to find the correct balance of hours lit, feeding, export of nutrients(water changes) and fertilizers. are you having algae problems?

 

[Fishdreamz]

Its a fairly new tanks about 2months and i have hair algae and small amounts on glass. Only fertalize 2 times so far. Running light more than 8 hours and shame on me only one water change so far.

 

[Rivercats]

When you have algae you should only run lights 6 hours until you get rid of it. What size tank and what lighting and bulbs do you have? What plants are you growing? What ferts are you using when your using them? What is your nitrate level? You need to be doing a weekly WC. I do 50% WC on all my tanks weekly, even my 220g. You need to provide a lot more information about your tank before any other advice can be given.

 

[Fishdreamz]

tank info

49 gallon tank, florite substrate, cycled 2 months, power filter with biowheel, 25 watt fluoresant grow bulb 36 inches, fertilized only 2 times because i stared with only one java fern and just added hair grass, crypts and today mini sowards. It has 2 thread fins, 2 bolivian rams, 4 black neons, and one snail. I have only done one water change at 20 percent. I have been running the light around 10 hours. I learned on here that is to long. Fertilizer type is Flourish by Seachem. Can you use phosban reactors in planted tanks??

Fishdreamz

 

[Jacobsal91]

49 gallon tank, florite substrate, cycled 2 months, power filter with biowheel, 25 watt fluoresant grow bulb 36 inches, fertilized only 2 times because i stared with only one java fern and just added hair grass, crypts and today mini sowards. It has 2 thread fins, 2 bolivian rams, 4 black neons, and one snail. I have only done one water change at 20 percent. I have been running the light around 10 hours. I learned on here that is to long. Fertilizer type is Flourish by Seachem. Can you use phosban reactors in planted tanks?? Fishdreamz

Sounds like a good setup

Sounds like cutting down on the hours of light and bigger or more frequent waterchanges will help you


Most if not all algae will feed off of nitrates. High nitrate with lots of light can be algae heaven!

However your live plants will also benefit from SOME nitrate but it needs to be under control and you need to find that balace as said above. And as far as a reactor i want to say yes, but a reactor isnt going to make it so your tank is self sufficent, weekly/biweekly maintenance will still be nessasary

 

[Rivercats]

You want phosphates in a planted tank. Ferts are rarely the cause of algae and actually not having enough of the proper ferts can cause algae to be able to outcompete plants for what is available. In a planted tank nitrate levels should be 10-20ppm and phosphates from 1 to 3ppm. I run my tanks with phosphate at 5-10ppm due to all the non-green plants. So I strongly suggest not using a reactor.

 

[Fishdreamz]

paramiters

Thank you so much!!! Just tested the water:
0 nitrate
0nitrite
150 hardness (hard)
35 alkalinity (low)
6.2 ph (acidic)

 

[Rivercats]

You need to do a large 50% or more WC and see if you can get your ph up. A ph of 6.5 and below will slow your biological activity and a ph of 6 or below will actually stop biological activity and BB will begin dying off. A good part of the reason for doing WC's is not only to remove nutrients but also to add new buffers into the water. If you have soft tap water you'll have to see about using a buffer such as crushed coral. You want a kh of at least 4 to keep a stable ph.

 

[Fishdreamz]

Ok yes I figured this was a problem and thought about adding african buffer into the water. Would that be ok with plants and my fish type if I do have the soft water?? Agreed on the water change. My hesitation is i need a brute container. I scared of water temp change and 50 water change might stress my fish. Do you think I could do smaller water changes more often at this point? Like maybe 20 percet tommorow and 20 every three days and monitor ph??

 

[Fishdreamz]

How do you get your phospates up and nitrates up?? I thought nitrates were bad. What do each do for the plants and effects on fish?

 

[Jacobsal91]

How do you get your phospates up and nitrates up?? I thought nitrates were bad. What do each do for the plants and effects on fish?

Plants feed on nitrates and phosphate

And small numbers of these nutrients wont harm fish at all

To gain nitrate you just need an established aquarium
And quite honestly im not sure how to gain phosphate. I only know how to remove it haha

 

[Rivercats]

Ok yes I figured this was a problem and thought about adding african buffer into the water. Would that be ok with plants and my fish type if I do have the soft water?? Agreed on the water change. My hesitation is i need a brute container. I scared of water temp change and 50 water change might stress my fish. Do you think I could do smaller water changes more often at this point? Like maybe 20 percet tommorow and 20 every three days and monitor ph??

Look into getting a Water Changer. I use an Aqueon WC'r and couldn't live without it. No more lugging buckets. You just hook it up to the faucet and let it do the work. Before refilling the tank, you adjust the temp on the faucets then flip the lever to send to the tank. You also add enough declor for the entire size of the tank. Been using one of these for years.

A 50% WC isn't going to stress fish. You just adjust the water temp in your bucket as your filling it. Water temp doesn't need to match 100% and honestly you can pretty much match the temp using your hand and how cold or warm the water is. Right now you need a large WC. Plus IMO smaller WC's don't remove near the amount of toxins, etc., that one good larger WC does.

If you have soft water and don't want to use crushed coral you can use Seachems Equilibrium if you have a planted tank or Seachems Replenish if you have a fish only tank.

You can use dry ferts or Seachems liquid ferts to raise Nitrates and Phosphates. In a planted tank you want to shoot for 10-20ppm of nitrates and 1-3ppm of phosphates.

 

[Jodisgermanshepherd]

Where do you get the phosphate testing kit?

 

[Jacobsal91]

Where do you get the phosphate testing kit?

Most LFS should carry them
API makes one
Hagen makes one
And redses may as well
Just to give you a few affordable brands

 

[Jodisgermanshepherd]

Thank you.

 

[Rivercats]

I use the API phosphate kit which you can get cheap on ebay if you can't find it locally.