Attack of Green Spot Algae! HELP PLZ!

[kaiofcanada]

Ughh

I have never had this trouble before in my planted tanks. But my crypts and anubias have a severe case of green spot algae, as does the glass on the side of the tank that they are planted. I understand green spot algae is almost exclusively caused from low phosphates. Help...what should I do?

About my setup:

20g Tall
3.5 wpg
CO2~25ppm
pH 7.0 (although the driftwood might eventually lower this)
Dose with Flourish Comprehensive (every other day accordingly)
Flourite substrate
Flourish Root Tabs in substrate according to suggestions (3 weeks ago)
Temp 82F
Filtration HOB Aquaclear 30
Ammonia=0 nitrites=0 nitrates=5ppm

Plants in tank: Melon sword, hornwort (1 bunch floating, 1 planted), 3 asian crypts, 2 random crypts, 1 red lotus, 1 small amazon sword, 2 bunches red ambulia, 6 anubias nana petite. Only the anubias and the crypts have GSA.

The algae crew: 1 tiger nerite snail, 1 bristlenose pleco, 3 otocinclus.

I have a CO2 diffuser on the opposite side of the tank of the crypts with green pox. The filtration flows in the middle of the tank. So my questions are...

1) Do I need to have a CO2 diffuser on the other side of the tank? Will more CO2 help green spot? I was thinking maybe more CO2 on the other side could boost plant growth, but not sure about GSA?

2) Can I dose more comprehensive to increase phosphate? Will this promote other algae growth?

3) Suggestions for other phosphate ferts for a 20g?

4) Can my filtration be depleting local phosphate on the right side of my tank with GSA?

5) Are there any other algae crew besides nerite snails that I can add to my setup? Can I add one more nerite snail?

6) Both the Flourish Comprehensive and root tabs have phosphate P2O5 at 0.01% and 0.17% respectively....how much phosphate should I be dosing? What types of things deplete my phosphates.

7) Is PO4 the phosphate that I should be worried about dosing versus P2O5?

 

[IT-FishGuy]

GSA

GSA as far as I know isn't eaten by most inhabitants. It's too hard of a substance for them. If it is a lack of phosphates I usually do a PWC and scrape the stuff off with a one sided razor blade. Had it in both of my tanks at some point, but it then went away. I usually do a 25% PWC every week. I think since I've been doing that it's slowed or stopped.

 

[Aquarium1]

Can't help much with the chemistry stuff but nerites love it for the most part. I just scrape it off like once a week. It can coat my whole aquarium in a thin tattered sheet if left untreated for like 2 weeks -_-

 

[Crepe]

Dose phosphates and get a phosphate test. I'm dealing with green spot right now and the new-school method is to increase phosphates and do frequent water changes. Just get what you can off the glass (pita) and a few nerites. to get what's on the plants. Remember to get what's on the glass otherwise they won't start on your plants. Proper phosphate dosage (never letting it crash) will prevent this from occurring again. Also with that much light and co2 you need to dose macronutrients regardless of root tabs. If you look at the guarenteed analysis you will notice that the nutrient content is appallingly low. Water column levels of Ca should be 30ppm, nitrates 15ppm, phosphates 1-2ppm, iron .2ppm, mg 2-4ppm, potassium (a lot). Even if you were to fill up your substrate with tabs it would be insufficient.

 

[kaiofcanada]

Dose phosphates and get a phosphate test. I'm dealing with green spot right now and the new-school method is to increase phosphates and do frequent water changes. Just get what you can off the glass (pita) and a few nerites. to get what's on the plants. Remember to get what's on the glass otherwise they won't start on your plants. Proper phosphate dosage (never letting it crash) will prevent this from occurring again. Also with that much light and co2 you need to dose macronutrients regardless of root tabs. If you look at the guarenteed analysis you will notice that the nutrient content is appallingly low. Water column levels of Ca should be 30ppm, nitrates 15ppm, phosphates 1-2ppm, iron .2ppm, mg 2-4ppm, potassium (a lot). Even if you were to fill up your substrate with tabs it would be insufficient.

Thanks for this info. I had some macronutrients...but in the move I lost the bottle and could not remember what was missing. So this is what I get for not remembering what I forgot .

Also, I used to have

I scrape the glass every couple of days, but the plants still look horrible. The single nerite snail that I have in there seems to be interested in every single surface except the plants this far. But then again, that is alot of work for one snail.
How many nerites can I put in a 20g? I read that they exclusively eat algae and worry about their efficiency and then not having a food source, so I only bought one so far.

Any idea on why the GSA seems to be on only one side of my tank?

 

[kaiofcanada]

Can't help much with the chemistry stuff but nerites love it for the most part. I just scrape it off like once a week. It can coat my whole aquarium in a thin tattered sheet if left untreated for like 2 weeks -_-

Yea...I scrape the walls every couple days to once a week. I like a super clear glass . The GSA just makes the crypts look terrible, and only on the one side of the tank. The cypts on the left side look fine. I only have one nerite...so I will look into getting some friends.

 

[kaiofcanada]

GSA as far as I know isn't eaten by most inhabitants. It's too hard of a substance for them. If it is a lack of phosphates I usually do a PWC and scrape the stuff off with a one sided razor blade. Had it in both of my tanks at some point, but it then went away. I usually do a 25% PWC every week. I think since I've been doing that it's slowed or stopped.

I do 50% water changes weekly and this has occurred despite that. I have never seen anything like this in my planted tanks. Then again I am in a new area and the water parameters might be very different. Hopefully I can find a test kit and figure this one out.

 

[JohnPaul]

Just buy some dry phosphate and mix up a batch of solution that you can dose the tank with. A phosphate test would probably be helpful but honestly I've never bothered with one myself. You might not be able to find a phosphate source locally but you can certainly find them online. I bought some monopotassium phosphate from AquariumFertilizer.com which allows me with one solution to dose both phosphate and potassium. Seems to work well enough for me, though I must admit I don't have a super fancy setup.

 

[meegosh]

I agree with JohnPaul, get some dry phosphate and start dosing. AquariumFertilizer.com has some pretty decent prices and shipping. You might want to consider just doing EI dosing and getting some other dry ferts when you order. It will save you $$$ in the long run if you plan on keeping it set up for a while.

 

[kaiofcanada]

I agree with JohnPaul, get some dry phosphate and start dosing. AquariumFertilizer.com has some pretty decent prices and shipping. You might want to consider just doing EI dosing and getting some other dry ferts when you order. It will save you $$$ in the long run if you plan on keeping it set up for a while.

Thanks...will do..any suggestions on what other ferts to get to start off so that I can save on shipping? I have a 20g, 10g, and soon a 40-55g planted tanks. Each has/ will have a high light (3-4wpg) setup. I am addicted to planted tanks . I can always get more later, but to start off with given what I have...

 

[meegosh]

CSM+B Plantex, KNO3, KH2PO4 and maybe a GH booster depending on your GH should be all you need for EI dosing. A pound of each should last you a long time (years). I think I got all of the above for around $36 shipped. Been dosing my 30g long and 10g (sometimes) for about 6 months and have barely put a dent in the ferts.

 

[WhiteDevil]

I had algae issues GSA ect but bumped up the dosing of Potassium and it disappeared.

Oh your panda koi and my panda koi are knocking fins. In the good way. They put down eggs this morning.