BrendanH
Aquarium Advice Activist
Hi All,
Been quite a while since I was active on this board - been busy planning and surviving my wedding Anyway, over the past few months my tank has been suffering from an Algae problem. See the pics below. I don't know what type of algae this is but it's very aggressive and has spread all over the tank. The images you see are after I manually removed a whole lot of the stuff.
I could use your advice on how to get rid of it now that I finally have some time to spare again. I realized that my PC bulbs (2x65W Ultra Actinic 460nm and 2x65W 10,000k ) were about 8 months old so I recently replaced them with Actinic 03 and 10,000k from Current USA. I read here that old bulbs can cause an algae outbreak although I'd love to hear an explanation why ! Will the new bulbs help reverse the outbreak ?
I've been using homemade RO/DI water since shortly after I set up the tank in January '04. The TDS meter I got with the Kent RO/DI unit tells me that the TDS are at 0 so I doubt that is a source of any nutrients. I just replaced the pre-filter cartridges just in case ....
I have not tested the water recently but will do so tomorrow. Don't think I have a PO4 test kit in my arsenal right now but based on a lot of other posts that may be a possible cause ? If so - any recommendations on a good PO4 test kit ?
Any advice you can offer will be greatly appreciated. Thanks gang !
Been quite a while since I was active on this board - been busy planning and surviving my wedding Anyway, over the past few months my tank has been suffering from an Algae problem. See the pics below. I don't know what type of algae this is but it's very aggressive and has spread all over the tank. The images you see are after I manually removed a whole lot of the stuff.
I could use your advice on how to get rid of it now that I finally have some time to spare again. I realized that my PC bulbs (2x65W Ultra Actinic 460nm and 2x65W 10,000k ) were about 8 months old so I recently replaced them with Actinic 03 and 10,000k from Current USA. I read here that old bulbs can cause an algae outbreak although I'd love to hear an explanation why ! Will the new bulbs help reverse the outbreak ?
I've been using homemade RO/DI water since shortly after I set up the tank in January '04. The TDS meter I got with the Kent RO/DI unit tells me that the TDS are at 0 so I doubt that is a source of any nutrients. I just replaced the pre-filter cartridges just in case ....
I have not tested the water recently but will do so tomorrow. Don't think I have a PO4 test kit in my arsenal right now but based on a lot of other posts that may be a possible cause ? If so - any recommendations on a good PO4 test kit ?
Any advice you can offer will be greatly appreciated. Thanks gang !