Still battling green thread/hair algae

[happygirl65]

So, I am still having problems with a green velvety fuzz growing on my amazon swords but that isn't nearly as annoying as the green hair or thread algae that appear every couple of days.

It is very interesting but my phosphates are quite high....the color turns really dark as soon as I add the drops from the second bottle on the test. This was just a few minutes after a 50%pwc.

I tested my tap for phosphate and it came up at 1.0

So I am saying the phosphates in the tank are 10 but it is possible that it is even higher.

Should I stop dosing phospate?

So here are my specs:
46 gal bowfront (been cycled and set up with light bio load for 6 months)
2.7 wpg light on for 10 hrs per day
CO2 Injected (about 5 ppm)
KH 7
Nitrates 20
Ammonia and Nitrite 0

My dosing has been:
1/2 tsp KNO3 (3 x weekly)
1/8 tsp KH2PO4 (3 x weekly)
1/8 tsp K2SO4 (3 x weekly)
1/8 tsp CSM+B (3 x weekly) alternate days

my bioload is:
12 neon tetras
6 kuhli loaches
3 Ottos
1 ADF
1 BN Pleco

I feed once per day with Tetra Color flakes and a couple of small shrimp pellets.

It does seem to be getting better than it was but is not totally gone.

I did miss some of my dosing and pwc during the holiday confusions but otherwise I have been fairly consistant. The only thing I have done recently was reduce the light to 10 hours per day in an effort to slow the algae.

Any suggestions?

Also what do you recommend the target range should be for my CO2 injection?

 

[rkilling1]

You need to get the CO2 up to around 30 PPM. I highly suggest you purchase a drop checker to verify your CO2 concentration.

 

[happygirl65]

Oh goodness! I guess I really need to boost that up then. Will do.

 

[rkilling1]

In reference to the drop checker, please read this article posted by VaughnH:

http://www.barrreport.com/estimative-index/2818-drop-checkers-co2-indicators-why-how.html

 

[happygirl65]

Wow, there is a lot of great information there. I had been wondering how accurate the CO2 measurement could be with the calculation of pH and KH considering all of the other things that change the variables in the tank.
The drop checker should solve the problem. That article made good sense. Thank you so much!
I did order the drop checker so that should be here soon!
Thanks!

 

[rkilling1]

Wow, there is a lot of great information there. I had been wondering how accurate the CO2 measurement could be with the calculation of pH and KH considering all of the other things that change the variables in the tank.
The drop checker should solve the problem. That article made good sense. Thank you so much!
I did order the drop checker so that should be here soon!
Thanks!

Just to reiterate what was in that article, just having the drop checker does nothing more then what you are doing now. You will need a reference solution to use with the drop checker to make it useful.

Here is a great guy who makes certified KH solutions for us aquarists:

http://liquidarthome.net/khstandard

Oh and your welcome.

Please don't hesitate to keep the questions coming.

Randy

 

[happygirl65]

Oh yes! That is awesome THANK YOU! That will make it easier....making my own would have been difficult and probably not as accurate.

Another question (you said keep them coming ) should I stop dosing phosphate since it seems to be so high?

 

[rkilling1]

Since your tap water appears to contain enough PO4 for the whole week, yes I would stop dosing it.

Just watch how your plants are doing. It will take several weeks to see any difference in the plants if they are lacking PO4's.

Your target PO4's should be around 1 - 2 PPM.

IMO, I would stop dosing it and continue to monitor the tank over the next month. You need to see how well your plants are consuming it before adding any more. That and increasing your CO2 concentration will make the plants need more nutrients (as they grow faster), so keep an eye out on all the other ferts as well.

 

[happygirl65]

Thank you so much! I have a drop checker and reference solution on the way! I also moved the direction of the flow of my filter and powerhead (greatly reducing the surface agitation) it is amazingly quiet now and the CO2 (judging by the pH monitor) seems a lot more stable. Hopefully by the end of the week I will have the drop checker installed and be able to tell where I need to go from there.
(YEAH!) Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it!

 

[happygirl65]

I got my drop checker and 4 dKH solution, it is in the tank now. I guess now we wait a couple of hours for it to stabilize!

 

[rkilling1]

I got my drop checker and 4 dKH solution, it is in the tank now. I guess now we wait a couple of hours for it to stabilize!

Excellent! Just remember that the drop checker is NOT the solution to your problem. It is just a tool to help you solve the problem that you have.

Once we get the CO2 taken care of, we will most likely have to work on the dosing of ferts.

 

[happygirl65]

True.

(My phosphate was still up around 5 after a 60% pwc today but it was pretty high before. I might have to do several pwc's to get that down to a level of 1-2)

I did my weekly water change today and added the drop checker after it was complete.

It has been 7 hours now. The solution is looking a nice shade of green (sort of a medium to dark green but definitely green) and I actually didn't even need to adjust the CO2 from what it was. I guess that just goes to show how inaccurate the pH/KH calculation method can be.

I did notice today however that when I went to clean the tank there was no new algae on my sword plants. There were just a few strands hanging on a ship decoration. Hopefully that is a good sign of things to come.

I have stopped dosing the phosphate and the rest remains the same.

 

[rkilling1]

That is good to hear. Much better then using the pH/KH method to increase your CO2 up to 30 ppm from 5. I could only imagine what the CO2 would have been at that level.

 

[happygirl65]

Y I K E S !!!