Great Green Algae Issues...

[CleverBs]

I have green algae growing on my driftwood, Amazon swords and wisteria or w/e its called. I have a T5HO light with 3x54watt bulbs, a 75 gallon tank, Co2, and I fertilize using K2SO4,KNO3,CMX+B,KH2PO4, Flourish Iron, and regular Flourish. I have Eco-complete substrate and 7 Oto's to help with any algae, I had brown algae and they destroyed it quickly however they dont seem to be helping with the green. what are some options I have for treating this? Should I just lower my lights to 1x54watt T5 or should I keep all my lights on? Because right now im just running 1 and have been for a few days. or are there other options Im not thinking of?

 

[BBradbury]

Good morning Clever...

Algae growth just means too much phosphate and high nitrate levels in the water. You likely have too many fish and not enough plants.

So, a natural remedy is to start an aggresive water change routine and add plants. Start changing half the water in the tank weekly and every water change, add a couple of fast growing plants that will consume a lot of tank nutrients. I have Water sprite floating, a couple of varieties of Hygrophila, Anacharis, Pennywort and Water wisteria.

Don't resort to "Algae Destroyers" that contain "Gluteraldehyde". Those chemicals kill algae very quickly, but the dead stuff floating in the tank, just creates more food for the next algae bloom.

It's best to control algae naturally. By limiting it's food source, it won't die, just grows very slowly and allows your fish to keep it under better control.

B

 

[CleverBs]

well I only have 7 otos and 5 Pearl Gouramies in my tank right now, and I have to dose Nitrates because when ever I do a water test they are at like 0-5ppm with my API test, so my plants are doing their job, maybe ill stop doseing it for a bit till it clears up, thank you very much for the information. If anyone has anything else to add please do so.

 

[aqua_chem]

I have green algae growing on my driftwood, Amazon swords and wisteria or w/e its called. I have a T5HO light with 3x54watt bulbs, a 75 gallon tank, Co2, and I fertilize using K2SO4,KNO3,CMX+B,KH2PO4, Flourish Iron, and regular Flourish. I have Eco-complete substrate and 7 Oto's to help with any algae, I had brown algae and they destroyed it quickly however they dont seem to be helping with the green. what are some options I have for treating this? Should I just lower my lights to 1x54watt T5 or should I keep all my lights on? Because right now im just running 1 and have been for a few days. or are there other options Im not thinking of?

"Green algae on driftwood" is incredibly ambiguous. It can be GDA, GSA, GBA, or other types. Each will have different remedies. A better description (including texture) or pictures would be helpful.

1) Are you doising according to EI, PPA, etc, or just spotting it?
2) Why are you using flourish AND dry ferts?
3) What's your photoperiod?

 

[aqua_chem]

Good morning Clever...

Algae growth just means too much phosphate and high nitrate levels in the water. You likely have too many fish and not enough plants.

So, a natural remedy is to start an aggresive water change routine and add plants. Start changing half the water in the tank weekly and every water change, add a couple of fast growing plants that will consume a lot of tank nutrients. I have Water sprite floating, a couple of varieties of Hygrophila, Anacharis, Pennywort and Water wisteria.

Don't resort to "Algae Destroyers" that contain "Gluteraldehyde". Those chemicals kill algae very quickly, but the dead stuff floating in the tank, just creates more food for the next algae bloom.

It's best to control algae naturally. By limiting it's food source, it won't die, just grows very slowly and allows your fish to keep it under better control.

B

1) Many algae types are caused by LOW phosphates, LOW nitrogen, or swings in nitrogen, not simply high levels. Algae implies an imbalance rather than too much of anything.

2) Excel is not bad. I think you may have had a bad experience it somewhere along the line, but it is mostly not detrimental to tanks, save for a few exceptions (Hornwort, vals though debated, Marimo balls). The 'food' for an algae bloom is the same as the food for plants, but regardless, I think that you're vastly overestimating the biomass of algae, especially GDA, etc. Many major contributors to other forums recommend directly dosing it to algae, or using it regularly. If it is such a bad chemical, why is it so widely used in planted tank. I heavily dosed it into a tank of fry without any deaths when it was having a hair algae outbreak. NO additional algae, but a fairly quick elimination of what I already had, and the wisteria went bonkers during that time.

 

[CleverBs]

"Green algae on driftwood" is incredibly ambiguous. It can be GDA, GSA, GBA, or other types. Each will have different remedies. A better description (including texture) or pictures would be helpful.

1) Are you doising according to EI, PPA, etc, or just spotting it?
2) Why are you using flourish AND dry ferts?
3) What's your photoperiod?

1) Im spot dosing
2) I was told to use both, I asked myself the same thing why use both?
3) 8 hours

 

[BBradbury]

1) Many algae types are caused by LOW phosphates, LOW nitrogen, or swings in nitrogen, not simply high levels. Algae implies an imbalance rather than too much of anything.

2) Excel is not bad. I think you may have had a bad experience it somewhere along the line, but it is mostly not detrimental to tanks, save for a few exceptions (Hornwort, vals though debated, Marimo balls). The 'food' for an algae bloom is the same as the food for plants, but regardless, I think that you're vastly overestimating the biomass of algae, especially GDA, etc. Many major contributors to other forums recommend directly dosing it to algae, or using it regularly. If it is such a bad chemical, why is it so widely used in planted tank. I heavily dosed it into a tank of fry without any deaths when it was having a hair algae outbreak. NO additional algae, but a fairly quick elimination of what I already had, and the wisteria went bonkers during that time.

As always, thanks for your opinion, your are absolutely entitled to it. I don't go along with the use of this chemcial. I think this is a "quick fix" and prefer to keep my tanks as natural as possible.

There are always natural alternatives we can use to fix errors in general tank managment.

Just an opinion from an "old school" water keeper.

B