Algae in mah tank...

[FishN00b83]

So I dont have any fish yet (hopefully I'll get some next week), and I am starting to get an assortment of algae. It's mostly on my driftwood right now, but it looks like I got white algae, green algae, hair algae (green and brown), and some black algae LOL. My fishless cycle has been over now for 2 weeks, and the only thing I've been adding to my tank is crushed coral, and ammonia (to keep the bio filter going until I get fish). What can be causing this right now? I have a lot of plants in the tank, could they have something to do with it? What do you guys think I should do?

[aqua_chem]

Two things.

One: It sounds to be light you have too much light and not enough CO2. Consider either dosing Excel or setting up DIY CO2. Or both. You also didn't say anything about fertilizers. Do you dose the tank at all?

Two: What kind of plants do you have? In order to head off algae, you need fast growing plants like stems. Wisteria is great for this if you can get some.

Also, if you haven't had any ammonia in the tank for two weeks, you might have wiped out your BB.

[FishN00b83]

Originally Posted by aqua_chem

Two things.

One: It sounds to be light you have too much light and not enough CO2. Consider either dosing Excel or setting up DIY CO2. Or both. You also didn't say anything about fertilizers. Do you dose the tank at all?

Two: What kind of plants do you have? In order to head off algae, you need fast growing plants like stems. Wisteria is great for this if you can get some.

Also, if you haven't had any ammonia in the tank for two weeks, you might have wiped out your BB.

As of right now I'm not dozing the tank. I just just finished my fishless cycle about 2 weeks ago, and I fully planted it a little over a week ago. I do plan on injecting co2 but I won't have the reactor till Monday, so it needs to wait until next weekend.

I have dwarf hair grass, green and red crypts, Italian vals, and java moss. Right now the only plants looking good are the green and red crypts, everything else is hurting. I've been keeping my 4x39 nova extreme on for 8 hours a day. First 3 hours I have 2x39, 2 hours I have 4x39, then the last 2 hours I have 2x39.

I've been dosing the ammonia to 4ppm everyday, and doing pwcs every 3 or 4 days to get the nitrates down. I'm really just waiting for my reactor to get here, then I can hook up the co2 and order most of my fish, hopefully my tank is stocked sometime next week. What should I do until then?

[aqua_chem]

With that level of light AND pressurized CO2, you're going to want (if not need) some sort of fertilizer. Otherwise, that'll be the limiting factor in plant growth and therefore algae suppression. Any one (or two) of the three requirement for plants (ferts, carbon, and light) makes a recipe for algae without the others. Hopefully your tank can bounce back from the algae foothold.


I will say that if I had another tank with equipment along those lines, I would try more 'exotic' plants, like glosso or various stems. Other than the DHW, none of those plants especially benefit from CO2 or high lighting.

[FishN00b83]

Do you have any suggestions as to what ferts I should be using?

I do like glosso, maybe ill put some in my tank.