Algae identification and advice

[ZxC]

I'm also starting to think it's more light related. Both PAR, PUR and Spectrum might be favoring algae growth instead of plant growth.

 

[Potluck]

I'm also starting to think it's more light related. Both PAR, PUR and Spectrum might be favoring algae growth instead of plant growth.

How would I know without a par meter, there's 5 different colors to adjust pink, blue, cool white, pure white, warm white , before when I had it set too low for 4.5 hours I got bga, I turned it up and did chemiclean and it went away, what levels am I looking for, I was told 35-45 par, my Light is 6500 k
Reason I turned it up was because the lower leaves on the plants were dying, the pearlweed grows great except it does have brown hair all In It which is impossible to remove off that spicific plant, I would figure if the light was to Low the plants wouldn't grow if to high I know it causes algae / exhausts c02 if not running high tech.

 

[Potluck]

Sometimes aquarium clubs have PAR meters? Or you could buy one so I could borrow it

Lol I wish, I don't have that kinda money [emoji23][emoji23]

 

[Potluck]

This is the plant preset that comes in the programming of the light
https://i.imgur.com/1LwjtQr.jpg
This is what I have the light set at as that preset caused a whole slew of green algae
https://i.imgur.com/m88Zawz.jpg

 

[Caliban07]

It is the intensity that matters. Anything else is marketing jargon. To measure the intensity you’re right, you do need a PAR meter but you can also look at the tank and say, something isn’t right here. I wouldn’t worry about plants not getting enough light. I don’t really think this is something we need to be worried about at all. I’ve come across so many cases of shaded plants growing perfectly healthy. Even in my own experience my hairgrass grew better when duckweed shaded it although I did have nutrients in the water column then I also had algae too.

Here. This is from a friend on my group who works at the University of Alberta. He is scientist and does have a PAR meter.

‘I have tanks sitting in front of West-facing window that get quite a bit of direct sunlight, especially in Summer and have seen very little in terms of algae overgrowth. I do have some low-light tank with green algae forming velvety sheets over sand, glass or plants. The tank next to it may be fine. I haven't figured what makes the difference but started adding mulm from healthy thanks to the ones with algae that don't tend to have any mulm.

And when I asked him about light.

‘I can tell you the low end of the range. Some plants below a thick cover of floating plants were growing in less than 0.5 PAR, e.g. the instrument read zero. I don't recall the upper end by heart and would be quite a range depending on which tank. If you are interested in the highest intensities I have to dig up my logbook and see if I wrote it in there’

0.5 PAR although he didn’t say what plants. We have to be really careful about adding too much light. If you are carbon limited, there is literally no point at all. I ran high light for 3 weeks and I suspect and longer might have seen a bit more algae. Only algae I did see formed on the very old leaves. Some possibly even transitional leaves. Other than the Algae on the glass and leaves (GSA) the plants neither died, grew faster, grew slower, melted. Nothing they just stayed the same because there is some other limiting factor but the tank is completely stable.

 

[Potluck]

It is the intensity that matters. Anything else is marketing jargon. To measure the intensity you’re right, you do need a PAR meter but you can also look at the tank and say, something isn’t right here. I wouldn’t worry about plants not getting enough light. I don’t really think this is something we need to be worried about at all. I’ve come across so many cases of shaded plants growing perfectly healthy. Even in my own experience my hairgrass grew better when duckweed shaded it although I did have nutrients in the water column then I also had algae too.

Here. This is from a friend on my group who works at the University of Alberta. He is scientist and does have a PAR meter.

‘I have tanks sitting in front of West-facing window that get quite a bit of direct sunlight, especially in Summer and have seen very little in terms of algae overgrowth. I do have some low-light tank with green algae forming velvety sheets over sand, glass or plants. The tank next to it may be fine. I haven't figured what makes the difference but started adding mulm from healthy thanks to the ones with algae that don't tend to have any mulm.

And when I asked him about light.

‘I can tell you the low end of the range. Some plants below a thick cover of floating plants were growing in less than 0.5 PAR, e.g. the instrument read zero. I don't recall the upper end by heart and would be quite a range depending on which tank. If you are interested in the highest intensities I have to dig up my logbook and see if I wrote it in there’

0.5 PAR although he didn’t say what plants. We have to be really careful about adding too much light. If you are carbon limited, there is literally no point at all. I ran high light for 3 weeks and I suspect and longer might have seen a bit more algae. Only algae I did see formed on the very old leaves. Some possibly even transitional leaves. Other than the Algae on the glass and leaves (GSA) the plants neither died, grew faster, grew slower, melted. Nothing they just stayed the same because there is some other limiting factor but the tank is completely stable.

Yeah I dont worry too much about k rating as I've seen tanks grown In 3500k 6500k 10k 12 k and they all look amazing, I know my light (can't remember the values my friend gave me) was 52 par at 16 ", but I have read that blue spectrum does cause algae as welll as to Much blue leaves stunt and grow small, but then again I can probably find articles that contradict that, my Light at full intensity is 82 par which is way to high for low tech, only because I would exhaust the co2 levels in the tank as I don't inject co2, I have both filters on full a 425 gph powerhead, I did watch a video where flow caused hair algae which kinda makes sense in my case as the area where the hair algae is at is directly under the outflows of my filters but I have no Idea how to fix that.

 

[Caliban07]

Yeah I dont worry too much about k rating as I've seen tanks grown In 3500k 6500k 10k 12 k and they all look amazing, I know my light (can't remember the values my friend gave me) was 52 par at 16 ", but I have read that blue spectrum does cause algae as welll as to Much blue leaves stunt and grow small, but then again I can probably find articles that contradict that, my Light at full intensity is 82 par which is way to high for low tech, only because I would exhaust the co2 levels in the tank as I don't inject co2, I have both filters on full a 425 gph powerhead, I did watch a video where flow caused hair algae which kinda makes sense in my case as the area where the hair algae is at is directly under the outflows of my filters but I have no Idea how to fix that.

There are so many articles out there created just to frighten people and they are usually backed up by very little and nothing more than anecdotal evidence. A bit like EI. You will not see any peer reviewed studies on that. Yes it can work great for some (in terms of plant growth) but others just can’t seem to get it to work and believe me, I’m talking scientists or at least people much much smarter than I am. It’s not a case that because I struggled it must be the method. The method is extremely easy to follow yet for one reason or another it caused too many issues in my tanks. Snails and shrimp really don’t like the co2 and I like to keep them as part of my ecosystems.

Visible light contains all wavelengths of light plants require to photosynthesise so whether its a planted + or a store bought T8 it really is irrelevant. At best, they could potentially be some subtle growth morphologies under different wavelengths but I doubt anything noticeable. The key is the number of photons the light source emits over a certain area over a certain time. If the PAR is high you have lots of photons striking the plants which is completely pointless if you have some other limiting factor.

Fish and plants like stability. Stable parameters mostly all of the time. If you give them time and keep things stable they will adapt but you need patience.

Adding chemicals upsets the biofilter and causes issues further down the line.

 

[Potluck]

There are so many articles out there created just to frighten people and they are usually backed up by very little and nothing more than anecdotal evidence. A bit like EI. You will not see any peer reviewed studies on that. Yes it can work great for some (in terms of plant growth) but others just can’t seem to get it to work and believe me, I’m talking scientists or at least people much much smarter than I am. It’s not a case that because I struggled it must be the method. The method is extremely easy to follow yet for one reason or another it caused too many issues in my tanks. Snails and shrimp really don’t like the co2 and I like to keep them as part of my ecosystems.

Visible light contains all wavelengths of light plants require to photosynthesise so whether its a planted + or a store bought T8 it really is irrelevant. At best, they could potentially be some subtle growth morphologies under different wavelengths but I doubt anything noticeable. The key is the number of photons the light source emits over a certain area over a certain time. If the PAR is high you have lots of photons striking the plants which is completely pointless if you have some other limiting factor.

Fish and plants like stability. Stable parameters mostly all of the time. If you give them time and keep things stable they will adapt but you need patience.

Adding chemicals upsets the biofilter and causes issues further down the line.

I can't do my weekly water change this week because I pulled my traps and have minor vertigo because of it, I went to start it and just got so frustrated pulling out hair algae I finished that and just put the lids back on, the hair algae I pulled out smells so I don't know if that's significant or not, but I literally pulled out clumps and clumps and more clumps, I know I'm Against it as well as you and others but I put 10 ml of excel In the tank and I'll see if that helps or hurts until Tuesday when I go back to the Dr to see if I'm off weight restriction, tank parameters are good or I would of violated my Dr's orders to make sure my fish wouldn't die, I just have no inspiration anymore, everything was great then boom its a nightmare.

 

[Caliban07]

I can't do my weekly water change this week because I pulled my traps and have minor vertigo because of it, I went to start it and just got so frustrated pulling out hair algae I finished that and just put the lids back on, the hair algae I pulled out smells so I don't know if that's significant or not, but I literally pulled out clumps and clumps and more clumps, I know I'm Against it as well as you and others but I put 10 ml of excel In the tank and I'll see if that helps or hurts until Tuesday when I go back to the Dr to see if I'm off weight restriction, tank parameters are good or I would of violated my Dr's orders to make sure my fish wouldn't die, I just have no inspiration anymore, everything was great then boom its a nightmare.

Why don’t you use this unfortunate reason for being unable to do water changes to test the no water change method? Turn the light down and just feed a small of amount of fish food daily. That is it. It honestly sounds like this is the best method for you.

 

[Potluck]

Why don’t you use this unfortunate reason for being unable to do water changes to test the no water change method? Turn the light down and just feed a small of amount of fish food daily. That is it. It honestly sounds like this is the best method for you.

I'm afraid I Don't have the plant mass to pull it off, I don't have a big robust plant mass, I can try and just watch parameters

 

[Caliban07]

I'm afraid I Don't have the plant mass to pull it off, I don't have a big robust plant mass, I can try and just watch parameters

The mass will come. Just leave the tank alone. Then you will see. Maybe provide some gentle surface agitation. Don’t overfeed at first. Few pinches twice a day. Watch the algae die and the plants begin to grow. I

 

[Potluck]

The mass will come. Just leave the tank alone. Then you will see. Maybe provide some gentle surface agitation. Don’t overfeed at first. Few pinches twice a day. Watch the algae die and the plants begin to grow. I

What I mean by that is I only have crypts, an Amazon 3 Wisteria , a lot of rotala, anubias, bacopa, moneywatmrt 1 water sprite pearlweed, meaning I need more nutrient hogging plants

 

[Caliban07]

What I mean by that is I only have crypts, an Amazon 3 Wisteria , a lot of rotala, anubias, bacopa, moneywatmrt 1 water sprite pearlweed, meaning I need more nutrient hogging plants

There’s a few fast growers in that list. I had wisteria fill out a whole tank on nothing but fish and fish food. Crawled along the substrate.

 

[Potluck]

There’s a few fast growers in that list. I had wisteria fill out a whole tank on nothing but fish and fish food. Crawled along the substrate.

Yeah but mine aren't growing fast, literally about 1/2 inch every 2 2-1/2 weeks, which has me baffled.

I did lower the light a lot maybe the light was too high which again makes no sense to me.

 

[Caliban07]

Yeah but mine aren't growing fast, literally about 1/2 inch every 2 2-1/2 weeks, which has me baffled.

I did lower the light a lot maybe the light was too high which again makes no sense to me.

Ok, carry on doing what you’re doing. Ive run out of ways to explain to you you need to be patient.

 

[Potluck]

Ok, carry on doing what you’re doing. Ive run out of ways to explain to you you need to be patient.

The Wisteria has been In the tank for 5 months, I'm Simply confused as people said it will Grow out.Of the tank In less than A Month, well mine isn't its very slow

 

[Delapool]

Unless floating near surface CO2 or planted in dirt, I find low light tanks to be slow growth. Nothing happens for ages.

 

[Potluck]

Unless floating near surface CO2 or planted in dirt, I find low light tanks to be slow growth. Nothing happens for ages.

Okay that makes sense, that's where I was confused, I hit the Wisteria thinking it would take over the tank in just a few months

 

[Caliban07]

Okay that makes sense, that's where I was confused, I hit the Wisteria thinking it would take over the tank in just a few months

It depends. In my tank the light was crap but I had lots of swordtails and the tank was small. Little overflow filter for o2. Plain gravel.

The fish must have been pumping out a decent amount of co2 and ammonia. The wisteria was on only plant in the tank. It all depends but if you’re limited. Growth will be slow.

 

[Potluck]

It depends. In my tank the light was crap but I had lots of swordtails and the tank was small. Little overflow filter for o2. Plain gravel.

The fish must have been pumping out a decent amount of co2 and ammonia. The wisteria was on only plant in the tank. It all depends but if you’re limited. Growth will be slow.

I think I have enough fish but I feel my light was set way too high, which was exhausting the c02 produced by them as well as ambient c02, I have my light turned way down now about 45-50% from 70-75%, is an Over flow filter a hob ? I have 2 hobs and a hydor 425 gph WaveMaker and a neo diffuser air stone