algea driving me crazy

[Passatryde]

So ive been buying some plants over the past couple months and a couple of them had a bit of algea on them. now ive started noticing it growing rapidly onto other plants /things...and i need help to stop it. i have approx 2watts per gallon of t5o 6500k light that is probably on about 12-14 hours a day. i havent really done much in the sense of ferts... I did one round of api root tabs about 2 months ago. Then a couple weeks back i started with flourish but it seemed (couldve been my imagination) that a couple of my plants would react to it negatively... The areas of new growth seemed to wilt and die off so i havent put it back in for a week or so now. no co2.

Please help me stop this nuisance...you can see it on the edges of the sword and if you look under the rasbora on the left you can see where it is getting long and stringy.

 

[aqua_chem]

When you have high light, your plants will need ferts and carbon, period. It's likely you're not providing enough of either from what you're described.

 

[Tropicallie]

You are keeping your lights on way too long. It will help if you cut down on light time

 

[Passatryde]

You are keeping your lights on way too long. It will help if you cut down on light time

Thanks....i kinda figured that was contributing... How long should i keep them on? I also added some plant tabs... Any other suggestions?

 

[Passatryde]

You are keeping your lights on way too long. It will help if you cut down on light time

Any other ideas?

 

[abrage22]

Otos my friend, those things keep my tank spotless, and my plant light is on almost 12 hours everyday on my shallow 20L.

 

[blert]

Otos my friend, those things keep my tank spotless, and my plant light is on almost 12 hours everyday on my shallow 20L.

No offense but, IMO you should never buy a fish to perform a job. The root of the problem needs to be solved or the problem will just continue. Aqua-Chem is right-on, listen to him.

Cut your lights down to about eight hours a day. Split it if you want to, four hours in the morning and four at night.

 

[ozmo]

I personally don't believe increasing ferts will decrease algae. More than likely it will promote algae growth.

Whenever I've had issues with algae growth, in my planted tanks, I add RCS which have no problems eliminating and actually thrive on all the algae growth.

Hope that helps!

 

[abrage22]

No offense but, IMO you should never buy a fish to perform a job. The root of the problem needs to be solved or the problem will just continue. Aqua-Chem is right-on, listen to him.

Cut your lights down to about eight hours a day. Split it if you want to, four hours in the morning and four at night.

They love algae, so I've never understood the logic in this. The problem can't continue if there's fish in their to eat it before you can even see it...

 

[BBradbury]

Controlling Algae

So ive been buying some plants over the past couple months and a couple of them had a bit of algea on them. now ive started noticing it growing rapidly onto other plants /things...and i need help to stop it. i have approx 2watts per gallon of t5o 6500k light that is probably on about 12-14 hours a day. i havent really done much in the sense of ferts... I did one round of api root tabs about 2 months ago. Then a couple weeks back i started with flourish but it seemed (couldve been my imagination) that a couple of my plants would react to it negatively... The areas of new growth seemed to wilt and die off so i havent put it back in for a week or so now. no co2.

Please help me stop this nuisance...you can see it on the edges of the sword and if you look under the rasbora on the left you can see where it is getting long and stringy.

Hello Pass...

Algae is a primitive plant and will take advantage of extra dissolved food in the water. Large water changes will remove extra nutrients if there are any, so I'd start with removing and replacing half the tank water weekly. This way, you guarantee stable water conditions.

You can add a fasting day for the fish once per week too. This will cut down a little on the nutrients in the water.

Most aquarium plants are tropical, so they do well with long hours of daylight. 14 hours is quite a bit, though. Set your timer to 12 hours for a couple of weeks and see how the algae is affected.

Plants just need, water, nutrients and light and that unfortunately, includes algae. I think the most effective approach to dealing with algae is to remove it's food source.

Ramshorn snails are also an effective means of removing algae, but they're very fast breeders and some don't care for piles of them in the corners of the tank.

Just some things to consider or not.

B

 

[aqua_chem]

The actual effect that algae eaters will have on algae is a subtle. If you have a gross imbalance, then algae eaters won't be able to keep up, especially with respect to some of the more hardy algae species (BBA, GSA, etc).

This of it like this. Algae eaters are simply a 'vitamin' for your tank. You won't cure any disease by taking your daily vitamins, but you will have a healthier body in the long run because of it, and might not come down with something that you otherwise would have. That being said, no amount of 'vitamins' will prevent injury if you get in an accident without a seatbelt (high light w/o CO2 and ferts), so plan accordingly.

As an aside, otos won't eat any of the algae species that you have described in your tank.

 

[ozmo]

As an aside, otos won't eat any of the algae species that you have described in your tank.

I agree but shrimp (RCS) will make a nice meal out of it and also become an aesthetically pleasing addition to the aquarium.

 

[aqua_chem]

I agree but shrimp (RCS) will make a nice meal out of it and also become an aesthetically pleasing addition to the aquarium.

Also a delicious one, depending on the tank setup.

 

[Daxhua]

So ive been buying some plants over the past couple months and a couple of them had a bit of algea on them. now ive started noticing it growing rapidly onto other plants /things...and i need help to stop it. i have approx 2watts per gallon of t5o 6500k light that is probably on about 12-14 hours a day. i havent really done much in the sense of ferts... I did one round of api root tabs about 2 months ago. Then a couple weeks back i started with flourish but it seemed (couldve been my imagination) that a couple of my plants would react to it negatively... The areas of new growth seemed to wilt and die off so i havent put it back in for a week or so now. no co2.

Please help me stop this nuisance...you can see it on the edges of the sword and if you look under the rasbora on the left you can see where it is getting long and stringy.

I was in the same boat as you when I started planting my aquarium, I think your creating an imbalance with too much light / liquid fertilizer and not enough carbon or CO2. Maybe a high nitrate level from over feeding or too much fish waste. Start using flourish excel to provide your plants with carbon and combat algae, also keep manually removing algae to help your plants get a head start. Blue lighting also helps algae growth so if you have any blue lights on your tank get rid of them at least until you get your algae problem under control.
Heres what I did and what I observed happening to my plants. I started with seachem root tabs, daily adding flourish excel and lights on for 12hrs. It took a while for my plants to acclimate when they did they took off then stopped and I started seeing algae take over. I cut my lights to 8hrs, added an extra root tab to each plant, and doubled the daily dose on excel. Plant growth gradually improved and slowly started to outcompete algae growth. After a couple of months the plants health was starting to decline and I still had a few patches of algae hear and there but nothing serious. I noticed that my nitrate level was zero so I started adding flourish nitrogen and decided to also add flourish trace. Plant health/growth started to improve then I started adding iron which is what really helped give my plants that extra boost. Right now I'm dosing triple the recommended amount of excel for my 54gal daily, dose recommended amount of flourish iron three times a week, flourish trace twice a week, nitrogen once a week, lights are still on for only 8hrs and I still add root tabs every 3 months. My different types of swords, crypts, lotus plants, and wisteria are doing really well and now I can't find any algae in my tank.
My point to all this is focus on your plant's needs because they're the ones that are going to kick the algae's butt out of the water. Then you can start considering adding an algae eater to help keep algae a bay which will improve plant growth.