Ammonia spike algae bloom?

[Bert2oo1]

Hey guys I've just had a huge algae bloom and wondering if I'm going the right way about dosing my tank with ferts etc.

Tank size 30g

Currently levels are (30min after dosing ferts)
Nitrate 25ppm
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0.5
Ph 7.2
Temp 75f

LED lighting:
High light (100+ par at substrate)

Co2:
Diy co2 2bps (was 1bps but bumped it to 2bps today to try and rid algae)

Filter:
Fluval 205 filter aimed at surface for for movement (all plants still wave in current)

Fish stock:
2x Angels
4x black neon tetra
2x ottos
2x Cory Dora's
1x mystery snail (I hate snails but the wife had to have one :s)

Fert dosing: pps pro daily dosing.
Daily dosing of:
6ppm no3
0.6ppm po4
0.6ppm mg
7.98ppm k

That's a weekly dose of:
42 ppm no3
4.2 ppm of po4
4.2 ppm of mg
55.8ppm of k

Plants:
3x crypt wendtii (brown)
1x Amazon sword
3x crypt spiralis
lilaeopsis carpet
Christmas moss tree and rock

Substrate:
Fluval soil topped with Eco complete and root tabs

Tank has been running for 6 weeks now, tank is fully cycled (seeded media from start up)

Plant growth is very good (crypts have quadrupled in size and my carpet is spreading nicely. Moss is exploding with growth and my sword pearls most days of the week.

Everything has been running like a dream since a week ago where I got a bloom of GSA. I wiped down the glass with a magnet and did my weekly 50% water change. GSA came back after 2 days.

Now I'm seeing a tiny spot of BBA on a rock in the tank and I've had an explosion of what looks like staghorn algae. It's all over the glass, filter hoses and my plants.

Would all this algae be a cause of my ammonia spike? I took my carbon out of the filter yesterday as it would be exhausted. Could it be possible that I left the carb in there for too long and it has released everything it has absorbed and caused the ammonia spike and the crazy algae outbreak?
It was in the filter for about 4 weeks.

Also could my test results be wrong due to fert dosing?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as this is my first high light tank. Thanks guys






30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

 

[Bert2oo1]

Also forgot to add that I was away on the weekend so I missed my Sunday water change but did the 50% on Monday instead


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

 

[Fresh2o]

You should get a phosphate kit and measure the phosphate level. Using GLA's standard PPS-Pro dosing rate (1.0 mL/10 gallons), I was getting a reading of 1-2 ppm phosphate. And lots of GSA. I bumped up the phosphate to 3x as much in the next macro batch I made up and it resulted in a phosphate level between 5-10 ppm. The GSA went away with within a weeks or so.
I usually zap BBA with hydrogen peroxide or excel. Usually appears if I forget to change the water or if water changes become sporadic.
Staghorn...not sure how to treat this. I've had it or something close to it on some plants that I did not have luck with (Rotala wallichii). It fortunately did not spread to the rest of the tank.


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[Bert2oo1]

You should get a phosphate kit and measure the phosphate level. Using GLA's standard PPS-Pro dosing rate (1.0 mL/10 gallons), I was getting a reading of 1-2 ppm phosphate. And lots of GSA. I bumped up the phosphate to 3x as much in the next macro batch I made up and it resulted in a phosphate level between 5-10 ppm. The GSA went away with within a weeks or so.
I usually zap BBA with hydrogen peroxide or excel. Usually appears if I forget to change the water or if water changes become sporadic.
Staghorn...not sure how to treat this. I've had it or something close to it on some plants that I did not have luck with (Rotala wallichii). It fortunately did not spread to the rest of the tank.


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Awesome I'll grab a kit tomorrow and see what it's at, did a water change after giving it all a good scrub so hopefully it stays away if I up the co2 and phosphate


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

 

[Bert2oo1]

So I got a phosphate kit and it turns out I have about 2ppm of phosphate so I've tripled the dose to make it around 6-8ppm I'll update on my algae issue in a week or so and see if it gone, staghorn seems to be disappearing after a good scrub and a water change.


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

 

[Delapool]

Lol on the snail

Sorry if I missed this but how long are you running lights for and is that measured par at substrate level? That's pretty high par as I understand it so would be looking to back off the length (or intensity) to more moderate plant growth levels if algae persists.

Dosing excel or liquid carbon I find will discourage BBA. Won't kill it completely so I spot dose with h2o2. Try a small area first in case plants don't like it. Also plants may need to adjust to any liquid carbon dosing -start off half dosing if you do.

Also for some reason I find ammonia readings will be linked to green algae on the glass in my tank. Root tabs I find can result in a small ammonia spike so one to watch.

Carbon won't release back into the water. The temperature needs to be much higher than a normal oven before it will do that. However I'd assume that if elements are bonded to organics and the organics decay, then you might get some element release (haven't read up on that properly though).

Increasing co2 sounds good. Ph and nitrates I thought looked good.

 

[Bert2oo1]

@delapool thanks for the reply, yea that's at substrate level according to the specs of the maker of my lights.
However I start up at 20% power and amp up to 100% over 2 hours then 100% for 4 hours then lower to 1% over 2 hours then off after an hour (last hours just for viewing when I get home)
The lights are pretty intense I was thinking of knocking them back abit if the algae doesn't go away

Stupid snail.


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

 

[Delapool]

Yes, maybe lower the 100% and work back up as needed. I've found it is best to go really, really low and work back up rather than trying to lower slightly (but I get too attracted to the light "bling").


Hopefully the increased CO2 helps. Is the filter running to push the CO2 around?

 

[Bert2oo1]

@delapool yes I've got my co2 line running into my filter intake, works a treat


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

 

[Delapool]

@delapool yes I've got my co2 line running into my filter intake, works a treat


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

Sounds great, out of interest do you get any impeller wear doing that (wondering if that is an urban myth). Was just curious as have a different setup.


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[Bert2oo1]

Not that I have noticed yet but the tanks only been running for about 7 weeks so far so abit soon to tell


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

 

[Fresh2o]

Sounds great, out of interest do you get any impeller wear doing that (wondering if that is an urban myth). Was just curious as have a different setup.


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I've been running CO2 into the same HOB filter intake for 3 years (1 year DIY + 2 years pressurized) with no change in performance (output, noise). I only clean the impeller area maybe once or twice a year at best.


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[Delapool]

I've been running CO2 into the same HOB filter intake for 3 years (1 year DIY + 2 years pressurized) with no change in performance (output, noise). I only clean the impeller area maybe once or twice a year at best.


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Thanks everyone for replies.

That's about what I'm doing with the internal U4 filter as it sits above one co2 outlet. Only clean it completely several times a year and it's only played up once. This may have been as I hadn't cleaned it for a long time as has been fine since. Touch wood!

I was just thinking about it as the tunze diffusers have impellers on a powerhead to chop up the bubbles and seem none the worse for the co2 or getting overloaded every so often.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Yea I run a diffuser under the intake so the bubbles are small before they even go into my canister, and because there so fine I get no impella chatter or anything, works mint ?


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

 

[Bert2oo1]

Bit of an update, pulled off a lot of BBA off my moss and upped my phosphates to 5 ppm downed my lighting by 20% and gave it a zap with excel, haven't seen any new growth so that's good, GSA is no existent but I've got got the little hair algae everywhere on my glass/ microswords. Going to give the glass etc a good scrub before I water change in a few days, hopefully it doesn't come back. Growth is still going strong. I'm chewing through the diy co2 so I'm looking into getting pressurised over the next month or so (dam it's expensive)


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

 

[Caliban07]

Bit of an update, pulled off a lot of BBA off my moss and upped my phosphates to 5 ppm downed my lighting by 20% and gave it a zap with excel, haven't seen any new growth so that's good, GSA is no existent but I've got got the little hair algae everywhere on my glass/ microswords. Going to give the glass etc a good scrub before I water change in a few days, hopefully it doesn't come back. Growth is still going strong. I'm chewing through the diy co2 so I'm looking into getting pressurised over the next month or so (dam it's expensive)


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

When you get pressurised co2 dialled in to a consistent, adequate rate. Your algae woes will subside dramatically.


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[Bert2oo1]

When you get pressurised co2 dialled in to a consistent, adequate rate. Your algae woes will subside dramatically.


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Yea I'm going to go for max growth so I'll be hitting 3 bps straight up and dosing a heap of ferts, I just can't resist seeing plants grow daily haha


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

 

[Bert2oo1]

Also I'll be getting a reactor but I was wondering do I need to change my fluval hoses to non ribbed? I'd imagine the ribbed hoses wouldn't seal as well as the normal ones? Can u fit normal hose to fluval canisters?


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

 

[Caliban07]

Also I'll be getting a reactor but I was wondering do I need to change my fluval hoses to non ribbed? I'd imagine the ribbed hoses wouldn't seal as well as the normal ones? Can u fit normal hose to fluval canisters?


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

I'm not sure to be honest bud. I don't think you can but I know you can get an UP inline atomiser to fit depending on which canister you have. I'm not sure about reactors though.


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[Bert2oo1]

I'm not sure to be honest bud. I don't think you can but I know you can get an UP inline atomiser to fit depending on which canister you have. I'm not sure about reactors though.


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Ah cool I might go that way then. Do Inlines clog up like in tank ones? I'd have to get 2 then yea? Just cleaned all my filter and hoses heater and gave the glass a good scrub and it's back to looking mint again. Hopefully then light turns on tomorrow and it's not all back!


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank