Hair Algae

[HiJaC]

Hi,

Ive gone through and beaten black brush algae.

I've finally knocked the green slime (cyno) algae on the head a few months ago.

Now i seem to be getting some fine hair algae developing on leaves around the tank. No scary as yet but its a new one on me.

A light covering, a few mm long, reasonably widely spaced apart.

I think it was triggered by a new trace mix I made up two weeks ago which i think was twice as strong as my last mix.

For the last week i've been underdosing the mix but the algae is still here if not slowly spreading.

What should I do? Other then hoping my 5 oto's and 10 amano shrimp get their asses in gear and munch it all.

Thanks,

Jac

edit - looking a bit more (and using the wonderful "search" function of the site) i should correct myself in saying I have fuzz algae according to GWAPA:

Am i safe to assume that overdosing traces would cause a slight outbreak?

 

[Purrbox]

Over dosing the Traces shouldn't be an issue. Likely there is something that is bottoming out and causing the problem. What size aquarium, how much light, CO2, Fert schedule?

 

[neilanh]

Agreed, you've got something lacking in your fert regime. I, however, believe the heavy traces is what may have triggered it. High iron content is known to be a likely culprit. Check this link out GWAPA:

Heavy dosing of Excel (initial dose daily) for 3-5 days should clear it up, but won't keep it from coming back if you don't isolate the cause.

 

[HiJaC]

Hi,

Definately Fuzz Algae.

Its been less obvious but still present in the last few days. I'm half dosing my traces (as I think i made the solution twice as strong as last time) and the clean up crew have been working on the fuzz.

The tank is the 46G corner tank thats covered in the scaping section.

Has 2x 24w HO t5 plant arcadia plant bulbs with arcadia reflectors on for 9 hours a day. I would estimate roughly 2 wpg in "old money".

Params (i actually had to fish out the test kits for once!).

CO2 - 30ppm
PH - 6.3

NO2 - 0 ppm
NO3 - 10 ppm
PO4 - 2.5 ppm

GH - 3
KH - 4.5

Dosing

I use a cut down version of EI. This is partially due to my lower light, part due to easier schedule, part due to my naturally extreamely high phosphate content of the tap water (5 ppm).

Currently

Monday - 50% water change, 10 ppm N, 8.8 ppm K
Tuesday - Trace elements, 3.3 ppm Mg
Wednesday - Nothing
Thursday - 10 ppm N, 8.8 ppm K
Friday - Trace elements, 3.3 ppm Mg
Saturday - Nothing
Sunday - Nothing

As someone pointed out before my trace elements mix (link below) didnt contain any magnesium so i dosed that seperately (the site which supplied the traces also has MgSO4 so people can make their own GH mix).

Trace Elements mix - 100g [TR125] - £5.50 : Aqua Essentials

I would say that current tank post cyno and bba is has probably the highest plant biomass of any time in the past, thanks to some **** healthy growth.

Looking at my test results (i havnt tested in a while) the phosphate does seem lower then it used to be (tested 3 days into the week schedule) and potentially might actually be bottoming out by the end of the week. But i don't have much of a gauge on comparable phosphate absorbtion rates in other tanks.

Another thing i'd been musing on for a month or so now was dosing Calcium Sulphate in addition to the Magnesium Sulphate as the trace mix contains no Calcium.

But i was reassured that my KH and GH were both where i expected them to be since i last tested them a year ago.

The only other thing id think of mentioning right now is i'm not totally happy with my CO2 distribution (glass diffuser thingy) around the tank, as there are spots near the front of the glass where the water movement isnt that great were bba is trying to get going on some slower growing or shaded plants.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks,

Jac

 

[Purrbox]

Have you calibrated your Nitrate test kit? At level under 20ppm they can be inaccurate. As a result it's possible that your levels are much closer to bottoming out than the test indicates.

 

[HiJaC]

Have you calibrated your Nitrate test kit? At level under 20ppm they can be inaccurate. As a result it's possible that your levels are much closer to bottoming out than the test indicates.

nope,

give me a good calibration method.

edit - actually i'm being lazy there. ill head over to my solution calculator page and make up some calibration solution.

edit 2 - using this thread from mr barr's forums K2SO4 dosage - Page 2 - Aquarium Plants - Barr Report ive made up 40 ppm and 10 ppm calibration solutions and checked my test.

Results - WHOA i can't believe how off it is... makes me glad i've gone EI and not bothered testing.

Comparisons between the tank sample the 10 ppm cal solution and the 40 ppm cal solution do however make me believe my actual NO3 ppm to be higher then 15 ppm but lower then say 25 - 30 ppm.

So unless the bottoming out happens say on sunday i dont think the issue is that....

Where to look next?

Thanks for the help so far,

Jac

 

[HiJaC]

hi,

looking closely at my slower growing plants i can see some outbreaks of green spots. this i know is caused by phosphate deficencies, so i'm now thinking this is my issue.

the plant biomass in the tank may have reached a level where the amounts in my tap water are not enough to sustain things in balance throughout the week.

beyond that there might be variations in the amount of phosphate in the tap water ive not taken into account.

Jac

 

[HiJaC]

Lo,

Found a few things that most probably caused this....

1 - made the trace solution too strong as mentioned above.
2 - at the same time i tweaked the light timer, but accidentally set it to run for 13 hours not 9.
3 - my heater seems to have blown its fuze sometime last week.



I'm changing the tank now, thankfully my algae crew have been having a great time and have managed to clean up most of the fuzz.

Another thing i didnt mention that ive noticed in the same time period was small white spots/scratches appearing on a few Tiger Lotus and A. Nana leaves.

I tried and somewhat failed to take a picture of it...

I'm going to start dosing phosphate anyway, a little towards the later part of the week. Although my tap water is very high in phosphate, i imagine the amount does fluctuate depentant on the local weather and farming in the catchments to the area's reservoirs.

Best Regards,

Jac