Eggheadfish
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hahahaha
I just can't stop my algae attack so I have just given up. I know how to reduce it's growth but it is too rapid a growth. Anyone else let there algae grow or actually enjoy the natural algae look?
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I read that algae grows back faster every time you scrub it. I also read that all healthy tanks will grow algae. As long as the algae is green and grows in to a type of hair algae then this indicates no really water quality issues. It says that algae that grows red or brown could indicate a water quality issue.
I have no problem with the decor I algae. It's just that glass! I am going to heavily stock the tank with live plants to try and compete for the nutrients.
I also read that water companies add some kind of phosphates to tap water to protect against lead and other heavy metals forming in pipework as whatever they add is a cheaper method than changing all the piping.
I don't know how true all this is. Tuesday is plants day at the LFS.
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Theres so much wrong here Cal im afraid.
Algae is the result of an imbalance of light, co2 and ferts.
If you look at most 'pro' aquascapers tanks you will not see algae, or very little algae at the most. This does not mean their tanks are unhealthy.
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Yes I think you misunderstood what I was saying there skelly. I didn't mean that tanks with no algae were unhealthy ones just that tanks with algae that look dirty are not necessarily unhealthy tanks either.
I was under the impression that algae require minimal amounts of nutrients and accompanied with light and co2. The plants I did have died. I think that was mainly because my algae was taking over. I think co2 and nutrients (not added) are too in abundance with little to no plants available to take some of them in. I'm hoping that when I add some new plants the algae will cut back to the reduced amounts of these nutrients and light competition.
When you say imbalanced what exactly do you mean? My heavily planted tank in the front room has no algae and the set up is practically the same. The only difference is the lighting is t5's with the algae issue as opposed to t8' without.
I didn't mean that water companies adding stuff to water was a direct cause of the problem but more adds to it.
I'm going to add plants and watch the algae disappear slowly.
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Maybe the t5s you are using are old enough that the light color is no longer useful. Maybe the light color is wrong in the first place. I always buy a bulb with about 7500k light color every 9 months to ensure they're getting good light. The color is important. Below 5000k is supposed to be useless for plants but good enough for algae. Something to check out anyway. The t5s should give you far better plant growth. Do you use CO2?
Caliban the tubes wont be the issue.
Are you aware that a t5 fixture produces higher intensity light than a t8 fixture.
Depending on duration of lighting and distance of fixture might be generating higher lighting levels and causing the imbalance.
Light level is what dictates a plants growth pattern.
High light - plant grows fast (more energy available to it)
Low light - plant grows slower (less energy available to it)
If a plant is growing slowly its not requiring co2 or ferts at a great rate. This is why in a low tech setup the fish can create the necessary ferts and co2 is present in high enough levels through surface agitation/gaseous exchange and fish respiration (contribution small)
Now if this light level is increased the growth is sped up. Plants start demanding higher levels of co2 and ferts. So much so that the naturally occurring levels are not sufficient. The starvation of the co2 supply is what causes the algae. Starvation of ferts shows in plant deficiencies.
Hope its making sense so far!
So if you think you may have too much lighting then you can either raise the lighting if its suspended or dim if its LED. As you said you had t5 i suspect you can do neither. So the only real difference you can make is to provide more co2/ferts.
Now i dont know anything about your tank so i dont know what you already dose, if anything...
If your doing nothing with co2 then a simple liquid carbon such as excel is a good start. This can be dosed higher than the instructions suggest. If this is still not sufficient then diy yeast co2 or pressurised co2 are options.
For ferts simple liquid ferts like seachems range may prove adequate. Again if not there are better alternatives. Dry salts that you mix yourself are very effective. I think your in the UK so aquariumplantfood.co.uk is the place to look.
You are thinking in the right direction though. Plant mass is very important. The more healthy thriving plants you have, the less algae seems to be present.
The hobby is not all about getting fast growth, but healthy growth is the aim
Hope this helps somewhat
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...
Light level is what dictates a plants growth pattern.
High light - plant grows fast (more energy available to it)
Low light - plant grows slower (less energy available to it)
If a plant is growing slowly its not requiring co2 or ferts at a great rate. This is why in a low tech setup the fish can create the necessary ferts and co2 is present in high enough levels through surface agitation/gaseous exchange and fish respiration (contribution small)
Now if this light level is increased the growth is sped up. Plants start demanding higher levels of co2 and ferts. So much so that the naturally occurring levels are not sufficient. The starvation of the co2 supply is what causes the algae. Starvation of ferts shows in plant deficiencies.
...
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