So if the cause was not light or nutrients- it was the carbon supply? If that's the case... Why hasn't it died off yet?
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Has it grown anymore/spread?
yes. Brown algae on gravel, plants and glass near gravel or plants, bba in some places. Cleaned up the start of some green spot algae on the glass yesterday.
I pretty much have a bucket next to my tank, and if I can I will take the affected rock or driftwood out of the tank, scrub it in the bucket, maybe spray it with some h2o2, then I put it back in.
Typically I am taking 30 mins or so every few days doing some sort of cleanup.
I really went through the tank yesterday and removed any plant (including all the crypt) that had algae on it. I was concerned about removing a significant portion of the plant mass at once, but I think if if I am selective about it it will help.
I think I'm going to start focusing on removing rather than cleaning. This feedback has been super helpful in trying to understand the fight! Thank you in advance for your continued feedback.
Now- what about algae on my gravel? What's the best way to tackle that? Blackout?
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I've read through this thread and I'm not totally sure if the CO2 injection is back or not. That said, my first encounter with bba was when I started using a DIY CO2 setup. In short, I killed it by switching to a pressurized CO2 setup.
BBA thrives in a setup where CO2 is fluctuating. Once I created a consistent injection the plants themselves shed the BBA. DIatoms are natural in a new setup and will dissapear own their own. Shrimps and apple snails will speed up that process.
I think there is some truth in that co2 causes algae but my thoughts are that it is co2's effect on ph that is the true problem and not directly related to co2.
My hypothesis is this. Normally the aim of co2 injection is to lower the ph by 1 unit to achieve 30ppm. This can often result in undesirable ph levels, especially in low Kh waters. When I say undesirable, what I mean is undesirable in terms of nitrifying bacterial reproduction. Low ph value <6.5 inhibit reproduction of nitrifying bacteria and nitrification stops altogether at 6.0. So as ph is lowered, bacterial life cycles are slowed, therefore in co2 injected tanks uptake of ammonia is primarily down to the plants. Now this is all good and well if the plants are kept healthy enough to do this and their uptake of ammonia matches production.
Now in a case where co2 all of a sudden ceases in a tank that has been kept at a low but stable ph, ph begins to rise and heterotrophic bacteria can very rapidly multiply consuming organics releasing ammonia since nitrifying bacteria are not present in enough numbers due to the previously inhibiting ph level, ammonia can build up. Ammonia, coupled with light and organics is thought to be the cause of algal blooms by many. It is believed that ammonia is the likely trigger for an algal spore to grow.
So co2 injected tanks may not be very stable on the whole because they can lack the backup biological filtration to deal with rises in ammonia. Even large trimming/culling of plants or a co2 imbalance that means the plants uptake of nutrients is slowed may cause this effect and it could be why co2 injected tanks seem to battle algae every now and then.
These are just my thoughts.
Really interesting theory...
I guess it could be solved by building up a strong bac colony to begin with. But that's someothing which everyone should look to establish first and foremeost.
In my experience, whenever I've created unstable CO2 up pops bba and that includes running out of CO2 mid light cycle and not being able to replace it for a few days. Again I'm not sure if the OP replaced his CO2 and if so, with what in terms of setup But a two pronged attack (building bacs in another tank and keeping a stable CO2 injection) could work wonders.
*please note this is just a hypothesis*
Yet still a very good hypothesis and throughly good read! Please allow me to digress for a moment and ask which Juwel Vision tank you have, is it a 450L? It looks huge in those pics.
On topic: I firmly believe that one of the most important things about this hobby is often lost when seeking advice. The fact that every tank is different is often factored out of the equation when looking for balance. Even more so when dealing with planted tanks.
Op has a solidset of theories and approaches to choose from.