Algae ID
- Thread starter Mikey214
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
When I looked at the enlarged picture I see some yellow-brown diatom growth on it. As for the green algae I can't say for sure what kind it is but tell me this... what type light do you have and how long do you leave it on daily? What is you WC schedule, how much do you change weekly, and do you know your nitrate reading? Any live plants and if so do you use any ferts? All of the above things are directly related to algae growth. So once you figure out what is out of balance in your tank it can be corrected and get algae problems fixed. Also while I do advocate adding fish, snails, and shrimp for algae problems, keeping a few nerite snails in a tank will take care of any little bits of algae that appear. Nerite snails can't breed in freshwater so you also won't get a population explosion of them.
Rivercats said:
I leave the light on for about 7 hours a day and its the light that came with my 29 gallon tank ( ill get you the lightbulb type when I get home)! I do water changes about 10% weekly. I will also get you a nitrate reading when I get home. I have a couple java fern and one onion plant but I do not use any ferts.
You are good at the length of time you run your lights but see if your bulb has a rating on it, example 6700K or 10000K. For plants you are better with lights in the 6500K range. Nitrates and phospates can cause problems if too high but also not having enough plants to use the nutients in the water make it easier for algae to out compete the plants for the nutrients. You can do some low light tolerant plants like water sprite, wisteria, crypts, and possibly swords which will help use up the nutients. Plus if your just having that small amount of algae I would look into getting maybe 3 to 5 nerite snails. They are plant safe and will help keep your tank tidy.
There is barely any BB in the water column itself. BB attaches to the filter mostly but also to substrate, plants, DW, decorations, etc. By doing larger WC's your removing nitrates not causing more. Seems you were given some poor information.
Actually everything sounds good so the only thing I can think of is you need to add more plants so the plants can outcompete the algae for available nutrients. Even just adding one or two water sprite or wisteria I believe will help with the algae problem.
Algae grows from an imbalance between light, CO2, and nutrients/ferts. If you only have alittle green algae your not too off balance. All these things contribute to algae growth and when in balance lack of algae growth.
All tanks have some CO2 present. Fish respire (breathe out) CO2 during the day. In planted tanks the addition of liquid carbon or CO2 aid plants in photosynthsis and enables them to better utilize nutrients, which helps them to out compete algae. And the more plants, especially fast growers like stem plants and plants like water sprite and wisteria, the better to help again with using nutrients that algae can use.
