My "I'm going to kill you algae" Tank Journal

[corrado33]

I've decided that I'm going to document my victory over algae so the world can see my truly wonderful accomplishment. So, I'll start from the beginning.

The takeover of the algae started when I brought my tank home from college. It had a very small start. Initially I thought I could fix the problem by adding plants to the tank. I thought "Well, algae is due to excess nutrients." What better way to suck up nutrients than plants? Well, that didn't work. The algae were laughing in their boots. The plants created the OTHER algae-favorable tank condition... nutrient imbalances. The BGA grew rampant in my tank.

At first I still thought there was excess nutrients even after I added plants, so I started using RO/DI water. Still, the algae persisted, although in a slightly different form. The RO/DI water seemed to have transformed the BGA into hair and thread algae. What a great day that was! The horrid sight of the BGA was gone, only to be replaced by the much more natural looking hair algae. I was happy. Apparently I was also very naive.

Despite my efforts to keep the hair algae at bay, it too grew rampant. So bad in fact that at one point the tank looked cloudy because of the amount of little pieces of hair algae floating around. Despite me changing the fine sponges and filter floss daily in my filters, the algae was winning the battle.

Weeks later, I started getting annoyed with the algae, as it was killing my wonderful plants, so I made a few posts here, some other places etc. I was told that not only do I have hair and thread algae, but I STILL have BGA. "Lovely" I thought, now how can I fix it?

Here is where I pick up the story. Today I got a few important things shipped to me from bigal's online shop.

I knew that a nutrient imbalance was causing my algae troubles, and I was determined to fix it. I knew my nitrogen levels were way low, as I haven't seen a trace of Nitrate since I planted my tank. So, the first thing I bought was Seachem Fluorish Nitrogen. Then, I read that BGA sometimes is caused by low CO2. I just happened to have a CO2 tank lying around, so I bought a needle valve and a solenoid. I made my own CO2 diffuser out of a powerhead and a gravel vacuum. I also bought Seachem Fluorish Potassium as I had room for it in my budget. The only one I'm missing now is phosphorus and trace elements.

Now, with my WAAs in hand (that's Weapons Against Algae for those who don't know), I got to it. (And took pics for your viewing pleasure). I looked upon my algae overridden tank as I took pictures and I said "Well algae, enjoy your last 10 minutes in the tank because after today, you're going to have to compete with THEM!" (I pointed to my plants). I could see the algae tremble.

Here is my algae overridden tank.

Below is a plant that hasn't grown since I bought it. It's rooted, but I have no idea what it is. A corkscrew val maybe?

Below is a piece of anarcharis that has survived so much. I planted it under a rock (by accident) and somehow it survived. Only to be covered in BGA.

Below is a wonderful picture of my fanwort. Covered in some kind of algae. It is now a shadow of it's former self.

And the lovely "Algae Wall". I hear that some people are considering this a color for their living room.

And there's that. Check the next post for the after cleaning shots.

 

[corrado33]

I started my day with a mission. Get as much algae out of the tank as possible. By the end I was covered in water, slimy green stuff was everywhere, and my fish were scared out of their minds, but it was done. Here are the pics.


The clean FTS. You can see the (much bigger than I thought it'd be) powerhead powering my DIY CO2 diffuser.

Below you can see the poor fanwort. It's so small and scrawny now, I hope it bounces back.

Here is what's left of my anarcharis. I'm surprised this much survived. It I swear this stuff is hard to kill.

And my lovely gigantic java fern. It must love being so close to the light because I swear it must have doubled in size since I got it. It's pretty much the centerpiece of my plants.

Here is the unknown plant again. I cleaned a bit more after taking this picture as there was still algae down there.

That that's that. In total I

1. Cleaned as much algae as I possibly could from everything.
2. Did a few water changes totaling to 50%.
3. Cleaned all of the sponges in my filter. (Well, rinsed them with well water, which shouldn't kill the bacteria.) The biological filters are still intact thanks to the ceramic pieces in my filters.
4. Dosed with Nitrogen
5. Dosed with Potassium.
6. Dosed with normal Fluorish
7. Started pressurized CO2

I will be tanking pics daily for updates. Enjoy!

 

[kaiofcanada]

hahaha! I wish you all the best. Good start! Will you be adding an algae crew to help you maintain the algae growth? shrimp, otos, snails, other algae eating fish?

 

[taylorodw]

Ferts + CO2 + snails = no algae

Good job corrado, I am proud of you.

 

[corrado33]

SPEAKING of snails... I saw my resident snail today!! He was scurrying across the side of the tank. I NEVER see him, ever. I tried to take a pic but my phone crashed before the camera started. He has grown since the last time I've seen him though. lol

EDIT: Speaking of him again... I spy something snail like in my picture of my clean anarcharis...

 

[kaiofcanada]

You only have one snail? Any other algae crew?

If not, you might want to consider adding some otos. They don't add much to the bioload and are diligent little workers. They are also fun to watch.

 

[corrado33]

I don't have any room in the tank for any algae crew. Plus, I don't think anything eats BGA...

 

[kaiofcanada]

actually nerite snails do ...I even think there are some people here who can sell them to you...maybe mgamer. He has all kinds of snails.

 

[BigJim]

There's plenty of room in that tank for a couple nerite snails. They're your best bet for a general algae eater. BGA is actually not algae. I believe it's a bacterial growth. I got it when I was dosing a high-iron fertilizer in a low-nitrate tank.

 

[Gail]

Congrats!! what a great story.
gail

 

[corrado33]

Ugh... I'm not even gunna post pictures. You don't want to see them, I promise.

I've officially turned off 3/4 of my lights. I've done complete cleanings thrice, and the algae is still here.

So, here's my new game plan.

It's the first of the month (well, yesterday), so I placed an order with big al's. I ordered the rest of the seachem ferts for a complete fertilizer package. I also ordered fluorite. (Two bags of dark and one bag or normal.) As suggested for a 3 in bed in a 20 gallon tank by the seachem calculator. I didn't order sand, cause I kinda like the look of rocks. (And sand was more expensive) Can you believe that ordering heavy substrate online, even with a "heavy shipping charge" was still cheaper than me picking it up at the store? Ridiculous. (Welll, it was VERY close, but a few cents cheaper online even with shipping.)

Screw my 12 gallon. I'm starting my twenty gallon up. I already have the filters for it. I simply don't have enough room in the 12 to put all the stuff I need. Plus, the twenty gallon will give me room for an algae crew.

What I'm going to do is use the 12 for plants. Plants LOVE my well water. Fish do not. So I spend NO money to keep the 12 runnin. Just change the water once or twice a week. The plants won't grow FAST, but they will grow, and I won't have to stare at water parameters every day, plants are a lot more forgiving than fish.

I don't know what fish/snails I'm going to buy for my CUC, but I'll research that in a bit. (New tank has to cycle and stabilize first.)

I've set up a tiny 3 gallon for plants I want to keep algae free. It has a desk lamp with one 12W spirley fluorescent bulb in it. So far the two plants in it (a tiny piece of fanwort, and some anarcharis) are doing fine. They pearl a bit every day, and there is no sign of algae. There's nothing else in the tank, no heater, no filter. I just change the water with tap (well) water twice a week.

 

[Crepe]

Just to chime in:

I just defeated my BBA algae using Excel for about 2 weeks.

I did 2x the initial dose and then 2x the daily dose every day for 7 days and then 3x the initial dose on water change day and then i've been keeping it down with 1x dose daily of excel. No BBA at all.

Oh, and as a clean up crew: CRS, nerites, and MTS are the general crew with otos to tidy up the leaves.

 

[bluerose]

Hydrogen peroxide is a good dip for killing BGA and some algaes... however it will melt some plants, so beware. Anacharis I believe will melt with H2O2 or high Excel dosage. (Otherwise, it's indestructible....!)

 

[corrado33]

Hydrogen peroxide is a good dip for killing BGA and some algaes... however it will melt some plants, so beware. Anacharis I believe will melt with H2O2 or high Excel dosage. (Otherwise, it's indestructible....!)

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm excited, my substrate and phosphorus should be in on tuesday! Yay for bigger tank! I think I might put a betta in it. It'd be cool to have different sized fish.