Out of control Algae, is Algone the answer?

[Scott1980]

Hey Everybody,

First a big shout to ahsuppy.com I ordered the 55 watt kit for my 20 gallon. It arrived in a few days but the bulb broke on me, they sent another one right away and my tank is so much brighter, it's incredible. I never could keep anything alive and now I've got some Java Fern, Hedge, and some MoneyWort, and it's growing crazy and pearling the whole time. Thanks to Rex for recommending this ausome product. New Problem, since adding this light, I leave it on for 10-12 hours a day and my algae is crazy. I have to scrape layers of it off everyweek and it also covers my plants. It's more unsightly then anything. and now it's growing on top of the Eco Complete and it's everywhere. One of my friends says to add Algone to it, I guess you put it in your filter, just wondering what everybody else thought or recommended. I've been changing 50% of my water every week.

 

[shawmutt]

If it's BGA, you may have to medicate the tank with erythromycin to get rid of it. BGA forms slimy blue-green sheets that grow very quickly and cover everything. It also has a very distinct smell. The lfs sells the stuff as Maracyn, pretty cheap and works wonders. I used the full dose for the recommended time on the box, with excellent results and no adverse effects to my fish.

You also have the option of turning off the lights and covering the tank with a blanket for 3-5 days, but I wouldn't recommend that with plants.

 

[medge00]

we need a little more info to help..... 1st, what's it look like? hair? brush? beard? green? black? etc etc

also, what are you dosing and how often?

 

[trenac]

You need to find where your inbalance is, this is what causes algae. Have you tested your KH, PH, N03(nitrate) & P04(phosphates). Do these test & let us know the results.

I have used Algone but you still get algae if you have a inbalance in the water chemistry.

 

[peterp]

not sure if I was just lucky but I managed to get rid of a algae curse by putting in a strand of an evil plant (hornwort). It grew like crazy for a couple of weeks and started to take over the tank. I removed it at that point. I am guessing the plant used up all the nutrient the algae wanted which came from a previously live hiding in the rocks fish .

More normally you do need to check and make sure the nitrates/nitrites/etc.are not out of range, if they are find out what is causing it(too much food, dead resident, etc) and do water changes to reduce it. And in some cases medicate, for me medicating is a last resort.

 

[Scott1980]

Hey Everybody,

We'll I just did my weekly 50% water change, so now my water looks yucky, because it knocked alot of aglae of the plants and it's floating everywhere. Bleh, anyway here's my levels

PH 6.0 (this use to run way above, then I added C02 now it runs way below.)
Ammonia 0 (Water with the Drip kit turned a really white cloudy, guess that means 0)
Nitrite 0 to .2 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm

I'm also adding "Seachem Flourish" to the tank after everywater change which is usually weekly half a cap full. So thanks for all the help interesting in seeing what everybody says.

 

[Scott1980]

I just read all the post again to make sure I didn't forget anything and I did. A few weeks ago it was a hideous brown algae, not hairy though, very short. That disapered though now I'm seeing a long and Hairy Green Algae. That's been the worse. It wouldn't even come off when i scraped it with my magnent.

 

[TankGirl]

What is your KH? That will determine how much CO2 is getting into your water for the plants. You will need to get the CO2 concentration up at least 20-25, or higher, like Rex does, I think, for the plants to be able to really get the nutrients away from the algae.

Also check phosphates, I think someone mentioned that.