Trying to make a comeback after 3 years of mess :)

[swanandmokashi]

Hi all

Some of you on the forum might recognize me : I was pretty active on this forum a few years back.

I had a beautiful (IMO) planted freshwater 55G aquarium with the following specs:
Eco-complete Substrate
Equipment : In-line heater, RENA XP3 filter, 130 Watts Fluroscent

You can see the tank in its former glory (again IMO) :
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f70/some-pictures-of-my-55-gallon-96631.html
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/it-is-jungle-out-there-96173.html

So what happened? :
1. I started working on a business while working on a full-time job (great stuff : I have quit my job 2 years back and have been growing my software consulting business)
2. We had our 2nd daughter (greatest thing ever )
The above 2 events meant I had very little time to spend on the tank (yeah I know it is not a good enough excuse) ,I used to keep up with water change but stopped fertilizers. To top it off, 2 years back I had an issue with my lighting where the light would come on and off randomly. I changed the lights but no use (more on this later). The result was most of my plants died

Also, the fish I had, bit the dust too slowly (a lot of them were at the end of their life anyway) and currently I only have a cory catfish and 3 mickey mouse platies in my tank.

I finally figured out that the ballast was an issue with the lighting and ordered it last week and installed it. The light has been stable now. Since the above 2 events are stable now (business and my daughters are both out of the toddler phase I want to get back to my hobby. Just looking for some encouragement and advice from this great community.

First things first : please see the attached photos (sorry taken from my iPhone) : looks like some sort of green algae. My first step is to get rid of this, and then start fertilizers and DIY CO2 and add more plants.

What is this algae and how best to get rid of it ? Of course, I do not want to use any chemicals

Feels great to be back
Swanand

 

[Lowryder]

Welcome Back! Congrats on everything!

Whats your photo period look like? I would cut back on lighting until you have some plants in there. If you have no plants in there now then I would do a 2 day blackout that should cut your algae.once you get some plants in there to soak up your lighting and your excess nitrates you should be fine.

 

[swanandmokashi]

Whats your photo period look like?

This was taken today if that is what you mean by "photo period"

My light has been pretty much off for the last few days, and has been turned on only since Sunday, but the algae never went away.

 

[Lowryder]

by photo period I mean how long is your light on during the day.

The Tropical Tank • View topic - Algae Types & Cures

 

[swanandmokashi]

Ahh got it

I can not make out what kind of algae this is? Any ideas?

 

[skiweeangel]

I'm not sure about the algae but welcome back! And don't feel bed about your tanks. Life is what happens while we are making other plans. I would have to do an algae search to see what it is but try several PWCs and see if that works as well as a shorter photo period. If everything was there just waiting for the light than my guess is when the light came on they exploded. Keep us posted about your tank!

 

[Stefernini]

I'm new here, and not very knowledgeable about plants and algae, but maybe throw in some shrimp or oto catfish if the blackout and water changes don't work?

 

[aqua_chem]

I believe what we have here is a case of green brush algae/green beard algae.

Not all algae is susceptible to death by blackout, notably including brush algaes. You can try spot treating the effective areas or dipping affected objects. If you are super lightly stocked and have a bunch of plants, you might be creating a fairly nutrient devoid system, a condition that, ironically, some algaes flourish in.