Hair Algae And Green Algae On Glass Walls

[deftuch]

my algae problem is still persiting even though i have treated my tank and cut the light hours down to 4 hours a day! hair alage has grown on all the new plants! my nitrates are really low and i do a 50 percent water change everyweek! would a uv sterliser help? what are the pros and cons of uv's? would they effect my bacteria, ot growth of my plants ect?

 

[SO19Firearms]

You could be right with it being low Nitrate. Are you dosing a Complete plant food? Cutting the lighting is always a good starting point, but that's unlikely to kill it off. If you're in to lotions and potions for healthy plant growth I'd look at a Liquid Carbon [for plant health and to help kill the algae] to go along with your plant food and go from there.
 
IMO

 

[deftuch]

You could be right with it being low Nitrate. Are you dosing a Complete plant food? Cutting the lighting is always a good starting point, but that's unlikely to kill it off. If you're in to lotions and potions for healthy plant growth I'd look at a Liquid Carbon [for plant health and to help kill the algae] to go along with your plant food and go from there.
 
IMO

yes im using a complete plant food. im dosing 2ml every single day instead of once weekly, i think that keeps the levels more in balance that way. ive tried liquid carbon and it had no effect what so ever on my hair alage. i do have a big bio load but also good filtration and without fail i do a 50 percent water change weekly which keeps my nitrates stable at below 40 ppm.

 

[SO19Firearms]

WHich plant food?

 

[deftuch]

WHich plant food?

easy life profito

 

[SO19Firearms]

It's not complete. It lacks Nitrate and Phosphate. That might be why you didnt see an improvement with EasyCarbo.
 
IMO

 

[deftuch]

It's not complete. It lacks Nitrate and Phosphate. That might be why you didnt see an improvement with EasyCarbo.
 
IMO

ive tried a few in the past, all my plants are healthy and sprouting new stems and leaves like mad, they just have hair algae on them

 

[frothhelmet]

have you tried adding snails and shrimp? Ramshorns are the best algae eating snail, and amano are the best shrimp.

 

[deftuch]

have you tried adding snails and shrimp? Ramshorns are the best algae eating snail, and amano are the best shrimp.

ive tred adult flying fox's and adult sae's but both get eaten by my huge frog, bichir or climbing perch, snails i havent tried as i presume they would certainly be eaten too and same for shrimps, i was thinking about buying some phosguard and using a powerhead with a bag of carbon attatched to cleanse the water for a while?

 

[snazy]

i was thinking about buying some phosguard

 

my nitrates are really low and i do a 50 percent water change everyweek!

 
Is that a planted tank? You need nitrAtes for the plants.
Why removing the phosphates too? As SO pointed Easylife profito is just micro ferts. Your plants maybe lacking macro ferts like phosphate, nitrate and potassium, etc..


To answer the UV sterilizer question, once a tank is established and cycled, there isn't really a negative effect adding a UV sterilizer, but only positives.
The only thing is that it works best when a very slow flow rate is pushed through it, so you don't want it hooked to the filter, but rather a separate powerhead on which you can control/dicrease the flow. The slower the flow, the better it will work in killing pathogenic organisms and algae. But it won't clear up already established algae or present disease.

 

[SO19Firearms]

all my plants are healthy <--------------------> they just have hair algae on them

If all your plants were healthy, they wouldn't have hair algae one them unfortunately.

 

[deftuch]

all my plants are healthy <--------------------> they just have hair algae on them

If all your plants were healthy, they wouldn't have hair algae one them un

 

i was thinking about buying some phosguard

 

>my nitrates are really low and i do a 50 percent water change everyweek!

 
Is that a planted tank? You need nitrAtes for the plants.
Why removing the phosphates too? As SO pointed Easylife profito is just micro ferts. Your plants maybe lacking macro ferts like phosphate, nitrate and potassium, etc..


To answer the UV sterilizer question, once a tank is established and cycled, there isn't really a negative effect adding a UV sterilizer, but only positives.
The only thing is that it works best when a very slow flow rate is pushed through it, so you don't want it hooked to the filter, but rather a separate powerhead on which you can control/dicrease the flow. The slower the flow, the better it will work in killing pathogenic organisms and algae. But it won't clear up already established algae or present disease.
 

i have a fish in tank so i have nitrates, the last clue i have is perhaps i have too much phosphates in my tap water that is feeding my algae, anubias and ferns can grow well without any fertiliser and when i had no plants in my tank i had no hair algae, whenever i put plants in again the algae comes back, but only hair algae comes back, i have typical green alage spots on the glass always no matter what, everyone does, but in this tank a little more than usual, i will do you 2 videos of my tanks, il show you how clean and pleasent my malawi tank is and then my comm tank, which looks clean and healthy until a week after my water change, or you look a little closer.

 

[snazy]

i have typical green alage spots on the glass always no matter what,

 
You are getting it all wrong mate. Algae is caused by lack of nutritients/CO2 and too much light.
Green spot algae is a typical indicator for lack of phosphates. Anubias and ferns are phosphate sponges, they need lots of phosphate, more than you think.
Stop relying on the tests and look at your plants. They are telling you they don't have enough. Nitrates produced by fish bioload is often not enough at all. High nitrAtes and high phosphate don't cause algae, but lack of them and you'll get algae in 2-3 days when they bottom out.

 

[deftuch]

i have typical green alage spots on the glass always no matter what,

 
You are getting it all wrong mate. Algae is caused by lack of nutritients/CO2 and too much light.
Green spot algae is a typical indicator for lack of phosphates. Anubias and ferns are phosphate sponges, they need lots of phosphate, more than you think.
Stop relying on the tests and look at your plants. They are telling you they don't have enough. Nitrates produced by fish bioload is often not enough at all. High nitrAtes and high phosphate don't cause algae, but lack of them and you'll get algae in 2-3 days when they bottom out.

high phosphate feeds algae and high nitrates cause alage, that much i do know, perhaps its lack of phosphates that is causing it then, i have a heavy bio load and am overfiltered also, im probably gunna call it a day with my comm tank anyway, ive cleaned it so much the whole tank is scratched and ruined so.... thanks for the tipos everyone!

 

[SO19Firearms]

high phosphate feeds algae and high nitrates cause alage, that much i do know,

No worries if you want to give in but to round it off I can assure you [as Snazy said] you have it wrong. You can't compare a non planted tank to a planted one, they're fundamentaly different. No nutrient causes algae, only algae causes it, but different things can trigger it. Mostly ammonia and various plant hormones released from ill health more often than not due to CO2 issues. That's why you'll see algae people refer to ammonia, CO2, flow and/or light as being the cause.
Whilst you are correct in saying phosphate (as any nutrient right down to molybdenum etc) will feed algae, reducing these [in a planted tank] will never be the answer bacause of the above.

HTH