Id This Algae Please
- Thread starter sophos9
- Start date
Dave Spencer
Gort! Klaatu barada nikto.
I would love to know how you do it Sophos.
Is that Rotala all covered in algae? You do have your CO2 at a stable 30ppm now, don`t you?
Dave.
Is that Rotala all covered in algae? You do have your CO2 at a stable 30ppm now, don`t you?
Dave.
Dave, its killing me! I think I must be completely stupid or something
Yup, its covered in a strange brown algae, its like brown spiderweb which is slimey
How do I do it? Fecked if I know, I want rid! Yep, CO2 is stable (measured a zillion times) in the morning, day and night, all stats are good, tank is clear of ditrius/mulm n stuff, dosing 2 x 1/4 teaspoon KNO3 and from Sunday will start KH2PO4, dosing trace 2 x weekly, 50% water change on Sundays, not over feeding and lighting period is 10hr straight
Only thing I'm wondering is if I have too rich substrate for the amount of light (laterite of which some is at the surface, tetrapro substrate and JBL Floropol)
I've sent Tom Barr a PM to see what he thinks as I'm all out of ideas
Yup, its covered in a strange brown algae, its like brown spiderweb which is slimey
How do I do it? Fecked if I know, I want rid! Yep, CO2 is stable (measured a zillion times) in the morning, day and night, all stats are good, tank is clear of ditrius/mulm n stuff, dosing 2 x 1/4 teaspoon KNO3 and from Sunday will start KH2PO4, dosing trace 2 x weekly, 50% water change on Sundays, not over feeding and lighting period is 10hr straight
Only thing I'm wondering is if I have too rich substrate for the amount of light (laterite of which some is at the surface, tetrapro substrate and JBL Floropol)
I've sent Tom Barr a PM to see what he thinks as I'm all out of ideas
Dave Spencer
Gort! Klaatu barada nikto.
Your stems should be pearling like mad and not letting algae anywhere near them. Do they pearl when covered in algae?
Maybe you should create an algae tank, rip all the plants out, then there is no more worrying about it
Dude, I would have the best algae tank in the country!
Yep they do pearl, not as good as the ones without any algae. This brown muck just appeared
Dave, got the glass diffuser (Spio VIII), have rigged it up with a Eheim pump just over top blowing the diffused CO2 around the tank - the result? Well check the picture... I have NEVER seen the tank pearl like this, the entire tank is like this pic. I have even had to turn the rate right down which I guess makes the old diffusers efficiency questionable at best!
Now lets see what happens to the algae!
Dave Spencer
Gort! Klaatu barada nikto.
Blowing CO2 microbubbles around the tank is considered the most effective method. Just keep up the hard work of removing the algae by hand.
Make sure that by turning down the CO2 you are not letting the algae back in again. If your fish were happy with the CO2 levels from the new diffuser then leave it where it is.
Dave.
Make sure that by turning down the CO2 you are not letting the algae back in again. If your fish were happy with the CO2 levels from the new diffuser then leave it where it is.
Dave.
The pump is about halfway down the height of the tank, its aim to pump difused CO2 around the back of the plants at low level
Dave, erm bit of a story there... How does min 74ppm grab you with some seriously pis**** of fish? I'm still trying to figure this, I was at 6.4PH with 6KH - 74ppm CO2... Why? Well the test kit I was using was telling me 3KH, I also ignored the drop checker which was lime green... oooops, lesson learnt and one fatality. New test kit says 6KH which is more realistic, I'm going by the drop checker now, a PH test kit of 0.2 increments, plants that are pearling well and most importantly feedback from the fish
Have learnt a horrible lesson here, and have changed a few things to suite, have found and gone beyond the limits with almost terrible results...
Dave, erm bit of a story there... How does min 74ppm grab you with some seriously pis**** of fish? I'm still trying to figure this, I was at 6.4PH with 6KH - 74ppm CO2... Why? Well the test kit I was using was telling me 3KH, I also ignored the drop checker which was lime green... oooops, lesson learnt and one fatality. New test kit says 6KH which is more realistic, I'm going by the drop checker now, a PH test kit of 0.2 increments, plants that are pearling well and most importantly feedback from the fish
Have learnt a horrible lesson here, and have changed a few things to suite, have found and gone beyond the limits with almost terrible results...
Hi, can anyone help with ID'ing the algae please
It seems to grow lots overnight, is brown and can be 'shaken' off the stems i.e. not attached - its a pain in the ass! Would the spectrum emitted by moonlights have anything to do with it?
It seems to grow lots overnight, is brown and can be 'shaken' off the stems i.e. not attached - its a pain in the ass! Would the spectrum emitted by moonlights have anything to do with it?
james 3200
New Member
How long has the tank been setup?
Whats your lighting and how long is it on for?
What are you dosing?
To me, looks like a mix of hair / diatomic algae
Some excel will help with getting rid of this
Whats your lighting and how long is it on for?
What are you dosing?
To me, looks like a mix of hair / diatomic algae
Some excel will help with getting rid of this
Hi, thanks for your reply!
Setup for about 2 months now...
Just changed the lighting, it was 3 x 25w T8's (2 Hagan Life Glo 2's and one Juwel daylight), times are 10hrs straight... just upgraded the lighting to 2 x 55w T5's and 2 x 25w T8's. I have just read an article that says this type of brown silky hair algae should die with high light
I was dosing EI lite as I had a low lite setup, I'm now dosing full EI (3.3WPG)
Its strange stuff, its not actually attached and when you pull it out, its like slimy mush - grows well over night?
Setup for about 2 months now...
Just changed the lighting, it was 3 x 25w T8's (2 Hagan Life Glo 2's and one Juwel daylight), times are 10hrs straight... just upgraded the lighting to 2 x 55w T5's and 2 x 25w T8's. I have just read an article that says this type of brown silky hair algae should die with high light
I was dosing EI lite as I had a low lite setup, I'm now dosing full EI (3.3WPG)
Its strange stuff, its not actually attached and when you pull it out, its like slimy mush - grows well over night?
james 3200
New Member
No prob,
If your new lighting is on the same photo period as your old lighting i would say this is a major factor. I would reduce it to 8 hours, which is a good start for high light tanks for the first 3 months, also if possible increase the height of the light unit to reduce the lighting intensity.
You may want to check your iron / trace mix, and adjust it to a little lower too as it looks like an trace problem
I would manually remove as much as possible, do a water change also
When i had diatoms last in a new tank it also grew overnight much more aswell.. things should start to balance out while the tank establishes itslef
James
If your new lighting is on the same photo period as your old lighting i would say this is a major factor. I would reduce it to 8 hours, which is a good start for high light tanks for the first 3 months, also if possible increase the height of the light unit to reduce the lighting intensity.
You may want to check your iron / trace mix, and adjust it to a little lower too as it looks like an trace problem
I would manually remove as much as possible, do a water change also
When i had diatoms last in a new tank it also grew overnight much more aswell.. things should start to balance out while the tank establishes itslef
James
Currently the T8's are only on for 4 hours however I'm still running a 10 period, cannot change the height unfortunately
Hmmm... I had noticed that some of the laterite has made its way to the surface - would this be a factor?
I did that yesterday and the tank looked lovely, to be fair yesterday was the first proper EI dose so maybe as the plants metabolism increases the nutrients will not be available to lower level plants
That's good news, the tank is still quite new (in the whole scheme of things) thanks for your help!
Hmmm... I had noticed that some of the laterite has made its way to the surface - would this be a factor?
I did that yesterday and the tank looked lovely, to be fair yesterday was the first proper EI dose so maybe as the plants metabolism increases the nutrients will not be available to lower level plants
That's good news, the tank is still quite new (in the whole scheme of things) thanks for your help!
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