Please Id This Algae

[donkey]

Hi All
can someone please ID this algae for me . I have been doing the E.I. Dosing method for a month or so and i have it spot on and my CO2 is at about 30ppm .but i get this stuff here and there in the tank .it drives me nuts i tell ya . what is the best way to rid my tank of this stuff .
Thanks All

pic 2

 

[nicklfire]

going to.. take a stab at this..... GREEN!

sorry had to

 

[oldwhitewood]

You probably need some c japonica/amano shrimp, they are essential in the planted aquarium and deal with this kind of algae pretty well.

 

[zig]

Hey donkey what are you dosing.....whats your stats

Cant really make out the algae from the pics, what do you think it is? it could be hair algae or lots of thread algae from looking at the second pic, is the algae on the first pic the same as the second pic?

Try upping the co2 levels if you think everything else is in order.

 

[Dubby]

Hi donkey, the pics are not very clear. Pease look at this link which has pics of each type http/www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm to help you.

 

[donkey]

Hi all
Thanks for the help so far .this is a run down of my tank .
PH 6.6
KH 4
phosphate 1
nitrate 10 .
CO2 30

to be honest after i do my 50% water change every week i don t have to add anymore ferts as the uptake is very slow .so every other day i add some seachem flourish .all my water is filted with a RO filter as the phosphates coming out of the tap are at 5 . the algae is two different kinds one looks like a hair/brush kind .the other might even be BGA .i have had BGA a few times before but never this color ( bright green ) there are a lot of plants in the tank and they pearl like mad . i am getting real sick of all this algae i am getting in this tank that i feel like packing it all in .i have six B.N in the tank and they dont seem to be eating any of the algae so i will give them all there P45s as they are useless at eating algae .

 

[donkey]

sorry what i should have said was .i do add phosphate and nitrates .but only after i have done my 50% water change and thats all i need to add as the uptake is slow

 

[zig]

How much nitrate and phosphate do you auctually add each week? and whats the normal level of nitrate in this tank without any additional no3 being added?

How much light do you have over the tank and what light cycle do you run? is the tank heavily planted?

Is your Gh quite low as well as the Kh?

did you have algae in this tank before dosing EI and was it the same type, and how long is the tank setup?

Sorry for all the questions it just helps put the picture together a bit better.

 

[donkey]

Hi
Don t be Sorry for all the questions Zig .you are been a great help to me .
ok. my GH is 6. after my water has come out of the ROfilter it has 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate .so after it has gone in my tank i keep adding dry powder form ferts .just a little at a time till i get my nitrate to 10 and my phosphate to about 1 . now over the corse of a week it keeps to this level so i dont have to add anymore . all i add then is seachem flourish every other day . the tank has been setup for about 2 years now .its 54 inches long by 15 inches wide .it has
3- 48inch T8 tubes and
2- 42 inch T5s over it
lighting is on for 10 hours a day . from day one i have had problems with algae and BGA .in the past i have done the black out and the myciln pills .but it keeps coming back .i even had problems with algae with less lighting over the tank and adding no ferts . i think this algae looks different to my other algae .before adding the ferts it was very dark almost black it had a bad smell and came off in sheets . this one is very light green and has no smell to it .the other algae in there looks like brush/string/beard/thread .not sure what kind but i have always had this from day one

some plants in there grow like mad .have to trim them 2 or 3 times a week but others get coverd in algae so i try and cut all of this off .i would say it has about 50% of plants in there .but if i try and add more they seem to get hit by algae and just die off

 

[donkey]

ok i dont think this is BGA . as its starting to get some kind of bushy stuff on it now

 

[zig]

Ok when you use the RO water do you just add it straight back into the tank or do you mix it with tapwater.

 

[donkey]

Hi
no. i add some ELECTRO-RIGHT and i also put a little bi-carb in as well

 

[zig]

Hi
no. i add some ELECTRO-RIGHT and i also put a little bi-carb in as well

Ok i just wasnt sure if you were buffering the RO water before you put it in the tank.

This is some sort hair or fuzz algae i think the best thing to do is up your co2 level to somewhere around 40ppm and see if that makes a difference.

Also i think you should increase your nitrate and phosphate dosing, if some plants are growing enough that you have to trim them a couple of times a week they are using nitrate and phosphate, they are not staying the same throughout the week, the ferts are being used, basically i would double what you are using now, i would dose 10ppm kno3 and 1ppm po4 at water change and 2 days later dose the same again, you possibly have a potassium (K) deficiency because you are dosing so little kno3 and kh2po4 this could be one of the problems here, also by dosing extra kno3 you lessen the risk considerably of getting bga.

Something is out of whack here so its a process of elimination, i would do both of these things 1. Up the co2 level 2. Double overall macro dosing and continue to dose 5ml flourish per 20 gallons of water 3x per week.

I would try this for a couple of weeks and see if it makes a difference, if it doesnt or things dont improve bump the thread again and we will tease it out further if you wish, but give it at least a couple of weeks for the changes to kick in.

anyway hope that helps to make a difference.

 

[donkey]

Thanks Zig
do you think i should do away with RO water and just use it stright out of the tap ? the only problem with the tap water is it has 5 ppm of phosphate .do you think this is to much phosphate ?

 

[zig]

Thanks Zig
do you think i should do away with RO water and just use it stright out of the tap ? the only problem with the tap water is it has 5 ppm of phosphate .do you think this is to much phosphate ?

When i say above in the last reply that you have a possible potassium deficiency, i would say you have a definate potassium deficiency, personally i would stick to what you are doing for the moment, just try the changes above and see if they make a difference first of all, there is no point in making loads of different changes all at once or you will never find out what makes your tank work, having said that lots of peole run planted tanks with 5ppm po4 in the tapwater, it is not an incredably high amount of po4 IMO, once you have the algae under control you can then make other changes and know that you can reverse them again if things dont work out ie. you started to get algae again, so for the moment i would continue to use the RO water and think about doing away with it later when the algae is under control.

Do you get high nitrates with the tapwater as well as phosphate.