A Little Algea Problem In A Planted Tank?

[Teddy]

Well I have a planted tank, but i still seem to have some serious algae problems. There is brownish (dark) algae growning on the plants themselves and constantly have to scrub the leaves with a toothbrish to be rid of the hideous stuff. There is also algae on my powerheads, rocks, the back of my tank.... you get the idea.

My theory is that I am adding CO2 to the tank, while only having 17watts of lighting in a 20 gallon tank. Just my best guess. So i wanted to ask before I pulled the line out of the tank to avoid wasting the CO2 in the bottle.

I am working on getting more lighting, but apparently they do not have lights above 20watts in 24" bulbs. So I have to buy a double light strip to put 2 20watt bulbs which will be the minimum. Anwyay, any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[TheRedDarren]

Had a recent major algae problem myself m8, so i know how you feel about it.
I have done lots of research into algae in planted tanks and found there is 2 schools of thought, high tech and low tech.
To me your question is a little unclear, I think you mean you have c02 in there now... so that pretty much makes it high tech.
C02 (theoretically) will not help algae growth because algae needs oxygen, nitrate and phosphate to grow.
If your tank is in direct sunlight this could be a major cause, regular use of liquid fertilizer could be another, overstocked with fish and/or overfeeding is another (due to excess nitrates). I believe these are the 3 most common reasons for excessive algae.

So, not allowing sunlight to hit the tank, either move it (not always practical) or cover the side of the tank nearest the window with some sort of backdrop or black paper or something to stop sunlight getting in.

Liquid fertilizer, if you use this, its hard to know how much to use because although there is a dosing chart in the box, it is based on the size of the tank, not how many plants are in it. Always change at least 25% water every week to make sure there is no excessive nutrients left in the tank for algae to grow on, EI methods (estimative index) overdose with fertilzer but change 50% every week).

Overstocking leads to lots of fish waste, which through the nitrogen cycle will become nitrate, thus feeding algae, if you are heavily stocked, make sure you feed sparingly and make regular 25% water changes.

Overfeeding is pretty much like feeding algae, make sure you don't do this.

I recently had an incredible hair algae invasion, it literally covered 80/90% of my tank including plants, substrate and glass, but 1 week later, after reduced lighting and feeding, no fertilizer, adition of a phosphate trap (ask your LFS for green X, or similar) and 2 25% water changes, the fish are now hungry enough to turn thier attentions to eating the algae which now covers less than 5% of the tank, although much of this has been removed by hand.

hope that helps, good luck with it m8, D.

 

[Dubby]

Teddy, you have guessed it right. CO2 is not really reqd.for a low light tank. Brown algae is normally found in newer tanks. Is this the case? A simple way to get rid of it is by introducing algae eaters such as Ottos, CAE, shrimp, mollys etc.

Hope this helps.

 

[Teddy]

actually this particular tank has been established for about 3-4 months.

I do 25% water changes almost religiously every week, sometimes twice a week if I worked on the tank. I only have 17watts a light for a 20 gallon tank, and read somewhere that some algae appears in underlit tanks.

I don't think I'm overstocked, i have 16 fish, each under 1 inch, except for one which is maybe 1.5". I will feed less, and I removed the CO2 tube from the powerhead.

The tank is not in direct sunlight. Only in the morning for a maximum of 30 minutes. i don't think this is the issue.

Maybe I will get a Siamese Algae Eater. Gotta do some research now...