Different Algae

[luma]

Hope someone has an idea. i have changed my light cycle from 16 hours to a 6 hour cycle in the morning and a 6 hour cycle in the evning I have also added the co2 contraption. What has happend is the brown algae that was on my plants has now changed to a bright green spotted algae on the plants. Any ideas?

 

[Rose]

You may have found the magical number of hours your tank needs for optimal plant growth. generally brown algae is not enough light while green is too much light. why the switch i'm not too sure. can you tell me more about your tank? do you add fertilizers to the water or anything? change anythign other than the light cycle? tell me what ever you can think of that might help me figure out what's going on. Rose

 

[luma]

Thanks Rose I have been off for a few days, so I have been unable to check the forum. I have put some liquid fertiliser in, my water tests fine except for the Nitrates that shot up to 100, I did a water change and it is now down to 50. The algae seem to grow more on the stiff hard stemmed plants than any thing else. I have now put half a sheet of tinfoil in my light box that I can move around to put extra light on the sections I want, I will see if there is any corolation to the light intensity too which algae grows.

 

[William]

Luma I'm sure you already know this but one of the main ingrediants in fertiliser is nitrates (plants use them to make proteins ) This would explain the sudden rise in nitrates however fertilisers do also contain other goodies for plants I believe.

 

[luma]

I only put a third of the recomended amout in about two weeks ago would it still be that prevalent and would this be a problem if everything else tested fine?