Hideous Algae Growth

[mark4785]

In my planted tank (now around 3 months old) it seems like the algae is thriving and the plants are getting gradually choked and I'm not sure why this is occuring. Every 2-3 days I have to apply a clean cloth to the glass, filter box and the plant leaves that I can reach because a carpet of algae always forms. It is hideous and I'm getting fed up of having to remove it.

I know anti-algae treatments are useless because they take out the nutrients that the beneficial plants thrive on which would only cause my beneficial plants to die faster.

One thing that I thought was causing the very fast algae growth was the introduction of too much oxygen. I have a Cayman filter system running 24/7 which provides a small but visible surface ripple and I also have an airpump and airstone running 24/7 too. I bought myself an oxygen test kit only to find the following results:

According to the TetraTest Oxygen test kit, an aquarium with a temperature of 28 degrees C should have 7.8 mg/l of 02 as the figures roughly suggest in the picture below:

The test kit documentation advices that the recommended mg/l concentration according to the temperature of your aquarium should not drop below 75% of the recommended concentration. 75% of 7.8 mg/l is: 5.8 mg/L. According to my test results, it looks as though my 02 level is already below 5.8 mg/L so am I really providing the sort of oxygen needed to trigger an ugly brown algae bloom and would it be wise to turn the airstone off? I think the answer is a definite NO.

So I'm quite stumped as to what to do to stop the algae growth as I'm not sure what is prompting it to grow. Maybe I'm putting too much micro-nutrients (iron, potassium etc) into the aquarium? For micro-nutrient dosing I have switched to Tetra Plantamin which requires a dose of a 5ml solution for every 20L of water taken out during a water change. I also use Tetra Plant Crypto fertiliser for my Cryptocoryne plant every 2-3 weeks. I am not dosing macro-nutrients at all; my nitrate level is always between 5-10 ppm and my phosphate level is always between 0.6 and 1.0 ppm.

Here are a few pictures of the suffering plants:

Anubias

Anubias 2

Cryptocoryne

Bacopa

Whole Tank

Any pointers for removing this algae would be greatly appreciated.

Mark.

 

[ian]

looks like BBA and Diatoms, Mark. O2 does not trigger algae growth or make it grow faster, so IMO that test is useless. As we have told you before Diatoms are caused by ammonia spikes and newer tanks. BBA is caused by low or fluctuating C02 levels, i'm not a fan of airstones in planted tanks as i have told you before as the CO2 gets lost quicker. An OD of macros or micros will not cause algae blooms, the algae does better with low nutrients and C02. Are you dosing Easycarbo? I can't remember...

 

[RadaR]

You're getting to wound up with the oxygen. It's not the problem and it's certainly not causing algae. How could it?

Excess nutrients do not cause algae either. Whether they are micro nutrients or macro nutrients.

I am not dosing macro-nutrients at all; my nitrate level is always between 5-10 ppm and my phosphate level is always between 0.6 and 1.0 ppm.

Your plants are telling you otherwise. NO3 and PO4 test kits are very innaccurate. The plants are a much better test kit. They are telling you that they need more nutrients.

How much light do you have? How long are they on for?

What is your water change regime?

 

[fluffycabbage]

looks like BBA and Diatoms, Mark. O2 does not trigger algae growth or make it grow faster, so IMO that test is useless. As we have told you before Diatoms are caused by ammonia spikes and newer tanks. BBA is caused by low or fluctuating C02 levels, i'm not a fan of airstones in planted tanks as i have told you before as the CO2 gets lost quicker. An OD of macros or micros will not cause algae blooms, the algae does better with low nutrients and C02. Are you dosing Easycarbo? I can't remember...

How long do you have your lights on for in a day?

 

[mark4785]

looks like BBA and Diatoms, Mark. O2 does not trigger algae growth or make it grow faster, so IMO that test is useless. As we have told you before Diatoms are caused by ammonia spikes and newer tanks. BBA is caused by low or fluctuating C02 levels, i'm not a fan of airstones in planted tanks as i have told you before as the CO2 gets lost quicker. An OD of macros or micros will not cause algae blooms, the algae does better with low nutrients and C02. Are you dosing Easycarbo? I can't remember...

No, I'm not dosing EasyCarbo. I was told to leave it completely alone in another thread as apparently there isn't enough plants in the aquarium to warrant it's use.

You're getting to wound up with the oxygen. It's not the problem and it's certainly not causing algae. How could it?

Excess nutrients do not cause algae either. Whether they are micro nutrients or macro nutrients.

I am not dosing macro-nutrients at all; my nitrate level is always between 5-10 ppm and my phosphate level is always between 0.6 and 1.0 ppm.

Your plants are telling you otherwise. NO3 and PO4 test kits are very innaccurate. The plants are a much better test kit. They are telling you that they need more nutrients.

How much light do you have? How long are they on for?

What is your water change regime?

Hey,

The lights are on from 5:30pm to 11:30pm usually, although today they've been on from 3:30pm so I could take those photographs. Some low light does come through the blinds but does not directly hit the aquarium.

edit: I have a fluorescent blue LED spotlight on during night time.

I do a 25-30% water change every week.

 

[RadaR]

How many Watts?

The LED spot light might not be helping. I'm not sure because I dont know if it's giving of any PAR are not.

 

[fluffycabbage]

I got a bit of algae as my plants settled, but now i have more plants i have little/no algae.
The BBA disappeared after 2 weeks with flourish excel in the tank. The diatoms (previous outbreak) went after a 3 day blackout followed by minimal lighting for a week, then a water change.

 

[ian]

As RadaR, says your plants are the best test kits you can have...have you tried turning your airstone off? Leave it off for a couple of weeks and see if anything changes. As for C02, we would start with the lights, if you have a higher light, your plants will use the C02 in the water more rapidly in turn they would be needing more macros, and micros longer term.

 

[mark4785]

How many Watts?

The LED spot light might not be helping. I'm not sure because I dont know if it's giving of any PAR are not.

2 x 24W lamps (T5 high output), on 6 hours per day.

I've never heard of 'PAR' in my life so I'm a bit puzzled there too. I *believe* the spotlight installed is this spotlight.

 

[mark4785]

As RadaR, says your plants are the best test kits you can have...have you tried turning your airstone off? Leave it off for a couple of weeks and see if anything changes. As for C02, we would start with the lights, if you have a higher light, your plants will use the C02 in the water more rapidly in turn they would be needing more macros, and micros longer term.

Why would I be told to not dose macro-nutrients then? I can't really dose much nitrate as my German Blue Rams ideally need it to stay below 20ppm.

I think I'm giving them enough micro-nutrients; I'm following the dosage instructions on the Tetra Plant Plantamin liquid fert bottle.

 

[RadaR]

I'm sure the spotlight is fine. PAR is Photosynthetically active radiation. But we dont need to go into that...

2x24W of t5 is a heck of a lot of light without any carbon addition. I know you dont have a lot of plants but such a huge amount of light renders that irrelevant. With that much light you will need some carbon addition.
Turning off one of the bulbs would make life easier.

I can't really dose much nitrate as my German Blue Rams ideally need it to stay below 20ppm.

We've already clarified that the GBRs are fine with NO3 over 20ppm. Remember those F1 Discus that were in >20ppm of N03. It's organic waste that is a threat. Long ago people would find their fish dieing. They'd test a number of things and find the NO3 high. Therefore they'd automatically assume it was the nitrate that killed the fish. They wouldnt even bother to investigate more, they would just assume it was the nitrate. In fact, the fish were more likley dieing because of the high amount of organic waste that was allowed to accumulate over time. At the same time, ofcourse nitrates would increase because ammonia > nitrite > nitrate, however rather than the nitrate killing the fish it was the organic waste that will lead to a nitrate build up.

 

[mark4785]

I'm sure the spotlight is fine. PAR is Photosynthetically active radiation. But we dont need to go into that...

2x24W of t5 is a heck of a lot of light without any carbon addition. I know you dont have a lot of plants but such a huge amount of light renders that irrelevant. With that much light you will need some carbon addition.
Turning off one of the bulbs would make life easier.

Taking one of the bulbs out stops the other from working.. pretty strange I know!

I've stopped using liquid carbon as I think it is contributing to gill issues with my fish. If you look at the 02 reading I gave I would have thought adding liquid carbon would be extremely dangerous.

 

[ian]

Easycarbo is fine if dosed properly, you shouldn't have a problem.

 

[RadaR]

I've stopped using liquid carbon as I think it is contributing to gill issues with my fish. If you look at the 02 reading I gave I would have thought adding liquid carbon would be extremely dangerous.

If dosed correctly and not overdosed, liquid carbon is very safe. Sensetive, rare shrimp species are fine with normal liquid carbon dosing. It must have been something else causing "gill issues". I fear you are wrongly associating your problems with the wrong things, without more investigating. Liquid carbon is glutaraldehyde, so what have your O2 levels got to do with it? Liquid carbon isnt CO2.

 

[mark4785]

I've stopped using liquid carbon as I think it is contributing to gill issues with my fish. If you look at the 02 reading I gave I would have thought adding liquid carbon would be extremely dangerous.

If dosed correctly and not overdosed, liquid carbon is very safe. Sensetive, rare shrimp species are fine with normal liquid carbon dosing. It must have been something else causing "gill issues". I fear you are wrongly associating your problems with the wrong things, without more investigating. Liquid carbon is glutaraldehyde, so what have your O2 levels got to do with it? Liquid carbon isnt CO2.

I know it's not C02, but I believe you told me the plants convert the glutaraldehyde into C02? If they didn't do that I wouldn't have wasted money buying the product would I lol? So in effect I'm upping my c02 indirectly by using that product. I was told by somebody else on the forum that there are not enough plants in there to be absorbing the EasyCarbo I was adding. While somebody else said it wouldn't matter if I was dosing EasyCarbo or not has it loses it's effect after 24 hours.

As my fish were dieing one by one when I was using it I decided I'd stop using it.

Your right that it could have been something else causing the gill issues. But what would that other thing be? I ask that question because I wasn't treating for gill flukes when the gill issues stopped, I had just stopped dosing the EasyCarbo and they were no longer gasping for breath.