nano super algae

[kenneth_kpe]

my nano tank is loosing the battle against the generally common brown and hair algae just cant balance the tank !! im trying the EI and because im dosing little c02 (still cant think of a way to dose c02 into a small 2 gal tank) the algae has really taken hold of the tank......


the tank will undergo a 2-3 days blackut! hope the algae fades away and my java moss takes hold !

here is the question of course.... any tips guys ?

 

[zig]

Pressurised Co2 should do the trick

You could try 1 0r 2 m/l of flourish excel each day maybe along with a diy inverted bell to catch the co2 bubbles, this should provide some carbon, dont know how much.

Do you have fish or shrimp in the tank? if not you could switch off the filter and only run it when dosing the ferts, or maybe you dont have a filter!!

I dont think a blackout will do much for hair algae its really down to the imbalance in the tank, if it does do anything the algae will probably just come back, you could try cutting back on the light or if desperate remove some of the badly infected leaves and stems, clean the tank as much as you can and do a big water change, but i think its really down to the co2 and the amount of light you are useing, id say if you managed to get the co2 30ppm or over and regular ferts it would solve the problem.

 

[superjalami30]

kenneth_kpe, I have a 3 gallon planted tank I've been playin with for a few weeks now.
(still gotta get some pics uploaded)
Anyways, I think with a tank this small its very hard to keep the ferts at a proper balance, especially depending on what, and how may plants you have in a system that small.
Right from the start I was having problems, dying plants, high levels of co2, light and ferts, dosing was all wrong etc etc.

I run my C02 through my fluvol and use a bell to catch any extra that escapes from the top of the filter, my C02 levels are extremely hard to keep level, again because its such a small system.
I was using 26 watts, but have since cut back to 13.
I dose with flourish, iron, KN03 and K2S04.
To help cut back on light a bit I also add my own DIY black water extract.

None of the above helped me with a green hair algae problem, again I think it may be because of it being such a small system.
I was nearly at my wits end and was going to take it all down and pack it away when I remembered I had a few packets of "algone" laying around.

Algae gone.

I know its the easy way out, but it worked, after the treatment is done levels should be basic and it should be easier I hope, to keep them that way.

I wont of course be adding many ferts at all.
I think I'll go with a basic all around fert in extremely small doses at first, then work my way up based on water test.
Oh ya, I also added 3 oto's and they've helped keep it a little cleaner.

 

[Walt]

I would think anything under 5 gallons would be tough to keep balanced....

 

[kenneth_kpe]

yeah its insane to keep it balance, im trying the blackout to keep the algae away, then im planning on adding a lot more fast growing plants to try and give the algae a hard time to grow but im still gonna wait until i get my glosso hehehe

maybe i should cut the dosing levels to around half ? hmm what if i feed my c02 into the intake of my hob... hmmmmm

 

[superjalami30]

If I were you I would stop adding any ferts completely for awhile.
With the addition of adding the "algone" treatment I stopped adding any ferts for two weeks, did a 50% water change after the first week and a second 50% water chnage after the second week, then started too add ferts again slowly and lower then the recomended amount per gallon.
So far so good.
I wish I had a good digital cam, having to be so close to the tank to get a shot of it leaves me with a very blurry pic.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

hmmm very good idea! what plants do you have inside the tank ? what kind of fluval filter are you using btw ? im thinking of diffusing the c02 much more efficiently. ....

i think plant selection is a good thing ? a good starter issue maybe ??? what do you think ?

 

[superjalami30]

I use a fluvol 1 plus with a foam insert

Plants:
java moss
java fern
dwarf sag
brazilian micro sword
A very small (atm) tiger lotus
two very small anubius
And a stem plant I do not know the name of and a small type of grass I am unsure of the name as well.

I also added a couple of small dwraf pygmy chain that have taken off quickly.

The tank looks like a jungle, very densly planted but I think it's helping keep the algae at bay, along with the algone I've been using.

When I started my C02 levels were outta this world, 100ppm, but since I downgraded to 13 watts from 26 watts of light I've dropped my C02 level to approx 50 ppm, quite high still but the oto's dont seem to be having trouble. The malaysian snails on the other hand all died.

Being this is a 3 gallon tank all of the C02 levels above are never that constant.
And the fert levels tend to jump as well, when I test for iron P04, and nitrate they are never the same as the day before.
Now that I'm using the algone packs I've completely stopped dosing with Nitrates as the algone is a nitrate remover, no sense in wasting my KN03.
DIY blackwater extract is a big helper as well I thinks, I add 1 ML every water change, 1 ML being an experimental amount atm but seems to be enough to cut down on light.
I also put in a small peice of mopani which I boiled for only a few minutes in order to preserve the amount of tan it could leach into the tank.

Every tank is different though, who knows, maybe all you do need is to up your C02 levels like zig suggested and see what happens.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

i see i see ! thanks for the tips! im gonna redo my tank and get more fast growers, redo my c02 and errr thats about it probably o ya lessen the dosing routine a little hehehe