Typical

[Waterloo Kid]

I've finally installed the 2 T5 39W lights that I bought on ebay a few weeks back. One has an Arcadia Marine white bulb in it (not my first choice but it was all I could get to ensure the fittings actually worked) and the other has the Arcadia Plant Pro bulb.
After all this effort guess what...

The only pearling I get to see is the (literally) bloomin' algae. It's covered in bubbles!

Any ideas what's wrong with my setup? I've got DIY CO2 on it too. It's the tank in my signature.

WK

 

[konrad05]

I would blame the marine bulb, nutrient imbalance, and chemistry imbalance

 

[George Farmer]

I agree with Konrad.

To get rid of your alage I would plant loads of fast growing species and floating plants, have your lights on for 6 to 8 hours with a light gap in between i.e. 3 hours on 3 off 4 on. This gap is hated by algae but is ok for plants. Don't use any fertilisers and try to increase your co2 to a minimum of 25 mg/l and replace the marine tube with a more suitable one. Good luck

BTW What colour is your light? Does is have a pinkish hue?

 

[Waterloo Kid]

Ta people.
Yes the Plant Pro bulb is rather pinky purple. It's a bit better than the Flora Glo T8.

WK


Edit:
Hang on, spoke too soon. Just had a look at the tank and the new leaf on my abubia nana is pearling like mad! A stream of tiny oxygen bubbles is pouring off the end of this new leaf. Also, when the lights came on this moring the leaf was a light brown/yellow colour. There are now distinct patches of green appearing on the leaf.

A lot of the algae I have is the blue-green type. I read somewhere that treating the tank with a half strength dose of an antibacterial remidy containing erythromycin will kill this off. Any thoughts on that?
My biggest problem is that my tap water has a high phosphate level (.5mg/l) I'll place the phos-zorb in the filter to try to remedy this.

WK

 

[George Farmer]

Cyanobacteria (blue/green alage) is a nightmare!! I had it about a 18 months ago and the only thing that worked for me was a complete strip-down and cleaning of the gravel. I used this as an oppurtunity to install a undergravel heater cable and mixed in a load of laterite.

Antibiotics may work though but I'm not too knowlegeable on them. I prefer to treat the cause rather than the symptom. In my case I was overstocked, underfiltered and I was overfeeding too. I gave away some fish, got a new external filter, planted heavily and cut down on feeding. My tank has never looked back but I learnt the hard (and expensive) way!!

 

[konrad05]

Indeed, blue-green algae is a nightmare as gf225 mentioned. You should take serious measures as it could end up being a disaster
Just do a google.com search on blue-green algae and you'll find plenty of sites describing what to do.