# green algae problems



## KIKI (Mar 20, 2003)

I have grewen algae problems and am not sure what to do. I have tried everything. I have good uv steralizer, and I havnge about 50% of water each week, have no nitrates. I have used phosphate sponge with no help, or at least no noticable help. My tank was fine for two or three years, and about three months ago the algae started showing up. It started when I bought couple new plants for my tank.







Its a very heavily planted tank, the fish count is propably about 50 and they include discus, plecos , tetras, rainbows, catfishes, loaches etc. Its a 180 gallons tank. I add CO2 and iron to the tank. The ph is about 6.5, and as I mentioned no nitrates or ammonia.The temperature is around 80-82 F. The tank also has bog wood and some stones (forgot the name) bought at a fish store.
Any help would be appriciated.


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## KIKI (Mar 20, 2003)

I have also heard of commercial algae removers, but heard they can also kill your plants so I have never tried it. And I have some delicate plants in there.
Also my light output is about 250 watts. and the light is on about 12-14 hours a day. I know it may seem long but it never been a problem before.


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## dayday (Feb 22, 2005)

i had the same problem with real plants too and if your close to a window it can make it worse. i just use fake plants myself.


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## hrdbyte (Feb 2, 2005)

I hade the same problem but i fixed it by using "GREEN ALGAE REMOVER"
it comes in a liquid form. just add some to your tank and you should be fine....


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## HellBoy (Sep 22, 2004)

Can you tell more about your algae, because they spread in short time and you haven`t any problems before it could be that you get Blue-green Algae, it is not algae it is actually the organism cyanobacteria, they are slimy and have bad smell. If that is a case I would recommend TETRA ZMF ALGO-stop fix, I had blue-green algae and I remove it with this. If you have common green algae, first you should not keep your light so long, try to not turn your light for few days, just to see is there any efect, I use algae removers with no problems at all, some of algae removers has deadly efect on snails.

For blue-green algae you can use medicine that contains erythromycin phosphate, use 200mg erythromycin phosphate per 10gallons of water.

But *TETRA ZMF ALGO-stop fix* is very good.


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## KIKI (Mar 20, 2003)

thanks guys







I'll try that and I hope it will work.

Also as to what kind of algae it is , I think there is two types, the blue-green algae(the one thats easy to remove but gows back very quickly), and hair algae.


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## KIKI (Mar 20, 2003)

Also as I mentioned before, I know I should not keep the light so long but thats not an option I want to take.
The light was on for 12-14 hours a day for years and it never caused any problems, so I dont think the light is a problem, as I said the algae seemed to came when I bought a couple of new plants.


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

Algae removers all contain the same active ingredient, and this active ingredient is toxic to all fish to a certain extent, and it will also almost always harm your plants. I'd stay well away from that and try other methods first.

If you've got a heavily planted tank, you should be able to control your algae pretty easily, but there's a few things you need to change regarding your setup.

First of all, ditch the UV sterilizer, all it's doing is oxidizing your iron and making it unavaible to your plants.

Second, 0 nitrates is actually a bad thing. You may want to consider adding some nitrates in the form of KNO3 or Salt Peter. You want to have 10ppm nitrates so your plants have something to grow off of.

The thing being, is that phosphates grow algae, and plants SHOULD be able to eat phosphates. However, without Iron and without Nitrates your plants are basically only growing until they use up either of those. Once the iron or nitrates are used up, the plants stop eating phosphate and the algae is left to grow unhindered. If you start adding Nitrate twice a week to keep the concentration around 10ppm and stop oxidizing your iron, you'll likely see your phosphate levels drop right off and the algae should recede. You may also need to start dosing with a micronutrient solution if you aren't already doing so, as a lack of this can also inhibit plant growth and prevent them from using up your phosphate.

Bottom line, whatever you do, STAY AWAY FROM ALGICIDES. I would not be the least bit surprised if they killed off your discus, and I'm sure neither of us want to see that.

Good luck


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## Rikimaru (May 3, 2004)

KIKI said:


> I have grewen algae problems and am not sure what to do. I have tried everything. I have good uv steralizer, and I havnge about 50% of water each week, have no nitrates. I have used phosphate sponge with no help, or at least no noticable help. My tank was fine for two or three years, and about three months ago the algae started showing up. It started when I bought couple new plants for my tank.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Is ur tank standing in sunlight??
How many hours of light does the tank get??

Turn off ur lights for a days or 2
I do that al the time and it works gr8


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## KIKI (Mar 20, 2003)

elTwitcho said:


> Algae removers all contain the same active ingredient, and this active ingredient is toxic to all fish to a certain extent, and it will also almost always harm your plants. I'd stay well away from that and try other methods first.
> 
> If you've got a heavily planted tank, you should be able to control your algae pretty easily, but there's a few things you need to change regarding your setup.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your reply, Thats exacly what I taught about the algicides( as I mentioneed in the begining) and thats why I was afraid of using them.








But you taught me one thing, that the uv oxidizes the iron, which I didnt know, so I will turn off the uv, and add some micronutrients to water. I taught of it before but I wasnt sure it was worth it, since I change half the tanks water each week.The tap water also contains most of those macronutients in very small amounts, and its possible that its not enough for all my plants since there is a lot of them. 
One other thing, the algae has propably killed some of my plants, especially the weaker ones. I dont think I will be able to bring it back, plus the tabnk now looks ugly compared to few months ago.


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## KIKI (Mar 20, 2003)

Rikimaru said:


> KIKI said:
> 
> 
> > I have grewen algae problems and am not sure what to do. I have tried everything. I have good uv steralizer, and I havnge about 50% of water each week, have no nitrates. I have used phosphate sponge with no help, or at least no noticable help. My tank was fine for two or three years, and about three months ago the algae started showing up. It started when I bought couple new plants for my tank.
> ...


Thanks for replying








No its not in direct sunlight, but it does get some. and the light is on 12-14 hours as I mentioned before.
I dont want to turn off the light as some of my plants got demaged badly by the algae, so I dont want to demage them even more.By turning the light off they will be unable to get their food, which I think they need badly, at least some of them at this time


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

KIKI said:


> Thanks for your reply, Thats exacly what I taught about the algicides( as I mentioneed in the begining) and thats why I was afraid of using them.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Good luck dude. The UV sterilizer might be good to still use maybe for a few hours a week before you add fertilizers so you'd still get the benefits of having one without interfering too much with the iron in your tank.

If the iron alone doesn't help, you should consider adding some small amounts of nitrate as well. I know of a few people who keep well planted discus tanks and the little bit of salt peter doesn't harm the fish as both the fish and the plants are immaculate.


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## Husky_Jim (May 26, 2003)

_*Second, 0 nitrates is actually a bad thing. You may want to consider adding some nitrates in the form of KNO3 or Salt Peter. You want to have 10ppm nitrates so your plants have something to grow off of.

This is the key to the solution of your problem......*_

***Nice reply twitcho!!!


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## KIKI (Mar 20, 2003)

elTwitcho said:


> Algae removers all contain the same active ingredient, and this active ingredient is toxic to all fish to a certain extent, and it will also almost always harm your plants. I'd stay well away from that and try other methods first.
> 
> If you've got a heavily planted tank, you should be able to control your algae pretty easily, but there's a few things you need to change regarding your setup.
> 
> ...


I just bought salt petre







and I just want to know How much of the salt petre do I add to a 180 g aquarium?


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

1/8 of a teaspoon per 10 gallons of water works out to roughly 10ppm. So something like 2 and 1/4 teaspoons or 2 and a half teaspoons is a good starting point.


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## harrykaa (Jan 10, 2005)

elTwitcho said:


> Algae removers all contain the same active ingredient, and this active ingredient is toxic to all fish to a certain extent, and it will also almost always harm your plants. I'd stay well away from that and try other methods first.


Hi KIKI,

I think it is wise to listen to elTwitcho here.

Please note that ALGICIDs contain monurin or diurin. This protein-like substance may be harmfull in addition to the plants also to the fishes.
Yes it says in the cover of the package that it does not harm plants nor fishes
BUT in the same token there is a warning message (obligatory in Europe at least) that says the substance may be harmfull to water life, it may even cause cancer and that you should strictly avoid of getting it on to your skin!

I personally keep to water changes and cleaning the tank, supressing light (especially keeping the direct sunlight away from aquarium) and trying to get the plants to grow and use trace elements.

Regards,


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## KIKI (Mar 20, 2003)

thanks guys for your replys, I will add the stuff to my aquarium today, bacause my computer broke since my last post and I have been unable to view your reply therefore I didnt know how much to put. Thanks again foer your help







Ihope it helps


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