# i have algea on my plants and in my tank



## shoe997bed263 (Oct 15, 2004)

i just put a co2 system in my tank for two days. i have whitish algea that starts to be stringy that turns green. i brush it off my plants and it is starting to get on the glass on my tanks also. how do i get rid of this. also what is the ideal ph for a planted tank


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## shoe997bed263 (Oct 15, 2004)

where is twitch or husky when i need them?


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## Kilohead36 (Feb 11, 2004)

The Krib
Hey I'm still learning try this site a boatload of info..Overwhelming to say the least


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

Ideal ph is between 6 and 7.

I've never heard of algae that started off white and then turned green, that's nuts. As I've said before though, my approach to algae control is just to have the plants outcompete the algae for nutrients, and this means fast growing plants and enough of them to do the job. I know this method works for me personally because my tank was doing great until I cut down on the plant load (took out the ugly hygro) and immediately I had algae problems. Going to be replacing it soon and everything should clear up.

If I remembered what you had in there I could give better advice, but I'd think of adding some hornwort, anacharis or hygrophila. These are all fast growers that should help out tremendously. What's in the tank right now?


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## channafreak (Mar 27, 2004)

Lets see a picture of your tank. You might not need co2. If your WPG is less than 2 then I guarantee you, you dont need it. co2 can cause a host of problems, one being algea blooms if the levels fluctuate. The first thing I would do is get the co2 out if the tank is not heavily planted. This will alow your plants to use up the avaliable nutrients and essentially starve off the algae. Good luck.


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## harrykaa (Jan 10, 2005)

elTwitcho said:


> Ideal ph is between 6 and 7.
> 
> As I've said before though, my approach to algae control is just to have the plants outcompete the algae for nutrients, and this means fast growing plants and enough of them to do the job.


Hi elTwitcho,

I am interested to know a bit more of your approach. Yes it seems reasonable. But the equilibrium of tank size - abundance of fishes - amount of feeding 
is what matters.

How many fishes you have in your tank? Size? Species?

Because there might be great difficulties in trying to raise a shoal of Pygos and feeding them daily as much as they eat, even if you have a big tank.

Feeding a Pygo shoal always means a lot of leftovers. I feed my Pygos (4 Terns of 6") daily and they still attack the food furiously and tear it in peaces. Even though I use fish fillets of Redfish (Sebastes marinus), Pikeperch (Stizostedion lucioperca), Pike (Esox lucius) etc. Those fillets are firm and tough.

So there will be a great load of nutrients in a Pygo tank (mine is 150 g). Though I don't have a heavily planted tank, I believe no amount of plants can ever handle the burden completely. This is why I must do water changes quite often to remove the surplus waste material.

Regards,


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## channafreak (Mar 27, 2004)

The types of nutrients that will cause algae growth are as follows. Micronutrients, usually trace in tapwater or dosed. Then macros which are Nitrates supplied using potassium nitrate (KNO3) Target is 5 - 10 ppm. Phosphates supplied using monopotassium sulfate or Fleet Enema Target is .5 - 1 ppm, and Potassium supplied using potassium sulfate (K2SO4) or potassium chloride (No-Salt) Target is 20 ppm. Excess of these nutrients will be utilized by algae. Fast growing plants will outcompete the algae for these nutrients due to their greater photosynthetic abilities and esentially starve the algae to death. Kinda like the bullies that steal all the playground balls from the kindergardeners at recess. If there is that much excess food and decaying matter in your tank, I would be more concerned about ammonia levels. Even more important than the competition for nutrients, is the balance between phosphate, potassium, and nitrates. Get a good set of test kits and follow the ppm guidelines. There is always some algae that will take advantage of a predominace of nutrients. Remember though, if you dont have enough plants to consume these ppm levels, then algae will. And like I said above, co2 for just a few plants and low WPG is a definate no-no. Your parameters will be hard to control. Its so late now that hopefully none of my statements are backwards.


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## shoe997bed263 (Oct 15, 2004)

i have determinded that it is brown algea i have just got a shipment of new plants in some amazon swords also my ph is 6.0 i would like it to be alittle higher how do i raise my ph. i still have not really figured out how to set my bubble counter.


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## shoe997bed263 (Oct 15, 2004)

it is a 55 g tank and i have 160 watts so that is 2.9 and i have co2 so is this ok


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

i let my plants do all of the work in my tank, as far as algee controll. I have a co2 system and bright lights, so the plants quickly suck up all of the nutrients that the algee would use. the down side to this approach is that i have to dose on micro nutrients daily.


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## $PiRaNhA MaN$ (Mar 24, 2005)

Yo wut is a co2 system cuz that might make the algea appear or i mean like grow!!!! Think bout that one nd then tell me what a co2 system does!!!!


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

The ph would raise if you cut down on the amount of co2.


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## shoe997bed263 (Oct 15, 2004)

so let me get this right if i want the ph to go up i would lower the co2? now how much co2 should be used on average


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

harrykaa said:


> Hi elTwitcho,
> 
> I am interested to know a bit more of your approach. Yes it seems reasonable. But the equilibrium of tank size - abundance of fishes - amount of feeding
> is what matters.
> ...


Not only reasonable, but it's extremely effective if done properly. My tank was algae free until my CO2 production dropped off without my noticing and the algae took over in a period of a few days. I have a rhom, 2 siamese flying foxes and a pleco I'm trying to get introduced to see how it goes. That's in a 40 gallon and while the bioload isn't super heavy, it's there.

As for lots of leftovers, your ideal nitrate level in a planted tank should be 20ppm or under, which is about the ideal in a non planted tank as well. That could come in the forms of fertilizing or leftover food, but if your nitrates are over 20ppm maybe the plants won't handle it, but your water quality is bad and needs to be addressed nonetheless. If your nitrates are 20ppm or under, your tank is no different from the people who are successfully using the sears/conlin method to keep algae down as I am, and it works very well.

So yes, any tank can have plants handle the load completely, your waste buildup should NEVER get so high that the plants can't handle it because it is then a situation that is no longer healthy for your fish to be in.



shoe997bed263 said:


> so let me get this right if i want the ph to go up i would lower the co2? now how much co2 should be used on average
> [snapback]961957[/snapback]​


Here you go

http://www.aquatic-plants.org/articles/khp...khph_table.html


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## shoe997bed263 (Oct 15, 2004)

ok folks i am getting really pissed off with this planted tank. here are my parameters if it helps any ammonia 0, ph 6.4 nitrates 0, nitrites 15 kh 22 and i still have brown algea on all the leaves of my tank i have been using pmdd mix and i have the plants in about 3'' of floriete i leave the lights on 10 hrs a day. what else should i do here i cannot get rid of this algea.


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## edcal (Feb 19, 2005)

I have a bad green algae problem. It was like a carpet of green algae.

I have a 70 gallon, 2.7 wpg, 50/50 flourite/gravel, lights on for 12 hours. speaking to several people on the site. some said: lessen the time the lights are on. others say its time for Co2 injection. So I cleaned up the algae and bought (2) Co2 systems rated at 40 gallons each and lowered the "light-on" time to 10 hours. We'll see what happens. Here is 2 pics 1 with my algae problem and the other is day 1 with Co2


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## channafreak (Mar 27, 2004)

edcal said:


> I have a bad green algae problem. It was like a carpet of green algae.
> 
> I have a 70 gallon, 2.7 wpg, 50/50 flourite/gravel, lights on for 12 hours. speaking to several people on the site. some said: lessen the time the lights are on. others say its time for Co2 injection. So I cleaned up the algae and bought (2) Co2 systems rated at 40 gallons each and lowered the "light-on" time to 10 hours. We'll see what happens. Here is 2 pics 1 with my algae problem and the other is day 1 with Co2
> [snapback]964505[/snapback]​


It unfortunately looks like you sir, have a blue green "algae" problem. Its actually a cyanobacteria and is a bitch to get rid of. I finally tore down my tank and bleached it. Do lots of water changes. Another thing that will kill it is a run of erythromicin. It will break down the bacterias capsule and kill it. This is arguable not a good treatment. More like a bandaid or last resort. Be ready for your ammoina levels to skyrocket.


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

BGA is usually caused by nitrate levels being too low in your tank. The plants have no nitrate to use up eating other nutrients and the BGA (which can utilize atmospheric nitrogen gas disolved in the water) is able to take hold. Boosting the nitrate in your tank generally takes care of it.

shoe- Brown algae is common in newly planted setups. It usually goes away after between a few weeks to 2 months of the tank maturing.


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## shoe997bed263 (Oct 15, 2004)

so i should just leave it alone then and let it mature?


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## shoe997bed263 (Oct 15, 2004)

should i continue to clean the algea off the plants? or should i just let it go and let it take care of itself


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## channafreak (Mar 27, 2004)

No. Your doing the right thing. Algae unfortunatly does require some elbow grease. Even the best maintained tanks need to be scraped of green spot. Keep scraping the glass and rubbing the leaves gently to loosen any growth on the leaves. Once the your tank finds a good balance of nutrients the problem should subside as your plants consume more and more nutrients. Watch your parameters and get your ppm for of phosphates, potassium and nitrates to appropriate levels.


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

shoe997bed263 said:


> should i continue to clean the algea off the plants? or should i just let it go and let it take care of itself
> [snapback]966954[/snapback]​


Keep cleaning it and it will take care of itself. My tank had brown algae for maybe a month and a half and then suddenly it just stopped entirely. Eventually all planted tanks should stop having issues with brown algae, so it's just a bit of patience in dealing with something that is kind of inevitable.

Otto cats will eat the stuff and so will siamese algae eaters if you think you could try a couple bucks on tank janitors to see if they stick around long enough to clean things up a little.


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## Husky_Jim (May 26, 2003)

shoe997bed263***Sorry for missing your post man...

Can you describe a little in detail your Co2 system?Is it a yeast-sugar or a pressurized one?How many bubbles per second you have?
Have you test your Co2 levels?
I beelieve that you have way to high KH!22 is VERY high!!!!
What spieces of plants do you have and how many?Can you post a pic of the tank?

And last question is id during the 'day' period can you see your plants making photosynthesis or not?


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## hiphopn (Feb 10, 2005)

bump for the interesting thread. lets continue this shoe.. update?


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## chiefkyle (May 3, 2004)

I had Siamease Alge eaters (Ottos) in my tank and have never ever had algae.


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## buette (May 12, 2004)

add some large plecos


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