# Algae issue!



## GeminiPrincess (Oct 1, 2010)

My 26g just finished cycling two days ago (took about 7-10 days to cycle). After setting it up, i noticed green algae on the heater and filter. Brushed it off and it came right back. Wasn't to worried about it. now there is what i was thinking was green beard algae growing on the majority of the plants, though this algae brushes right off the leaves and flakes into dust type particles. Any hints as to what type of algae this is and what would work to rid the tank of it? 
Tank specs are below. The water parameters are normal. pH is at 6.6


----------



## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

GeminiPrincess said:


> Any hints as to what type of algae this is and what would work to rid the tank of it?


Sounds to me, based on the age of the tank, the light, fertz, and CO2, and the type of algae that you might have an over-abundance of plant-friendly goodness in your tank. Try scaling back your lighting with a mesh screen, reducing your CO2 generation (if possible), and test your water to see if you are overdosing your fertz. This is, of course, until your plants get big enough and healthy enough that you can pump all of that goodness into your tank at full force and your plants will drink it up. Then you will truly have a Herculean aquatic jungle.

To deal with the algae, you could reduce and/or break up your lighting cycle, do a full blackout if you'd like to eradicate it all in one fell swoop, or do what most of us do - invest in a cleanup crew. Shrimp, snails, and plecos make great algae devastators, while corys, ottos, crabs, frogs, etc. make great bottom cleaners. I have even heard of aquarists who come home with a bagful of Malaysian Trumpet Snails or common pond snails from their LPS's tanks and use the snail population as a cleanup crew (MTS will clean deeper into the gravel as well, which most others won't).


----------



## GeminiPrincess (Oct 1, 2010)

[email protected] said:


> Sounds to me, based on the age of the tank, the light, fertz, and CO2, and the type of algae that you might have an over-abundance of plant-friendly goodness in your tank. Try scaling back your lighting with a mesh screen, reducing your CO2 generation (if possible), and test your water to see if you are overdosing your fertz. This is, of course, until your plants get big enough and healthy enough that you can pump all of that goodness into your tank at full force and your plants will drink it up. Then you will truly have a Herculean aquatic jungle.
> 
> To deal with the algae, you could reduce and/or break up your lighting cycle, do a full blackout if you'd like to eradicate it all in one fell swoop, or do what most of us do - invest in a cleanup crew. Shrimp, snails, and plecos make great algae devastators, while corys, ottos, crabs, frogs, etc. make great bottom cleaners. I have even heard of aquarists who come home with a bagful of Malaysian Trumpet Snails or common pond snails from their LPS's tanks and use the snail population as a cleanup crew (MTS will clean deeper into the gravel as well, which most others won't).


By testing my water do you mean see what my nitrates are at? Also, my drop checker doesn't turn green unless i really pump up the co2. I am dosing 2ml (5ml = 75 drops) of dry ferts 3x a week and doing water changes weekly. Then entire back wall of the tank has tons of rotala which is growing quickly (1-2" in a week) Everything else seems to be at a stand still. I have cherry shrimp and 2 amanos that i havn't transfered back into the tank since it just got done recycling. How many amanos do you think i could keep in there? Any suggestions on a good hungry type of pleco?


----------



## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

GeminiPrincess said:


> By testing my water do you mean see what my nitrates are at? Also, my drop checker doesn't turn green unless i really pump up the co2. I am dosing 2ml (5ml = 75 drops) of dry ferts 3x a week and doing water changes weekly. How many amanos do you think i could keep in there? Any suggestions on a good hungry type of pleco?


Answers:
1. I would test for everything you dose as far as fertz go. I test for nitrate, phosphate and iron, and I'm currently shopping for sulfate and potassium test strips. You would be surprised at how easy it is to overdose with dry fertz
2. If your drop checker says add more CO2, then you may add more. Tanks require a lot of CO2 because it is the hardest to diffuse into the water. You may also be dumping a lot of CO2 into your water but it is not diffusing, or you are out-gassing a lot of CO2. Ways to reduce this loss and up your diffusion:
- Reduce surface agitation and buy a hood or full glass cover to reduce out-gassing of CO2 via gas exchange.
- Buy a better diffuser/reactor. Remember that if you can see the bubbles from your CO2 diffuser reaching the surface of your tank, they are not being diffused into the water. (I'm partial to reactors myself - nearly 100% diffusion, but they are expensive and require maintenance, since they use electrical hardware to power the whirlpool).
3. You can keep a TON of shrimp in a tank, due to their very low bio-load. However, keep in mind that they are bigger shrimp and therefore need more food, and crowding will cause stress and possible death.
4. All plecos are voracious, in my opinion, compared to critters like shrimp. It will have your tank walls sparkling in no time (added my flash pleco and 6 Amanos to my ten gallon which had an algae problem, 3 days later the algae is gone).


----------



## verdifer (Sep 8, 2010)

Get a Plec or Bristlenose and leave the lights off, I say this because I always found they eat more or to put it better they are more active when it's dark.

I always made sure before I went bed the tank and light in the room were out, I used to get a build up of Algae on the Air Stone so once a week I would turn it off and when I got up in the morning it would be cleaned.


----------



## GeminiPrincess (Oct 1, 2010)

[email protected] said:


> Answers:
> 1. I would test for everything you dose as far as fertz go. I test for nitrate, phosphate and iron, and I'm currently shopping for sulfate and potassium test strips. You would be surprised at how easy it is to overdose with dry fertz
> 2. If your drop checker says add more CO2, then you may add more. Tanks require a lot of CO2 because it is the hardest to diffuse into the water. You may also be dumping a lot of CO2 into your water but it is not diffusing, or you are out-gassing a lot of CO2. Ways to reduce this loss and up your diffusion:
> - Reduce surface agitation and buy a hood or full glass cover to reduce out-gassing of CO2 via gas exchange.
> ...


As far as CO2 diffussion, im set. Glass cover and a Do Aqua Diffuser - supposivly one of the best you can buy - i dunno lol. I'll call my shrimp lady and see if she has any amanos up for sale. Last time i was there she had two pregos so heres for hoping! I'll look into plecos, i just know most get really large. In terms of testing, I thought test strips were no-no's because of the inaccuracy, is that not true for phosphates and what not? Thanks!! I just did a 50% wc so im going to start adding my shrimpies back either tonight or tomorrow.


----------



## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Unfortunately, there are no aquarium-specific tests I could find for sulfates and potassium - the only kits are test strips used to test drinking water (I'll keep looking for liquid kits). Everything else I test I have liquid kits for.


----------



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Just sounds like green dust algae. It can be reduced with a shorter lighting period. I would just back the period off one hour and see what happens.


----------



## GeminiPrincess (Oct 1, 2010)

I took a closer look at the algae after the water cleared up and there are tiny strands here and there of bright green mixed in with the other algae i was talking about before. It most likely is dust algae its annoying though! Will anything besides killing the lights help clean it up? I'm picking up 3 more Amano's this weekend and am in the market for a Pleco.


----------



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I had numerous types of algae in my 125 recently and I reduced lighting period in half and stopped dosing ferts. In 5 days everything had cleared up. Excel may help clean it up if you ave some....gret stuff.

I usually go here to help me diagnose and treat my algae.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3579&d=1166546074


----------



## GeminiPrincess (Oct 1, 2010)

jrman83 said:


> I had numerous types of algae in my 125 recently and I reduced lighting period in half and stopped dosing ferts. In 5 days everything had cleared up. Excel may help clean it up if you ave some....gret stuff.
> 
> I usually go here to help me diagnose and treat my algae.
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3579&d=1166546074


I've been using excel...how much would you suggest and how often? I don't wanna overdose and kill all the fish


----------



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I dose near daily and dose the amount on the bottle usually. I have dosed double the amount for a week straight and it didn't hurt my fish.


----------



## GeminiPrincess (Oct 1, 2010)

k thanks...now i have a new problem...my water is kind of cloudy. It's not a white cloudy or really a brown color either. Its just kinda murky. Could this be diatoms? I can still see through to the back, so it's not awful, just annoying. The only thing that has changed since I did my 50% wc yesterday is i added the 2 amano shrimp and the mystery snail.


----------



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Ummm....green maybe? stick the corner of a white towel in and see.


----------



## GeminiPrincess (Oct 1, 2010)

jrman83 said:


> Ummm....green maybe? stick the corner of a white towel in and see.


no color whatsoever...hmmmmm....still doesn't work white murky. If i knew where my camera charger was id post a pic, but someone misplaced it :/


----------

