Need advice to counter a 'don't know what type' algae (with pics)

[rick]

Hi forum people,

recently I have revamped my tank, aiming to do glosso lawn. Though glosso are growing, I also noticed something extra growing.

It is whitish, fuzzy, almost transparent clumps that sway with the water current while clinging to my GEX substrate and glosso. Hard to photo them, but pls see an attempt below in the pic. It is in early stage, so i better ask now I thought.

My tank details:
CO2: 4 BPS
Light: 7 tubes of 54W T5HO (11 Hours/day)
Size: 4x1.5x1.5
Substrate: GEX
Any other fert: None
Startup nutrient suckers: 4 difformis to reduce nutirent in water column

May I ask:
1) What is that algae?
2) How to eliminate?
3) What critters love these algae?

Thanks!

PS: Will share the revamp process soon with pics, journal style.

[raymond]

hey bro, from your pics i dont think can see. would be of some help if you could circle the spot.

[torque6]

Too small to see anything or be of much help. You can refer to the following link to match which algae you have.

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

[PeterGwee]

Way too much light for that tank of yours and that places lots of demand on good CO2 and nutrients. Since you don't dose anything, it is hard to rule out whether it is a nutrient issue / CO2 issue or both. As a tank gets larger, good mixing throughout the tank becomes more and more important so that CO2 and nutrients can get to the plants.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[rick]

Thanks Peter, Torque6 and Raymond

I checked out the link, seems like its a kind of filament algae, or hair algae.

I took another 2 pics, pls see...

These algae actually grow pretty fast.

I have decreased the lighting timing from 11 hrs to 9. Lighting from 7x54W to 4x54W.

[torque6]

No worries, hair algae is appearing due to excess nutrients, do you have them on the glass as well, or just on the glosso ?

[rick]

I have them on say, 5% of the glosso lawn. mainly the old leaves, not (yet) on new grown shoots. And most of them are attaching to bare patches amongst the glosso, on the GEX gravel.

I guess is that GEX is providing the fertile ground for the algae to grow, since the algae do not appear anywhere above substrate.

Is 9 hrs lighting timing normal? I'll be getting yamato later.

I'm so afraid of SAE, because my previous batch turned into giants (4 inches, fat and round), and mess with my gravels and plants. They even ate my beloved plants when they are big.

[eddy planer]

Hi Rick,

I have exactly the same perimeter like your 4ft planted tank has a glosso lawn....now it grew 3inches thick all over for couple of months! Too busy to trim them.

Glosso really need a lots of light,good CO2 and nutrients (add 10 ml any fert solution fortnightly). As for containing any algae, get 100 malaya shrimps and 8 large yamatos and 1kg peat media for filter canister will do an amazing job !

You see I'm using T5 7X54W to ensure my glosso grew nicely...now have to shut 3x54w to reduce the growth ...already 3 inches thick.

[rick]

hi eddy, thanks.

Just back from C328 with 50 Malayan and 20 yamato. Avoiding SAE for the time being. Hopefully they control the algae like Eddy experienced. At least what eddy (and Soulfinder7 has is a happy problem. Trimming glosso to maintain is backbreaking I heard.

I dare not dose my TMG now, due to the algae. Or should I ? hmm...

[PeterGwee]

No worries, hair algae is appearing due to excess nutrients, do you have them on the glass as well, or just on the glosso ?

Not the inorganic nutrients that we are dosing for sure. NH4 maybe but that is when the uptake is slowed down by one more missing nutrient.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[PeterGwee]

hi eddy, thanks.

Just back from C328 with 50 Malayan and 20 yamato. Avoiding SAE for the time being. Hopefully they control the algae like Eddy experienced. At least what eddy (and Soulfinder7 has is a happy problem. Trimming glosso to maintain is backbreaking I heard.

I dare not dose my TMG now, due to the algae. Or should I ? hmm...

If you want to deal with the problem properly, you need to know how to grow plants and not think of killing algae. That is not what you want to do when you got into this hobby right? Focus on what makes plants grow. Critters might help a tad and definitely more in a non-CO2 system but not in a high light CO2 enriched tank since hair algae favours condition much like a regular plant. Germination of it initially is what you want to stop while killing it is easy via trimming and etc.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[torque6]

50 malayans ? seems you bought a full arsenal of clean up crews. Seems to me your hair algae is rather rampant. As always, the objective of having a planted tank is to ensure plants grow well in a balance environment, this will keep ultimately keep algae at bay.

[rick]

Thanks pple.

The glosso is growing, and apparently the algae is under control, for now.

My guess is the few changes help: 1)water change 2) shortening of lighting hrs from 11 to 9hrs, 3) intro of shrimps, 4) manual removal of the filament algae, and 5) up of CO2.

btw, eddy, does peat media in filter helps? In what way?

Will keep the updates here in AQ. Thanks again planters.

[rick]

A snap shot of the glosso with the algae eliminated. Hopefully the algae will be kept at bay.

[torque6]

Rick, i noticed you have posted some pics at the gallery, is your tank with named 4FT, located right behind the window, and using 2 packets of GEX green soil ?

[rick]

yes, the light from window is negligible

[eddy planer]

Hi rick,

congrats! you did it

There is no way to eradicate them completely, however, i had tried and experiment it and I find this is one of the effective methods to reduce hair alage down by filtering the 4 ft planted tank through peat is to help the water softer and increase its acidity(water turns a little brown).Hair algae infections will not multiply rapidly are controlled more naturally by the water chemistry like nitrates and phosphates had reduced.

Under this water quality, my plants ( 5 different kinds of crypts, mosses,glossos and my schools of Lampeyes, rummy nose tetras, microrasbora sp galaxies and three line pencilfishes of course..my cherries and other critters grew brighter,healthier and more colourful.

Like what Peter said, as long as you have the critters and follow the advise on water management, as an aquarist, your main prime concern is your prized plant grow well, the rest is secondary like algaes.

[PeterGwee]

Eddy, you can eradicate them completely with good trimming and care. The key is stopping them from reoccurring via germination with non-limiting levels of CO2 and nutrients for the plants. Using lower light which Tom Barr preach is easier for folks since you have more room for error in terms of CO2 and nutrients. A 1.5wpg tank might need 15ppm of CO2 to be non-limiting and targeting 30ppm would mean 15ppm of room for error whereas a 5wpg tank needs 30-35ppm of CO2 to be non-limiting (not much room for error....imagine flow slows down, diffusers get clogged, CO2 goes down.). Killing algae is easy if only you can stop the new growth from coming back.

Dosing lean nutrients in order to limit algae is just plain wrong method and seems to come back again even when it is already proven not to work over time. You will hurt the plants in the long run since you will never limit algae.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[rick]

Eddy, I see, noted your use of the peat media.

[torque6]

Peat media is a good algae reducer. Saw Aquastar carrying some, brand should be MRaqua