Stubborn Algae all over - Need to resolve

[hsiehqf]

Need help.

I have my tank for almost 2 years without Algae problem. Except some tiny patches of algae on Glass panel.

6 months ago after my tank started having a ( black color algae, about 3mm long crowding all the leaves ) they are everywhere, and on all the 4 corners of tank. Even on the Eheim inlet and outlet tube.

Past few months, being trying to cut away as much plants affected, everytime, it came back.

Need advice:
- I have reduce lighting , no fertiser
- What should I do? Do I remove all plants and replant with new plants?

[james]

Sounded like BBA.

I am currently facing the same problem.

Came across this article http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com..._peroxide.html but I not sure if I am going to try that. Too radical []

[PeterGwee]

hsiehqf...stop fertilising is not going to help in your situation. You are helping the algae instead..keep up with the fertilising and please fill up the info below to let us know what nutrient you are missing...my guess could be CO2, NO3 and PO4.

Beginners Info Sheet
--------------------

Tank Dimensions (LxWxH):
Tank Volume (litres or gallons):
Lighting Intensity(No of Watts) :
Type of Lighting (FL/PL/MH) :
No. of Hours your light is on :
CO2 Injection Rate (bps) :
Type of CO2 (DIY/Liquid/Tank) :
Method of Injection (e.g. Diffusor/Reactor):
Substrate Used :
How Thick is your base fert :
How thick is your gravel :
Liquid Fertilizers Used :
Frequency of fertilization :
Tank Temperature :
Type of Filter (overhead/internal/canister) :
Filter media used :
How long has your tank been set up :
Other equipment :

Chemical Properties (Fill what you can)
---------------------------------------
Carbonate Hardness (KH):
Total Hardness (gH):
pH :
NH4 (ppm):
NO2 (ppm):
NO3 (ppm):
PO4 (ppm):
Fe (ppm):

Bioload (Your Fish and Plants)
------------------------------

<State what fishes and plants you have to the best of your ability>


Describe your problem :

<problem description. If you have picture which could help then please post them>

[Plantbrain]

Generally, rather than approaching this from a algae problem, you should approach this from the perspective of a plant problem.

Why would algae suddenly appear? The plants stopped growing and doing well. When plants don't grow, algae does.

So by taking care of the plant's needs and optimizing that, you have little if any algae issues.

If you approach it from the algae's point of view, plants and algae have some of the same needs but algae does better at the extreme ends of the nutrients and environmental spectrum. Most algicidal product also harm plants to some degree. You can add bleach, H2O2, permangnate, most strong oxidizers, CuSO4 etc.
Add too much and you kill the plants/fish. This is true for most of these.

But these don't address the cause. They are not plant nutrients(CuSO4 at very low levels is).

Poor Plant growth is the reason for the algae and the should be the focus.

Trimming, and cleaning of equipment will remove what's there right now, then correctin g the problems will solve the issue of it coming back.

In the end, there is not other reasonable method.............
but to focus on the plant's needs.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[naturetan]

Hi Tom,

What you mean by the extreme end of the environmental spectrum?

Given the condition that are right for plant growth, can algae by itself die off, even without any manual removal? A rather tedious job for many to remove bits and pieces of algae in tank to prevent its further reproduction. []

[bclee]

----------------
On 4/12/2003 8:08:05 PM

Need help.

I have my tank for almost 2 years without Algae problem. Except some tiny patches of algae on Glass panel.

6 months ago after my tank started having a ( black color algae, about 3mm long crowding all the leaves ) they are everywhere, and on all the 4 corners of tank. Even on the Eheim inlet and outlet tube.

Past few months, being trying to cut away as much plants affected, everytime, it came back.

Need advice:
- I have reduce lighting , no fertiser
- What should I do? Do I remove all plants and replant with new plants?

----------------

hsiehqf, have you made any changes recently?

According to your description, it seemed that you have BBA.

You gotta have healthy plants to fight against the algae. Provide sufficient nutrients, CO2 and light for your plants.

You should look at the nutrients for your plants. It is likely that something is deficient. Test for NO3 and PO4. Review your fertiliser dossage, ensure you have sufficient K, NO3 & PO4, and traces via liquid fertilisers.

Ensure that the CO2 is at least 20ppm. Confirm this by pH/KH reading.

Manually remove as much algae as possible. If you get your CO2 and nutrients right, they should stop spreading.

BC

[hsiehqf]

Hi all

thanks for all the advice.
Sorry to say that I do not really monitor all the mineral content such as NO3, K,etc

After seeing this algae , I have reduced lighting and fertiser.
Will take all your comments and try to work on the algae.
Sunday, went to Farmart looking for Dr Mallick KNO3, seems the store has shifted. I will continue to add JBL liquid fertizer. Just finished the fertiser, will get another bottle

[bclee]

Do not cut your fertilisers. It is not going to help reduce the algae but in fact may aggreviate the situation.

Check the LFS link on top for the Dr. Mallick's contact.

Testing NO3 and PO4 help you tremendously to solve the problem.

JBL florapol by itself provides only micronutrients. It is likely that you macronutrients are out.

BC