Help and advise needed. Does anyone know how I can get rid of the green spot algae?
Mine is a low tech, low maintenance tank. Been around for 6 months. About 4 weeks ago, GSA has increased exponentially covering 80% of my anubias & java ferns.
Looking pretty ugly.
Tank details:
Size: 60cm x 30cm x 30cm
Co2: none
Water change: 10-15% weekly
Fertilisation: weekly dosage with BW's Growth x 3 push
Lighting: 5 hrs daily with 3 x 14watts , normal output 6400k fluorescent tubes DIY with reflectors.
Substrate: topsoil mixed with sand. Sand 90%, topsoil 10%.
Filtration: Exteral Canister, 1500litre per hr.
Fauna: 20 cherry shrimps, 10 Amano, 10 baby guppies less than 2 weeks old.
Plants: 80% Anubias & Java ferns.
Green spot algae (GSA) is usually due to too much light shining directly on bare surfaces, in this case the tank glass and the slow growing anubias and java fern leaves.
You'll have to use an algae scraper to manually clean off all the GSA from the tank glass, trim off the GSA affected leaves and perhaps reduce the lighting intensity/photoperiod. Since the majority of the plants situated under the lights are slow growing types and you are not using Co2 injection, most of the light ends up not utilized by the plants and in turn gets used by the algae instead.
Nerite snails can also help to eat up GSA, they will graze on it as part of their diet... but they are only helpers and will not usually be able to clear the entire tank of GSA, so you will still need to do the manual trimming and cleaning to get rid of that algae regularly. Note that although nerite snails do not breed in freshwater tank, they will still tend to lay dormant white eggs in the surfaces of plants and hardscape (which are very difficult to remove), so its a trade-off.
Would Yamato shrimps be another option? I had some of these in my tank and they did a great job in cleaning up algae on rocks as well as dirt on the moss.
I dont think Yamato will clean GSA. I have 10 yamatos, and 20 cherries in my tank. but they clean hair algae very well.Originally Posted by Goalkeeper
Yeah, yamato shimps don't have much effect on GSA, its too tough for them to scrape off and eat.
I've also tried many algae eaters and so far the only one that can actually eat GSA are nerite snails... though ultimately still have to follow up with regular glass cleaning using the trusty algae scraper.
Funny thing, my glass is constantly clear of GSA. This I observed each time during water change. Only my Anubias & java ferns are affected badly.
Urban Aquaria, any thoughts on why this happens? However I suspect nutrients imbalanced but not sure what exactly. I'll try 2 water change weekly to see if this helps.
I guess it differs from tank to tank... i also have tanks with no GSA on the glass too, but the anubias leaves have GSA, and usually it appears on the older leaves.
Most likely those leaves attract certain types of algae growth. Its one of the challenges of maintaining slower growing plants in planted tanks with ample light, have to trim off the old leaves as part of regular plant maintainance.
The more frequent water changes should be beneficial, it'll help reduce the excess nutrients that may have built up over time, especially since the tank is low tech with mostly slow growing plants.
Last edited by Urban Aquaria; 29th Jul 2014 at 19:37.
It could be low on phosphate (PO4). Another way to identify if it is low on PO4 are, plants growth very slow,coloration is bad, plants are lighter and GSA. Generally, deficiency symptoms are similar to nitrogen deficiency symptoms.Try increasing to 20% water change weekly and dose a little bit more of KH2PO4.
Errr. This is where u lost me. I know PO4 is phosphates. Now how do add phosphates? I have JBL Ferropol, BorneoWild's Lush, Growth, Vivid & Essence K, which of these contain PO4? The labels on bottles don't mention ingredients.
Im not sure which of your item contain PO4,im unable to help you on that. Im using dry fert which is easier for me to monitor and control the dosage.
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