Confusion on fert dosing and Qs on green algae

[genes]

Hi all

Does over dosing cause algae problem or does under dosing case algae problems? Yap from tropical says over dosing??? If its under dosing, does it mean i should over dose?

Cause i am having a bad case of green algae on my tank glass. Thats the only algae in my standard 2ft tank with 72W PL (overkill?). But its getting pretty out of control. Have to constantly clean the glass every 2 to 3 days with the sponge. How can i eliminate or reduce this attack? I dose KNO3 and KH2PO4 once every 2 days.

Regards
Gene

[Plantbrain]

This sounds like Green dust algae.

It's common in newer tanks and pops up every now and then.
What happens is that you wipe it off and then it swims back and reattaches to the glass.

So if you clean it off, follow it up immediately with a large water change before they reattach.

You can also clean the glass, then quickly do the water change, then refill, wait 2 hours and repeat. You should see a slight film on the glass after 2 hours.

Also, you can do a 3 day blackout after the 2nd water change.
You can also pull the lights back away from the glass or bend the reflectors to get the right angle.

When doing the water change, 1st wipe the GD algae that is exposed to the air with a paper towel and discard. Then scrub the algae off below with a pad.

Refill tank, wait 2 hours, then scrub again and do the large water change, this will be more effective than the above.

You can do 70-80% water changes and then refill without issue.

The paper towel will remove what's there and the scrubing follower by the water change will remove the rest.

Do this 1-3 times and I dount you'll see GD again.
It will grow easily in good nutrient levels, so no deficency nor excess, not sure what excess is really in the ranges of nutrients we dose. It's a very large range and quite high for most things.


Regards,
Tom Barr

[Rupert]

I supplemented Tom’s approach by to cleaning the glass in between water changes. My solution is to get kitchen paper towels, cut one piece in half and then fold into thirds and place on my magnetic glass cleaner.

The cleaning action in the tank is then like cleaning a window in that one tries to avoid reversing directions and taking the magnet out of the water carefully to avoid the algae dust going back into the tank. It works surprisingly well at removing the dust.

it also helps if your tank is braceless and the magnet is strong

[|squee|]

For furthur reading:

http://aquabotanicwetthumb.infopop.c...2416086703&p=1

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ght=green+dust

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ght=green+dust

Hope it goes away quickly. I know what a pain it can be. For me I wiped and wiped and wiped, and doubled my PO4 dose as some have suggested. It worked, hardly any left now.

[genes]

Thank you so much guys. Great Help! Will administer your methods immediately!

Regards
Gene

[yokogi]

This sounds like Green dust algae.

Refill tank, wait 2 hours, then scrub again and do the large water change, this will be more effective than the above.

You can do 70-80% water changes and then refill without issue.

Do this 1-3 times and I dount you'll see GD again.
It will grow easily in good nutrient levels, so no deficency nor excess, not sure what excess is really in the ranges of nutrients we dose. It's a very large range and quite high for most things.


Regards,
Tom Barr

Thanx for the info cos I just encountered them the past 2 nights. Was wondering how come they grow at such amazing speed.

I've already got many fishes in the tank. Is it advisable to change 2x of 70-80% volume??

It was due to some red/brown algae growing on leaves that i've decided to do 1st water change after 2 wks. Prior to that i've lights off & cut the CO2 supply for 3 days too. This had affected some plants. I realized the algae problem seems to be more apparent AFTER a water change?? And my green dust algae only popped up after my 1st water change (40%).

For info, i used the Ehiem hose (No. 20 i think). With a larger flow, I didn't manage to clear away all the rubbish in "tricky" areas.

Should i follow the recommended routine & WC again soon?

[Plantbrain]

As long as you have good CO2/nutrients, which are easy to add right back after the water change, large changes are fine.

If you monkey with the KH and GH a lot, then large changes can causes issue with using plain tap to refill, or if you do very infrequent changes/non CO2 methods etc.

Just add the dechlor etc or what you normally do. Fish like it as a rule.


Most algae hate water changes, Green water, BGA, and GD are the 3 main exceptions.

Back to back changes daily will cause many algae to succumb.
Regards,
Tom Barr

[yokogi]

ok i'll try it over the weekend hopefully i can clean up the tank properly else it'll just be another waste of effort. Half the time i not sure what i do, i just bought 4 more otos & 4 SAEs last night.

[rocketshrimp]

Cut down your lights.

[genes]

But with low lights, nice foreground plants like glosso and app cannot crawl...