algae id/help

[Plantbrain]

[Plantbrain]

Make sure you have good mixing in the tank and make sure all the CO2 is getting dissolved.

If the CO2 is chronically low or varies each day too much from high to low, you can get BBA.
DIY yeast folks have this problem a lot.

Trim off all the BBA you have. Do a water change right after.
Add nuttrients back, crank CO2 up, add enough to raise the CO2 by 5-10ppm from wherever you are at in measurement right now.
If the fish look fine etc, raise it up to the full 10ppm + what your CO2 is at now.

As far as 0.1ppm being used for iron, that's an old proxy. The tank had 1.6 watts/gal, old T-12 bulbs, less CO2 etc things are much stronger light/CO2 wise today.

It also assumed(The Sears Conlin paper) that excess iron causes algae in a CO2 enriched plant tank.
How and why would you have two limiting nutrients?

This is generally impossible to have two simultanenous limiting nutrients at once.

I also can add liberal amounts of Fe without algae appearing.
Some folks add Fe and they get outbreaks but if you keep your tank within the parameters I suggest, you should not get any algae and this is seen by hobbyist everywhere.

I would not bother testing for Fe, rather, dose a known volume/weight of Fe to a known volume of water.

This is a much better/more accurate way to determine concentration of a solution.

Reference standards that test kits are measured and calibrated to are made this way.

So adding 5mls to a 20 gal tank 3x a week is about the max amount you would need at optimal concditions/high light.

That is easier than testing and it supplies the plants with what they need. The water column levels do not really matter as long as the plants do well and "get fed" every 2-3 days, longer times up to a week if you have low light/CO2.

Regards,
Tom Barr






















Regards,
Tom Barr

[lip]

Thank you so much for your advice, Tom.

I will up the co2 as advised, and see what happen. I use a external reactor, so I would think that the co2 is well dissolved.

But does this deal with the bba only? I don't think so, but thought i should confirm.

Truth is, the bga outbreak is in fact more rampant at the moment. Guess i did not make this clear earlier, sorry. In fact, i actually started this thread because of bba outbreak. I only got really bad bga outbreak after i started the new fert regime. can't figure out where i went wrong.

The bga is out-competing the bba and killing them

[naturetan]

lip, it will be better to provide us your measured value of KH & PH.

What filter you're using, it's flowrate(L/hr?), external/internal? Since when the last time you do maintainance for the filter?

A suggestion. Your tank is 4ftX1.5ftX1.5ft, right? Consider reducing light to 2W/gal(PL36W X 4). It's easier to control your tank parameters and nutrients. When things get better and you've a better control of it, then you can start playing with higher lighting if you like to.

[PeterGwee]

Lip...BBA is a low CO2 issue but you still need to get rid of what is growing in your tank even if you up your CO2 level. BGA is a nutrient related algae...low N (A blackout for 3-5 days should kill it but you need to work on the nutrients after that to prevent it from coming back).

Regards
Peter Gwee

[lip]

Hi Nature,

Ph/kh value are set out earlier (2nd page), co2 value already calculated. Tank is also larger.

I use the Eheim Pro (but can't remember which model off hand). I last cleaned out the filter not that long ago. At the very earliest, i would have cleaned it before i did the blackout about 2 months back.

May consider the lights if bga comes back (will decide these few days which method to use), and i still can't pin-point the culprit (have actually cut down lighting hours to 9), but me think that the lights themselves are not the culprit, though they do facilitate algae growth when one or more of the other elements are out of range (then again bga and bba?)

Thx for the input! Cheers!

[lip]

Hi Peter,

I really wish the bga is a N problem. Been dosing quite a fair bit consistently for the past few months (including the period after the blackout). and the kit does detect prsence of N, even if the value cannot be trusted, so... shrug

I will up the co2 anyway, just hope that the fishes will survive. []

Preparing for the last blackout was a bit of a pain. Don't really have the time this time round, so may just go with the antibiotic.

Actually, I kind of recall simon (?) setting out his dosage of antibiotic. Can't seem to find the thread now. Must be blur. Simon?

[naturetan]

Actually, I'm thinking about whether there's any circulation problem with your filtration. Poor circulation(flowrate) will make any nutrients/CO2 fertilising ineffective, since plants can't absorb it properly, causing an increase in NH4. But if you think that's OK, then you may leave out this possiblity.

Do continue to take care of all your macro/micro nutrients as suggested by Peter and Tom Barr. As suggested, reduce lighting will also help you to drive at a slower pace, as quoted thus:

----------------
2w a gal?
As others have told you, just fine.
That use to be high light and about all you could get over a tank in the "old days". A few of the nicest tanks I've seen have around this amount.

Look at it this way, more light means faster uptake, more chance of something going wrong if you slack off. If something does go wrong with 2w vs more light, the problem will not be as big/fast with the 2w a gal tank.
Too many assume that more light is better. A balanced light is easier to achieve around 1.5-2.5 w/gal IME/IMO.

Regards,
Tom Barr
----------------

You can read further about lighting in this discussion. Just a suggestion.

[lip]

Thx! Will certainly consider reducing the lights.

Cheers!

[lip]

Would like to take this opportunity to thank naturetan.

Having seen improvement to the bga bloom after reducing lights from 10 to 9 hours, I decided to take naturetan's advice and cut down on 2xPL lights, before taking any further drastic measure. At the same time also reduced liquid fert and NO3 (but added boosters to gravel).

And it works!! Even existing bga disappeared. I don't know why the latter happens, but I am not complaining []

Now to deal with the bga, have already upped Co2.

Cheers!

[Plantbrain]

Now make sure you add KNO3 from now on regularly.
Regards,
Tom Barr