BBA & UV Lights

[cbong]

Starting to get Brush Algae. Wonder if passing water thru the UV light helps in controlling all algae?

[PeterGwee]

You need to solve the root cause here (Lack of CO2 is usually the cause of BBA)... Blasting the UV 24/7 is simply crazy. What you need to do now is to remove as much BBA as possible, do a 50% water change, clean the filter and dose fresh nutrients back. N,P,K,GH and traces and of course carbon (CO2)

[cbong]

Thanks Peter.
When you say dose nutrient, wouldn't that encourage more algae growth? I have also switched off 2 of my 6 x 36W PL lights in my 4x2x1.5' tank. The problem is not very serious at the moment, only a few japonica strands of leaves has them. Just want to nip the prob early. thanks again

[cbong]

By the way, how does lack of CO2 cause problem? My KH is 5 and pH is 7.0. Thot the level of CO2 is ok.

[PeterGwee]

Basically, the higher the CO2 the better...it is only concern for the inhibitants of the tank that we had to take care of not overdosing. Get it to 30ppm if possible for higher uptake of nutrients...Basically, I am now doing the estimative style of dosing as recommended by Tom Barr (not much of testing except for pH/KH) after finding the PO4 kit to be quite problematic at times..(Imagine I dose 1ppm of PO4 into the tank only to find that it is as good as not added with the test kit? Test the test kit by dumping the PO4 into the kit..changes to dark blue..still works? Ah..give up on testing...just keep the CO2 high and then do 50% water changes each week to reset tank.)[]

Current Regime
Weekly water change
NO3: 1/4 tsp of KNO3 2X a week
PO4: 2-3grains of KH2PO4 2X a week
K2SO4: 1/4 tsp only after weekly water change
CO2: Now a problem..aquasoil seems to screw the pH/KH readings up...peat action on the KH is causing it to drop! Try to get it in the range of 20-30ppm
GH: Singapore water of 3 is good enough for me...will see if Ca/Mg deficiency shows up..most likely too high K available.

[CK Yeo]

hmmm... It is hard to explain, cos no one is 100% sure what retards algae growth while plant grows well. But the general consensus is that if plants grow well, algae will die. If you try to kill the algae, the plant will look like crap.

So what is your priority? Grow plants or kill algae?

If you want to grow plants, then get the CO2, N, P ,K rite. The algae will die back on its own.

If BBA is growing, something is askew in your tank. It is always better to "treat the disease than the symptoms". rite?

ck