Cotton like green algae

[MikeKoh]

My tank is 640L
My nitrate is >40PPM
Phosphate is 0
KH=3
PH=6.8 during photo-period
Lights=440W

Using Lushgrow-aqua at 5ml every day
lushgrow-micro at 1 drop every day

The cotton like algae is growing.....!
I also have BGA

When my phosphate is >0, I noticed the algae condition is worsen. I let it drop to zero to try to starve out the algae...has been a week.

Is my micro too much? Am I right to say even if my micro is high, without phosphate, algae cannot grow? I heard some hobbyist also has high nitrate but by controlling phosphate, can prevent algae bloom. Right? I need to know if I am on the right track.

Thanks

[PeterGwee]

Its a basic issue here...you simply do not have enough CO2 for a start. Crank up your CO2 and get the pH down to 6.4-6.5 for the amount of KH you have right now. Once you get that right, prune and remove as much algae as you could from the tank. Add back plants if pruning is excessive. I have no experience with lushgro aqua nor do I trust your NO3 test kit so I'll leave the fert regime to juggler or folks who use the products instead.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[geoffrey]

What, may I know are you using to test your NO3? Is it Sera?

With your dosing regime of 5ml LGA daily, that provides only 0.25ppm of NO3 per day. Although the limiting of CO2 may slow the uptake of NO3, yet I doubt it to be so high if you have been doing regular water change.

To determine the amount of NO3 and K from LGA, simply do the following:

NO3(ppm) = [31.793 x dose in ml] / Water volume
K(ppm) = [51.711 x dose in ml] / Water volume

Once you get your CO2 fixed, it is only 14ppm, try dosing for 5ppm of NO3 per week with your LGA.

You can use the pH/KH/CO2 chart to help you determine your CO2, alternatively you can calculate using CO2(ppm)=3 x KH x 10^(7-pH).

[MikeKoh]

I am using sera test kit. I am trying to raise my CO2 to 30PPM now.

You are right the sera test kit is not very reliable. My previous one kept saying my nitrate is zero and I discovered I had a major OD on nitrate. Now my test kit keeps saying high nitrate even though I have been changing 80-90% of water every 4 days in my last 4 changes!

[geoffrey]

New Sera test kit always read >40ppm regardless and old (more than 12 months) Sera test kit always read <5ppm regardless.

If you have the money, buy a Dupla kit. Resolution is 0, 1, 3, 10ppm. Unfortunately, their single reagent has a very short shelf life of 12 months from the day it is opened.

[PeterGwee]

Geoffrey, have you check the dupla kit against a reference solution? How accurate is it? Consistency? Where did you get the kit from?

Regards
Peter Gwee

[geoffrey]

Yes Pete, I tested with my own reference. It was 1 drop of 82g/L solution of KNO3 into 500mL. I assumed my 1 drop is 1/20ml, hence I should get 5ppm. The colorimetric indication was 3ppm.

I like it because it has only one reagent but it expires after 12 months. The other thing I like about it is, it has 1ppm below 3ppm, hence enhances the resolution at lower range.

As for consistency, I did the above test twice on the same day and they came out the same. The third time I used it was 2 days ago. Tested my tank and it showed 1ppm...quite realistic since my present regime is about 5ppm of NO3 per week and the test was done mid-week.

You can purchase it at Aquatechnic.

[geoffrey]

BTW, I forget to mention that I compared my tank's NO3 measurement using Dupla with Hagen and Sera.

Hagen read 0ppm but my new Sera read >40ppm.

[geoffrey]

Here is what I'm using

[MikeKoh]

Where do you purchase the dupla test kit?

[vinz]

Considering that Mike has several arowanas in his planted tank, it shouldn't be surprising that he has >40ppm NO3.

Mike, LGA may not be ideal for your tank as it contains NO3 and your tank has a natural high source of NO3. This limits your ability to dose LGA sufficiently to raise the other fert components. Get something else to replace your LGA. TMG is a good choice as it has pretty much the same composition as LGA minus NO3. The off side is that it is very low on K, so you may have to supplement with K2SO4. Not to mention, more expensive.

Raw foods are low in P, so you'll need to supplement P for the plants.

Once algae gets a foot hold, its hard to starve it out without seriously damaging your plants as well. You HAVE to physically remove as much of the algae as possible.

I have this algae before. It infested my moss wall and showed in small amounts here and there. I got rid of it by removing the whole moss wall (impossible to pick it clean enough), pickout as much of the rest as possible, vacuumed those areas (mostly densely leafed plants like Java fern 'windelov' and then changing the water flow to blow over those areas.

The changing of the water current was done at a later stage, and the effect was overnight... the algae did not return. It use to return visibly after 3 days.

You also have to make sure your plants are growing well to fight the algae.

If I you have not rescaped since I last saw you tank, I recall you have little stemmed plants. Get more fast growing stemmed or floating plants to help you reduced the NO3.

[MikeKoh]

My phosphate now is 0.5ppm
Nitrate is 20ppm
KH=3
PH=6.5~6.6
Photo-period= 10hrs
Fe=?

The top of the plants have hair-algae or those cotton like... is this caused by too much Fe?

The foreground is 1/3 covered with BGA!!! Is this because not enough Nitrate?

Being changing 70%-80% of water every 4 days since 1 week before chinese new year..

Even stop feeding my fishes....

BBA is gone.....

[vinz]

Are you dosing phosphate? There is organic and inorganic PO4. Our test kits pick up both, but plants can only use inorganic phosphate (which is what we dose).

Clean your filter yet? Do that and make sure you use tank water to rinse the media, so you don;t kill the bacteria. Change the fine fitler pads.

Have you been doing a lot of uprooting before the algae bloom?

[MikeKoh]

[quote:cd7f177da7="vinz"]Are you dosing phosphate? There is organic and inorganic PO4. Our test kits pick up both, but plants can only use inorganic phosphate (which is what we dose).

Clean your filter yet? Do that and make sure you use tank water to rinse the media, so you don;t kill the bacteria. Change the fine fitler pads.

Have you been doing a lot of uprooting before the algae bloom?[/quote:cd7f177da7]


The filter cotton is new...just changed....yep...I have took out all the tennellus as they are growing all over the place.... I am trying to create a hairgrass lawn.... but not very successful with the debris and algae build up. I intend to reduce my foreground area and put in more stem plants this weekend as you mentioned.

Yes...I am dosing phosphate. I was reading Amano's books...and realised that he always change 1/3 of water twice a week. I am thinking of adopting this regime to see what will happen....