# BGA replant



## Julian (Jun 29, 2008)

Hey everyone 
it seems my tank is starting a lovely Blue-green algae problem. This is still my first setup and have learned a few things since i started a few months ago. I would love to start over with more hardscape and more gravel since i never put enough in to start with. Currently i have 1 bag of florite in it. From reading http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm i think at some point i've had pretty much every issue happen that can cause bga. So i'm thinking about taking out most of the water into buckets and moving fish into there while i clean and replant everything in the tank, then putting some of that water back along with fresh water. I'm wondering if this will be enough to fix the algae issue if i keep things run smooth going forward.

Right now i use excel daily and Flourish twice a week. I have Seachem's iron and potassium as well as i thought those were needed at one point.

Any help would be really appreciated.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Hello Julian 

WHat kind of lights doyou have on the tank?
How long do you have your lights on for?

How many plants are you dealing with at this moment??


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## Julian (Jun 29, 2008)

sorry knew i would miss something in all of that. 
Right now i'm running a double strip coralife t-5, so thats 28w i believe on a 15g tank. The lights are normally running for 8-9 hours a day (need a new timer). Not a huge number of plants i want to thin their numbers down anyway, its a big over grown right now.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

What is your tank setup like? Volume? Lighting? 
Edit: I was beaten by Ciddian.

As you probably know, BGA is caused by low nitrates and/or poor water circulation. 

I would suggest that you remove as much as the BGA as you can manually, and then proceed to carry out a 30-50% water change. Then, you have to work towards finding a balance between lighting, CO2 and nutrients. 

With a little more than 2 WPG (remember that T5s are more efficient than T12s, of which the WPG guideline was originally based on), you should be adding CO2 and adding fertilizer. It is wrong to say that Iron and potassium are not required by plants, however, they also need phosphorus and nitrogen (i.e. in the form of nitrates).


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## Julian (Jun 29, 2008)

i've never used co2 of any kind in the past just the excel. I thought i was under 2wpg and therefor wouldn't need it. Maybe its finally time to fire up the diy co2 since i've always had an interest in that. i didn't mean to imply the iron and potassium were not needed by the way.


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