# Alage won't go away!



## meow_mix450 (Mar 22, 2006)

Hey

So I have a regular customer that comes to visit me and he came across algae!!!! So he has a planted 10 gallon aquarium with 1 angel, some Cory Cats, and something else but I forget. He's got a regular fluorescent light that was provided in the kit(1 Strip). He then later on added a another light and I believe it's a T-5. His tank was fine for about a couple of months but once he added the new light algae just bloomed like CrAzY, so what he did was he tried to reduce the amount of light. He had it at about 16-18 hours of light. I suggested to reduce it to maybe about 12, he did that and nothing seemed to change. So now I told him to take out the original light and if that doesn't work take out the T-5. Still none of those things helped. So I started to think that it could be his PH that could have been the cooperate. His PH was close to 8.0-8.5 which seemed a bit high. So I suggested drift wood to bring it down(hes trying to do it the natural way instead of using chemicals). So I was wondering is there another way to bring it down or is there something I missed that can be causing this algae bloom! Also I know I can use CO2, just wondering if there's another alternative. 

Meow


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## jrs (Mar 18, 2006)

I have put peat moss in my filter and that has brought down the pH approx. 1 full point. Try adding ferts (see plant crazys PMDD fert thread) as this will allow some competion to occur. In addition, fast growing plants to suck up the nitrates will help. Also you didn't mention any algea eater (ie) ottos, sae etc.


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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

for any plant to grow (including algae) it needs certain parameters to flourish. The nitrogen put off by the fish waste will fuel the growth for a non-high tech tank like the one mentioned BUT what happens is when you introduce that much light to a small tank without anything to use up those nutrients (N and P) algea will explode.

What he needs to do is bring the tank into balance, and that means lowering the lights intensity and lowering the time that its left on. He can add some very easy plants to the tank like amazon sword or anubias to soak up all the excess N and P. Without the excess the algae won't be able to grow because the plants will eat it all. Also, get him a good nerite snail to take care of any algae that does happen to appear.

So, the simple answer, to much light for to long. More water changes to get N and P down to low low levels.

hope that helps.


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## meow_mix450 (Mar 22, 2006)

Well he does his water change every saturday and he would get otto cats and stuff but hes worried that it will eat his plants

Meow


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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

ottos won't eat plants... you can guarantee it.

Since he has plants, I would try dosing with excel if he wants to use all those lights. This will give him a chance to up the CO2 level without having to do DIY or pressurized.


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## Plant Crazy (Mar 24, 2006)

Great replies! Yep, so basically what happened to your customer's tank is that he had a low light, low tech tank (i.e., no supplemental ferts, CO2 or carbon supplement). Then, he boosted the lighting. This caused the plants to temporarily increase their photosynthetic rate.... however, they quickly ran out of nitrate, phosphate, and/or micronutrients, and CO2. In other words, the plants became nutrient-limited. This gave the upper-hand to algae, which were able to rapidly multiply.

What your customer needs to do is to ensure that he/she begins to supplement the macronutrients (nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous), and micronutrients (iron, Magenesium, Boron, etc). A 'comprehensive' plant supplement like Kent or Seachem Flourish may work in the short term. I say in the short term, because if you blindly follow the dosing instructions for the commercial bottled fertilizers, you'll usually end up with either a macro or micronutrient imbalance / deficiency in the long run. As well, due to the higher lighting, there will be a definite requirement for either CO2 injection (yeast CO2) or carbon supplement (ie., Flourish Excel). Ideally, I'd recommend that he/she also monitor the nitrate and phosphate levels in the tank, and shoot for keeping nitrate 5-10 ppmm, and phosphate 1-1.5 ppm. If either of these is too high, perform water changes, feed less or remove some fish. If injecting CO2, ideally the pH of the tank should drop by at least half of a pH (minimum!).

This is essentially what holocron said, although he said it in a much more concise manner... I tend to ramble on, if you haven't already noticed.  

Customers see a beautiful, lush, 'algae-free' planted tank and want the final product, without realizing the importance (and time required) of maintaining proper water parameters. They often don't want to be bothered with spending $$ on test kits, or deal with the hassle of measuring their tank's nitrate and phosphate levels. As well, convincing people they need to make a batch of yeast mix every week or two (and keep up with this) can be difficult. 

If the customer is really adverse to buying and using test kits, then the Estimative Index method, can be a straight forward alternative for fertilizer dosing without the need for test kits. Although it still requires dosing macros or micros every day of the week, as well as a 50% weekly water change. Alternatively, Diana Walstad (Ecology of the Planted Aquarium) advocates for a 'natural', low-tech approach to planted tanks that apparently works very well.


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## ranmasatome (Mar 14, 2006)

meow.. before jumping on the wagon.. let me ask... what kind of algae is it?? there is no algae that grows because of ph problems...not that i can reacll just waking up and reading this thread now anyways...that is definately not the issue. specific algae sometimes have specific problems. Light might only be indirectly the problem... once they appear.. its hard for them to dissappear.. ask him to drop lights further to 8-10hrs for now.

There is no need to dose anything AT ALL if he doesnt want to. There are ways out of this without dosing. I have a 15gal with 55watts of light that i dose... NOTHING. it does however, have little spots of algae but its not an infestation...nothing some mechanical removal wont handle once every 2 months!! Algae will always be present in the tank.. just depends how much you like to see in it.

DONT GO CO2!!!... cos once you go that way.. you change how the entire system works.. people that have low maintenance tanks have it because they are.. duh!! low maintenance!!
If you reccomend E.I. then reccomend only 1/4 the dosage... this is reccomended by Barr himself for non-co2 tanks. Excel is okay...but dose sparringly at first then slowly increase to his needs or maintanence schedule.

Depending on the algae.. he should do a mechanical removal of almost all algae he can see.. then do a 50-70% water change.. lower lighting period... and then do it again in another 2-3days. Black outs work prior to all these as well if its a certain kind of algae.. so what is it in the first palce?? 

Hope that helps.


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