# Green Spot Algae



## Teemote (Aug 13, 2016)

So - has anyone here been able to fight off the GSA?

That seems to be the only Algae I have in my tank - It's not that bad - but does get annoying sometimes. Spotty on my front glass, and mostly on older leaves (Dwarf Lobelia, anubias and Buce).

From my endless reading I know slow growers are prone to get GSA if conditions aren't right. I am not eager to change anything drastically because everything is growing nicely, no other types of algae are in the tank, or at least can be visually found.

My set up

Lights - 4 x 39 w - 2 x 6500K and 2 x pink bulbs.
Tank: 36 x 18 x 18
ADA soil
pressurized CO2 - about 3 bubbles per sec - the drop checker is lime green but we all know how much that really means - (I don't think CO2 is an issue here)

I don't do EI, but my weekly dose ends up about:

N - 15 ppm
P - 1 ppm
K - 8 ppm

I've read to increase PO4 which is what im doing, so been dosing a bit more PO4 weekly.

2 x 2 ppm - so total is 5 ppm of PO4 per week + fish waste etc.

This extra PO4 is only been happening for 1.5 week now so not sure how fast I can expect to notice difference.

Sometimes I wonder if the light is too strong - i get that the tank needs to be 'balanced' but sometimes i always get the feeling that 'how the hell do you balance it' when you don't really know what the problem is. And chasing is the last thing I'd want to do.

It's a heavily planted tank - here's the picture:

You can see the GSA are on the Lobelia, Anubias and Buce, glass. The other plants may have a spot here or there, but can't really tell.

So has anyone have any success stories here? and is it PO4? 

As you know, there's lot of information on the net, but sometimes it's death by information....


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## Nebthet78 (Aug 21, 2017)

It seems you are doing exactly what is needed to deal with the cause of the Green Spot Algae, though from what I've learnt, most new tanks go through this stage as they cycle and age. 

Other than dealing with the low or high phosphate levels which cause GSA, the only thing I've seen that takes care of it, at least on the glass or acrylic are nerite snails. They will move through it really quickly. Though, I'm not sure how likely they will be to move to the plants afterwards.


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## Teemote (Aug 13, 2016)

Yeah - it's a 9 month old tank - so i'll let the PO4 play its course and see.

Also my nerite doesn't seem to eat the GSA, or at least not as good as people claim they do, or I just don't have enough lol, got like only 6 in this tank.


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