# 0 Nitrates but TONS OF ALGAE!!



## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

Hey all,
I've been facing very bad hair algae for over 6 months. I've always stated my nitrates are dead 0. I realize now that my massive amount of hair algae could be the cause!

I have crystal shrimp so no chemicals can be used. I use 100% RO but have been inconsistent in the water changes.

Tank params
Ph 6.6
Tds 130ppm
0/0/0
Gh 4 kh 2
C02 injection
25G with 50W t5h0
No fertz

Heavily planted. I am going to buy wave scissors to cut out alot of the mess. But I expect it to grow back...


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## CRJ (Sep 7, 2012)

too much phosphate will grow algae. not sure if it works for freshwater, but in my salt tank i run a reactor and a product called anti-phos. it worked for me.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

if you can use excel, do that, double dose

If you cant use excel, do a total blackout for a few days, but first manually remove whatever you can


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

A nitrate deficiency can also cause an algae bloom. Remember, the key to keeping algae at bay is to balance nutrients, light, and CO2.


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## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

solarz said:


> A nitrate deficiency can also cause an algae bloom. Remember, the key to keeping algae at bay is to balance nutrients, light, and CO2.


I wish I knew how to do this balance. Im afraid to use fertz with my BKk and shrimp.

CO2 droppers dont realy work well for me (picked up from AI) but they dont change colour and instructions suck! KH/PH charts dont really reflect CO2 accurate enough i think.

I just leave [email protected] 1bubble per 2 seconds give or take. I got plenty of air sponges so... CO2 is cancelled out I think might need to bump it up higher...


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Symplicity said:


> I wish I knew how to do this balance. Im afraid to use fertz with my BKk and shrimp.
> 
> CO2 droppers dont realy work well for me (picked up from AI) but they dont change colour and instructions suck! KH/PH charts dont really reflect CO2 accurate enough i think.
> 
> I just leave [email protected] 1bubble per 2 seconds give or take. I got plenty of air sponges so... CO2 is cancelled out I think might need to bump it up higher...


So you are injecting CO2? I don't think adding CO2 here is going to help. Your nitrates are 0, that means this is the limiting factor for your plants.

I would suggest stopping the CO2 and shortening the lighting period.


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## RR37 (Nov 6, 2012)

With that much Algae your nitrates are being consumed before they can be tested for. So a liquid test indicated 0, because Algae is feeding on it.


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## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

RR37 said:


> With that much Algae your nitrates are being consumed before they can be tested for. So a liquid test indicated 0, because Algae is feeding on it.


I ordered some wave scissors so I can cut out most of the algae from the HC carpet.

My thinking is to manually remove as much hair algae as possible so that my plants can be the key absorbers of nitrate, not allowing the algae to grow back?

I am thinking the following steps.

1. Massive trimming of all algae and siphon out the algae.
2. perform 15%water change (slow drip matching TDS for my shrimp)
3. Use the tank water to clean my filter
4. Black out tank for afew days
5. Another water change and filter cleaning.


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## Kooka (Feb 8, 2011)

It's not the nitrate, its the phosphate. Hair algae thrives on it. Take out as much as you can manually, do a water change and possibly pick up a phosphate absorbing pad. IT WORKS, trust me, had the same problem as you.


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## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

Kooka said:


> It's not the nitrate, its the phosphate. Hair algae thrives on it. Take out as much as you can manually, do a water change and possibly pick up a phosphate absorbing pad. IT WORKS, trust me, had the same problem as you.


Read some stuff about phosphate removers leeching aluminum into water in detectable amounts in low pH :s

Ill buy a Phosphate tester tonight maybe and check it.


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## DaFishMan (Dec 19, 2006)

High light over a small tank and co2 with no ferts is a recipe for algae. The watt per gallon rule only applies to older style flourescent tubes. With the height of your tank and high output light think of your tank as approx 4-5wpg. 

Your plants grow fast and have used up the nitrates. This affects their ability to use other nutrients, in this case maybe phosphate.

There's now 3 possible causes of algae, lack of nitrate causing the plants inability to use other nutrients properly, excess phosphates, and excess light.

Do water changes to remove excess phosphates. Manually remove what algae you can. Consider removing a light tube (if dual tube light fixture) to lessen demand on nutrients. If your photoperiod is over 8 hours consider scaling back to 8. 

Or develop a fert regime. EI is a method of overdosing ferts then balancing it again with weekly 50% water changes. PPS-Pro is a balanced dosing method and changing 25%-30% every couple weeks. Both work, which one suits your water change preference ? I go with pps-pro since because I prefer not to overdose anything and 50% w/c will swing my ph more then I'd prefer 

I love excel but double dosing it can damage or kill vals, crypts, downoi, and liverworts. If you have those consider using the normal dose only, or less of a dose. I had 2 rare crypts melt overnight because it. Luckily I left the roots alone, new leaf shoots started a couple weeks later. You could also unplug the filter for a few min then spot treat the affected area with excel or hydrogen peroxide. Spot treating results in less overall chems in the tank.

Darkblade makes fert solutions and great to deal with. 

Hope that helps


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## DaFishMan (Dec 19, 2006)

Didn't look at the pics before I replied - the yellowing and paling on your plant leaves is from lack of iron or potassium. Again lack of nutrients. Balanced fert regime will fix.


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## jart (Jul 26, 2011)

Agree with above. Too little nitrate is likely the culprit, as opposed to excess phosphate. With addition of nitrtate, excess phosphate, if present, will be consumed by the plants and/or eliminated with routine water changes. 

Research one of the above methods and buy some dry ferts. Lots of people with shrimp dose EI.

In the interim, I'd strongly suggest considering less light, as suggested above.

What is the issue with your dropchecker? What solution are you using in it? Darkblade might be able to help you out with this as well.


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## razoredge (Dec 31, 2011)

I thought I had a lot of hair algae!! Now I don't feel so bad  Here's what I did to reduce the amount of hair / string algai. I ended getting amano shrimps, manually pull the hair string algae out with long tweezers and reduce the amount of lighting. It's now under control but it's impossible to get rid of it. I had to throw out a lot of my mosses and start all over. Some real good points from the Dafishman to look at the root cause. I'll spend probably 30 minutes each night in pulling the hair algae from my 3 shrimp tanks. Good luck.


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