# ID algae and cause.. and possible remedy?



## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Just had a recent blow up of algae, about 4-5 days ago. I'm wondering if you guys have any ideas on *cause* of this particular algae. I'd love to know what I've done to make this show up. So I can correct it.

Here are my parameters.
50 gal tank. ADA substrate. 8 months old. 
Dosing EI (1/2 tsp KNO3, 1/8 K2PO4, 1/8 KSO4), 
KH2 GH5, 
and have my fish gasping at the top of the tank from dosing lots of CO2. Approx 3 bubbles per second.
Lighting is as such: Tek 4 bulb T5HO: x2 Aquaflora, x2 Midday Giesemanns. Just changed the Middays yesterday since I thought I had to try that to deal with the algae.
2 Midday is on from 12-7; Aquaflora is on from 2-8.

Thanks!!


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

The rock/wood or whatever that is in the background looks as if its covered in BBA and by the looks of it, I'd venture a guess that on the plants is BBA as well. BBA isn't just black, can be brown, red, green as well


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## ckl (Sep 9, 2013)

Have you seen this page yet?

Freshwater Algae Types: An Illustrated Guide - Article at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish

I find it helpful sometimes...


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

kacairns said:


> The rock/wood or whatever that is in the background looks as if its covered in BBA and by the looks of it, I'd venture a guess that on the plants is BBA as well. BBA isn't just black, can be brown, red, green as well


The clump of fuzzy stuff in the back is fissidens covered with the same smeared green algae. Pretty sure it's not BBA. 
I'm starting to wonder if it's GDA.


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

Reckon said:


> The clump of fuzzy stuff in the back is fissidens covered with the same smeared green algae. Pretty sure it's not BBA.
> I'm starting to wonder if it's GDA.


GDA is usually limited to the glass. With the amount of breakout on the plants you'd probably see a large amount on the glass as well since that is where it usually is unless you scrape your glass before picture, I'd still say its probably BBA =)


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

I have never used carbon dioxide in my tanks (only ever grown "easy" plants) but from what I've read it tends to make the water more acidic...Since our water is naturally so low in minerals that's bad news for you if you haven't been buffering. (I'm guessing you haven't from the low KH readings)

I find that plants in general don't tend to grow well (if at all) in acidic water, and if your plants aren't growing and using up nutrients then it makes sense that your algae's gotten the upper hand...

If I were you I'd adjust the KH up to 10-20, reduce the C02 and see how things go from there...


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## rwong2k10 (Dec 27, 2010)

i'd disagree with that from my personal experience. some plants grow well in acidic waters eg. tonia species and some plants grow well in harder types of water eg. lilopasis (I can't spell)

my current planted aquarium I don't buffer and I run co2 and it's acidic, ph around 6.5 , kh and gh are very low and things are thriving and growing well and it's 95% algae free, I get a little bit of gsa from high light but my bn plecos eat them so my glass is pretty clean.

if you don't buffer you just need to be more careful of co2 swings, kh of 10-20 is quite high


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

Actually kh10 is considered quite soft. 20 is still very suitable for soft water plants and fish, and has acceptable buffering capacity... High KH is considered higher than 80 degrees.

That aside, while it's true that some plants grow better in harder water, and some grow better in softer water, all plants need *some* minerals and mineral deficiency is my guess as to what the problem is here. Since no one else has given any ideas for remedies, maybe you could let the OP decide for himself if it's helpful or not, since you don't seem to have any suggestions or input aside from disagreeing with my suggestion.


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## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

Reckon,

Any updates on your situation? Pics ? I came across this online, worth a read and might help you figure out where things might be going wrong.Good luck, hopefully it works out for you.

Aquarium Chemistry | Calcium & KH & GH & pH & Electrolytes (ions)


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Thanks for all your responses and ideas.

Livyding: I totally agree that plants do need some minerals. Believe it or not, I've already upped some buffering. Originally, I had it at 1KH 3GH - mimicking Tom Barr's dutch tank. But as everyone tends to chip in sooner or later every tank is a bit different and I found that my plants are happier with a bit more buffering. I think rwong2k10 knows my plants a bit better hence he suggested that a significantly higher KH may not be the direction I need to go towards. Whilst, many plants can adapt to or even prefer 10KH, the ones in my tank do prefer softer water and would likely have trouble with more buffering. You and I are on the same page with your recognition that not a lot of ideas have been put forward so I appreciate your suggestion. I was hoping to see a bit more discussion so I also appreciate rwong2k10 chiming in as well.

Luke78: That's a great link, I will definitely add that to my favorites. I've had a bit of help from friends who either texted me or messaged me on other forums. So here's my update, I've made some significant changes to my tank including changing my lighting, decreasing the photoperiod, and changing the CO2 delivery method - namely, switching from using an inline atomizer to a needle wheel pump. Most importantly I employed 2 strategies to deal with the algae. The first, I used whole tank H2O2 dosing + Excel overdosing (special thanks to Jiinx for your help). You can find the link here: The "One-Two Punch" Whole Tank Algae Treatment.

I was initially quite worried as H2O2 can certainly kill fish but nevertheless I dosed 10 Tbl spoons to my 50gal tank followed by a 60% water change and then 40mL of Excel. I kept a close eye on my fish, they seemed agitated with the H2O2 dosing but none of them flopped over right away. I only had 1 casualty, a reynoldsi cory which I found a couple days later. My Erios weren't too thrilled either and loss several older leaves.

2 days after the treatment I followed it up with a modified blackout. I left the lights and co2 off for the next 2 days with short 4 hour intervals of high light and co2 at the end of the day.

The results can be seen in pictures below. I say about 80% of the slime and fuzz algae is gone. I'm currently dealing with a bloom of diatoms but I hope that they will also be gone with a couple more water changes.


































Thanks again to those who chimed in on this forum and those who contacted me by other means.


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## shady280 (Oct 17, 2011)

thats hair algea. i just had a breakout on my 6g edge. the way i dealt with it is to turn the lights out for 3 days completely and dosed the max excel dose daily with daily water change. when i turned the lights back on it was all bright red and it started to fall off and hasnt come back. that said i dont have co2 either, just liquid ferts. they say it comes from a change in the tanks balance. either lighting, dosing or nitrates. its also very easy to pick up from other sources including water that you get fish from. one spore can really screw things up. i read up on it and killed it. best of luck.


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## tylerv (Jul 11, 2011)

is it enough to just turn the lights off or should one cover the tank to prevent any light from entering the tank


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

He is dosing EI. So, it should not a problem of lack of mineral.



Livyding said:


> Actually kh10 is considered quite soft. 20 is still very suitable for soft water plants and fish, and has acceptable buffering capacity... High KH is considered higher than 80 degrees.
> 
> That aside, while it's true that some plants grow better in harder water, and some grow better in softer water, all plants need *some* minerals and mineral deficiency is my guess as to what the problem is here. Since no one else has given any ideas for remedies, maybe you could let the OP decide for himself if it's helpful or not, since you don't seem to have any suggestions or input aside from disagreeing with my suggestion.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

Reckon said:


> Thanks for all your responses and ideas.
> 
> Livyding: I totally agree that plants do need some minerals. Believe it or not, I've already upped some buffering. Originally, I had it at 1KH 3GH - mimicking Tom Barr's dutch tank. But as everyone tends to chip in sooner or later every tank is a bit different and I found that my plants are happier with a bit more buffering. I think rwong2k10 knows my plants a bit better hence he suggested that a significantly higher KH may not be the direction I need to go towards. Whilst, many plants can adapt to or even prefer 10KH, the ones in my tank do prefer softer water and would likely have trouble with more buffering. You and I are on the same page with your recognition that not a lot of ideas have been put forward so I appreciate your suggestion. I was hoping to see a bit more discussion so I also appreciate rwong2k10 chiming in as well.
> 
> ...


Hey, that is a nice tank., Glad you have everything sorted out. Nice of you to post your remedy here for others to read and learn.
I no longer have to deal with algae because I do not do Co2 anymore, plus I add an UV to my tank since day 1 and now it is pretty much algae free.


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## shady280 (Oct 17, 2011)

you dont need to cover the tank at all. the light in the room wont help the algea at all. i wondered the same thing but came across an article on the planted tank somewhere.


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