# Need algae help with my neglected tank



## miguel959 (Jan 19, 2010)

First off, I am new here. I have been looking at the forum for the past couple of days and decided that this is the place that can help me out the most. 

A little background on the tank:

I have a 20H tank that was been running for 6 years. I was using a 15 watt standard light with relative success. Grew some swords the full height of the tank. I have gone through a couple of different phases with the planting of this tank and about 8 months ago I made the most recent change. I was able to get 10lbs of Eco Complete along with an Odessya CF Light cheap. I added the Eco Complete to my existing gravel and changed lights. Then 7 months ago, my twin sons were born and the tanks were neglected until now. I have a huge thread algae problem. 

Here is the specs of the tank that I can provide right now. I am missing a lot of tests since I am not sure what to test.

20 gallon High

36 watt CF light running 12 hours a day---Is this too much light or too long of duration?

Ph of 7.8
Kh of 8
Gh of 8

I have been way behind on water changes and just started doing 25% of RO water every 2 weeks. I also dose Natural Gold Iron supplement per directions. In the past I was attempting to run a Low tech/easy maintenance tank. I am guessing that Low tech/easy maintenance is out of the question now.

Here is some pictures of the tank that I took tonight







As you can see the algae is everywhere. I can pull out almost a tennis ball size mass every time I do a water change.







Flora
Java Fern
unknown Hygrophila sp
dwarf Sag
unknown Bacopa type 
Cypt Wentii Red

Fauna
4 Harlequin Rasbora
1 Crowntail Betta
unknown number of Malaysian Trumpet Snails.

sorry for the long post but its everything I could think off that could help me solve the problem. Now that my boys are getting older, I should be able to get back into maintaining this tank along with my 29G and 55G. Hopefully I can reclaim this tank and work on upgrading my other two tanks.


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

First welcome to the forum!

1. Remove as much algae as possible manually and keep at it. Could be a daily thing.
2. I would cut back the lighting to 8 - 9 hours a day at most
3. Find a CO2 solution. Either pressurized or DIY
4. Do frequent water changes without RO water. Start out by changing 1/4 to 1/3 of the water. Daily at first then reduce it to 3 or 4 times a week after that do 50% once a week
5. get some proper nutrients you will need KNO3, K2PHO4 and KCL and a good Macro. I don't know what the Natural Gold Iron is but you don't need much iron at all. You can bet on Tropica Plant Nutrition or Seachem Flourish. You can also get some Plantex in power form.

That should get you off to a good start. From the looks of your tank it will take a bit of work. But with daily attention it could be back in shape shortly.


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## ravenmyth (Dec 22, 2008)

*Algae Problem/?solution Options*

This has several different solutions dependent in part on what is your eventual goal. 

Lets start simple to start. If you want to try simpler solutions first and not do too much work you could:

1. Decrease your light exposure to 8-10 hours per day.
2. Perform 50% water changes each week for a month and remove bulk algae each time.
3. Make sure you are not over feeding the fish. Extra food is available to feed the algae bloom.
4. Consider adding algae eaters--otocinclus, Siamese algae eater (be careful though as even many LFS don't ID them properly), bristlenose Pleco, Nerite snails, etc


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## accordztech (Dec 6, 2004)

a little bit of a mess but at least you dont have BBA! Yea scoop out as much as you can, then do a water change. You should be able to get it under control.


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## miguel959 (Jan 19, 2010)

Ed:
I have some Hagen DIY Canisters with the bubble ladder. I haven't set it up yet but I was thinking about adding some CO2 to the tank. I was just afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the maintenance. LOL I also forgot to add that when I use RO water I use Kent R/O Right to add some Gh to the water. I have used Flourish before just haven't done anything for this tank in a few months

Ravenmyth:
Do you and Ed really think that Lighting is a problem? I do have an 18W T8 light that I could use instead its just I wanted a tank that was a little over 1 watt per gallon or does CF lights bring out more light than the watts its listed as? I could be over feeding the fish since my other tanks have a bigger bioload than this one. I could just be doing it out of habit.

Accordtech:
I do have some BBA its on my sponge filter. I don't see it anywhere else though.


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

So have you made any progress?????


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## miguel959 (Jan 19, 2010)

I cleaned some of the algae out now and pulled out the DIY CO2 but can't find any yeast in the house. I plan on getting most of the work done this weekend. Its hard to find time with two 7 month old boys and a hyper 5 year old boy running around. Some nights me and the wife go to sleep exhausted. 

When I add the CO2 the Ph will drop some. At one point the Ph of the tank was 6.2. I am pretty sure since I had gone a long time without water changes, that the NO3 and Phosphates are out of control. Now I haven't used any ferts for this tank since I added the Eco Complete. I thought that there would be enough in the Eco to stop adding ferts to the water. 

I figured that if I can get back to more frequent water changes and adding CO2 I can start to eliminate some of the causes of algae outbreak. I plan on finding some Flourish this weekend if the ice storm the locals are predicting isn't so bad.


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

Well good luck and Godspeed!


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

As stated above on the manual side, plus great place for a BN to live.


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## miguel959 (Jan 19, 2010)

Won't a BN get to big for a 20 High? I mean I have the same footprint as a 15 gallon tank just a little taller. I think I might look into Oto's. Always wanted to try them and now might be the time to try them out.


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## miguel959 (Jan 19, 2010)

Ok I cleaned out most of the algae and haven't seen it grow back as fast. I plan on a wc tomorrow night and trimming the Hygro. I hope to get the DIY CO2 started but I only have so many hours between when the boys go to bed and when I need to. LOL 

I'll post an updated pic tomorrow.

Question:
I was working on my 29 gallon tonight and have three or four decent sized Water Sprite plants that I could plant in the 20. Should I add them? Otherwise I'll have to throw them out. I have no more room in the 29 or my 55 for Water Sprite otherwise it would look like that's all I planted.


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## miguel959 (Jan 19, 2010)

Here is an updated picture. I cleaned out all the algae, pruned, and rearranged some plants. Plus I added the Water Sprite.










I still need to clean the glass on the back but the snails have been working on it.
More pictures can be found here

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/members/miguel959-albums-planted-20-gallon.html


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## Bees (Jan 6, 2010)

Looks like you're making great progress!

The water sprite grows like a weed so although you'll have to prune it a lot, it will slurp up nutrients that otherwise might go to algae so it was a good choice. 

And if you choose the right kind of bristlenose, they only grow to be 3 or 4 inches so it should fit right in. You want to avoid the common pleco, they are the ones that get huge. There's quite a range of plecos so just be sure to ask before you choose one. 

I think that plecos eat a wider range of algaes than otos, but both are nice to have in a tank.


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## miguel959 (Jan 19, 2010)

A 3 to 4 inch fish is too big IMO. I mean I look at my tank and I see a taller, slightly longer 10 gallon tank. I think the tank is not long enough for a pleco. I have always had smaller fish in the tank to keep visual proportions right. My last picture is the full tank maybe with a 1/4 inch cut off on the right.


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

bushy nose won't get larger than 5" it would be totally cool dude.


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## captain_bu (Oct 20, 2007)

Tank is looking much better!

Skip the bushy nose unless it is a fish you really would like to keep. You have a small tank and even a 5" pleco is a large bioload which reduces the number of other fish you will be able to keep in the tank. They poop out quite a bit of waste. The first algae eater I bought was a bristlenose and it was largely useless as an algae eater. Tended to hide all day so I never got to see it either. SAEs will get too big for your tank too. Over the last eight years I have tried most of the popular algae eating fish and have yet to find one that performs the kind of miracles claimed by some. Otos (which eat primarily diatoms) are cool little, fun to watch fish that add a light bioload. They are social and should be kept in groups. Haven't tried the nerites yet but have heard they do a great job on certain algae if you don't mind the eggs they lay all over the tank. Amano shrimp also are a good clean up crew member. Bottom line though is that critters don't solve algae problems but they can help a bit keeping things clean.

I agree with the suggestions made in post #2. It seems that what your tank needed most is regular maintenance. I would also suggest getting some CO2 or at least daily doses of Excel along with a comprehensive fertilization routine. When you increased your lighting you did not compensate with proper ferts and a carbon source. Not keeping up on maintenance only made things worse. Looks like you are on your way to getting the tank back in shape, keep it up.


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

if you are gonna skip the bushy (which is an awesome fish that will help)  get a boatload of japonica shrimp...


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## miguel959 (Jan 19, 2010)

Thanks for the advice guys but I kinda knew that I needed to due some overdue maintenance, I was just wondering if that was all I needed or not. BTW since this is Compact Florescence light am I in the High Light area for this small tank? I have a carbon source ready for this tank but haven't set it up yet. So far I have gone two weeks with no noticeable algae and the plants are growing well. I started with three Hygro plants and now the back corners have 6 plants each. The Bacopa was a single plant and now is 4. The dwarf Sag has sent out numerous runners and when I pruned the tank I ended up with 15 or so plants that I needed to take out of the tank. I started with two plants and now almost all the remaining foot space has Sag growing. I am not really looking to add fish or inverts to this tank yet. I really want something to take the lower third of the tank but I might go with some shrimp. Never had them before and now I have a tank that would work for them.


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