# hair algae caused by co2 and EI dosing?



## greaser84 (Feb 2, 2014)

My vote is the C02. New C02 set up and algae appears within a week.


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## jmsaltfish797 (Oct 27, 2012)

i forgot to add that i was running a pretty burly DIY co2 system before i went pressurized. big enough that i gassed a couple of fish in accident with a fresh mix.


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## dzega (Apr 22, 2013)

reduce lightning while you tune your new co2 setup.


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## jmsaltfish797 (Oct 27, 2012)

so i tested my tank this morning and here are the water parameters. this is before lights and co2 come on for the day.

ph: 6.4
nitrate: 5.0
nitrate: 0
ammonia: 0
phos: 10.0

drop checker is green when co2 is running, about 10 bps in the counter. i have noticed that the algae is limited only to my floaters so far. i think im going to manually remove it this morning and just keep an eye on it. i hope it will just run its course naturally and die off after a few more days.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

jmsaltfish797 said:


> so i recently acquired a pressurized co2 system and pps pro ferts. this was about a week ago. a few days after getting everything going i had some hair algae pop up out of nowhere. i had issues with it when the tank was freshly cycled, but that was 8 months ago. i managed to eradicate all of the algae except some BBA. but what im trying to figure out is if the co2 and ferts are causing the bloom or what? any help would be appreciated. i will post tank params when i get a chance to test tonight.


You mean PPS pro causing algae, not EI:thumbsup:

Still, the issue is CO2, has nothing to do with ferts(either method).
Water changes, you should do 2-3x a week, say 80% for the 1st month or two. 

Then.............you can back off, this mitigates the new tank issues entirely. 

CO2 is about 95% or more of the issues with algae for on line posters.
Stop assuming the Drop checker is correct, bad assumption.

Water changes, close careful CO2 adjustments, dosing, cleaning etc.


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## jmsaltfish797 (Oct 27, 2012)

plantbrain said:


> You mean PPS pro causing algae, not EI:thumbsup:
> 
> Still, the issue is CO2, has nothing to do with ferts(either method).
> Water changes, you should do 2-3x a week, say 80% for the 1st month or two.
> ...


thanks for the advice tom, i was hoping one of the gurus would chime in on my thread. i will up the water changes from once a week. tanks not exactly "new", just the co2 system, and my experience with pressurized. it seems that the algae is growing right under where my light is located on the tank. literally just a strip on the floaters all the way across the tank. i just thought it was really weird.


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Probably read this already, but be sure, to stick around after any co2 adjustments. It's pretty easy to gas your fish with pressurized. I've been running pressurized for years and I still check in every minutes or so after co2 adjustments. I run my co2 as high as my fissile tolerate, so as you can imagine, monitoring adjustments is very important.


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## jmsaltfish797 (Oct 27, 2012)

jmhart said:


> Probably read this already, but be sure, to stick around after any co2 adjustments. It's pretty easy to gas your fish with pressurized. I've been running pressurized for years and I still check in every minutes or so after co2 adjustments. I run my co2 as high as my fissile tolerate, so as you can imagine, monitoring adjustments is very important.


i think i have everything pretty much dialed in with the co2. but i did just add a [email protected]#$ load of new plants, mostly column feeders. so i may have to bump it up just a hair. thanks for the info though.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

If a shortage of CO2 was limiting the plant growth, and you added more CO2, you may have switched the shortage to one of the fertilizer components, like nitrogen. If the plants growth was stunted by that shortage, it is possible the algae growth began because of that. Algae like to grow on struggling plants, dead plants, anything except healthy, fast growing plants. PPS pro is characterized by it being based on trying to never fertilize more than the plants are using. This can easily lead to a shortage of one or more of the nutrients. I suggest you follow the dosing tables in http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21944 Since you are doing big water changes at least weekly you will not run into any problems with excessive dosing.


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## jmsaltfish797 (Oct 27, 2012)

Hoppy said:


> If a shortage of CO2 was limiting the plant growth, and you added more CO2, you may have switched the shortage to one of the fertilizer components, like nitrogen. If the plants growth was stunted by that shortage, it is possible the algae growth began because of that. Algae like to grow on struggling plants, dead plants, anything except healthy, fast growing plants. PPS pro is characterized by it being based on trying to never fertilize more than the plants are using. This can easily lead to a shortage of one or more of the nutrients. I suggest you follow the dosing tables in http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21944 Since you are doing big water changes at least weekly you will not run into any problems with excessive dosing.


 being new to the whole high tech bit i got the pps pro and ei confused. thought they were the same:icon_lol: i am using the ei method of fertilizing. but yes i do believe it is a shortage in nitrogen causing the bloom after doing some research. i have been trying to find the right dosage for my tank over the last few days. tank is 29 gal but i also have a sump, making total volume around 40 gal +/-. i know this thing is a learning process for me. but as with most people on the site, tanks are a borderline addiction. so i guess i just have to take it all in stride. thank you though.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

jmsaltfish797 said:


> being new to the whole high tech bit i got the pps pro and ei confused. thought they were the same:icon_lol: i am using the ei method of fertilizing. but yes i do believe it is a shortage in nitrogen causing the bloom after doing some research. i have been trying to find the right dosage for my tank over the last few days. tank is 29 gal but i also have a sump, making total volume around 40 gal +/-. i know this thing is a learning process for me. but as with most people on the site, tanks are a borderline addiction. so i guess i just have to take it all in stride. thank you though.


so EI is causing the algae but not pps :thumbsup:

all methods can cause all kinds of algae, there is no perfect method, it will come down to person who own the tank and how he take care of it. hair algae can be caused by too much light, too much Fe, too much Ammonia. BBA can be caused by too much co2 and low PH, it is also related to organic buildup in your tank, too much co2 reduce the ph to the point where beneficial bacteria stop working properly to control the organics.


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