# Green Beard Algae



## kor4ever (Feb 26, 2003)

I've just recently increase my lights to around 100 watts, so thats translates to around 5 wpg in my 20 gallon. I have an outbreak of green beard algae that spread like crazy recently. I've been able to control it by removing the infected leaves and doing water changes afterwards.

My original direction of thought was to reduce the nutrients in the water level, however, I remembered how people always say that CO2, light, and nutrients must be in balance. So, should I be reducing my nurtients, or increase my nutrients? My CO2 is around 35~50ppm. I know its not 50 ppm, because I'm sure my fish would be dead, however, the pH color is really hard to tell on the lower levels of the AP test.

Thanks in advance,
Felix

NH3=0
Nitrite=0
Nitrate=0
kH=4
pH=6.4


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## Rex Grigg (Dec 10, 2002)

You need to get your nitrates up around 5-10 ppm, your phosphates need to be at 0.5-1.0 ppm, you need to keep your iron and traces stocked and your potassium around 20 ppm. You have a lot of light in that tank and if you don't give your plants fuel to grow the algae will take over.


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## kor4ever (Feb 26, 2003)

Cool, so I need to bring the nutrients up. Thanks alot, Rex.

Felix


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## jerseyjay (Jul 23, 2002)

What type of plants are you growing ?

5 wpg is a lot of light. :idea: 

Unless you are growing very deliquate and light demending plants like Rotala Macaranda etc. I don't see need for so much light. 

Your Flora will accept only so much light and the excess will be consumed by algae :idea:


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## kor4ever (Feb 26, 2003)

well, I have floating plants that absorb some light and my tank is pretty dense. I have moneywort, rotala wallichi, Eleocharis parvula, Cabomba caroliniana, Egeria Densa, and ALOT of Alternanthera reineckii(I believe, not sure). The floating plants I have are water lettuce.


Felix


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## jerseyjay (Jul 23, 2002)

kor4ever said:


> well, I have floating plants that absorb some light and my tank is pretty dense. I have moneywort, rotala wallichi, Eleocharis parvula, Cabomba caroliniana, Egeria Densa, and ALOT of Alternanthera reineckii(I believe, not sure). The floating plants I have are water lettuce.
> 
> 
> Felix


Felix,

What what I see there is no need for that much light. 

People usually think that when they get tons of light over their tanks, plants will grow without any problems. 

With that much light you would need to keep up with nutritients and CO2 injection to prevent from algae.

I would recommend to to keep the light around 3 wpg and keep up with nutrititients and CO2. 

Also don't make drastic changes as those are not the best on plants neither.

Good luck


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## anonapersona (Oct 19, 2002)

Hey, with the floating plants most of that light won't get into the water. Same as laying shade cloth over the glass. 

Rex is right, the nutirients are low, you need traces and nitrate and K. 

Some Tropica Master Grow or similar plus KNO3 will help. That's all it took to get my 10 gallon fixed after a month of medical treatments and no ferts. I had green hairy algae that was so long that the goldfish swimming in it twisted it into dreadlocks! I hoped the fish would eat it, but he didn't make a dent in it.

I almost tore it down, but was encouraged to try to fix it. So, i did large water changes and got the ferts in order, plus i added some amano shrimp to get into the fine leaves to clean that out. It looks fine now.


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## d28 boy (Feb 14, 2003)

i can also reply that with 4 wpg , the advice that several people on this board gave was to up the fertilizing regimen. two weeks later, much of the green hair algae has stopped growing! it seems counterintuitive but it works...also, minimum of 20% water change weekly. this board is a wonderful resource, thanks to all.  8)


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## kor4ever (Feb 26, 2003)

Thanks alot for the help everyone, I'll try upping the nutrients first, and if that doesn't work, I'll reduce two of my ODNO flourescent tubes to regular output, that should lower me down to around 80 watts total.

Felix


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## kor4ever (Feb 26, 2003)

To tell you guys why I went with 5wpg, I was reading Erik Olsen's article: Lighting Level: What's ideal? and he says, "For the smallest sizes, 8 watts per gallon is too little! For the larger tanks above 100 gallons, 2 watts per gallon is too much. " So using a wattage estimator for lighting in Amano type aquaria, I concluded I needed around 90 watts.

Here are the pages:

Erik Olsen's Article:
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Tech/Lighting/

Wattage Estimator:
http://www.fitchfamily.com/lighting.html

Just wondering what everyone's thoughts on these articles are?

Thanks for all the help,
Felix


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## Rex Grigg (Dec 10, 2002)

That's fine and dandy. But it's really not true. I have a 10 gallon with 4 wpg and everything I put in there grows like the weeds they are. I just set up a 5.5 gallon with just under 3 wpg and it's a lot of light in that little bitty tank.


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## anonapersona (Oct 19, 2002)

I'll bet the difference between 8 wpg and 4 wpg being "enough" is whether there are good reflectors.


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## kor4ever (Feb 26, 2003)

Hmm...I don't have reflectors, just painted my canopy white. I'll see how uping the nutrients work for a couple weeks, than if I still have problems I'll lower the wattage.

Thanks guys,

Felix


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## kor4ever (Feb 26, 2003)

My algae has really started to clear away. Like you guys said I needed to dose more. But also I've started to dose phosphates and that has REALLY helped. My amano shrimp are actually going to the top leaves where the HOB output is, because there isn't too much algae left at the bottom.

Thanks guys,

Felix


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## SNPiccolo5 (Oct 6, 2002)

That article holds _some_ truth. I think it is better for larger tank, that you don't need as much light, but still a decent amount. You definitely don't _need_ 8 wpg for a small tank though, like Rex said, 3 or 4 wpg is fine for a small tank.

-Tim


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