# Which algae is this and why is it appearing.



## jcardona1 (Jun 27, 2008)

i believe this is your problem:

Light 4x 39W T5HO.2x bulbs on for 8.5h,other 2x2h burst


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

You have a ridiculous amount of light over your aquarium. There is really no need to have 4x 39W T5HO bulbs on for 8.5 hours, with an additional 2x 39W T5HO bulbs coming on for a burst. 

If anything, you should first reduce your lighting to 2x 39W T5HO, and maybe consider having the additional 2x 39W T5HO for the burst.

Also, as an aside, you have mixed up your nitrate and nitrites (NO3 and NO2, respectively, not the other way around).


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## plamski (Sep 25, 2009)

I'm sorry ,I wasn't clear.There are 2x39 for 8.5h and 2x39 for 2h burst.Fifture is 4x39W total


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Forget the 2 burst and up the CO2.

The algae could be the beginning stage of black beard and diatom.


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## doubleott05 (Mar 16, 2010)

crank up the co2 and add some excel


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## littlefish (Aug 6, 2010)

I thing what you have there is called Staghorn algae. If so, higher ammonia/ammonium levels from overstocking and substrate disturbance, and low CO2 levels will favour this algae. Its been known that the Siamese Algae Eater will keep this algae in check. Nutrient control and plant pruning will limit Staghorn algae.


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## marielou20 (Aug 7, 2006)

I also have the same algae problem , i have a 220 gal with a total of 250 watts of lights in it. I keep the lights on for 9 hours. My parameters are all ok.

Someone told me it was a diatom problem but i dont know what causes that...

can somebody help me to find a solution to it please


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## MarkMc (Apr 27, 2007)

T5HO lights are much brighter than T8s. Lowering nitrate does not make any algae go away. Adding more phosphate will help your green spot algae problem go away too. It's a crazy mixed up world in the planted tank realm. Basically algae problems are caused by too much light. It's not from too much nitrogen, phosphorous or potassium or trace elements. You _can_ have a lot of light but you better master CO2 or algae will come. Plain and simple.


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## nicks7.1985 (Aug 11, 2010)

yup...algae problems most often occur due to improper/unbalanced lighting and co2. lowering/changing nutrients probably wont solve the problem and may actually make it worse. reduce ur lights to just the 2 bulbs (which is what i use in my 55gallon) and turn up your co2 a bit. if its not possible to take any more lights out, you can put some window screening under them to help filter excess light.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

Get your CO2 above 30ppm (This is somewhat subjective as you can't really get an accurate measurement without expensive equipment.), reduce lighting to 2x39W T5HO for 8 hours a day, and as long as you have good circulation, and the tank is cycled (seems to like ammonia, so it's common in new tanks), you'll never see this stuff again. If you go to 4x39W T5HO, you'll likely get to know this stuff real well, and his old college buddy BBA. 

Also, don't cut nitrates to fight algae. It can trigger other algaes to grow, and will make your plants turn ugly and yellow eventually.

Supposedly, GSA is caused by low phosphates. I have a little bit in my tank from time to time, but it always grows in strange places, like behind plants on the back wall where there's little light. I dose a good amount of phosphates, so likely it has something to do with circulation. I found out it was there when I rescaped recently, and opened a view to parts of my aquarium glass I hadn't seen for months. I still haven't scraped it off lol.



> Someone told me it was a diatom problem


Diatoms look like a coating of brown dust.

Just a side note. You can't really judge how much CO2 is in your water via bubble rate. I tried that way at first too, but every tank is so different, a given bubble rate can mean wildly different CO2 levels. A drop checker can get you in the ballpark, then you can slowly increase CO2 over several days until you figure out when you're getting close to overdoing it. Then just back it off a bit and run at that level. I was so terrified of killing my fish, I spent a good 3 weeks finding upper end on my tank.


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## plamski (Sep 25, 2009)

*No more algae.*

Hello. Thanks to everybody for advices. It is true that the WPG and length of photoperiod are the most important things in order to have healthy plants. Here is a list of my steps and final result.

There are 3 test tanks with different plants. 40gal breeder 4x39W T5 2x39W on for 9h ,2x39W on for 2h burst, medium light plants.20gal 4x24W T5 2x24W for 9h and 2x24W for 2h burst medium to high light plants.15gal 2x24W T5 on for 9h high light plants.
All the tanks with the same parameters Ph- 6.5,Gh-4.Kh-2,NO3-7,PO4-2,Iron-0 .5,CO2-30-40ppm
Water temperature 78-80F
After 2 weeks the worst become 40gal.Plants stop to grow and 3 different algae apire.20gal no plants grow first sign for fast growing algae.15gal no growing, very few algae problems but plants start to melt and degradate.
What I did:
40gal : Day 1 dose full EI NO3 dosing, 3ml /gal Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) filters off for 3h
Day 2 dose regular micros and 4ml/ gal Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) filters off for 3h
Day 3 dose full EI NO3 dosing, 4.5ml /gal Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) filters off for 3h
Day 5 toss away 70% of the plants rest of them are replanted. Algae is 90% dead but can’t be removed from the plants. Ottos and neritas doesn’t like to clean dead algae too.
20gal: Day 1 dose full EI NO3 dosing, 1.5ml /gal Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) filters off for 3h
Day 2 dose regular micros and 2ml/ gal Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) filters off for 3h
Day 3 dose full EI NO3 dosing, 2.5ml /gal Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) filters off for 3h
Day 5 no algae sign, plants grow very good, no melting or so. Trimming time.
15gal Day 1 dose full EI NO3 dosing, 1.5ml /gal Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) filters off for 3h
Day 2 dose regular micros and 2ml/ gal Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) filters off for 3h
Day 3 dose full EI NO3 dosing, 2.2ml /gal Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) filters off for 3h
Day 5 no algae sign, plants grow very good and fast , no melting or so. Trimming time too.
Looks like for T5 and over 2.5WPG we need at least 15ppm NO3. Plants start growing like crazy after 
good NO3 dosing. But for good success we have to act fast. One week doing wrong things with high light setup is too much for the plants. They can’t recovery in full.
Ottos can live with 5ml/gal Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
Neritas and apple snails no more than 2-2.5ml/gal
Loches are ok with 3-3.5ml/gal.
Mayaca fluviatilis no more than 3ml/gal
Hydrocotyle leucocephala 2-2.5ml/gal
eriocaulon Thailand and Syngonanthus sp. 'Manaus' 2ml/gal MAX
That it is.At least in my case.
Tonight I can post some picture of the tanks if you are interested.
Here is the picture of 15gal tank
http://picasaweb.google.com/1168757...hkey=Gv1sRgCKHyz7y_l6bXBg#5516607560391221890


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## scottward (Mar 14, 2008)

> It is true that the WPG and length of photoperiod are the most important things in order to have healthy plants.


WPG is pretty much dead now. As mentioned earlier in the thread, T5's put out more light than T8's etc etc, as lighting technology improves we can now get more light using less wattage.

Lighting really needs to be measured at the surface and substrate level using a dedicated light meter, but not many people have one of these. I think it's called a PAR meter??

Healthy plants = providing *adequate* lighting + non-limiting CO2 for that lighting level + non-limiting macro/micro nutrients for that lighting level.

Setting the lighting and nutrients is easy. Getting the CO2 right is much harder!

If you want faster growth (+ more maintenance!), you may crank up the lighting, but then, in order to continue to have healthy plants, you also have ensure that the CO2 and nutrients are still in sufficient quantities.

Scott.


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## MarkMc (Apr 27, 2007)

How do you know that you have 30-40 ppm CO2? Three bubbles per second fed into a powerhead is probably not going to even come close to 30-40 ppm in a 40 gallon tank. If you are using the same method for every tank (3 bps into a powerhead) you will be getting closer to that and maybe even reaching it in the 15 gallon tank. That's probably why the smaller tanks are doing ok now.


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## plamski (Sep 25, 2009)

3bps for 40ish with big powerhead,2bps and small elite powerhead for 20ish and 1-1.5bps with elite powerhead too for 15ish.I have 3 different drop checkers/different manufacturing/ and they stay green in very big range of bubble count. I’m not sure how precisely they can begin. 15gal probably the height is very important-only 13”, light can reach the bottom easily. I have PAR, LUX meter and will post tonight measurements for all tanks.


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## MarkMc (Apr 27, 2007)

Are you using distilled water adjusted to 4dKH in your drop checkers? I think that you are possibly missing the point of much of the advice you've received. The height of the tanks is not what's important ie: the light being able to reach the bottom. It's the likely-hood that you do not have enough CO2 for the amount of light you have. T5 HO lights are very bright-forget the watt per gallon rule-it no longer applies to T5 HO lighting. Do you have these lights close to the surface of the water? If so can you raise them at least 12"? You only need 2 bulbs on at any one time for 8-9 hours total. You will be able to grow most any plant.


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## plamski (Sep 25, 2009)

I'm using 4DKH solution for drop checkers. I can't lift fixture more than 5" from the surface/where is now/.I'll try to lift level CO2 till ottos can accept it and will play with length of photoperiod. Tonight I replanted all 3 tanks with the same 12 plant species in same order in every tank. Will see how plants will grow with different light schedule and different light intensity.
By the way in 15gal tank 2x24 T5 on the surface light is 115 LUX, bottom 95-100LUX, in 16" high 40gal and 20 gal top is 85LUX ,bottom 45-55LUX.


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## captain_bu (Oct 20, 2007)

You said you had a PAR meter. Can you post PAR readings instead of LUX?


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## plamski (Sep 25, 2009)

captain_bu said:


> You said you had a PAR meter. Can you post PAR readings instead of LUX?


I took PAR meter from my work today but it is not working.We have to buy new sensor -I dont know when they will do it.
I'm sorry.
Here is one convertion chart.
http://openwetware.org/images/e/e8/Conversion_lux.pdf
My bulbs are 1x 6700K and 1xColormax Coralife .

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