# Alge is not my friend



## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

So I have strings of algae comming off some of my plants. And it's growing on my glass. Tank has been stocked with plants for close to two weeks. I have now 6 SAE's (had 4 up until yesterday)
1 clown knife
2 angels
1 angelicius cat
1 blue gourami
1 bala shark

My water parameters are:
KH = 12 deg
GH = 20 deg
PH = 7.2
PO4 = 0
NO3 = 0

So what can I go to rid of algae?

Tanks!


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Make those plants grow! That should help. The usual stuff, light, nutrients and perhaps some CO2. All plants need NO3, PO4, K, CO2, and some traces to grow. If you measure zilch, and don't add any, plants will suffer, and algae will get into their spot. Also, with hard water, adding CO2 helps a lot. 

(Not sure if you have sufficient light or add CO2 already... let us know.)


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

If you go to the aquariBlog link in the signature, you can see everything I have.
Basically I have DIY CO2 and a 55W CF on for 12 hrs a day. 
My plants are growing, I've noticed that.

FYI, 5 days ago here were my water parameters:
kh=11deg 
gh=18deg 
ph=7 
phos=.1 
nitrates=5


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

I read some of it. Light seems to be okay, CO2 a little high, if your kH and pH measurements are correct. So I would focus on nutrients. IME if you have great plant growth, algae problems will disappear all by themselves. Give it a few weeks to stabilize, and try to keep your N and P levels above zero.


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

OK, kewl.
So please excuse my ignorance because I am new at this stuff.
But how do I keep my P and N up?


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Hey, ignorance is if you DON'T ask these questions!

To keep NO3 at around 5 to 10 ppm, you should use KNO3.

To adjust PO4, you can use either KH2PO4 (Mono Potassium Phosphate) or Fleet Enema.

Consider also adding some K2SO4 if you suspect Potassium deficiency (brown spots/holes developing in sword plants, for example).

You can order all chemicals from Greg Watsons website, for example. Then use the calculator from Chucks Pages to figure out how to mix the stuff and how much to add.


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

Great! Kewl! Tanks!! 

Who's Greg Watson?


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

Nevermind, found him! 

So what would be an ideal amount to buy? Will 1lb last me awhile, or last me a little? On averge.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

To add nutrients to a planted tank, a pound of KNO3 will last you a long time. 2 lbs of K2SO4 will last you just as long. A pound of KH2PO4 will last you several hundred years. :mrgreen:


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## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

Wasserpest said:


> To add nutrients to a planted tank, a pound of KNO3 will last you a long time. 2 lbs of K2SO4 will last you just as long. A pound of KH2PO4 will last you several hundred years. :mrgreen:



LOL


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

Well thank you veryt much! I'll get right onto ordering me some!


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

So here's the current deal. I recieved the chemicals on wednseday. that night I dosed according to Chucks calculator (I don't remember what amounts I dosed off the top of my head, but I have a journal at home I am keeping track of everything in). Anyways, I dosed KN03, K2SO4, and KH2PO4. (My friend came over and I tried to convince him I was selling cocane, but apparently he knows me too well!) The next day (thursday) I checked my levels, and P04 was a little over .5, and my nitrates were 0. So I dosed nitrates again (that I know is a little over 1/8th teaspoon). I waited about 2 hours and I checked No3 (to make sure my test kit was working correctly) and it checked out, NO3 was at 5ppm. 

Well My algae is still growing. In fact it's getting thicker. I even have brown algae growing as well (I hear there's not much to do about that, just gotta wait it out). Well I checked my NO3 again this morning before I left for work. Back down to 0. So I dosed again. Waited 30 minutes and checked. Back up to 5ppm. I decided to unplug the light today, to help prevent more algae growth, and maybe hopefully keep the nitrates in the tank for one full day.

So is this going to be a daily thing, dosing Nitrates? Or is this because it's a fairly new tank, and I'm only gonna have to do it daily for the first few months, and then maybe weekly or whatever?


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Dosing fertilizers does not kill algae. It helps plants to grow, which in turn supresses algae. The increase in algae is (hopefully) temporary. The more plants you have, the faster you will see those algae disappear. If you have very few plants, that won't work.

One theory about the quickly disappearing NO3 is that plants are "starved" and take up all the Nitrates very fast. Of course you should see some major improvement of plant growth and health along with that.

I would probably dose (after testing the level!) every second day, and later twice a week... but it depends a lot on the density of your underwater jungle, and on the light intensity, kind of plants, etc etc. High light = high maintenance tanks might require daily dosing of micros, and NO3 every other day (no thanks :mrgreen: not for me!).

I would not unplug the light. That hurts your plants...


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

Great Thanks!
For soem reason, I think I misunderstood and got it into my head that levels up = algae gone, _not_ plants growing = algae gone. But in actuality it is: levels up = plants growing = algae gone. HA HA.

I noticed also that in your first post to this thread you said traces too. What do you mean by traces, things like Flourish? 
I started dosing Flourish last week. Put in 1ml like the bottle said. Did 1ml this week too when I did my water change.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Flourish is a good trace mix, I use that and Flourish Iron, once or twice a week.


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

well good, i seem to be pretty much set then. Thanks!


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

This stuff just won't go away!! Someone make it stop! Between 9 last night and 8 this evening I managed to get a nice layer of algae on my glass. I cleaned the algae off yesterday. I noticed thursday my PO4 was somewhere in the "2.0 and above" category, so yesterday I did a 30% water change all tap (it was to late to mix with RO), and tonight, I did a 50% water change (because the PO4 was still "2.0 and above"), again, all tap. 

I'm now watching my plants as they near the surface, noticing they're all growing towards the middle of the tank now, where the light is. I was thinking about ordering another 55watt CF, but if I can't keep the algae under control at 55watts, I'd hate to think about 110!


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Patience, and more plants... I saw you're expecting more clippings.

How are those nitrate levels doing?


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

Nitrates are staying right at 5ppm.

Would you suggest daily water changes to bring down the PO4?


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

How did the phosphates get up that high? Earlier you wrote that they were 0.5, which is right on... did you mix up PO4 and NO3? Yes, you should do some water changes to get them back down, and lock away that KH2SO4. Adding more plants, keeping the levels around 5/0.5, and some patience will be the best weapons for battling algae.


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

See, that's the funny thing...I DON'T KNOW!
The only thing I've added to this tank is a Betta, and the only thing that's come out is a clown knife. Beats the heck outta me. Water changes it is!

PS: I hate being patient :lol:


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

Well, I got some Phosphate Eliminator last week and put some in with my water change tuesday. Wednesday, phosphates were down (even though the bottle said up to one week to notice anything) to .5. Nitrates were at a steady 5. I can seem to keep my GH and KH at steady levels (I keep a list of the dates and what the levels were) 16 and 9 respectively. PH hovers around 7.2. 

My water wisteria seems to have stopped growing all together. The Java Ferns, Annubias Coffeeolia, Crypt Wendtii, and other foreground plants are groing very slow. A few background plants are growing fast and others are not. But EVERYTHING is covered in algae. I clean the glass every 2 days, and pull out hair algae about every day. So with the paramteres back in check, we'll see how the tank responds.


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

Just as an update for anyone that is following this thread, I have now gone since tuesday without having to scrape algae, and I don't even see any on the glass!! In fact the little bit of algae that was in the hard to get spots seems to be going away. Haven't pulled out any hair algae in about a week, and there is little algae showing on only a few plants. I have to put in some KNO3 every other day, and I have to add Phosphate remover when I do water changes, but everything pretty much seems to stay in check. My PH has gone from a steady 7.2 up to 7.8 on tuesday, yesterday it was down to 7.4.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Nothing better than having a big problem and being able to solve it... a little patience is priceless, no instant results here.
Enjoy!


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

As impatient as I am, I managed to remove it without going out and buying instant algae removers! If you haven't seen it, there's an update in the pics section.


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## houstonplant (Feb 26, 2004)

Can some one post the place they sell the chemicla and chuck page formular. i am having the same problem in my plant and discus tank now.

i have green algea on glass and hair on substrate and brown string on drift wood.

110g, pressurized c02, eco-comp, 2x120 aquasun and 4x75w (6500k spiral bulbs). i just dose sechem frourist when i do wc 25% once a week.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_aquacalc.htm

http://www.gregwatson.com/products.asp


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## houstonplant (Feb 26, 2004)

Thanks for your reply.


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## cruizer (Jan 8, 2004)

Just as an update, today marks thge one week date from which I have scraped any algae off the glass of my tank. I can see a little film, but nothing hindering. Of course today is water change and cleaning day, so it'll get scraped no matter what. 

One thing I do admit, and I don't think I mentioned this earler. I haven't dosed Flourish Complete or Iron in the last two weeks. I think I may have been overdosing them. But my plants haven't shown any lack of nutrients since then either.


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