# good flow = less algae



## KentCurtis (Jan 22, 2009)

I hope this is the case as I am having a terrible battle with hair algae. I have everything else taken care of as good as I believe I can. Dosing EI, 2x24 t5-HO over my 20g, and run the lights 8 hours a day. Everything should be in check other than my circulation, which is a cheapy HOB


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## Honorable24 (Nov 16, 2008)

The same goes for me I have high circulation in my 5 gallon and there is just a small amount of algae. My ten gallon doesn't have that great of circulation and their is a lot algae.


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## ER9 (Aug 2, 2008)

sometimes it works....other times it has no effect. wish i knew why. my 36 gal has freaking tidal flow and its got staghorn growing like theres no tomorrow. funny thing is the worst areas it grows is on the powerhead outtakes and in the areas where the filters outflow dumps. iv'e also had BBA and it grew the best right under my filter outflow where there was the best circulation. iv'e since cut my circulation/flow back by shutting off a powerhead and turning down my filter flow with no noticable difference one way or the other.


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## marcus0655 (Feb 24, 2009)

I dont know I have algae growing right on my HOB where all of the water comes out it looks pretty gross,LOL


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## bulrush (May 7, 2007)

In my 5g bucket I raise snails to feed my clown loach. It has a small sponge filter with very little water circulation, but it has a CFL all to itself. It does have a lot of hair algae, but I don't ever remove the hair algae either, and it appears to grow slowly. 

Just my 2 cents.


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## chicken (Aug 22, 2007)

KentCurtis said:


> I hope this is the case as I am having a terrible battle with hair algae. I have everything else taken care of as good as I believe I can. Dosing EI, 2x24 t5-HO over my 20g, and run the lights 8 hours a day. Everything should be in check other than my circulation, which is a cheapy HOB


In my 20 gallon, I had 65 watts of PC lighting, diy co2, and EI dosing. Plants were growing well, but there was algae in one part of the tank. Algae disappeared after I switched from the Aquaclear 50 HOB to a Rena Filstar XP1. I believe it was due to better circulation, and less outgassing of co2.

Algae did become a problem again many months later, when I slacked off on refreshing the diy co2 mixture, and was more haphazard in fertilizing, but that's another story.


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## Jdub777 (Jan 31, 2009)

OK i'm definately not a planted tank authority, but i had read that more flow decreases algae on another forum, before I setup my tank 2 weeks ago. I haven't had any algae outbreak as of yet....Kross Zie Fingahs! How true does this hold...I dunno. When i was kid I noticed in the palces where I would find algae in, were stagnant ponds. There was this one pond where the water would rush in ,was crystal clean...then downstream where htere was no flow ,that would have a ton of algae. 

My HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC observation leads me to believe that this has to be true. 
The Mods may lock this thread now.:icon_cool


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## whitecloud09 (Jan 19, 2009)

I thought about this also and went out to my local Petsmart and picked up a Tetra Wisper EX20 filter to run after the CO2 and photoperiod is done for the day. I just needed it for more surface agitation since I knew I wouldn't remember everyday to raise and lower the lily pipes running from the canister filter. Surprisingly it was only $25 bucks, because everything else from that store is insanely overpriced compared to online. This was actually the same price as most online retailers. Petsmart is the only closet thing in my town for fish. Tested it out and it runs pretty good. Waiting on an Azoo palm filter in the mail for my ADA Mini-m to run at night. Hope they do help for algae issues.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Smaller tanks are much harder to add flow to than larger 20 gal and up.

I always overfilter and have more flow, this mixes CO2 better.
It is a good back up, yes, it waste some CO2, but this is easy to simply add a bit more. You get better O2 levels all the time this way and also better mixing of CO2 during the day when you need it.

So this is a good backup.

I had 6 nano tanks for about 2 years and they are a challenge.
Any evaporation dramatically changes the O2 and the CO2 outgassing with these Palm filters or most over flow HOB type filters.

That can dramatically change the results you have if you skip adding top off water every few days. I resolved this some by doing 2x a week water changes, and that kept the water level fairly stable and the tanks are tiny, so a few cups, seconds later....... and there's the water change.

Current breaks up the boundary layers arond leaves, so does CO2 mist......so you should see better growth rates when this is done.

If you donot account for CO2 loss, then adding current may have an negative indirect effect. So be careful to make sure that's addressed before saying adding current is bad, causes algae etc.

Current itself should not do this, my 180 gal has 3000gph and no algae, so even at 18-20X turnovers per hour, current does no harm or induce algae, you play with the CO2 and drop it down etc during the light cycle?

Now that's a great way to induce algae.
So make sure things are addressed and do not go down the path of mythdom, false causes and "me too" parroting:thumbsup:
Careful eye on all things CO2 will help more than you might think.
This is just one aspect of that.


Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## whitecloud09 (Jan 19, 2009)

*plantbrain*-Are you saying it's good to run my palm filter during the photoperiod with my current filter as long as I account for CO2 or run it after, but making sure I account for evaporation? I do have a small half gallon fish bowl that I keep under the tank with water for top offs every few days.


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## itstony (Jan 11, 2009)

i have a 10gallon and it is pretty hard to keep flow going in the tank. since the HOB filter is mounted onto the back left the only flow is available there. i moved the hob to the side so it would flow all over the tank..i assume..but it is not strong enough..lol . the side w/o flow have the most algae growth


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