# Newbie.. Advice appreciated.. Algae battle in progress.. UPDATED-Battle WON



## techbearus (Apr 21, 2004)

Hi all, 

I should say I have been reading this forum from a long time.. and was really impressed looking at everyones tanks and decided to move to a planted tank from plastic tank  . I completely threw everything except fish from old tank, got some pounds of fine 3mm sized gravel (called pond filter media) washed it and put it in the tank. Added a penguin mini bio-filter. Added a few fish, 4 molly fry (returned the parents to store as they used to eat a lot of vegitation and was afraid they would eat away my plants, the kids will also leave the tank after a month or so), 6 neon tetra, a pair of guppies( female had 3 kids which are in the small breeder enclosure in the tank), a cory cat (going to get him a partner soon), 2 otos and 3 ghost shrimp. 

As soon as I started the tank I put in a few plants: Java Moss, Water Sprite(rooted), microsword, Cryptocoryne wendtii. Well I should say I had some success in dealing with the tank till now. I just used to have some dark brown algae in the tank especially wherever plants casted shadow (on leaves of sprite and glass which were masked from light). The light I had was a 15w flour. Also I had some kind of murky brown stuff getting on java moss, tried to clean it and every week it returns and so I pulled most of it out.. just kept a small pieces of which would be neat.

Well I did my homework :wink: and then figured need more lighting. Got myself a 36w CF fixture. Well put the lighting on the tank and also added Anacharis to the list of plants. Planted some lily bulbs of Wal-mart, of which 2 have sprouted. Now with extra lighting, needed CO2, so did a DIY CO2 and put it on an airstone in tank (BTW added some baking soda to bring up my KH which was low from tap water :wink: ). Within days my plants started to pearl (.. ahem.. pearl yeah i said it right, I could also see oxygen coming from cutting where plant leaves/stems were damaged, but there was some pearling also). 

I did a check on the tank params and currently they are as below:
pH-7.0-6.8, KH- 5 deg, GH- 8.5 deg, Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrate - 5-10 ppm(varies). Also took to LFS to check phosphate and got a .3 ppm. I dose 1ml flourish comprehensive weekly, and every 3 days 3ml leaf zone ( 3% potash K20, 0.1% chelated iron). 

Now comes my problem  . I brought this Anacharis from LFS( :twisted: ) and planted it in the tank, it has some sort of hair algae on the leaves and after a week it starts to get worse, I thought it would die off when plants would flourish, but it didn't now it is slowly creeping to other plants, it has now started it attack on my crypts. Please take a look at the pictures and let me know what I can do about it.

I have ordered K2SO4, KNO3 and MgSO4 from Gregwatson to raise my nitrates and potassium. Leaf zone increases my pottassium but also iron, so I want to dose it seperately. Also I am getting some more plants from onilne site very soon, some dwarf sags, glosso, riccia, morimo moss ball, baby tears, mayaca, aquatic clover. I don't want to have much problem when the new plants come in and they are also affected.


All the images are uploaded at the following address:

http://s89012333.onlinehome.us/images.html

Please take a look at the anachris then and anachris now pictures to know what type of algae it is and what I can do about it.

Any suggestions would be really welcome.


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## ninoboy (Jan 26, 2004)

Looks like hair algae that I had before. Slow down on the micro fert (flourish). It took my tank 4 months until it can take a full recommended dosage without any hair algae. I did stop dosing for 3 weeks when the hair algae took over. 

All tanks are different also. Later on, just dose it slowly (by drop) and increase the dose if no algae show up.

Anyway, you've done excellent research I'd say :lol:


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## techbearus (Apr 21, 2004)

Is there anything I can do right now to stop it attacking other plants.. like doing a water change.. or making nitrates go higher (oh this is important..as I read sometimes that high nitrates encourage hair algae).. or some fish which can eat it. My molly babies try to eat it.. but just can't pull it off strongly to peel it from leaves..


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## ninoboy (Jan 26, 2004)

True Siamese algae eaters will eat them. Increasing nitrate will only help if you have very low nitrate level that stunt the plant growth. Yours is above 5ppm and should be fine. My nitrate and PO4 level were almost 0 when my tank got hit by hair algae so it's a different case.


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## wellbiz (Aug 6, 2003)

techbearus said:


> Is there anything I can do right now to stop it attacking other plants.. like doing a water change.. or making nitrates go higher (oh this is important..as I read sometimes that high nitrates encourage hair algae).. or some fish which can eat it. My molly babies try to eat it.. but just can't pull it off strongly to peel it from leaves..


Speaking of which... WHat is your water change schedule...

Jason


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## techbearus (Apr 21, 2004)

oh forgot to mention subtle issues of the tank.. 

1. water change - 20% every week with a heavy gravel wash using vaccum cleaner (which I found out today is very very bad for a planted tank, and so from next time just a gravel surface skim with vaccum cleaner) (dechlorinator used - seachem prime)

2. no carbon in the filter - read that it sucks out many of the required nutrients for plants.

3. Feeding the fish with tetramin granules and flakes, hikari freeze dried shrimp. And if I feel there is no food for the bottom feeder I drop in a small piece of hikari sinking algae wafers or hbh shrimp pellets(my cory doesn't like this one at all) and sometimes fresh brine shrimp (sanfransisco brine shrimp eggs), cooked zucchuni/peas. The fish go really crazy over peas (otos always come out of hiding to get a chance on buffet in the day, otherwise they hide somewhere in the corner)

4. Finally a photoperiod of 12 hrs

I tried to remove the algae on the glass using a old toothbrush, the brown stuff came out without any trouble, but a speck of this thread algae was not even coming off. Well I guess I have to wait for it to die, or use a razor....patience.. patience...


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## techbearus (Apr 21, 2004)

Yuppie  .. got a true siamese algae eater (Crossocheilus siamensis), hope got the right one... and is now in the tank. Had to shell a decent 6$ for him :x . Anyways I hope that he does the work and atleast keeps algae in control. My new plants are going to arrive on friday  , can anyone please tell me if I need to take any other precautions so that the algae will not spread to the other new coming plants. As I have already mentioned it has already started to spread to water sprite and crypts in my tank.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

I would look at the CO2 situation. Even though the pH and kH you measure indicate good levels, I would be surprised if CO2 connected to an airstone would make that much of a difference.

Other than that... patience :mrgreen: One thing at a time, giving it some time to stabilize.


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## techbearus (Apr 21, 2004)

For those of you who are following the thread, let me post the progress...

... I got the new plants I was talking about. First of all let me give you a review about their packing. They dumped all the plants in individual polythene covers and sealed all of them in a bigger one. Don't know if all the online sites ship like this. Anyways most of the plants seemed to survive the trip except for mayaca  , which was totally mushed up, but is kicking back in the aquarium. Hope it grows up good again. :help: Also I have got some riccia (which was a loose patch of 4sqin for $4.00), glosso, aquatic clover, rotola indica, baby tears, dwarf sags.

.. I also got the package of K2SO4, KNO3 and MgSO4 from Gregwatson.com, the package was really nicely packed with double sealed ziploc bags. Well started dosing NO3 and keeping them at 10ppm. I am dosing daily to maintain it at 10ppm, otherwise it is dropping below 10ppm. 

.. Well as Wasserpest said, it is probably the Co2 situation that is to be taken care of. I have reduced the phosphates by using Seachem Phosgaurd (my previous reading of 0.3 ppm Phosphate at LFS was a wrong one, I actually found phosphates of more than 3ppm). Now the phosphates are less than 0.5 ppm. With that the hair algae was very much in control. I removed most of the anachris and the crypts which had the most infection, and the algae was gone in no time. SAE I got doesn't touch the algae, but is eating someting.. I don't know what... it hasn't begged for food ever... ??


.. To address the CO2 situation I have ordered a Hagen ladder to go with my DIY Yeast CO2. It should be arriving in next week. For temporary purpose I have added a small cup in the tank above airstone, which helps keeping CO2 in contact with water for longer period and has been giving me a reading of 18ppm CO2 (6.8-pH, KH-4deg). Don't know if it helping much or not but thought it is better than using airstone alone.









.. As for the plants here is a picture of the tank.. 









.. Riccia is doing good. I placed it on the rock I had, with a walmart-onion bag cover over it. But lately it has been collecting some Blue-green algae (greenish slime, which I guess is BGA). 









... Glosso is growing but not that fast, but is also giving itself to a green algae on its leaves.. don't know what it is... but expecting it to be spot algae..









... Clover and Babytears are very much happy and growing good. Dwarf sags are getting the small dark green spot algae on their leaves as on Glosso... 









.. Well the battle is still on 8) .. with hair algae gone, but having some BGA on riccia, and probably spot algae on glosso and dwarf sags. But it looks like once I get the CO2 ladder and get it installed, the plants would get a upper hand on algae... 

... If anyone has any ideas or suggestions please let me know.. 


.. Riccia Pearling...


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## techbearus (Apr 21, 2004)

*Update.... Battle Won..*

Hey Guys.. 
I just wanted to post an update on the tank.... after two weeks and running.. I don't even see a speck of algae in my tank except for some tiny brown stuff on glass which the ottos take care of. 

Special thanks to Ninoboy and Wasserpest for their advice.roud: :thumbsup: 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.. so have a look at the tank .. 









The two major problems in my tank were dosing micro's excessively and not having a good CO2 reactor. Well for the first problem, I have stopped dosing for nearly 2 weeks with repeated water changes and got the algae under control, and also started dosing macro's maintaining nitrates at 10ppm. Well the phosphates would be going around in the range of 0.5-1.0ppm. Also started to dose iron using Flourish Iron seperately. And dosing Flourish Excel (micro's) only one or two drops every 3-4 days depending on how much plants require. For the second problem added the Hagen Ladder to the DIY C02... 









The algae had taken a toll of my tank. Babytears nearly melted away and mayaca was obtained melted... but now both of them are growing and kicking back in the tank.. 









For riccia, I moved it off the rock and on to a mat, as the rock was obstructing flow of water and was encouraging slimy green algae.. but now on the mat it is growing up fast and good without any algae... 









Dwarf sags, Sag subulata and aquatic clover have all grown a lot of roots and are also sending out runners.. 









.. the only plant not doing good currently is the glosso.. it is surviving in the tank but not really spreading a lot.. well still have to figure out why.. 









.. Well after all the troubles.. its really a great experience to watch the algae melt away in one night .. and tank completely clear and lush.. I should say it would have been really troublesome without your help.. Thank you very much.. :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:


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## Wö£fëñxXx (Dec 2, 2003)

Your tank looks very impressive techdude kudos to ya.... roud: 
Congrats on the algae battle


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## Sweet Violet (Aug 10, 2005)

Looks much better~! I like the neons too~!


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## SlugJabba (Aug 15, 2005)

Nice tank.
In one of the pictures it looks like there is a lead weight that is holding down one of the plants. If so, you should probably remove it, as it will leach into the water.


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