# extremely overgrowin with staghorn algae, help!



## cody6766 (Mar 15, 2007)

I have a serious investation of this crap. It started down in my HM carpet and has taken off recently. I have 55w over 10gal with DIY co2 putting in a good deal of gas. I've been dosing with excel lately at 3oz and feed very little. I have a few fish in this tank that I'd rather not kill (gold tetras, otos and a tiger loach), so I'm afraid to step up my excel dosage any higher than it already is. 

I do bi-weekly water changes in this tank, but could step them up. Any other ways to kill this crap?


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

lower your lights to 20w, increase co2, and dose nutrients.


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

Bi-weekly is probably eating up nutrients as well, you could try less WCs.


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## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

cody6766 said:


> ... I have 55w over 10gal...


That seems to be rather excessive. Imho, you are just asking for algae if you are running 55 watts over 10 gallon. Personally, I would not go over 30 watts, 25 watts may be best. If you are running two tubes, I would set them on a noon-burst. One tube would be programmed to run for 4 hours, with the other tube coming on for another 4 hours so both tubes would only run 4 hours max. If you are limited to one tube or bulb only. Program it on split photo-period(no more than 7 hours), On for 4 hours off for 4hours and on for 3 hours, then off.

While I am no expert on algae, I have been running my own little experiments to see what gives rise to different types of algae and how best to prevent and resolve breakouts and blooms. While it is true that a combination of things may be involved, I am learning after experimenting on 3 different tanks(with and without C02, with and without fluorish excel, same fert schedules, same water changes, and with same plants and plant mass), that constant high light intensity combined with long duration seem to be the biggest culprit. I know this is not new and some people have probably discovered this in the past. My own observations seem to confirm this.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

when there's staghorn, there's some ammonia floating around too. It happens evertime.
ps. i think 20w is best because a 10g tank is so low & small but 25W sounds good too. just provide co2.


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

mistergreen said:


> when there's staghorn, there's some ammonia floating around too. It happens evertime.


I wouldn't doubt that either. Bi-weekly changes is probably contributing by throwing the balance off or not allowing a cycle to complete. This tank just needs some stability and another light.

Cody, when you say bi-weekly, do you mean twice a week or every other week? I take it as the former.


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

is this the 10g on your sig? What kind of lights are those?

It could be too much light for a diy co2 setup and/or could be ammonia levels triggering the staghorn bloom....


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## RoseHawke (Mar 10, 2004)

Technically bi-weekly would be every other week (payday's on a bi-weekly schedule ,) _semi_-weekly would be twice a week. The same difference as bi-annual and semi-annual. Something to add to your trivia cache!


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

RoseHawke said:


> Something to add to your trivia cache!


Haha, thanks Cindy. I was worried they were being done twice a week.


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## cody6766 (Mar 15, 2007)

oops, kinda forgot about this thread.

the pic in my sig is an old pic from several months ago. The 55w was done in a simlar manner, though. I now have a single 20w c/f bulb in one of those silver fixtures pictured as of 2 weeks ago

by bi-weekly I mean I normally change the water every 2 weeks. I have very little bio-load (a few ottos and a couple tetras) and lots of plants, so I thought it'd be fine every 2. No test kit though, so I'm flying blind. 

I tried excell spot treatment and had no change in growth. the crap is everywhere, but especially in my HM lawn in the front. I have also cut down on my feeding and upped my co2 in the water. Again, no checker, but i have a more efficient 'diffuser.' It got to the point of fish gasping at the surface, so I know there's been an increase (they're out of the tank now). It's not really visually distracting from afar, but up close you can see it and it's on everything so I can't move plants from one tank to another.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

do more excel... it seems to work great with staghorn.


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## RoseHawke (Mar 10, 2004)

I have _heard_ that Amano shrimp will eat the stuff, but that's hearsay. I have no direct experience with that solution.


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