# This is not a halloween theme



## vig (Aug 4, 2015)

Hello, 

I have been having this algae everywhere. I thought I'll let the shrimps get to work on this. But turned out that 5 shrimpy shrimp will not do it. I believe the break out started when I did fungus treatment with Kordon Rid Fungus. Maybe coincidence or not, I'm not sure. Anyway, the only reason I let these algae became like this, due I have no time to clean them every day. I do clean them weekly but they're overwhelming. 






Current setup:

Low tech
Archaea SLIM-PRO Aquatic Plant LED Total Power per fixture: 10.0W
DoAqua 60P 17 gallon
3 short fin white clouds minnows
5 long fin white clouds minnows
5 amano shrimps
HC and DHG
2 oto (added yesterday).

What I know about the situation:
Tank is imbalance. 
Slow plants and plenty of nutrients = algae. 


Any tips and tricks to handle these mess will be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks.


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## WickedOdie (Aug 15, 2015)

I think it's Rhizoclonium

Cause	Low CO2 and poor water flow. Low nutrient levels. General lack of maintenance.

Removal	Increase CO2 levels and check nutrient dosing. Give the tank a good cleaning. Overdosing Excel, EasyCarbo or TNC Carbon should also clear it. Amano shrimp will eat it.


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

Shorten your photo period also. Your tank has too much light for the amount of CO2 available.


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## vgunandar (Oct 15, 2015)

Just add some nerite snails in that tank and you don't have to worry about algae anymore . Nerite snails are crazy algae eaters 

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## vig (Aug 4, 2015)

I guess the situation is the opposite of what I thought. Thank you for great advice. I will start overdosing excel for now since i have it handy. I will increase the water flow also.


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## BDoss1985 (Sep 15, 2011)

Careful on the overload of excel it can make grass like and ferns melt.

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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

diatoms for days. either that or rhizo. Either way I had the same stuff and eventually it just stopped coming back. pretty sure this is filamentous diatoms though

dosing all kinds of random meds won't do much here IMO. just reduce lighting and hit it with H2O2 / manually remove it


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## brooksie321 (Jul 19, 2014)

vgunandar said:


> Just add some nerite snails in that tank and you don't have to worry about algae anymore . Nerite snails are crazy algae eaters
> 
> Sent from my SM-N915F using Tapatalk


That's a crap response.. typical lazy approach.. best way to correct a situation is to find the root of the problem and start there.. not saying nerites will not clean it up.. won't fix it though.. 
I agree In that tank maintenence needs to be addressed as well as lowering lighting levels.


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## vgunandar (Oct 15, 2015)

brooksie321 said:


> That's a crap response.. typical lazy approach.. best way to correct a situation is to find the root of the problem and start there.. not saying nerites will not clean it up.. won't fix it though..
> I agree In that tank maintenence needs to be addressed as well as lowering lighting levels.


Well, you do have a point though 

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## skelley (Jul 18, 2011)

My first thought is diatoms. Several good WC with a thorough clean with a toothbrush each time (I wind it around as if it were pasta) and a few Ottos should have you in good shape (I see that you do have Ottos in there already). Is it a new setup or did it recently crash?


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## vig (Aug 4, 2015)

Sad things happened. I made a mistake in dosing Flourish Excel and Flourish. I skipped water change and dose with those two. A 5ml of Excel and 1ml of Flourish. The next morning, I came down to check on the aquarium. I noticed all the Rhizoclonium changed color into green and no fish swimming to be found. Instead I found them dead at the bottom of my tank. 

Quick water test with tetra easy strips showed nothing concerning. 
NO3 = under 20ppm(mg/L)
NO2 = 0.5ppm(mg/L) caution level.
GH= 150 (hard)
Chlorine = 0
KH = 0
pH = 6.2

I felt so guilty failed to care for those fish. I've had those white clouds since mid August. I started the tank in the beginning of August. I guess I will have to do some more reading about planted tank nutrition and fix the problem first before adding fish. 

Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.


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## brooksie321 (Jul 19, 2014)

I have a tough time believing 5ml of excel would wipe out a tank. Tank would have to be right on the edge of crashing.. either way.. maybe tear down, reboot, try to keep on a more structured maintenence routine?


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## Steve001 (Feb 26, 2011)

vig said:


> Sad things happened. I made a mistake in dosing Flourish Excel and Flourish. I skipped water change and dose with those two. A 5ml of Excel and 1ml of Flourish. The next morning, I came down to check on the aquarium. I noticed all the Rhizoclonium changed color into green and no fish swimming to be found. Instead I found them dead at the bottom of my tank.
> 
> Quick water test with tetra easy strips showed nothing concerning.
> NO3 = under 20ppm(mg/L)
> ...


 Sorry to hear about the deaths in the family. As for the algae I recognize it. It grows well in bright light. It only grew at or near the surface on plants exposed to a 175W metal halide light. This tank of mine had adequate co2.


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## kevmo911 (Sep 24, 2010)

brooksie321 said:


> I have a tough time believing 5ml of excel would wipe out a tank. Tank would have to be right on the edge of crashing.. either way.. maybe tear down, reboot, try to keep on a more structured maintenence routine?


Agreed, 5ml for a 17g tank is less than the recommended weekly water change amount. Something else happened. You sure it was 5ml? One capful is 5ml.


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## keymastr (May 25, 2015)

Part of your problem is the 0 KH reading. Kh is needed to keep PH stable. Where do you get your water? Take a sample of tap water and allow it to sit out overnight in an open jar. Then test it and report the parameters.


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## deanc8159 (Oct 18, 2015)

Not sure if your question has been answered completely but a few things I got to work on my hair algae issue (the fight is still ongoing) 

1. timer for the lights, I added some custom LEDs which caused huge issues so after cutting the light intensity down and timing to about 8hours a day it helped my plants grow stronger, 

2. Regular water changes. So I got sloppy and missed a water change, then things spiralled out of control

3. No ferts (this worked for me anyway) I assume my substrate has plenty enough to keep things growing I was dosing weekly and since cutting that out completely the algae is slower

4. Liquid C02 - I was sceptical but adding 2ml a day (50litrle tank) of liquid co2 my plants have grown a lot better 

5. Manual removal - get as much out by hand as possible. Clean every surface/filter etc 

6. Add more flow. I noticed I was getting a few dead spots so added a wavemaker. Once positioned right those dead spots are gone and algae doesn't settle as well 

I hope some of this helps. Unfortunately I don't have any before pictures (look at my journal I'm sure there are a few there) 
But this is my tank now 









I have MTS and red cherry shrimp for now will add fish in the near future when I decide how I want it to look. 



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## vig (Aug 4, 2015)

kevmo911 said:


> Agreed, 5ml for a 17g tank is less than the recommended weekly water change amount. Something else happened. You sure it was 5ml? One capful is 5ml.


Yes. It was only 5ml. Thanks!



brooksie321 said:


> I have a tough time believing 5ml of excel would wipe out a tank. Tank would have to be right on the edge of crashing.. either way.. maybe tear down, reboot, try to keep on a more structured maintenence routine?


I consulted with LFS, most likely it was excel that caused the wipe out. The co2 effect will not show on drop checker as it will not change into gas. Shrimps are still alive so I'll let them do some more clean up before getting some fish. Thanks.




Steve001 said:


> Sorry to hear about the deaths in the family. As for the algae I recognize it. It grows well in bright light. It only grew at or near the surface on plants exposed to a 175W metal halide light. This tank of mine had adequate co2.


This most likely is diatom. Thanks!



keymastr said:


> Part of your problem is the 0 KH reading. Kh is needed to keep PH stable. Where do you get your water? Take a sample of tap water and allow it to sit out overnight in an open jar. Then test it and report the parameters.


KH reading currently 40ppm. Thanks!



After consulting and showing the pic of what I have to a LFC, it is diatom. The problem for my tank is there are plenty of nutrition with slow growing plants can't consume them fast enough. For now I will limit my light to 4-5 hrs a day. I will dose 1 ml of excel to help with photosynthesis. I might consider going high tech with CO2 to help the plants growing faster. 

Thank you for the advice.


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## brooksie321 (Jul 19, 2014)

That proves even more that it was not excel, shrimps would be the first to go. Anyways, seems like you have a plan.. best of luck


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## vig (Aug 4, 2015)

brooksie321 said:


> That proves even more that it was not excel, shrimps would be the first to go. Anyways, seems like you have a plan.. best of luck


That's what i thought. I was surprised those shrimps actually survived. These are juvenile shrimps (smaller than average), maybe they were in the water circulation dead spot? who knows? :frown2:


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