# I am considering tearing down my tank, due to ALGAE!



## C10H12N2O (Nov 13, 2014)

On behalf of anybody else who might post in here to help out: tank params? Light/water chemistry/what fish/how many/ferts/etc. Give everyone a good idea of what you've got going on. 

Now, take a deep breath and don't tear down your tank, because if anyone can help you out with your algae problem it is this forum. I'm sure before long you'll have 15 different people chiming in with suggestions.

I might suggest adding some fast growing nutrient suckers - floaters like frogbit or red root floaters, water sprite, guppy grass, hygro etc. Anything that grows quick and can take up any extra nutrients in the tank, hopefully starving out the algae.


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## foster (Sep 23, 2012)

Mix hydrogen peroxide, and glute(Excel) 50/50 in a spray bottle. Shut off everything that moves water in your tank. pick one plant or small area where staghorn is the worst. Spray that area well. wait 15 minutes then turn water flow back on. It may take a few treatments to eradicate it, so be patient. Move to a few different problem areas, then do a 70/80% water change. If algae remains repeat. This should get rid of it. once gone watch for it to return. If it does adjust one thing at a time ie light, ferts until you get a handle on it.


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

C10H12N2O said:


> On behalf of anybody else who might post in here to help out: tank params? Light/water chemistry/what fish/how many/ferts/etc. Give everyone a good idea of what you've got going on.
> 
> Now, take a deep breath and don't tear down your tank, because if anyone can help you out with your algae problem it is this forum. I'm sure before long you'll have 15 different people chiming in with suggestions.
> 
> I might suggest adding some fast growing nutrient suckers - floaters like frogbit or red root floaters, water sprite, guppy grass, hygro etc. Anything that grows quick and can take up any extra nutrients in the tank, hopefully starving out the algae.


Light: 6.5 hours a day Ray 2
Water: nitrates 30 PPM, ph 7.8, down to 6.7 with co2.
Fish: 4 bolivian rams, 4 otos, 2 SAE, 3 bronze corys, 6 pristella tetras, 4 neons, and a dwarf gourami
Ferts: PPS-PRO dosing, 5ml/day because it is a 55g tank.
I am completely out of money right now, and my parents wont support this fish tank "obsession", as they call it. 
the tank looks like this, I removed alot of the plats on the right side, so it looks a bit bare
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Here's a PAR chart for the 48" Ray2 - http://i48.tinypic.com/8ydq4p.jpg

I dont think the problem is too much light, probably in the 50-60 range directly underneath the fixture. 

Thriving plants keep algae away. If you're giving them barely enough light to begin with, then running such a short photo period is only going to further inhibit their growth. I would do at least an 8 hour photo period.

Im not that familiar with PPS routines, but make sure you are dosing plenty of macros, go moderate on the micros, and depending on your water hardness, possibly some calcium and magnesium.

Whenever there's a problem, water changes are your best weapon. Algae hates them and plants love them. If possible do 50-60% twice a week for a month or two. Manually remove all the algae you can every couple of days, and maintain very clean conditions, filters, dead matter, etc.

Regardless what the PH test says, try to raise the CO2 a bit. Easiest way is to increase it slowly (over a few hours or days) until the livestock show signs of discomfort. Then back it down to where they are comfortable again. This is about the only way to be sure you are injecting enough...or at least the maximum your system can handle without gassing the fish.

Is that white tube on the left the CO2? Should place it underneath the spray bar or powerhead for better dispersion.

Speaking of flow, it looks like you may have a very strong current. You definitely want adequate circulation, but not a direct blast of current hitting the plants. For whatever reason this tends to cause algae on many species. 


The good news is, it doesnt look like the problem is that serious to me. Just keep working at it and be patient.


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## C10H12N2O (Nov 13, 2014)

Definitely not as bad as it could be! I agree that more water changes are a good idea - try and get your nitrates down a little bit while fighting off the algae. Once again, floaters are a quick and easy way to suck nitrates up, and fish stores are usually happy to get rid of them for nothing/really cheap if you ask nicely.


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## gotfish (Oct 27, 2007)

I'm not sure why the black out did not work for you, but I think you may not have done it correctly. And even if you did, it may not have gotten rid of all your algae issues. I say you may not have done it correctly, because I think I read on another post that you tested your water on day 2. Your tank should have been totally covered and blacked out with no light getting in at all for the entire duration. I'm no expert with black outs, but when I did them, they were completely blacked out for at least 4 days, and it got rid of the hair algae and BGA.


Edit: never mind my comment about you letting light in. I found your other post and read that you did not let light in.


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## Little Soprano (Mar 13, 2014)

I had staghorn in my old tank to the point I was ready to throw in the towel. You appear to have enough flow but how consistent is your CO2 throughout the tank? Staghorn loves when CO2 fluctuates I've found. Are your CO2 levels at 30ppm right when your lights turn on? My staghorn was mostly from the inconsistent CO2 levels and flow, not lights.

Looking at the picture, I'd move the powerheads too. Make them at opposite ends of the tank. The flow doesn't need to be STRONG either, you just want your plants to sway back and forth-rather gently at that. In my 40 long I had this:

powerhead-->HOB---open space----Powerhead (UGV)

Then I had one more powerhead below the UGV one sitting towards the front of the tank, right above my CO2. The one on the left of the tank pointed towards it. All three were AC 301s, and only the UGV one was at full blast, others were completely turned down. It wasn't a lot of flow, but it seemed to solve my algae problem, plus it made it so the flow was consistent throughout the whole tank.

I never did bother with a blackout either, I just removed as much of it by hand as I could every week. 

After getting the CO2 levels consistent and the flow consistent (not intense) throughout the tank, it never grew back. Plus I noticed with nice flow levels in the tank, my plants took off which kept it at bay as well.


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

gotfish said:


> I'm not sure why the black out did not work for you, but I think you may not have done it correctly. And even if you did, it may not have gotten rid of all your algae issues. I say you may not have done it correctly, because I think I read on another post that you tested your water on day 2. Your tank should have been totally covered and blacked out with no light getting in at all for the entire duration. I'm no expert with black outs, but when I did them, they were completely blacked out for at least 4 days, and it got rid of the hair algae and BGA.
> 
> 
> Edit: never mind my comment about you letting light in. I found your other post and read that you did not let light in.


So, should I try to do another blackout for 4 days? The plants that have the algae are slower growers, so I cant remove all the leaves on them.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

pics of tank


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

klibs said:


> pics of tank


Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet


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## al4n (Nov 18, 2008)

No way near as i bad as you explained. Do some water changes, monitor your nitrates/tds. Keep dosing ferts and co2 and leave lights

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Is this the tank? It looks pretty good to me. You have a 55 gallon tank, which is usually 21 inches high, so if you have 2 inches of substrate your light will be from 19 to 20 inches from the substrate. As I read the Finnex chart for that light you will have about 60-70 PAR at the substrate, which is high enough that you do need to have the CO2 concentration in the water about as high as the fish can live with, and you also have to make sure you are not stunting the plants with too little fertilizing (try the EI dosing method to do that), and you have to keep the tank, plumbing, filter, etc. as clean as you can. It will also help to keep the water surface rippled all over, no splashing, but a definite ripple over the whole surface, to keep as much oxygen in the water as you can.

If you really are thinking of tearing it all down, why not just reduce the light intensity to about 30-40 PAR, using Metricide 14 day (substitute for Excel) and either no CO2, or much less CO2? That will slow down all of the growth in the tank, and make algae just a minor nuisance instead of a problem.


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

It is not all over the glass, it is on the slower growing plant leaves and vals it is hard to see in the pictures, however I just finished removing a lot of the algae covered leaves and the algae doesn't seem to be coming back after the blackout, it was a bit early to start freaking out I guess...


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Another thing to keep in mind, as the overall plant mass increases it will get a lot easier to manage, algae wise.

And just to repeat, dont skimp on water changes and try to always maintain good clean conditions.


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## brandynhart095 (Jul 27, 2015)

Just get a few algae eaters, the cheap ones at Walmart, they'll chow down.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

This is what usually happens. You need to get passed the tear down phase and focus on small practices. You can slowly combat most ALL algae with ample water changes, co2, and lowering your photoperiod and intensity. For the ray 2, i would try 5 hours a day. 5 hours a day is very good for those with intense light, this photoperiod is big + for beginners.

I didn't read all replies but I'm countering burr right now on lighting.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

burr740 said:


> Another thing to keep in mind, as the overall plant mass increases it will get a lot easier to manage, algae wise.
> 
> And just to repeat, dont skimp on water changes and try to always maintain good clean conditions.


this

Also this is why it is often difficult to keep light-hungry plants with slow growers. One craves the high light and the other gets caked in algae (usually)

I would spread out that tall rotala on the left and just let it go wild. Trim those in half and double the mass immediately. Let it go wild and be aggressive with trimming/propagation on the plants you have to quickly gain plant mass. The faster growers should do a better job at keeping algae away.


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