# Green Spot Algae on gravel/plants how do I get rid of it?



## prighello

It started on the glass which was fine as I could scrub it off pretty easily. Now it has moved to the gravel and some plants. My gravel is quickly turning green and I can see no easy way to scrub the gravel. As for the plants I have been trimming them to remove the algae but it grows quite quickly and is keeping good pace with even my faster growing stem plants. Any advice on how to get rid of it?


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## bgoodwins

tom barr has suggested its from phosphate deficiency, try spraying on a concentrated phosphate spray (K2PO4) spray on exposed leaves during water change. Hopefully he'll chime in.


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## Geobelle

*Gsa*

Don't panic, this is a very common problem when the bacteria inside your filter & aquarium has not yet been propagated. Limit your lighting hours by half as well as your dosing of fertilizers if any. Keep water movement or current from low to high and add excel for a week to eradicate this completely (normal dose).

Have a nice day.


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## Carissa

I would be interested in the answer to this too. I have some slow growing gsa on my glass in a well established tank and it keeps just coming back even if I scrape it off. I dose ei and have tried both lowering and doubling phosphate dose and it hasn't helped any. I tried decreasing lighting to 7 hours/day but it's not doing much. My oto's won't eat it either.


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## Geobelle

Carissa,

It's only a matter of 3-7 days to solve this. Just limit your lighting for about 4 hours a day, don't put or mix any fertilizers inside your aquarium except for excel (2x dose only per day). After & during the 3 days period, you could notice a big difference & make a 40-60% water change, don't forget try to lower the temperature of your aquarium water (a cooling unit is a must for planted aquarium) in the range of 23-25C and increase water movement as much as possible. Always remember that all kinds of algae prefers warm environment. Presto!

P.S. CO2 supply should be on 24/7 about 2-3bps.


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## mistergreen

and scrape it off the glass. and you can turn the affected gravel over, thus burying the gsa.


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## Carissa

I can't get Excel here and don't have pressurized co2. I think fluctuating levels of diy co2 was the reason it started in the first place so it may be better to stick with non-co2 right now. However I can increase circulation, decrease temperature (room temp is about 17), decrease lighting, and do water changes. Maybe this will help me get rid of it.


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## Geobelle

CO2 fluctuation is also considered as a major problem of causing algae bloom, base on what I've learned & my experience. Since you can't be able to get Excel, WC could help + light limiting.


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## susantroy1

Geobelle said:


> CO2 fluctuation is also considered as a major problem of causing algae bloom, base on what I've learned & my experience. Since you can't be able to get Excel, WC could help + light limiting.


^^+1 Gotta agree... I believe that limiting light will help but not because of the reasons given... it seems this advise is a temporary corrective measure....(until we can figure out what is causing the algae) and then its bring up the duration again...when it is a condition that may be the answer in itself... the balance in your system is from light/C02/Ferts C02 comes from fish load/plant mass....if not forced into the closed system... ferts from the the plants itself (until they deplete thier reserves) then we must introduce them into this closed system... and light... your lighting may be overdone in relation to the C02 levels produced by the fish load/plant mass... If you amp up the lighting your plant mass will consume more C02 than your tank is capable of producing... which will bring an imbalance to this system and limit plant growth... If you bring down your lighting (notice I did'nt say duration.... but light intensity) Your other factors will be more inline with your lighting... less intensity will deminish the need for C02 uptake by your plants... which will require less ferts to nourish them as well...(I believe you will still have to supplement thier nutritional needs) once you achieve the balance between lighting and C02 the avalibility of ferts are introduced to give the plants what they require in order to produce mass. when this balance is acheived it leaves little for algae to flourish:icon_cool 

Troy


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## Homer_Simpson

Carissa said:


> ... I think fluctuating levels of diy co2 was the reason it started in the first place so it may be better to stick with non-co2 right now..


. 

As per Tom Barr's excellent suggestion, change your DIY c02 brew weekly to prevent c02 inconsistency and consider using a Tom Barr type reactor to keep your c02 levels more consistent. Do you have a drop checker to measure c02 in the tank. That is a must. I have 5 tanks set up at home that I am experimenting with to see what gives rise to algae blooms and what can prevent them and IME, I can honestly tell you that high intensity lighting combined with high duration lighting seem to be the biggest culprits. I have a 2 gallon tank at work with anubias, java fern, marimo balls, and apongenton. There is one peppered cory in the tank. I dose with a little bit of excel daily and the fert is pps-classic. At first I used to keep the tank covered for the night, which would give the tank about 9 hours total light as fluorescent lights in the building are left on at night. The tank was covered up for the weekend - which equals a 2 day blackout every weekend. There was absolutely no sign of algae and the plants were doing great. For experimentation purposes I decided not to cover the tank at night. Within 3 days the tank was over-run with string algae and green spot algae. I went back to covering up the tank as usual and everything else remained equal. Within a week, the algae has all but disappeared.

I would not eliminate c02 as this may make your problems worse, instead reduce lighting or better yet see if you can implement noonburst photoperiod or split photoperiod. C02 does no harm to plants even in low light tanks and only harms fish at levels too high, which is pretty hard to even achieve with a DIY c02 set up. I have even heard cases where members with a Natural Planted Tank were able to rid their tank of an algae bloom just by implementing c02.


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## Carissa

My problem was that my co2 producers actually STOPPED working at all. As in the yeast appeared to be dead. But it wasn't, I think the cold temperature in the room just slowed it down to the point of being virtually inactive. So I've had no co2 on that tank now for a couple of weeks and I'm hoping it will find a balance now that things are stable. I only have 20 watts of light on the tank (10 gallon), I don't think I should reduce the intensity of that. I'm hoping that once the plants recover from the lack of co2, they will start outcompeting the algae again. But what's funny is that my other 32g tank, which around the same time lost co2 as well, didn't develop algae but the plants started throwing off leaves. Now that situation is getting under control too so I'm hoping for the best.


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## Sven

Homer, your answer got me thinking. I´ve been battling gsa for a long time, I have a 55g tank, pressurized co2 running at about 3bps and 3 39W T5´s over the tank. I´ve been dosing kh2po4 for a long time, about 1/6th tsp 3 times a week. When I´ve measured the po4, it´s been pretty high, 4-5 even.

You were talking about covering the tank for the weekend and thus creating a blackout for the weekends, I have my lights on for about 8 hours, but as I live in Iceland, about 64° north, I have ALOT of light during the summer, now the sun sets about 23:00 and rises about 3 in the morning. In between it´s not even dark, the sun just isn´t up. Therefore my tank never gets totally dark. Might this be contributing to my gsa problem? I´ll altleast try to totally cover the tank at night, and see if there is a difference.


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## Gatekeeper

Sven said:


> Homer, your answer got me thinking. I´ve been battling gsa for a long time, I have a 55g tank, pressurized co2 running at about 3bps and 3 39W T5´s over the tank. I´ve been dosing kh2po4 for a long time, about 1/6th tsp 3 times a week. When I´ve measured the po4, it´s been pretty high, 4-5 even.
> 
> You were talking about covering the tank for the weekend and thus creating a blackout for the weekends, I have my lights on for about 8 hours, but as I live in Iceland, about 64° north, I have ALOT of light during the summer, now the sun sets about 23:00 and rises about 3 in the morning. In between it´s not even dark, the sun just isn´t up. Therefore my tank never gets totally dark. Might this be contributing to my gsa problem? I´ll altleast try to totally cover the tank at night, and see if there is a difference.


Resurrection...wow.
Does it get direct sunlight? Why is your PO4 so high? Maybe cut two of those doses in half or maybe som bigger water changes.


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## Sven

No direct sunlight, I´m not sure why the po4 gets so high, perhaps my plant mass isn´t that much that it consumes all the po4, but does po4 at a level of 5ppm do any damage?
I changing about 50-60% of the water every week.


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