# What causes these Spirogyra in my tank?



## jbig (Jul 13, 2012)

Try switching to EI dosing perhaps?


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## jo.jacques (Dec 2, 2013)

Why would that make a change?


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

Go with the algaefix. It's the only way I've been able to kill spriogyra that's been growing in my mosses. Remove any shrimp from your tank before dosing.


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

What's your tank size? What kind of filter do you have?


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## urbach (Apr 16, 2009)

Yep, go ahead with algae fix to get rid of the algae. Secondly, reduce your photo period to 6 hrs.


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## Fiftymeatballs (Mar 30, 2011)

+1 
algaefix


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

Guys I've tried algae fix in my high tech tank. It didn't even dent the spyro for me. Did nothing for the bba as well. I've done the same one two punch. Algae fix. Max co2 for a day without gassing fish. Excel treatments. Nada in results of killing the algae. I have however found balance between my dosing ferts lighting and co2 which has prevented it from all out annihilation of my tank.


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

It appears to be a micronutrient deficiency of some sort. Once micros are added, spiro diminishes greatly, at least in my tank. I was able to get rid of spiro by removing as much as possible, then adding CSM+B regularly. It's completely gone now.


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## jo.jacques (Dec 2, 2013)

Thanks all for the advices.

I will be trying AlgaeFix for sure, but if the root cause is not fixed, I suppose it will come back!



Solcielo lawrencia said:


> It appears to be a micronutrient deficiency of some sort. Once micros are added, spiro diminishes greatly, at least in my tank. I was able to get rid of spiro by removing as much as possible, then adding CSM+B regularly. It's completely gone now.


I do dose micros with PPS-PRO method (2ml/2days) . Should I dose a little more?



urbach said:


> Yep, go ahead with algae fix to get rid of the algae. Secondly, reduce your photo period to 6 hrs.


Won't my HC suffer from lack of light?


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## jo.jacques (Dec 2, 2013)

fablau said:


> What's your tank size? What kind of filter do you have?


See my signature and original post. Eheim 2217 on a ADA 60p (16G)


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## jo.jacques (Dec 2, 2013)

Here is the tank in question


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## jbig (Jul 13, 2012)

Im only recommending EI dosing because there could be an imbalance in your ferts you're unaware of. I've never dosed pps though so im sure you have a better idea of what you're doing there. When I switched to EI dosing all my algae issues disappeared 


Sent from my RM-915_nam_usa_228 using Tapatalk


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## jo.jacques (Dec 2, 2013)

jbig said:


> Im only recommending EI dosing because there could be an imbalance in your ferts you're unaware of. I've never dosed pps though so im sure you have a better idea of what you're doing there. When I switched to EI dosing all my algae issues disappeared


I will keep that in mind, but I will keep that as a last resort method since I really like the simplicity of PPS-Pro  Thanks!


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## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

The tank is very sparsely planted, you have way too much light, and probably not enough CO2.


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## jo.jacques (Dec 2, 2013)

Too much light is really possible. The fixture is now 4" higher.

I was expecting the HC to spread much faster (and take more light and nutrients). It almost didn't spread in over a month...

Also, my drop checker is usually pretty yellowish, which leads me to think that Co2 levels are not that low... right?


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

I would suggest to either reduce the light intensity or addd more plants, you need more plant mass. You can just add some fast growing plants to balance your tank, and once it is balanced and the plants you want to keep have begun to grow to the right pace, just get rid of the ones you don't want. I have done that several times and worked for me.

Of course you must be sure to have enough nutrients in the water to avoid any deficiencies. EI works best for that.

Your Co2 looks good to me, but if you know how much is your PH drop, that will give you a better measure of the amount of Co2 you have than the drop checker.


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

Oh well! I have noticed now you wrote "nitrates 0"!!! You need to have some nitrates to combat that algae! 10-20ppm minimum!


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## jo.jacques (Dec 2, 2013)

Thanks Fablau, I will look at the option of adding some fast growing plants for a while.

I will check tonight if my Nitrates are really a 0, but they are, what is a good method to boost Nitrate?


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## Lucubration (Jun 20, 2013)

jo.jacques said:


> Thanks Fablau, I will look at the option of adding some fast growing plants for a while.
> 
> I will check tonight if my Nitrates are really a 0, but they are, what is a good method to boost Nitrate?


If you have animals, they should produce waste from feeding and excretion. If not, either "ghost" feed as if you had animals and let the food decompose, or just put a small amount of ammonia in (again just a little bit, as if it were decomposed food).


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## jo.jacques (Dec 2, 2013)

^ Deal!
(I have 3 Amano Shrimps and 2 Nerite snails, don't think they create lots of waste)


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

jo.jacques said:


> Thanks Fablau, I will look at the option of adding some fast growing plants for a while.
> 
> I will check tonight if my Nitrates are really a 0, but they are, what is a good method to boost Nitrate?



You are welcome!

Don't add ammonia, please! You would give just what algae want. Instead, yes, add some more fish or food if you like, but even better, get Flourish Nitrogen by Seachem and follow the directions. That's an easy way to go and you would avoid the cycle ammonia > nitrite > nitrate which could trigger more algae in your situation. If you give pure nitrogen as I said, you are gonna help plants right away without risking more new algae.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

I reduced the lighting by adding leg raiser to my planted plus 3" on top of a ten gallon as well as black craft mesh to diffuse the light. I've gotten all the algae out and has not come back yet, so lighting is my guess of what it was, as I didn't listen to my friend saying it was too much light for a ten gallon shrimp tank,


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

That may be easily the case. Please, keep us posted.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

No problem. I'll know within a week if that indeed was the issue because that's the only thing I have changed


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## Ach1Ll3sH33L (Mar 1, 2012)

Subtletanks91 said:


> Guys I've tried algae fix in my high tech tank. It didn't even dent the spyro for me. Did nothing for the bba as well. I've done the same one two punch. Algae fix. Max co2 for a day without gassing fish. Excel treatments. Nada in results of killing the algae. I have however found balance between my dosing ferts lighting and co2 which has prevented it from all out annihilation of my tank.


A bit of a late response, It took me 2-3 seperate dosings of algae fix for it to kill the spiro. This is what i did. Dose algae fix after my weekly water change, add a powerhead to get very good circulation for 30 min, this makes sure algae fix doesn't just settle toward the bottom of the tank. wait 3 days and on the 3rd day do a normal water change. On the 4th day i repeat the same steps, by the 7th day the spiro should be gone or have turned black, do a normal water change. At this point you can do one more dose to make sure everything is wiped out, or wait a week and see. It is a pain to get rid of this crap but algaefix is really the only thing that targets it and breaks it down.


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## Subtletanks91 (May 29, 2013)

That doesn't solve the initial problem of what caused it in the first placed, I don't measure when I use algae fix, never works that way. 25 gallon tank gets three squirts. Bigger the tank more or longer the squirts that the only successfully way I've been able to use it, and it did nothing in my tank,


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## brandon429 (Mar 29, 2003)

The cause of this algae outbreak is importation and nothing else. Its random mix of what we bring into tanks, and it makes sense that changing one or more variables (like on the micronutrients post) alters a burgeoning community either pro or con and they either do better or worse, in that case worse. 

No amount of quarantining or plant inspection visually would prevent any outbreak, as even fish slime coats are vectors for algae and certain invaders. you guys would be amazed to see some high res expensive carmera macro shots on reefcentral chem forum of this guy who has shown that invasive dinoflagellates are spread tank to tank by fish as well as by substrate. His pics literally show the oodinium-verified dinos stuck to the slime coat like teenage pimples. same principle for control of import in fw planted tanks...sure you can visually id and dip for snails and some invaders, some obvious algae, but in the end its a random mix and your direct action on the algae usually decides the fate of your tank. 

Sure people get lucky with X grazer that controlled it naturally, or some change in tank stasis, but in the end that which is repeatable comes from direct not indirect action on the algae. I predict there is no form of tankwide nutrient modification that could control this, and you may have to repeat as needed until you win against the colonies wherever they remain to potentiate again after each treatment. eventually you will win. 

I do not believe you can ever eliminate the source of this algae, so dont bother. just be deliberate if this is what you are given as a test. You can beat this algae out of your tank, but to prevent it from coming back in, we dont control that only blind luck does. bba is my nemesis in my 12 yr old tank, not spiro. to each his own battle lol.


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## jo.jacques (Dec 2, 2013)

Ok so, here is an update:

I have no idea what happened, but there has been 0 Spiro in it tank for almost a week.

I simply did another hand removal + one-two punch..... and it hasnt came back yet. (??)

I do dose a bit more micro nutrients (lets say 8ml instead of 5ml) and give an hour less of light... but other than that, no changes...


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