# GSA/GDA on Anubias



## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

Its possible, it depends on a few things. I'm assuming your using co2. If the growth rate is fast, the uptake in the tank is good, the TDS levels are low and your not running high light too long (you only need a few hours of very strong light in the cycle) then it becomes more feasible. 

Are the anubias pearling? They should be under that light and co2.


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## vijay_06 (Apr 11, 2017)

houseofcards said:


> Its possible, it depends on a few things. I'm assuming your using co2. If the growth rate is fast, the uptake in the tank is good, the TDS levels are low and your not running high light too long (you only need a few hours of very strong light in the cycle) then it becomes more feasible.
> 
> Are the anubias pearling? They should be under that light and co2.


Yes, I am using pressurized CO2 (30 ppm or higher). The plants used to pearl a lot for the first 3 weeks when they were new and there was no algae. Pearling reduced drastically as the leaves got covered with algae. The lights are on for 7 to 8 hours (doing 7 hours currently that includes 1 hour ramp up) and cannot reduce the duration much since there are a few high light plants as well. 

I will check the TDS level, but I am getting the feeling that making Anubias work in my current setup will be extremely challenging.

Thanks for your inputs.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

Is the light capable of reducing the intensity you only need a few hours of high light even for high light plants.


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## vijay_06 (Apr 11, 2017)

houseofcards said:


> Is the light capable of reducing the intensity you only need a few hours of high light even for high light plants.


Yes, I have reduced the intensity from 100% to 70% yesterday. I was planning to check whether the algae is brought under control before reducing the duration/intensity further.


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> Yes, I am using pressurized CO2 (30 ppm or higher). The plants used to pearl a lot for the first 3 weeks when they were new and there was no algae.


That is a very good indication that a nutrient deficiency has developed in your water. Plants will not pearl when they cannot get just one of the 15 nutrients they need. Algae on the other had does very well under those conditions. With CO2 and bright light plants will need a lot of nutrients. Tanks like this need to be fertilized for plants to do well.

However if your fertilizer is missing one or more nutrients the plant will strip the water of those nutrients and the stop growing. On average most fertilizers used in high tech tanks don't have calcium and or sulfur. These are two vital macro nutrients. They are frequently overlooked and. If they are deficient plants won't grow and algae will consume everything else you added to the water There maybe other deficiencies. What fertilizers are you using?


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Anubia don't like/need much light or nutrient's.
How do other plant's look?
If it is just the Anubia that is getting the algae, other plant's are doing well,I would move anubia lower, away from intense lighting.


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## vijay_06 (Apr 11, 2017)

Surf said:


> That is a very good indication that a nutrient deficiency has developed in your water. Plants will not pearl when they cannot get just one of the 15 nutrients they need. Algae on the other had does very well under those conditions. With CO2 and bright light plants will need a lot of nutrients. Tanks like this need to be fertilized for plants to do well.
> 
> However if your fertilizer is missing one or more nutrients the plant will strip the water of those nutrients and the stop growing. On average most fertilizers used in high tech tanks don't have calcium and or sulfur. These are two vital macro nutrients. They are frequently overlooked and. If they are deficient plants won't grow and algae will consume everything else you added to the water There maybe other deficiencies. What fertilizers are you using?


I am dosing dry fertilizers as per EI recommendations (including GH booster after water change) except for Micros (Planted CSM+B). Micros are being dosed pretty low (CSM+B calculated for 0.015 Fe thrice a week and additional 0.01 Fe from DTPA 10% Fe every day) to avoid toxicity issues (many threads on that topic). 

The tap water I use has around 11 ppm Ca, 2 ppm S and GH Booster adds around 7 ppm Ca with every water change. I am not sure whether Ca or S deficiency is applicable with these parameters. Nitrate levels stay between 10 to 30 ppm and Phosphate levels stay between 1 to 3 ppm during the course of the week (I have been testing and documenting ppm values twice a week for the past 6 weeks).

The other interesting thing to point out is that GDA/GSA seems to be the only algae that is growing. There was a bit of red filamentous algae that developed on the drift wood during the first 2 weeks of tank setup, but they have not come back after I introduced 4 SAEs in the tank. GDA seems to be growing on lower leaves of some of the fast growing stem plants too, but not to the extent it grew on the Anubias.

Any thoughts on what else I could try apart from altering the light intensity and duration? Should I try upping the Micros dosing?


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> The tap water I use has around 11 ppm Ca, 2 ppm S and GH Booster adds around 7 ppm Ca with every water change. I am not sure whether Ca or S deficiency is applicable with these parameters.


These are very low numbers. Are they calculated based on how much you put in or are you using a test kit to measure them (if sow which test kits)? How often are you doing a water change and how much water? 

My guess is that when your plants were pearling they were rapidly consuming nutrients. They probably burned through most if not all of the Calcium and sulfur between water changes. When you added your CH booster you only partially replaced the consumed Ca and S. Therefore it went even lower before you got to your second water change. After several water chages you might not have enough for any plant growth. I would try increasing you GH booster. Try adding enough to boost the CA to 30ppm. That is only a 2 degree boost so it should be safe. You might even want to try more than 30ppm.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Second sentence of original post says it all IMHO.


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## vijay_06 (Apr 11, 2017)

Thanks all! I am going to try increasing Ca and Mg doing (GH booster) to see how things work out. I hope it controls GDA on the all the plants in general. I am going to look at possible Mn and Zn supplementation too.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

Getting GSA on plants like Anubias has nothing to do with nutrients. Algae settles there for the same reason it does on rocks and driftwood. Lots of organics and too much light for the given situation. You need extremely clean water (organic-wise) and a short burst of strong light and/or move away from intense light like roadmaster suggested. 

How are your other plants?


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## vijay_06 (Apr 11, 2017)

houseofcards said:


> Getting GSA on plants like Anubias has nothing to do with nutrients. Algae settles there for the same reason it does on rocks and driftwood. Lots of organics and too much light for the given situation. You need extremely clean water (organic-wise) and a short burst of strong light and/or move away from intense light like roadmaster suggested.
> 
> 
> 
> How are your other plants?




Other plants are doing much better, but they do show some GDA on lower/older leaves. They were growing spotless until 3 weeks back. I might do away with Anubias if things don't improve in a few weeks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

I have a very similar situation that I'm working on. 24" deep tank and anubius nana etc on driftwood a few inches from the light. I planted some of my very fast growing HYGROPHILA ANGUSTIFOLIA so that it grows over and shades it. This seems to be helping but now I'm blocking some flow that I think is negatively affecting my CO2 distribution. I'm going to try some carefully placed pieces of window screen between the light and plants to do some selective shading. I was thinking of trying a little surface corral to hold some floaters in this area for shade, but it's right in front of the spray bar.


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## vijay_06 (Apr 11, 2017)

GDA problem seems to be getting out of control. Tank water turned green around the middle of last week and GDA is settling even on fast growing stem plants. 

CO2 was definitely >30 ppm (confirmed via PH pen, CO2 indicator solution and PH/KH reference chart). Lighting was cut down to 70% of previous max and duration was also brought down to 7 hours from 8 hours. Nitrate and Phosphates were within EI ranges all of last week. 

After some reading, I have decided to try out the 'don't do anything' approach (don't know what to call it ) - Don't clean or scrape off GDA/GSA from glass or anywhere.. let it grow for 3-4 weeks (complete its life cycle).. scrape off/clean at the end.. Some folks seem to have great success with this.

I did not touch the algae during my water change yesterday (did a big 80% water change). I am going to continue with the other routine as usual (Macros, Micros, GH booster, CO2 > 30 PPM, weekly water change, plant trimming, etc) and wait out the next 3 weeks. It is going to be a long wait, but I hope I get some good results.


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## pwolfe (Mar 2, 2011)

There's also an ADA product called Phyton-Git that you can put directly on the leaves if your water changes lower the water level enough to emerge the leaves. Its not going to be a silver bullet in place of the above information/recommendations, but I have had good experiences with it on my anubias and buce's that are too close to the light.


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## Clinton Parsons (Apr 11, 2016)

Phyton-git is just, literally, bamboo/wood vinegar. 

I heard something about citric acid dips but I don't remember what was said, the instructions, and I'm too afraid to try since I can't remember.


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