# Algae EXPLOSION in 60p



## tchiseen (Oct 24, 2013)

Couple weeks ago it looked like this:










Now it looks like this! 










Full album with a bunch of shots.

I haven't changed anything other than the outflow pipe: My crummy lily pipe got leaky so I replaced it with the standard eheim outflow. Flow is still good and there's surface movement. The only other thing that changed around that time was I filled a new bottle of DIY CO2. I'm getting roughly the same bubble per second. 

I had a 10 hour photoperiod and was not dosing ferts as I have aquasoil. I'm in the middle of a fishless cycle, my ammonia has recently dropped and my nirites shot up. I'll be dosing ammonia shortly, once it drops to 0. 

the last test I did was:

Ammonia - 0.5, pH - 6, NO2 - 5, NO3 - 40-80 on 11/29


I dropped the photoperiod to 8 hours and am dosing half a cap of flourish excel daily. 

I'd love some advice as to what may have caused this explosion, and what I can do to get rid of it. Is it time for shrimps? Or is my nitrifying bacteria colony not sufficient to take care of amanos (which I take it will eat this algae)?

Cheers!


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## bsantucci (Sep 30, 2013)

How long was the tank running prior to the algae? I'm guessing not long since you're still cycling? 10 hour photo period is just too much IMO.

I'd even drop down to 6 hours for now while fighting the algae, then slowly increase once that's under control in say 15 minute increments until you find your lighting sweet spot where you don't develop new algae.


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## tchiseen (Oct 24, 2013)

The tank has been up since OCT 29, so about a month.

I will drop the photoperiod to 6 hours.


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## bsantucci (Sep 30, 2013)

tchiseen said:


> The tank has been up since OCT 29, so about a month.
> 
> I will drop the photoperiod to 6 hours.


Yeah, like I said I'd do that for a while just to get it back under control again. Once it's looking good you can increase until it starts developing again.

I got lucky and I've only had very minor green spot algae since my tank has been put up. But I went heavily planted right away with high light and co2.


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## King of Hyrule (Apr 29, 2013)

tchiseen said:


> Couple weeks ago it looked like this:
> 
> ...
> 
> ...


Your completed cycle is pumping nitrates into the water, feeding the algae. You don't need to putting in excel, its only adding to your troubles. Honestly, I skip the CO2 as well. 

Completely stop the Excel, do daily 10% changes until the NO3 falls to near zero. As the plants get larger they'll pull more and more of the Nitrate out of the water, so you'll need change it less. Now is a good time to add shrimp. 

Adding fish (or shrimp) will disturb the balance in your tank. Now that your tank has been up and running, and the bio-load of the shrimp is so small you might not even notice. Keep an eye on the ammonia. You don't want the ammonia to spike and kill you live stock. 

Enjoy your tank.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?p=4807729&highlight=#post4807729

post #17


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## tchiseen (Oct 24, 2013)

Thanks very much Hyrule and happi, I understand better what's happened to the tank! I've been dosing ammonia to 2 and it's been dropping overnight to <.25, and my NO2 is zero, so I'm fairly confident my cycle is complete. I'll be adding some shrimp soon!


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

tchiseen said:


> Thanks very much Hyrule and happi, I understand better what's happened to the tank! I've been dosing ammonia to 2 and it's been dropping overnight to <.25, and my NO2 is zero, so I'm fairly confident my cycle is complete. I'll be adding some shrimp soon!


you mean NO3 is 0? if you are dosing Ammonia then you should see spike in NO3 reading, plant can also uptake ammonia very fast and this could reduce the NO3 levels which suppose to convert from ammonia, but i hardly doubt your plant would take so much ammonia per day, IME 0.5-0.7 ppm of ammonia is up taken by plants per day, tank included tons of stem plants, uptake rate of ammonia should be slow in your case.

i would also like to mention that in a planted aquarium cycle doesn't take long time, the plants uptake NH3/NH4 quite fast and we can add fish to newly planted tank almost on the same day, this is very true for those who have low ph and soft water, but you must start your tank with full of plants to begin with and make sure they are growing fast too.


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## King of Hyrule (Apr 29, 2013)

Keep in mind, that algae seems to come in overnight but getting rid of it takes some time. Keep an eye on your levels ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, try to keep them zero if possible.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

King of Hyrule said:


> Keep in mind, that algae seems to come in overnight but getting rid of it takes some time. Keep an eye on your levels ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, try to keep them zero if possible.



how is it suppose to keep the algae away by keeping the NO3 levels at 0?? you limit plant growth here, the goal is to let the plant grow and not limit their growth. plus this algae is not caused by NO3, i never seen a algae like this even with very high no3 levels.


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## Lornek8 (Jul 3, 2013)

I had a very similar thing going on with a small 5 gallon tank I was using for excess plants. I set it up to play with DIY CO2 and had a high wattage CFL close to the water surface and dosed high levels of ferts to boost plant growth and see what type of growth I could get. I was having a tough time with algae that looked similar to yours but was in places a thick mat. As fast as I could remove it, it'd grow back and it almost seemed like it grew faster. Finally, I had to move the tank and it got placed somewhere that was a bit out of the way. The light was mounted higher above the tank, the DIY Co2 petered out and I didn't dose ferts. Over the period of a couple of weeks, the algae went away. I don't know if it was the shrimp in the tank, the lack of nutrients or the tank simply struck a balance but its cleaner now then it ever was before, just gotta find that balance and not over do it.


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