# BBA algae probem. increase waterflow? help!



## devilduck (May 9, 2012)

BBA and cyanobacteria are two different things. Can you describe what it looked like?


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## tetra73 (Aug 2, 2011)

Why are you listening to your friend???  You have BBA because your plants aren't growing and doing well. The reason is that you don't enough macro and micro nutrients in the water column or in the substrate. When you stop dosing all together, it gets worst. Plants are starving and dying and that's when algae begins to take hold. Look up EI dosing and to go from there. Having more flow won't solve your inherent problems, starving plants.


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## arrowwren (Aug 29, 2013)

i ment blue green algae sorry.. its slimy green but does have some blue color in it. it covers everything but is easy to remove.


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## Fantastic5 (Aug 29, 2013)

I would add faster growing plants plus some floating plants and cut down on your lighting for a week or so


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## arrowwren (Aug 29, 2013)

tetra73 said:


> Why are you listening to your friend???  You have BBA because your plants aren't growing and doing well. The reason is that you don't enough macro and micro nutrients in the water column or in the substrate. When you stop dosing all together, it gets worst. Plants are starving and dying and that's when algae begins to take hold. Look up EI dosing and to go from there. Having more flow won't solve your inherent problems, starving plants.


When i had fish in my aquarium i did not dose my aquarium at all and the plants did fine and grew/produced runners. (Although when i first started i did dose with the schedule blow.) I also did not have algae problems when i stopped dosing, there was minimal green algae, but no BGA. My filter shut off when everyone was out of town and caused all my fish to die but the plants survived. I then proceeded to recycle my tank with just my previous plants..

I actually started off dosing based on EI dosing but without MGSO4 because i feared not having fish id need to dose.
here was my daily schedule

macros = 3/4 tsp KNO3, 3/16 KH2P04
traces = 1/4 tsp

Saturday: water change, macros
Sun: traces
Mon: macros
Tues: traces
Wed: macros
Thurs: macros
Fri: Rest

After reading my schedule listed it was for my previously fully stocked tank with 2-3 watts of light. my tank isn't stocked with fish anymore and is currently 1.8wpg. No doubt my PO4 dosing was too high for to low of light and too low of CO2 , and nitrate lvls since i had no fish.

Thanks for pointing out that stopping dosing was a bad idea - didn't think of that part. Ill start dosing traces again every other day. while keeping NO3 at 15-20ppm and PO4 at .5ppm

However, I want a low tech tank that does not require dosing everyday and water changes every week. I simply won't be home to manage it. Ill be home about once a month once college gets going. My parents are willing to dose/test parameters for me but won't do weekly water changes. 

I saw this posted on a diff forum to maybe give you guys more of an idea of how i want my tank to run. though i rather not have fish if possible. 

http://www.guppies.com/forums/showthread.php/17753-Low-tech-Low-maintenance-75g-planted-tank.

basically youd' dose once every 1-2 weeks, and fill in water that has been evaporated. would this be possible?


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## tetra73 (Aug 2, 2011)

keep your phosphate under 5ppm. Ideally, around 2 to 3ppm. Not .5ppm. If you want a really low maintenance tank, considering using dirt as your substrate. You can still dose once per week and just makes sure by the week ends, you aren't running low on your macros and micros. 

Personally, I like to keep my fert level very close to consistent throughout the weekdays. I just don't want my plants to work harder to grow late in the week because I have much, much less ferts than the first day of the week.


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