That's a pretty severe case of BBA (Black Brush Algae). Something is way off for quite some time from the looks of it. Too much light, organics, not enough ferts) anything can cause it within a setup, because there's simply too much waste not being process IMO and stronger light will drive it more.
What is are your parmeters (light, duration, ferts, etc.)
Okay and Black Brush is not the same as Black Beard correct?
Little about the tank:
- 75 Gallon
- Light is now Finnex Planted + 24/7 on 24/7 cycle but I turn it off at about 10pm and on about 6am because I don't feel it's dark enough for fish to sleep. That makes the peak hours at max par around 4 hours a day.
- Light was Finnex Ray II and it was too bright.
- Sun Sun 304 B canister filter
- Power head for additional current in tank.
- I would say lightly planted compared to tanks on here (have more plants on the way and lost a lot to the algae issues prior) I'm working on getting it heavily planted.
- No liquid ferts but started doing Seachem root tabs near larger plants.
- Eco-Complete sub around 2" depth
- Water change once a week around 25%
- Water parameters are pictured below.
Tank Water
Tap Water
I ordered a CO2 system from GLA and it should be here by the end of the week. Inline diffuser and drop checker.
I am a total newb at high tech planted tanks, CO2, and anything else that goes along with this hobby. But I want to learn and I want to get rid of this freaking algae!
I thank you for all the help you are willing to give.
-Chris
Bump: Another question I have is if I get everything right will the algae die off and go away on its own or will that never happen?
I bought some dwarf sag for the second time now that's on its way as well as dwarf baby tears for ground covers but I'm afraid it will be consumed by algae. They are not that expensive so I'm not too concerned with loosing them just a real bummer.
If you get everything right, then the algae may die back a bit, but you will be best off manually pruning severely affected leaves, as even if the algae dies off, the plants may be too damaged.
Also, you seem to have a lot of light without any fertilizers. Additionally, do you have any nitrate readings?
Unfortunately when your setup a tank you can't add things along the way to grow plants. Everything has to be functioning from the getgo. So if you have good light and not providing co2, ferts, the light is trying to drive growth, but you have no gas (ferts/co2) in the engine so the growth stalls and decay starts. With the strong light and the decay of leaves you create the perfect storm for algae growth on the organic rich dying leaves.
As Darkblade mentioned, prune what you can and see if they come back, once all is available. Even with the co2, ferts I would cut back lighting to like 5-6 hours to help with algae control until the tank really grows out.
That does make a lot of sense. Okay so I'm well on my way to getting everything correct for the new plants that are coming in.
I did a bit of pruning last night of the very heavily covered leaves but it actually comes off easily with just a quick rub on the leave of the crypts, red flame, sword, and Anubis. Not so much on the vals and I just cut them off because the scrubbing does not work.
Don't leave your lights on all day. Cut it down to 7 hours max with a timer. Also turn down the intensity to 50%. You don't have enough plants in the tank for all that light.
I switched from the Finnex Ray II to a Finnex Planted + 24/7 this light ramps up the light to full power for only 3-4 hours per day. The rest is just accent lights basically. I got the light because I felt terrible with the powerful light just turning on the fish.
That big pink kisser in the tank does not like large tank mates, hes a bit of a bully :smile2: I'll look at some SAE's though.
Don't leave your lights on all day. Cut it down to 7 hours max with a timer. Also turn down the intensity to 50%. You don't have enough plants in the tank for all that light.
Also added some more new plants from the LFS. I have to go get some more plants because what I have is just not enough I tried Petsmart ill hit up Petco after work.
More plants arrived today from JacobsAquarium.com as well so I will get those in tonight. I got dwarf baby tears =0 they will probably die but what the heck lol.
CO2 system and ferts should be here next week!
Got three Amano shrimp and two Algae Eaters (Gyrinocheilus aymonier) not Siamese. Hopefully they start eating some of the crap in the tank.
Fast growing stem plants are good to have when you're setting up. You can replace them later, but having a lot of fast growing plants at the beginning will do a lot to reduce algae.
If you asked someone in the WTB forum for trimmings, you could probably get a tankful for cheap. People who grow stem plants in high-tech tanks always have trimmings.
Is that a chinese algae eater I see in your newest pictures. If so I would highely recommend returning him and getting some oto's or nerite snails instead. Chinese algae eaters only really eat algae in the begining of their life then become huge tank bullies as they get older (just google bad chinese algae eater... gives me nightmares).
They are indeed the Chinese ones. Some have nightmares some say it depends on the fish. It was my only option and they have been pretty good thus far, not eating anything but not sucking on fish or bothering the others either.
Have you looked into nerites? Those are pretty good at algae control especially good seeing as they won't multiply and take over your tank (only breed in brackish water).
Otos won't eat BBA. I don't think Nerites will either. I also don't think Chinese Algae Eaters eat BBA either (if they visibly clear things up, let me know!).
True Siamese Algae Eaters will though. Amano shrimp are said to eat BBA also.
Livestock to deal with the algae are just bandaids though. They don't solve the root cause of what is causing the BBA to grow.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
The Planted Tank Forum
3.5M posts
130.6K members
Since 2002
A forum community dedicated to Aquatic tank owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about flora, fauna, health, housing, filters, care, classifieds, and more!