ALGAE I'd please?

[wizza]

Can anyone give me a hand to I'd this algae please?

The first one is on a crypt wendetti and the second on my piece of bogwood.

[Aquachic]

http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm

This might be useful. I think it's a brush algae or black beard. If blackbeard - remove anything covered in it and really disinfect it. I had something like this and found I had too much light and was underfertilizing my plants so the algae appeared and drove me nuts.

[secuono]

It's BBA.

[Aquachic]

If blackbeard, it spreads everywhere. I ended up ripping off all leaves with it because the stuff doesn't come off easily and I did try dipping plants into Seachem Excel which really killed off a huge amount of them and ended up replanting. I'd definitely take a look at the amount of lighting you have. I'm pretty sure light is what caused that particular problem for me. Once you have it, it's all control, control, control.

[wizza]

Thanks for that.

This is what I feared it was (but didn't want to hear it. Lol..)

I run as much co2 as I can possibly get in there without them going mad/stop eating.

Co2 is cheap as chips here so there is definitely none spared.

I use a Fluval fx5 filter and 2 pretty large circulation pumps.

I think it could very possibly be lights or maybe ferts.

I have 4 t5 ho 54w tubes with pretty good reflectors (with suitable ballasts)

The reason why I have soooo much is i have read multiple threads about if you have tiny leaves/slow growth its most likely lighting.

Also my 400ltr aquarium is 5ft long but my tubes are only 4ft long so all 4 are staggered back and forth.

My lighting is not on for that long.

It's on for 5 1/2 hours (16:30 - 22:00)
The co2 comes on at 14:30 - 21:30

My dosing schedule is as follows :

Saturday - 50% wc - weekly (once a month I do 2 50% back to back)
1 tsp kn03
0.25 tsp kh2p04
3 tsp mgs04

Sunday 50ml micro solution (2 tsp in 500ml)

Monday dosing as Saturday

Tuesday dosing as sunday

Wednesday. Dosing as saturday

Thursday dosing as sunday

Friday None.


Any thoughts please?!

Cheers

Mark

[Complexity]

Cut your lights. I'm not sure who told you about the small leaves needing more light, but it's the first I've ever heard that. What I do know is that you're using very high light which is unnecessary and can cause algae. Light is the driver of everything so it may be that the excess light is driving the plants beyond the amount of CO2 you can dose the tank. Decreasing the lighting may be able to bring it more in balance with the CO2 in the tank.

BBA is said to be caused by either insufficient CO2 of fluctuating CO2. However, as I just mentioned, what is considered insufficient is all relative. A certain level of CO2 may be fine for low to medium lighting, borderline for high lighting, and then fall into the insufficient range with very high lighting. That may be what's happening with your tank. So the insufficient CO2 is not caused by not dosing enough, but by it not being enough to keep up with the extreme lighting. The solution then is to decrease the lighting.

Once you correct the imbalance allowing the BBA to grow, then you will need to work to kill the existing BBA. First thing to do is physically remove as much as you can. Then I would use H2O2 to kill what's left. As long as you have corrected the underlying problem that's causing the BBA to grow, you can get the upper hand over the BBA.

[wizza]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice.

Funny enough I've already started the process.

1) I've halved the lighting
2) I realised that although there is enough co2 at the end of the photo period there wasn't at the beginning. So ive set the timer on earlier to get it higher at the beginning.
3) I'm going to get root tabs
4) I've had a brief scrub of the bogwood and sprayed excel on it then on water change day, just before I will remove infected leaves.


Here is the results :0)

[Complexity]

Looks good! Just keep doing what you're doing. The excel will kill the BBA just like H2O2 so just keep treating any living BBA with excel until it's all killed out. Hopefully, with the lighting cut back, the BBA won't continue to spread.

[wizza]

Well....

I know it's early days but the plants 'appear' to be a little happier too :0)

[Complexity]

Originally Posted by wizza

I know it's early days but the plants 'appear' to be a little happier too :0)

This is actually one of the best signs. A tank with healthy plants is your best defense against algae.