Is this Green Dust Algae??

[ahmycoah]

Hi TPT,

I think i have GDA in my 10g tank. From reading other threads, the best way is to just leave it and let it grow out before scraping it off... I wanted to make sure i actually had GDA and if it was ready to be scraped off...i left it alone for about 2 weeks.


Thanks!

[beedee]

Wow, how long has that tank been up and running? And when was the last time you did a water change?

[ahmycoah]

Is it pretty bad? Its been running for over a year now. I noticed the GDA about 3 months ago. I did my last water change last week but i didnt touch the GDA on the glass.. I try to do a water change every week or every other week.

[AVN]

The ammonia levels must be deadly, the water is tinted yellow.

[etgregoire]

Originally Posted by AVN

The ammonia levels must be deadly, the water is tinted yellow.

If he/she is doing water changes every week / every other week is this even possible? Personally, I hesitate to make any decisions based on color related questions as there is no way to know the color temp of the light or the compensation that was made by the camera/software.

[BruceF]

Is this algae on the plants and rocks or is it just on the glass?
Cleaning it off the glass and doing a large water change is always a good idea.
What are you adding to this tank. CO2? Ferts? What's the light? etc.

[ahmycoah]

The last time i checked my water conditions my ammonia and nitrite levels were 0 ppm and my nitrate was about 20 to 40 ppm (hard tell from the color chart).

The algae is green algae is all on the glass, although i think i have BBA on my rocks. I usually about a 40% WC each time.

• I currently have pressurized CO2 at 2 bps when the light is on and 1 bps when light is off.
• I started using Excel every other night for the BBA
• I use Do Aqua Be Green for my trace elements every other day.
• I had a Laguna Fertilizer stick (16-9-12) in the substrate, but i removed it about 1.5 months ago.
• I have 2 T-5HO for lighting

Thanks!

[Kathyy]

Does it look like it isn't gaining ground now? Looks like it to me. I think you can go for it now. The worst that happens is it goes right back on the glass again.

Not seeing yellow water, seeing a really thick layer of algae on the glass and a lot of animal tracks through it. GDA is delicious stuff.

My only GDA incidence happened a really long time ago, just when it was being discussed on APD. I decided to leave it alone because all my herbivores adored the stuff and there were amazing tracks grazed through the thick film. Okay, also because the film returned a couple hours after scraping which got old real fast. When I finally scraped it off it stayed off. SAE were making these circles in the film of algae.

[AVN]

Originally Posted by etgregoire

If he/she is doing water changes every week / every other week is this even possible? Personally, I hesitate to make any decisions based on color related questions as there is no way to know the color temp of the light or the compensation that was made by the camera/software.

It is possible to do water changes and still have nitrogen products in the water. You are right, the yellow could be from lights or his camera, but I'm assuming his T5HO are fluorescent and Cool White. To me it looks like his water because other things like the reflection of the heater and the clear tubes in the tank are not tinted yellow, but breeder box looks like it is.

I have a tank that looks exactly like this used to grow macroalgae and the water is the same color as his, the same color as the water in the neglected goldfish tank where I get the water for my algae tank, which oddly enough has the same kind of algae.

I am pretty confident it's a combination of too much light and too many nutrients.

Originally Posted by ahmycoah

The last time i checked my water conditions my ammonia and nitrite levels were 0 ppm and my nitrate was about 20 to 40 ppm (hard tell from the color chart).

The algae is green algae is all on the glass, although i think i have BBA on my rocks. I usually about a 40% WC each time.

I use Do Aqua Be Green for my trace elements every other day.
I have 2 T-5HO for lighting

When was the last time you checked?

You say you are diligent in maintaining water quality, but if this was the case you would not have such an insane amount of algae.

Algae uses the same nutrients plants do, so perhaps there are too many nutrients and not enough plants to compete with the algae.

Algae also blooms when there is a surge of ammonia or nitrogen products, which happens when you don't change the water for a couple of weeks.

Algae spreads because of excessive photo-periods. You have strong lights, how long are your lights on every day?

A side note: You can turn off your Co2 at night, plants only use it when photosynthesizing and switch to O2 when the photo-period ends. Save yourself some Co2.

[etgregoire]

I thought trace elements were supposed to be every other day. In EI dosing you do it 3x / week right? Am I missing something? Lol

[AVN]

You're right, you do macros 3x a week and alternate micros on non-macro days. But his tank doesn't seem planted enough to warrant that much dosing.

Like I said before, I really think it is the lighting and nutrient overload that is causing the algae.

[ahmycoah]

Thanks for all the input! I just check my water conditions, Ammonia and Nitrite level is at 0 PPM.

My lights are on 7 hrs a day. T-5HO total of 48w, one is 6000k. Not sure what the other one is. It is bright pinkish.

How long should I leave my light on? i have it on 7 hrs because i read HC need high light for 8 hrs.

I'm going to scrape the algae off the glass and do a 40% WC.. hope this gets rid of it.

Thanks!

[discuspaul]

I had the same problem once many months ago, and I tried everything I could to get rid of it, including a full 5 day blackout, as well as letting it sit for 3 weeks without touching it - nothing worked.
Finally, I set up my UV sterilizer, wiped the glass free of the GDA to get it free-floating into the tank water. The UV picked quite a bit of it up & nuked it before it re-settled unto the glass.
I should mention I do WCS 2 or 3 X a week on my discus tank, and I repeated this procedure each time I did a wc. After about 4 or 5 wcs, with the UV operating full time, each time, the GDA fully disappeared, and never returned.

I'm not saying this will deal with the root cause of the problem, but it worked for me in this instance, and I was running similar T5 HO lighting for 7 hours a day in my low-tech planted tank.