air stones, CO2 and algae (help)

[johnjohn]

Hello,
A couple of months ago I set up this 16 gallon low tech tank . I tried to make it as low tech as possible : Plain gravel, indirect sunlight (no bulbs), a heater, an internal power filter with adjustable current intensity, a mystery snail, plants (ludwigia repens, water sprite and elodeas) 3 tiger barbs and that's about it.

All went smooth until I got some algae in my tank, mainly some brown algae, green spot, BBA, and thread. I don't mind it since it's very minimal, but I am paranoid about the BBA, specially the one on my ludwigia repens leafs. So I did some hydrogen peroxide treatment today. Brown and thread algae seem gone, and I have to wait a couple of days to see how the BBA dies.

Thus my question would be the following: I know that CO2 normally keeps low tech tanks from getting algae. However, I read that to keep CO2 levels high, you need to keep water movement to a minimum. Ironically, I also read in other sites that if you have a tank with no CO2 injection, you need to increase water movement in order to promote adequate CO2 production. I am indeed confused. Could the lack of water movement in my tank have produced the algae outbreak? would increasing it help me reduce the algae in my tank since I'd also be increasing the levels of CO2?

Sorry if my post is too long, I wanted to be as specific as possible. Thank you in advance.

[Shavemacman]

I don't think that CO2 is necessarily the answer to algae problems in a low tech set up. Under the algae section there is a good thread to all the types of algae and how to control it. I was having problems with blue-green algae and this link helped me a lot.


http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/al...nts-guide.html

[epicfish]

Originally Posted by Shavemacman

I don't think that CO2 is necessarily the answer to algae problems in a low tech set up.

Maybe...maybe not.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/li...ess-light.html

[Shavemacman]

Originally Posted by epicfish

Maybe...maybe not.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/li...ess-light.html

Ok, I'll rephrase it and say its not the "only" solution. You can have a very nice planted aquarium without CO2.

[lauraleellbp]

Welcome to TPT!

There's a big difference between water circulation and surface turbulence. In a planted tank, good water circulation is always helpful. In a CO2-injected tank, surface agitation can out-gas CO2, but that's not so much an issue in a non-CO2-injected tank.

How are your plants growing? It can be hard to control lighting in a tank using sunlight; hard to find the balance between too much and not enough. With the change in seasons and changing position of the sun throughout the day, there's a possibility that your tank may be getting a different light level than it was say a few months ago.