[cbessler]

Hello everyone, was in need of some help and came to you all for questions! Here are some algae that I have in my tank, I was wondering if you could identify them and potentially tell me some ways of getting rid or reducing it significantly. I am kind of a newbie to the hobby so everything helps.

I have a 55g, wet/dry reef setup, established about 5 months ago, injected co2, 3 wpg 10hrs a day, about 40 fish, about to do a substrate change to eco-complete. hydor koralia 550gph, and 350 gph from sump. I dose EI 3x a week then 50% water change. 40, 0, 0.. and green drop checker

Please let me know some tips and tricks to getting this stuff gone! One more thing of note.. I have higher silicate levels than other water supplies (about 4 and 6 the water co told me?) My idea is this could be adding what looks like diatoms on my java moss?

Thanks!

 

[Kathyy]

What does 40, 0, 0 mean?

It seems contrary but less light might perk up the plants. It is unlikely you can put enough CO2 into the water for the plants to take advantage of the light without gassing the fish, you might reduce the light stress by cutting the lighting period back to 8 hours at the most and either screen the lights or raise them up some.

It takes some time for GSA to develop and pennywort is a fast growing plant. Guessing none of your plants are growing very well or fast in spite of all your high tech stuff. To me it looks like the plants want more. EI is just a starting point you might need more or less of any of the components. I would step it up a notch and feed every day, nitrate and phosphate one day with micros the following day. If I am reading your post wrong and that is what you are doing then increase nitrate and phosphorus a bit.

Betting reducing the light load will help a lot.

 

[cbessler]

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. I have many plants that are growing amazing and a few that are struggling. Trying to fix the problem before it becomes a huge deal. The abbreviation was my nitrate ammonia levels etc. I will try cutting down the light as I think ive ruled out diatoms maybe and increase my co2. Dosing mote phosphates I read will help. If you know anything more on the black colored algae that'd be great. Thanks!

 

[DarkCobra]

GSA is caused by low phosphate and/or too much light.

The old "watts-per-gallon" rule applies to T8 fluorescent lights only. Other types of lighting produce much different amounts of light per watt. I have a 78W dimmable T5HO fixture with good reflectors on my 46G. At full power, it reaches the highest limit of the high light category. Chances are you have a lot more light than you think! Post some details on your lighting, including the distance between bulbs and substrate.

The black algae is BBA. It generally grows due to fluctuating and insufficient CO2 levels. For best results, the drop checker should be green with a hint of yellow. If light is way too high, it can amplify what is normally a minor CO2 issue.

Make sure you dose EI according to the recommendations. I've seen people reduce their dosing based on a test result. And I've done it myself. The problem is that tests can be so inaccurate as to completely mislead you.

 

[cbessler]

Thanks for the info everyone. So I increased my flow rate and cut my wph to 2. I added 3 rosey barbs and theyre eating the stuff like crazy. There wasnt that much but still hard on the brazilian pennywort. I upped my phosphate dosing to 4 times a week of 1/4 tsp. Switched my whole substrate to eco complete.. that was a daunting task! But worth it in the end. Looks good, will fight some minor diatoms here soon but no biggie. Upped my co2 levels to 3-4 bubbles per second from around 2-3. I think im around 22 inches from the substrate with my light. On for 10 hours a day. Should I raise it some with a ceiling set up?? Some good minor adjustments. Thanks for the ideas, anything else I should check out? Maybe even cutting my lighting back to one 55 watt 6700 k bulb? Or am I good? Just a thought. Thanks for the help!