Algae ID+ help

1177 Views 6 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Monrankim, Apr 8, 2017

Monrankim

Discussion Starter · Apr 8, 2017

I'm having some trouble controlling the algae that has taken over my s repens carpet. It has also appeared on some lower leaves of my ludwigia.

What kind of algae is it? I have looked through some algae articles and it doesn't seem to strongly resemble any pictures I am seeing. It is very dark in color like BBA but isn't long and tuft-like. This tank had a bad BBA problems when it was low tech and it looked quite different from what I'm seeing now. Since changing the tank over to high-tech my BBA problems (the BBA I recognize) have ceased but I suspect that is what this is possibly even though it looks different.

I have two T5s over the front of the tank and 4 T8s over the back and I have to photoperiods totaling 9 hours. I have the Co2 come on an hour before the lights do and I use an inline Co2 reactor. I have decent flow I would assume because I see the tiny bubble pushed down and all around the tank. According to the pH/KH chart, my Co2 is high (40+ppm) but I don't see signs of stress. I also dose a double dose of Excel at night for algae control. I dose Thrive+ 3x per week and I use RODI water with equilibrium and alkaline buffer for KH/GH. Lastly, I run a Marineland c360 can filter with Purigen.

Any ideas what this is and what I'm doing to cause this?

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Rusticdr

· #2 · Apr 8, 2017

I am not sure wat is the exact type of algae from those pics. Maybe BGA or just diatoms. Either way wats more important s why they r there.. always better to correct the cause. Of course with some amt of manual removal.
So coming to the factors..
Will need to know the size of the tank. A full shot of the tank and where these plants r located will be helpful. R u using thrive all in one? Have u changed ur dosing schedule after going high tech. And finally have u measured nitrates and phosphates levels in ur tank..
Don't worry too much. plants need some time to settle down and adapt to big changes. Just try and keep the plants healthy and algae will disappear (i know it's easier said than done)

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Monrankim

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 8, 2017

@Rusticdr Thanks for the reply, here is a shot of the 75g tank. Keep in mind that this is not what I would show off, I need to do some major trimming and scaping. I was waiting to get the algae under control before I started getting everything how I wanted. It feels like I'm inviting company over when my house is trashed lol

I recently switched to all in one because I was having trouble with keeping up with the bottoming out numbers of nutrient levels. I was dosing with seperate Flourish ferts as needed before and it was getting very tedious and expensive. I have been using the thrive for less than two weeks and I have been using the additional T5s for about a month.

I did miss last week's 50% water change and before that I did only 30% but the algae started before that, when I added the light actually. I am thinking about going back to using tap water because buying RO is becoming a roadblock to staying on top of my water changes. I need to test again to get the current levels though. Do you think it's build up?

The pics are coming out a little crappy sorry, there is sunlight glare from the windows

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Powerclown

· #4 · Apr 8, 2017

I think you are blasting to much light,and I hope that the sunlight coming from the window doesn't hit the tank.
To much light and not enough nutrients,cut back on light and increase your nutrients,cheers

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Monrankim

Discussion Starter · #5 · Apr 8, 2017

Powerclown said:
I think you are blasting to much light,and I hope that the sunlight coming from the window doesn't hit the tank.
To much light and not enough nutrients,cut back on light and increase your nutrients,cheers

No it's just minimal ambient light from closed blinds. Not enough nutrients is surprising considering that thrive+ is near EI levels

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Powerclown

· #6 · Apr 8, 2017

Is thrive macros only or macros/micros mixed? Did you got the same problems with seachem ferts?

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Monrankim

Discussion Starter · #7 · Apr 8, 2017

For simplicity I just copy and pasted the specs on thrive+, yes on micros mixed with macro. The only thing that it doesn't provide is GH, in which I allowed to get to low but have very recently corrected with adding more Equilibrium. I was hoping that was the issue (calcium deficiency). To answer your question on wether or not I had this issue with the Flourish ferts, yes and no. I had an issue with BBA with just a little GSA. Now I don't have BBA but what appears to be GSA on Ludwigia leaves clearly (not sure about what's on the s. Repens) is rampant. I think that I have changed to many variables at once and I have made it difficult to track the source of the problem. I have no issue with cutting back some light, but it's a shame because other species are growing extremely well with no issues. Even the species mentioned with algae issues are growing very fast and otherwise healthy other than the obvious problem

For Advanced Users: 1pump per 10g will ad 7ppm NO3, 1.3ppm PO4, 5ppm K, and 0.25ppm Fe

Analysis: N 3%, P 0.8%, K 9.4%, Fe 0.47%, Mg 0.62%, Cu 0.009%, B 0.23%, Co, 0.0002%, Mn 0.06%, Mo 0.0018%, Zn 0.016%[censored]

With everything convoluted as it is, I'm fighting the urge to start over from scratch

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