[lpsouth1978]

I have had my tank set up for about 8 months now and it has been doing VERY will with little to no Fertilization. However after reading and being told that I should be dosing dry ferts I decided to take the plinge and began dosing with the PPS Pro method a few weeks ago. Now I am getting a lot of hair algae growing throughout the tank. I did not have any algae issues before dosing dry ferts.

Tank specs:

40g breeder
Aquatop CF400 UV canister filter w/surface skimmer
Aquatop CF500 UV canister filter w surface skimmer
Pressurized CO2 system with Milwaukee regulator
DIY Rex Grigg reactor
Drop checker showing yellow during the day
Odyssea 4x34W T5HO fixture - all bulbs on from 11-7 daily

As I said, the only thing that I changed is that I am now dosing dry ferts.

What do I need to do to get rid of the hair algae?

 

[aznartist34]

What's BGH?

 

[lpsouth1978]

What's BGH?

Sorry, I must have the acronym wrong. I am having issues with hair algae.

 

[82nd_Airborne]

Listen to hoppy

 

[Hoppy]

You have at least 100 micromols of PAR light intensity, which is high light-very high light. That will almost always result in algae attacks unless you have adjusted the CO2 bubble rate to the maximum amount the fish can live with, have well oxygenated water, which allows you to use even more CO2, have non-limiting fertilizing (not PPS, but EI, which is the only method that ensures that you have non-limiting fertilizing.)

I suggest running only 2 bulbs in that light, which will reduce the light intensity by about half, and greatly reduce the need for perfect maintenance, CO2 and fertilizing of the tank.

 

[lpsouth1978]

Hoppy, i had Considered That Except That The Tank Was Doing Well With Little To No Ferts for More Than 6 Months. I Didnt have algae issues until I started Dosing. I Would Think That If It Was too Much light or Too Little CO2 I Would Have Had Problems Before Dosing.

 

[UDGags]

You need more co2 or less light as hoppy said.

The ferts were probably your limiting factor before and now co2 is. To reduce co2 demand you need to decrease lighting.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

 

[lpsouth1978]

Ok. So I Will Turn Off 2 Of The Lights And See What Happens Over The Next Couple Of Weeks. I Will Let you All Know What Happens. Thank You All For The Quick responses.

 

[Silenced]

also see the green spot algae in your tank, and like other member pointed out that the light seems very strong which will stimulate the growth of your problem-hair algae.

 

[plantbrain]

Hoppy, i had Considered That Except That The Tank Was Doing Well With Little To No Ferts for More Than 6 Months. I Didnt have algae issues until I started Dosing. I Would Think That If It Was too Much light or Too Little CO2 I Would Have Had Problems Before Dosing.

Well, if the plants are strongly limited by ferts............they are not growing that fast. CO2 demand is still beign met.

If you add some ferts, then the CO2 goes up and becomes the new limiting factor.

Liebig's Law of Limitation predicts this.

Adding ferts just highlighted the dependency you have due to poor cO2.

I add 10x the ferts and have 2x the light and yet:

So we can certainly say that nutrients are independent of algae blooms even at the highest light values, if the CO2 is also non limiting.

Dosing is EASY to learn how to do. Lighting is fairly straight forward, but not CO2.

So if you have good light and ample ferts, then those are now independent factors and the only one left is CO2.

This way you can dial in the CO2 and learn how to manage and what sub optimal CO2 ppm looks like by eyeballing things. You need to go slow and progressive with CO2, do not rush and crank it and gas your fish, do small changes every 2-4 days and watch closely.

You have staghorn algae BTW and GSA.
CO2 for both, perhaps a little too low on the PO4 for GSA also, but poor CO2 will make it grow also. Excel dosing daily will retard new growth.

You have some work ahead of you, CO2 and then Excel to kill the algae.

If you run only 2 bulbs, that would be best. Less light= less CO2 demand= less fert demand.

 

[DarkCobra]

The reason you didn't have algae before, is because with such strong light and ample CO2, but little nutrients, you had a starvation situation in your tank. Sometimes, like in your case, the plants deal with it well enough and the algae doesn't. Other times it's quite the opposite. There is no guarantee which way it will go, and the balance can tip unexpectedly at any time, so consider yourself lucky it worked!

Now that one problem is solved, another becomes evident - the excessive light. Despite the appearance of algae, you're actually closer to having a better tank and plant growth. Reduce the light as recommended. Once that's done, it's quite possible your CO2 and phosphate issues will solve themselves, because they'll no longer be insufficient for the lowered lighting. Then it's just a matter of trimming/treating away the existing algae.

 

[OVT]

Lowering the light is one approach. But I will also try (again) to highlight some additional factors. Being the lover of the high light, I have the same tank, basically the same light (but on for 12 hours daily), co2, reactor, EI dosing, etc etc. So, we are in the same boat.

Starving algae of nutrients is not practical - the plants will die before the algae does. Starving algae of energy (light) is self defeating - the plants will die first. Somehow I had more algae under a single 18w T8 with no added ferts then I do with 6x54w with EI over a similar tank.

Why? And you had no issues for 6 months. What changed besides adding ferts?

Flow - plants are taller and denser now. Flow = delivery of nutrients to plants. Every time I start seeing algae I check the flow first. By having too much flow I can induce the bba. By lowering flow just a bit from max I induce thread/string algae (which actually manages to kill off 90% of bba). IME, dealing with thread algae is much easier then with bba.

Organics - as the tank matures it tends to accumulate decomposing organic matter. You slack of on filter maintenance, substrate vacuuming, water changes and bba calls your tank home. Do a more thorough maintenance, it won't hurt.

Now, I will get riddled with flames

via Droid DNA Tapatalk 2

 

[Hoppy]

Lowering the light is one approach. But I will also try (again) to highlight some additional factors. Being the lover of the high light, I have the same tank, basically the same light (but on for 12 hours daily), co2, reactor, EI dosing, etc etc. So, we are in the same boat.

Starving algae of nutrients is not practical - the plants will die before the algae does. Starving algae of energy (light) is self defeating - the plants will die first. Somehow I had more algae under a single 18w T8 with no added ferts then I do with 6x54w with EI over a similar tank.

Why? And you had no issues for 6 months. What changed besides adding ferts?

Flow - plants are taller and denser now. Flow = delivery of nutrients to plants. Every time I start seeing algae I check the flow first. By having too much flow I can induce the bba. By lowering flow just a bit from max I induce thread/string algae (which actually manages to kill off 90% of bba). IME, dealing with thread algae is much easier then with bba.

Organics - as the tank matures it tends to accumulate decomposing organic matter. You slack of on filter maintenance, substrate vacuuming, water changes and bba calls your tank home. Do a more thorough maintenance, it won't hurt.

Now, I will get riddled with flames

via Droid DNA Tapatalk 2

:angryfire:angryfire:angryfire:angryfire
Now, that wasn't so bad was it?

I agree that tank cleanliness, water cleanliness, filter cleanliness, and cleanliness in general is a big factor, and the longer the tank is in operation the more likely you are to have that as an issue. That's why doing near perfect tank maintenance is necessary with high light. But, very good tank maintenance is always a very good idea, isn't it?

 

[du3ce]

If u want to rid the bba algae quick put some hydrogen peroxide with your aquarium water in a seperate container soak your plants in it for an hour rinse it off and put it back it should turn pink in a day and fall off

 

[AirstoND]

I apologize for the hijack, but do you have another angle of this tank, preferably face-on?