New Planted, Algae Problem

1085 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Spacefly, Sep 20, 2007

sambangert

Discussion Starter · Sep 13, 2007

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum.

I've a problem with Algae (Pictures enclosed). What the hell shall i do. I've got sand substrate, but want to change back to gravel, can't get to grips with cleaning it, just seems messy all the time.
I'm using a yeast based CO2 unit, my readings are: CO2 24.6, PH 7.2, KH 12 degrees 232ppm.
Temps usually at 25.

thanks in advance

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Cheesehead Cory

· #2 · Sep 14, 2007

How big is your tank? How much light do you have over it? What are you dosing? Have you measured your NO3?

Looks like BGA. Could be caused by lack of NO3 or lack of water circulation. People smarter than me will correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

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sambangert

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 14, 2007

What i've decided to do is to sort of start over. I had sand in the tank, but didn't like it as it got to messy to quick, so i'm changing my tank back to gravel. I have another tank, so my fish and the filter have gone into that tank, so as i don't have to cycle the tank!!!

Hopefully this time, which a little more knowledge under my belt i may be able to produce better results.

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sambangert

Discussion Starter · #4 · Sep 14, 2007

Just had a read through the post again, when you say bad water circulation, do you mean the filter in and oulets are positioned in the wrong places. The filter i have in the tank is a fluval 3+, my tank size is a 100l, fluval duo 800. The filter kicks out the water at such a pacee that it just about reaches the other end of the tank, thats on the lowest setting. My question is, would the circulation on the bottom of the tank be affected by this, as the outlet nozzle is near the top of the tank (water comes into the filter from near the bottom). I think i have enough circulation.

I'm putting the bga down to low nitrate levels (i'm trying to get to the bottom of the problem so i don't have this happen in the future).

What do you think????

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Cheesehead Cory

· #5 · Sep 17, 2007

sambangert said:
when you say bad water circulation, do you mean the filter in and oulets are positioned in the wrong places.

Either bad placement or not enough flow is what I meant. That doesn't sound like your problem. From what I've read, water has to be pretty stagnant for this to be the cause.

sambangert said:
I'm putting the bga down to low nitrate levels (i'm trying to get to the bottom of the problem so i don't have this happen in the future).

What do you think????

It's all speculation without knowing all your tanks parameters, but you're probably right, especially if you haven't been dosing NO3 and have a low bio-load. Do you have a test kit? They say that most NO3 test kits are very inaccurate. All I know is, with my cheapy Tetratest kit, I get a nice pale yellow zero reading when I test tap water. And before I went planted, I got a dark red 60 ppm-ish reading when I didn't do a WC for a month. I try to keep it a nice medium orange color and assume that it's somewhere in the 10-30ppm ballpark.

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Spacefly

· #6 · Sep 20, 2007

Yep, sure looks like you have BGA in there, does your water smell musky? heck, If you touch the stuff does your hand smell icky too? 99% sure thats what it is just from the pics, and like Cheesehead said: :eek5: Did I just say that? lol.
It may be because of very low to no Nitrates at all in your water.

Its a good idea to keep your Nitrates in the 10-20ppm range at all times, its good for your plants, and it will prevent another outbreak if thats your cause for BGA. You can, and should start dosing with KNO3(potassium nitrate) or you can use "Nitrogen" from the flourish line(Seachem makes this)

What i've decided to do is to sort of start over. I had sand in the tank, but didn't like it as it got to messy to quick, so i'm changing my tank back to gravel. I have another tank, so my fish and the filter have gone into that tank, so as i don't have to cycle the tank!!!

Hopefully this time, which a little more knowledge under my belt i may be able to produce better results

You want to be careful not to transfer your problem into this new tank, if you didnt give that filter a good cleaning. Also, do you do weekly waterchanges, and substrate cleaning? A Dirty filter,and substrate are also causes of BGA, as well as stagnent water which Cheese mentioned.

Definatly start by testing your Nitrate levels, if these are low under 5ppm that may be your red flag for BGA.

Goodluck!

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