[jbl429]

I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, or what I’m not measuring that I should be, but here’s my problem: many of my plants seem to get what I think is green spot algae on them. It seems to affect certain types of plants and not others, although it does appear different on different types of plants. Plants that are affected include anubias, el nino fern, amazon sword, a reneke, s repens. Plants that seem impervious to it include rotalia indica, tiger lotus, java fern.

Right now I’m dosing with the PPS-Pro method and the only thing that sticks out to me as abnormal is high Nitrates, but this has always been the case in this tank. The other parameters seem normal (posted below). I should note that I’m also using homemade osmocote root tabs.

It’s a 90 gallon system with a 70 gallon display (the tank is a Red Sea Reefer 350).

My lights are on from 1PM to 7PM with a 15 minute ramp up and a 45 minute ramp down. I’m also running CO2 with ~2bps through a cerges reactor. My plants are generally growing well despite the algae issues.

My parameters from an API test kit:

pH (before CO2 & Lights): 7.4
Ammonia: 0.0
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate: 80.0
kH: 4
gH: 4
PO4: 2.0

I’ve attached pictures of some anubias and a reneke, as those seem to have it the worst.

Does anything stick out as wrong from the info I’ve provided, or is there something else I should be testing for or more info I could provide?

 

[COCA]

Hi, From the current info, i don't know why there would be algae in your tank. But if you could answer a question for me i would be grateful. How do you post a new thread? Thanks.

 

[COCA]

One thing you could do to help with the algae is get an algae eater. For a tank as big as yours, i would recommend a pleco.

 

[jbl429]

Hi, From the current info, i don't know why there would be algae in your tank. But if you could answer a question for me i would be grateful. How do you post a new thread? Thanks.

At the top-right of the forum (example Algae), there should be a "start discussion" button in green (assuming you're on desktop, I'm not sure about mobile)

 

[COCA]

Okay thanks

 

[jbl429]

One thing you could do to help with the algae is get an algae eater. For a tank as big as yours, i would recommend a pleco.

I have a pair of siamese algae eaters and a handful of mystery snails. I don't think my tank is properly setup for a pleco. But even if I did, I doubt it would be cleaning this type of algae off of the plants. Also, I think I would be trying to solve a symptom without addressing the cause, when ideally, I can understand what I'm doing wrong and address that directly.

 

[nicole.ouellette99]

You should first look into seeing if that is algae or cyanobacteria, or green blue algae. Green-blue algae (GBA) is a cyanobacteria that will not be affected by algae killers. Only luck ive had with getting rid of this is dosing antibiotics followed by a lights out for 24-48 hours, then another smaller dose and repeat.
Not sure what nitrates should be for a tank as large as yours with injected co2, but just my initial thought is that 80 ppm is really really high. I would try to lower that a bit, even if its the norm. Water change with algae-killer (if dealing with algae)and then a lights out period may help you to initially start fighting it as well. If you have algae growth, it is an indication that your tank has too many nutrients for the plants to uptake, thus now algae can grow and pick up those additional nutes. Since, i would lower fertilizer doses as well.

 

[COCA]

My recommendation is look up bettacarefishguide.com and type algae into the search bar on the right. It will tell you the reasons why certain algae grows and how to deal with it. Even if you don't have bettas its a helpful resource.

 

[EmotionalFescue]

hmmm. when i've had greenspot, it hasn't looked like that that. it does look like it could be a cyanobacteria, as another poster mentioned. if you pluck one of the covered leaves, does it smell really bad? that might indicate cyano, which has a pretty distinct odor.

 

[jbl429]

Thanks for the idea EmotionalFescue. I took out one of the leaves from the pictures I posted and it doesn't smell bad at all. I guess that means I can eliminate cyano and focus on algae? I just really have no idea what kind of algae as it doesn't quite line up with any particular type when I compare it.