May 9, 200818 yr comment_233814 there's been this very fine green hair looking stuff growing from the java moss and tangling the other plants. What is it and how do i rid the tank of it? I'm turning the lights off during the day, pulling it out every 2wks or so but it's still growing. looks unsightly. In the other tank i have clumps of fine moss stuff growing in spots, on the filter, on the heater, on fake plants etc. This tank doesnt have much artificial light as it's close to the back door and lit this way (not directly). Report
May 9, 200818 yr comment_233843 Welcome to the world of Algae fighting! I'd say you have thread algae. I hear that this happens to most tanks at some point in their life. I wish I had an easy answer on how to beat it but I spend most of my time trying to get rid of it myself! Any plants in your tank rely on several factors to grow: light, CO2, Oxygen, Nutrients (nitrates, phosphates) and trace minerals. If there there is a balance of these, the plants grow well and compete with the algae for the nutrients. Algae needs nutrients to grow so is starved out. However if you don't have enough of one factor this limits plant growth. The algae will feed on the excess nutrients and away it goes. This stuff can grow FAST! To make it hard for the algae remove as much as you can by trimming plants that are covered in algae and clean your tank regularly. Frequent water changes also reduce the nutrients but can also reduce trace minerals... so may not be the whole answer. Adding plant fertilizer that has no phosphates also helps There are products like algae fix and Flourish excel which can kill algae however once you stop dosing unless you have fixed the original problem it will quickly return. Also I have found that excel works well on Black bearded algae but not on your thread algae...also some plants like Vals will also be killed by these. Heres a guide to the different algae types. http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm heres an interesting article about algae control that I am trying on my tank at the moment. lets hope it works http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/sears-conlin.html Good luck! Karlos Report
May 10, 200818 yr Author comment_233910 Awesome Karlos, thanks for that. I'm guessing more water changes will help too. ATM i only do it once a month :oops: slack i know, but i promised myself when we got this tank i would not be consumed by it... testing, plant fertilisers etc. Will try it anyway then look into chemicals. Thanks again. :lol: Report
May 11, 200818 yr comment_234052 Not that I'm contributing much but AH! Me too! My plants were all looking lovely, now they're covered in the stuff and no matter how I pull it out and trim my plants it stays. Hardy thing :evil: Report
May 11, 200818 yr comment_234079 Well my tanks looking pretty murky today so I can't say much either... Co2 injection, lots of light, heaps of healthy plants, nitrites, ammonia and nitrates all zero and dosing PMDD and Flourish excel! And the thread algae is still growing! What else can I do!!!!! I bought a phosphate test kit and when it arrives I'm going to see what it says. I do think that my tank is overstocked so maybe there is just too much Poo in my tank... If I beat it I will keep you posted (after I do a jig on the dining room table) Karlos Report
May 11, 200818 yr comment_234093 Well my tanks looking pretty murky today so I can't say much either... Co2 injection, lots of light, heaps of healthy plants, nitrites, ammonia and nitrates all zero and dosing PMDD and Flourish excel! And the thread algae is still growing! What else can I do!!!!! I bought a phosphate test kit and when it arrives I'm going to see what it says. I do think that my tank is overstocked so maybe there is just too much Poo in my tank... If I beat it I will keep you posted (after I do a jig on the dining room table) Karlos How much PMDD are you dosing per day? How many W of light? Report
May 11, 200818 yr comment_234113 Hi Hans 20 drops PMDD per day 13mls Floush excel per day Manually controlled Co2 injection from cylinder. turned off at night. 260l heavily planted tank Juwel vision. dim approx 1200 x 46wide x 60 deep. Substrate: daltons aquatic mix with 1-2 inches 4mm gravel on top. 4 t5s 3X54W 1X38 =200W thats the best I could do. No room for more with T5s Filtration: Eheim 2026 external canister filter. Currently water changes 20% every 2 weeks. thinking of increasing to every week. I had BBA but excel cleared this up however thread algae took off from there. When I first started the excel my val lost all its leaves but has now come back. Not sure whether to increase, decrease or keep the dosing of the excel the same. I'm still hoping that the tank will stabilise with the PMDD. PH 6.8 nitrites, ammonia and nitrates read zero. haven't checked the hardness. Trying to get to the point when phosphates are the limiting factor to growth... fish: 8 zebra danios 4 rams 5 bristlenoses 3 corys 6 rummys (looking very healthy so h20 quality should be good) 8 cardinals 2 pearl gouramis Karlos Report
May 12, 200818 yr comment_234302 Got my phospate test kit today and did the test with anticipation.... phosphates =0! .....Now I'm really confused... Report
May 12, 200818 yr comment_234305 You could try increasing the Nitrate to between 5-10ppm. This will help with plant growth and seems to inhibit many types of algae. I don't know why but sometimes 0ppm nitrates is as bad as too much. Report
May 12, 200818 yr comment_234335 Thanks Warren increasing the PMDD will increase the nitrates without adding phospates so I might try that. So many variables though. Report
May 12, 200818 yr comment_234338 Or try adding Potassium Nitrate on it's own. The problem with adding more PMDD is the other nutrients may get out of balance and create more problems. If the plants are growing well and Nitrate is limited then you need more Nitrate and/or less PMDD. Report
May 13, 200818 yr comment_234482 Hi Warren Can you recommend dosing levels, grams per Liter for example? -Si Report
May 13, 200818 yr comment_234485 1 gram per 1000L = 1ppm 1 gram per 100L = 10ppm However, this is for 10ppm of Potassium Nitrate. If you want 10ppm of Nitrate then you need to see what percentage of the Potassium Nitrate is actually Nitrate and divide the weight of Potassium Nitrate by this to get the actual weight required. Will see if I can find the info how to work this out for you... Report
May 13, 200818 yr comment_234530 I'll give it a try but I can't get to the shops until the weekend. So where can you buy these sorts of things? Garden centers? Report
May 13, 200818 yr comment_234570 Cheers Warren. I can figure out the math as to how much I'm adding (6th form chemistry flashback - eek!) What I was really asking was how much nitrate is enough, which you already answered above - sorry, I missed it first time around... It's funny, being a n00b I thought I'd learned a bit, but all I've learned is how much more I have to learn Report
May 21, 200818 yr comment_236390 Just an update on my tank problems. After a few days of battling with the algae I had an attack of green water. This is with Phospates and Nitrates still zero! So I blacked it out for 2 days and dropped the dosage of excel and pmdd in half. This helped but unfortunately when I lit up my tank again it was quickly getting murky. SO I read on fishgeeks that if you have very high light levels you have to get your nutrients exactly right. I calculated mine and realised the light intensity was 3.4watts/gallon UK!. So I took one of my T5 tubes out and hey presto within 3 days I have a lovely clear tank Happy day! :bounce: Even the thread algae has been eaten by the bristlenoses! so alls well that ends well. Karlos Report
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