algae build up on plant leafs

[cav]

I have 5 anubias in my cichlid tank but I am unable to keep the leafs green. I always end up with a light brown covering on the leaves. The only thing I add to my tank for the plants in flourish excel. I was adding flourish but it was causing a major algae bloom. My lighting is 2 x T8 marine white lamps (25w each) over a 180 litre tank, I'm also running phosguard phos remover. I'm currently waiting on new test kits so I dont have a nitrate reading till the end of the week

[jmhart]

Couple of things:

That's ~1 wpg, so that's low light. No problems there.

Next issue: How old is the tank? Brown covering plants sounds like diatoms to me. If the tank is new or even newly planted, these could be feeding off silicates in the water. If this is the case, it will eventually run it's course and you'll be fine.

Why are you running phosguard? A lot of us actually add phosphates to planted aquaria. It's not necessarily bad at your light level, but it's unneeded.

[Bk718]

are marine white lamps delivering the required light for the plants!?!

[jmhart]

are marine white lamps delivering the required light for the plants!?!


didn't even notice the "marine" part. Probably also explains the use of phosguard.

[cav]

the tank is 8 months old, before using the phosguard my phosphates were really high (straight from the tap) and I was getting green algae everywhere. I do 30% water changes every 7 days due to the tank being heavily stocked(to keep down aggression). I run 2 600lph filters, one internal, one external

[cav]

didn't even notice the "marine" part. Probably also explains the use of phosguard.

Its not a marine tank its a cichlid tank, I use the marine whites as I find it shows the colours of the fish better

[Bk718]

Try and replace one bulb with either 6,700K or 10,000K. Or depending on what type of hood you have you can somehow maybe add 1 or 2 screwin cf

[nickmcmechan]

what are your nitrate and phosphate levels?

[cav]

ok got my readings:

Nitrates 40ppm
Phophate 0.25ppm

Tested my tap water:

Nitrates 40ppm
Phosphate 2.0ppm

How am I supposed to reduce my nitrates when the water I'm using is the same reading as the tank? Would RO water be of use and if so how do I get it to the right PH/trace elements?

[jmhart]

So, the EPA Human Health Water Quality Criteria upper limit for nitrate in tap water is 10ppm. While this is the EPA limit, there are many communities that have above this level. However, if you have 40 ppm nitrate in your tap water, you should not drink it. If nitrates in your tap water are at this level, you live in a highly polluted area.


My thoughts are: either your test is bad, you aren't doing it correctly, or you should stop drinking your tap water.

If your water really contains 40 ppm of nitrate, you can either go HEAVILY planted, or start using RO/DI water. 3 parts RO/DI to 1 part tap would get you to an ok level.

[cav]

its a brand new test kit, API nitrate test, I use the same one on my reef tank (with the saltwater card), I did it the exact same way (I use RO on my reef tank and nitrates are 5ppm). It is strange that it shows 40ppm on both my freshwater tanks and my tap water, I'll use the new test kit on my reef and compare it with the saltwater card, it should read 5 (also verified with a salifert saltwater nitrate test kit)

[jmhart]

If it reads 5 ppm for your reef tank, it's probably acurate. However, I would recommend taking some water to your LFS next time you go and have them test it, just to verify.

Take tank and tap. If they both read 40ppm, then you should start filtering your tap for you and your fish.

[nickmcmechan]

see you live in walkington - is that england? - if so, a ot of english water has high nitrates, EU directive allowing up to 40ppm. If your tap water comes in at 2ppm phosphates then that could possibly be part of the cause of the algae

In my opinion you have some options:

- reduce your nitrates and phosphates by chemical media in your filtration
- add more plants
- can you reduce your feeding

Can you tell us more about your tank - lighting, stocking, planting levels...what ferts are you using for your plants?

[cav]

Tank is 180 litre bow front tank. Lighting is 2 x 25w T8 marine white lamps, the set up is an african cichlid tank so mainly rock with 5 anubias plants. I have 2 filters, 1 internal with 2 fine sponge, seachem purigen, 1 coarse sponge, 1 nitrate sponge and filter wool pre filter running at 600lph, the second is an external filter with seachem matrix as bottom layer, 1st tray is ceramic rings and a bag of seachem carbon, 2 tray is coarse sponge/fine sponge and filter wool pre filter. I do a 20% water change every 7 days with tap water treated with prime, filter sponges are rinsed in tank water, week 1/3external filter sponges/rings/matrix, week 2/4 internal sponges. Pre filter wool is changed every water change and carbon/phos remover is changed every 2 weeks.
The only things I dose to the tank is seachem cichlid trace twice weekly and flourish excel (now everyday) which seems to be reducing the algae. Lights are on 10 hours a day, tank gets minimum direct sunlight and fish are fed once a day with pellet food which lasts about 10 seconds in the water.
My stocking is :
1 Neolamprologus leleupi
1 Pictus Cat
1 Melanochromis johannii
1 Neolamprologus pulcher "daffodil"
1 Lamprologus brevis
2 Synodontis multipunctatus
1 Pseudotropheus crabro
1 Melanochromis joanjohnsonae
1 Pseudotropheus sp. "Daktari
1 Melanochromis auratus
1 Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Chewere"
1 Pseudotropheus socolofi
1 Albino Pseudotropheus estherae
1 Protomelas sp. "Steveni Taiwan" (Taiwanee Reef)

[cav]

Tested my tap water nitrates again with my regular API test kit that I use for my reef tank ( which shows 0 for my RO and 5ppm for my reef) and compared it with the API freshwater colour chart from my new test kit which originally tested 40ppm and guess what, my regular kit also tested 40ppm! Thats 2 seperate test kits testing the same param levels, one which is proven with my reef tank to read correctly

[nickmcmechan]

hmmm, this is a difficult one...use of RO water would actually help, however that would not be good for your fish at all as the ones you stock prefer harder water

Also, your fish graze on algae, a natural part of their diet, so I actually actually encourage it in my african cichlid tank

looks to me like your already doing a lot of the right things

here's a thought...do you have another freshwater tank? would you consider doing this tank unplanted as i actually think you want some algae in there for the fish?

(as a separate issue, i think you change out your filter media too much, i would reduce the frequency to enhance your bacterial colonies)

[cav]

I have a new maint plan for the filters in that I onlly clean them:

Week 1 internal filter sponges
Week 3 External filter sponges

That will give them 4 weeks each to stabalize beforethe next clean, I will keep to changing the prefilter wool weekly as it does get clogged.

In regards to the other tank that houses my colomesus puffers, the only reason I put plants in my cichlid tank was to aid in natural algae reduction. Do you think it would help I took the plants out or would the algae build up start again?

[nickmcmechan]

yes, the algae will build, but remember the cichlids you keep will graze it...

i think the root cause is the high nitrates, which your stuck with i'm afraid

[jmhart]

I think you should use RO water and up the hardness on it. Just my thought.

[nickmcmechan]

I think you should use RO water and up the hardness on it. Just my thought.
good idea

[cav]

Double dosing with Flourish excel seems to be keeping the tank at a nice level and new leaves have started to sprout on my anubias