Fed Up!!

crows4hire

crows4hire

AC Members
Feb 11, 2008
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Houston, TX
Ok, first the set up, then the problem, then a rant about the problem, then a plea for help...

1) Setup - 29g Eclipse Biocube. Filter modified with increased flow between chamber 1 & 2, stock filter cartridge replaced with floss only. Fluval ClearMax bag on top of bio balls and more floss in chamber 2, Purigen bag at inlet of chamber 3. 160 gph marine head runs the system.

Lights - 2 10,000K Coral Life 36 watt + the night time blue leds

Tank contains 1 Bristle nose Pleco, 3 loaches and 3 discus 3-6 months old. Plants (that are still around) 1 Mid sized Ozelot sword with moderate red flecking, one bunch corkscrew vall, 1 java fern imbedded in driftwood.

Chemistry - Ammonia - 0 ppm, Nitrate 0 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, posphate .2 ppm, ph 7.8.

Tank has a good base of fertilzed eco-substrate overlayed with a course round gravel.

Tank has 2 20% water changes and gravel vaccuuming per week.

Tank has a yest generated C02 powerhead injection system.

2) The Problem -
Plants other then the ozelot are barely hanging on and are covered with the following:
Vall = brown algae on top of all leaves that face the top of the tank... does not scape off well.
Fern = All surfaces covered in green and brown hair algae that regrows faster then I can remove it.
Glass = green spot algae.

3) The Rant - I have done everything I can think of to deal with this problem and it is driving me to distraction... I cannot add new plants as I would like to, because the algae overcomes them before they can take hold. Even plastic plants get covered in a day. The water is crystal clear otherwise and I am at a complete loss with what to do. The water is clean, the fish are not overfed... the only problem I can see is a certain degree of indirect sunlight on the tank... nothing to be done about it.

4) The Plea -
Someone please, please, please give me a direction to go in. As of know, the java fern is probably lost (it has a very unhealthy dark green palor) and as it gathers so much algae, I am considering yanking it...
My discus are getting unhappy as they are running out of hiding spots... sigh :(

Notes: One of the light fixtures was out of commission for a month and I just got it back online 45 days ago. I just changed out the carbon filter package for the mods above a the same time and added C02 3 days ago.
:wall:
 
I think the plants arent getting the balanced amount of light/nutrients, therefore cannot outcompete the algae. You say that the tank gets indirect sunlight, for how many hours? How many hours do you have your lights on?
The purigen also might be taking out the nutrients that the plants can use. But im not 100% certain on that..
 
CO2 is produced by a yeast reactor and is introduced into the tank by a powerhead driven diffuser. Power head is on the timer...

Tank has been cycled for at least 8 months.
 
Well not 2 sure what it is from here. could be the access phosphates in the water.. Perhaps someone else will come and give a better answer

btw there really is no need to turn off diy co2 at night, very hard to overdose with it and if anything turning it off will 1- be a diy waste 2- give you bigger fluctuations of co2 since with diy it takes a while to bring the level up to where its good for plants..
 
Well lets try and fix your algae farm. :eek3:

Get flourish excel and double dose for 14 days this will get rid of most if not all the algae. If you get a syringe you can dose right on the hair algae and it will die faster.

I believe that your co2 is well below what it should be. you could add a second bottle with a staggered start this way you should get a more consistent co2 stream. because as one winds down the next should be getting to full out put.

Your lighting I think for now you are getting to much light if you can put the timer for on in am so you can watch and feed off till noon for an hour or 2 then again for what ever time you like to feed at night for a total of 8hrs. if you can't do the on off thing a total of 8hrs.
sun light right now is your enemy it will grow algae is it possible to block the sun light?

Last thing I could recommend is a 72 hr complete black out of the tank if all else fails.

you don't say if you fertilize or not if not pick a way ie florish leafzone dry fertz but you need to do some
 
In addition to the above, you need to have 10-15 ppm nitrates for your plants to be able to use the light, co2 and other nutrients you have in your tank. Up the nitrates and no sunlight. If I understand you said you have 2 x 36 watts for a total of 72 watts of light? That is plenty.
 
I am not familiar with Flourish Excel... the literate states that is an organic carbon... is this safe for discus? :eek: I am unsure of the chemistry involved... how will this kill the algae? (looking at notes... oh, yea) it also says on the website not to overdose! Doh! Can you confirm Draal5? I am sure you are right, I just worry about my babies!

The CO2 system is a Turbo CO2 Biosystem which I bought because it uses a powerhead diffusion system, rather then just direct water contact... it appears however that all the power head does is mix the CO2 from the reactor with the tank water at the powerhead nozzel. Anyone have any thoughts on this product? Rigging a second bottle would be easy, but if the system is no good, then maybe I need a better approach.

No, I do not fertilize... I was thinking of root tabs, but honestly, until the trouble started all the plants were growing fine!

Yes I has 72 watts of light a 10,000K. One of my filter medias (the Fluval component) filters nitrate and nitrite and phosphates which is why I seldom get a nitrate reading on my test kit... should I consider removing this bag and just running with the Purigen? Adding the phosphate filter is the only thing that has helped in the battle,thus far.

Thanks for all the help guys... the discus and I appreciate it!
 
One more thing to check. If your lights are old (more than 6 months) then maybe the color drifted off and plants can't take advantage of it anymore. Remedy to this problem would be replacing the light bulbs.
Another, I would not recommend sun light. Keep it away from the tank. At least until your algae is gone.
Then, be patient. Most algae problems are not fixed in one day. It might take some time.
Finally, there is many people who claim fixing algae with Exel. Seachem admitted that some people had good results killing algae with Exel, but they could not explain why and that is why did not advertise it as algaecide. If you use it, be careful because some plants are sensitive to Exel and can be killed with algae. Do a little research.
My sympathies, I am boxing with some BBA in my tank right now.
Good luck.
 
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