Algae Problem

Joe32

Joe32

AC Members
Jul 15, 2007
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I have just come home from 6 days away from home and found that I have an algae problem and I am not happy.
I have just checked my water conditions and everything seems OK
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10ppm
Phosphate 2.5 ppm although we do have high Phosphate in the tapwater.
PH 7
Co 2 30 ppm
KH 10
Lighting 4 x 54 w T5 on 8 hours a day while I have been away.
Plants mainly echinodorus, crypts, alternanthera cardinalis, valis,ricca
I have been dosing with potassium,nitrate and trace twice a week, although have not dosed while away.
I reduced the Co2 while away to around 18ppm as I would not be adding fert's.
Here is a picture of the algae in question.I think it is staghorn algae

IMG_5308.jpg


There also some clumps of BBA.
Some of this was here before I went away but it was not a problem as it was only attached to the back, standard textured juwel background.
What is the best way to deal with the problem.And any idea as to why it happened in the first place.
Thanks in advance.
 
Is your tank the RIO 400liter in your sig?

Since your other 2 macros look alright, your potassium might have crashed to 0 or traces are lacking, I would just crank the CO2 back up to 30ppm and get dosing again with ferts.
 
Yeah it is the tank in my sig, the cabomba has gone and there is some valis in there now and more alternanthera and some ricca attached to stones but other than that it is pretty much the same.
If i just go back to my normal routine will the algae just slowly go or should I try and remove as much as possible by hand?
 
jmhart said:
How sure are you that the timer was working properly? I had a similar algae outbreak on a tank after only 2 or 3 days away because the timer malfunctioned and the lights never turned off.
Click to expand...

That was one thing that I thought about, most of the algae is right under the lights.As far as I am aware the timer is working correctly but I will know in about 10 minutes as they are due to go off a 21.00.
 
The timer is working correctly, the lights went off at bang on 21.00.
So at least that can be removed from the list of possible causes.
 
Ah, I just reread your original post. I believe it to be that you reduced CO2. Even though you were not adding ferts, you had the same lighting. I'd be willing to gurantee it's that you reduced the co2. Algae loves high light, lower co2, and it also loves it when you change the co2 level.

Keeping the co2 up won't hurt anything, so I'd plan on just doing that from now on when you leave town. You can use a toothbrush to wipe off the algae and after a week or two it shouldn't be a problem anymore.
 
Well after an evening of cleaning and being brutal with plants I think I have got rid of most of the algae, I have done a 50% water change and the tank is looking a lot better.
I have started dosing ferts again and hopefully that will be the end of the algae problem.
Thanks for all the advice, just got to replace some of the plants that were not worth cleaning off as they were completely covered.The tanks seems rather bare compared to how it looked before the dreaded algae.
 
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