Can't get rid of beard/red algea

[falcon]

I'm not sure what's going on, but I just can't get rid of beard algea. I have it on my equipment, rocks, gravel, and even glass. I have it in my three tanks. Two of them have pressurized co2.

1. 120g, pressurized co2, kH 3-3.5, gH 5, pH(5.8 with probe, 6.5 with liquid test). 260wpg pc light. I dose 4g of KNO3 with 10 drops of enema three times a week and on alternate days 20ml of trace three times a week(hydroponics trace dissolved at 9g for 300ml). Heavily stocked - not that much waste a w/c - once a week 50% (combination of tap and r/o). Started increasing enema to 12 drops 3x/wk this week.

2. 65g, pressurized co2, kH 3-3.5, gH 5, pH(5.15 with probe, 6.5 with liquid test). 192wpg pc light. I dose 2g of KNO3 with 5 drops of enema three times a week and on alternate days 10ml of trace three times a week. Tank running since Sep'04 and fighting all kings of algea still. Heavily stocked(10 medium altums, 5 h.raboras, 2 b.plecos, 2 clown loaches. Quite a bit of waste at w/c - 50% once a week(combination of tap and r/o).

3. 20g, DYI co2, 65wpg pc light. Started dosing 1ml of traces once a week. Does not produce enough co2. Plants growth good. Overstocked.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[ben_manzella]

try flourish excel many people including myself have sucess with this product.

[Swimfins]

I have a bit of beard algae and I am going to do as suggested.....flourish excel. Seems the way to go.

[falcon]

I mean flourish excel is a form of organic carbon. I am supplying co2 through injection. I would think that co2 injection is much more effective than organic carbon.

[Mooch28]

I mean flourish excel is a form of organic carbon. I am supplying co2 through injection. I would think that co2 injection is much more effective than organic carbon.

So am i, but until i added Excell, my hair algae didnt go away. Im keeping my C02 around 30-35 ppm as well, and plant growth is very good under 3.7 watts per gallon. get a small bottle and give it a try!

by the way, where in Brampton you at? I also live there, around the north end.

[falcon]

Thanks guys. Guys, actually I have read a topic on flourish excel in here and a lot of people are praising it. Will have to cave in and give it a try. Mind you, will get expensive to supply 120g and 65g and 20g. I know you can get it in 2l and 4l. 2l I found it the cheapest at mops.ca. Don't know if there is another supplier besides BA here in Canada that is much cheaper than BA and has 4l bottles. By the way, BA is overpriced here in Canada. Will probably get something smaller to try it out.

Mooch28, I live in the North East end of Brampton(Airport, close to Caslemore golf course).

[ergo sum]

I think maybe this use of excel might have nothing to do with the carbon and everything to do with what this stuff does to the iron in the tank.

"If one or more plant nutrients are substantially reduced or completely eliminated from the water, then the algae will fail. This can be accomplished by managing iron which is one of the most important trace nutrients."

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/red-algae.html

[ben_manzella]

I mean flourish excel is a form of organic carbon. I am supplying co2 through injection. I would think that co2 injection is much more effective than organic carbon.


You would think but I went to the Seachem website and read about the product. The seachem guy says something to the effect that it does work on algae but can't say why? Kinda fishy but whatever.

Flourish Excel™ Support
Q:Love your plant products and am using all five of them. I do have a rather interesting question for you concerning these products and Hair Alage. When I first dosed my tank with all the Flourish products I was experienceing quite a bit of hair alage. (125gal plants/fish) Within three days the hair alage had turned a reddish orange and about four days after that it had completely disappeared. Do you have any idea just which of these products could have caused this? (Flourish-Trace-Excell-Fe- Potassium?) I would be most interested in the answer as I am again have a small alage problem and would like to know if I am perhaps using too much/little of any one thing. I must admit that I have never seen such a dramatic change with the alage when I first used the Flourish products, and I would really like to be able to repeat the experience when ever the alage re-appears. The plants themselves are doing quite well and I have some of them growing out of the tank.
Please let me know about this.
A: The experience you had was due to using the Flourish Excel. We found that to be an added perk of the product. We do not recommend to overdose the product but you can adjust the amount dosed and frequency of dosing based on your personal results.