The bane of my existence....BBA/hare algae!

Bmeasure

Bmeasure

Humble disciple of Jesus Christ
Aug 6, 2004
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I have just spent 2 hours or so reading past and "sticky" posts trying to get the info I need. I refreshed alot of knowledge I used to have memorized, but even when looking at the sticky for dosing amounts, it didn't name the size tank (water volume) for the dosing it was giving. I already remember alot of it, but just a few more questions: Consider 0ppm Nitrate and pristene tap water for my 150 gallon that actually holds about 125 or 130 gallons, ok?
1)How much KNO3?
2)KCI (NoSalt)?
3)PO4 (Enema)?
4)micros (Seachem)?
I have been battling BBA and Hair algae, and need to recall the target amounts of nutrients again. I can hopefully work things out from there. I've done this ONLY about 3 times! :duh:
 
american flagfish, eat with gusto if they aren't overfed, sae's help. Some say flourish excel, but I'm still out on this.
I've been using flourish excel and noticed the start of hair algae in my recntly setup 25g despite using flourish excel.
 
How much light? BBA is usually associated with low CO2, but this only applies to high light tanks.

Download the dosing calculator from www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua
It's in the articles section, it's pretty easy to use and should put you on the right path.

Alternatively, reiverix has made a really neat piece of aquarium software called H2overview which I think also has a nutrient dose calculator among many other things, if the link to it isn't in his sig, PM him and I'm sure he'll be more than happy to oblige.
 
Well, I was trying to just get the dry dosing amounts listed. I have had Chuck Gadd's site on my favorites for about 3 years now. I have kept planted tanks for about 2 1/2 years also, but it's been off and on as to using ferts/high light, CO2, etc. in several different tanks. The longest running setup I had going was a 55 gallon with 220w AhSupply, 30ppm CO2, and constant dosing. My setup now doesn't have any effective algae eating crew, since it's my Blackbelt's display tank (quick view in my avatar). I have a 4" common pleco with him now....but he's harrassed if he comes out too much in the daytime. :dog:

Here goes all the info that I was trying to avoid! ;) :
125-130 actual water volume (150 tank).
pH 7.8 normally, but down to 6.8 or 6.9 with CO2
KH about 5.4
GH (test just says Hard) AP test strips :p
Ammo/Nitrite: 0
Nitrates:10-15ppm
CO2: 20-25ppm

Equip:
10lb Press. CO2 injected into XP-3
AHSupply Kits 220 watts
Wet/Dry Sump filter
Filstar XP-3 (already stated)
4" of 50/50 sand/Flourite (150 to 200 lbs)
Light timer doing 11 hours of daylight

Lightly planted -please look at my pics (copy/paste from my signature), but just bid on 50 stems of Ludwigia and 10 Jungle Valls on Aquabid. Probably be a couple weeks though!

Also, I had only mild/slow growth of BBA, but quite a bit of Diatom (expected in newish tank) when I had only 60 watts of temporary lighting on the tank, but plants were still growing ok, but much slower. As soon as I added this lighting, which is maybe 1.5 watts, my algae has been really spreading daily!
My thoughts are that since I don't have to dose No3, I need to start adding some "NoSalt" KCl. I just can't rememeber the amounts of dry salt to add to the tank (disolved in sump, first). I also can't find my PO4 kit yet to test that, but should find it soon. I doubt that's the problem with my beefy fish and his eating!

Also, I was trying to keep this tank with little/moderate maintenance, and wanted to drop back from doing weekly water changes. I've been doing 40% every 3 weeks so far. Tank is about 4 months old, but just added the lights last Wednesday (one week today). I figured that I had so much water for this fish that I could keep it simple with lower light, CO2, and 1 or 2 water changes a month. I never have had over 20ppm nitrate in this tank, even the first month, so I thought this would just keep going down over time as the plants grew in. It has, but I suspect that now the BBA and Hair algae will kill off the plants unless I get something going quick! Things have really gotten ugly this week. They pearled the first 2 or 3 days with the new lights, but now they don't get enough light I assume due to algae coverage. It is EVERYWHERE! By the way, I have alot of this stuff starting to cover my fake rock wall, which can't be removed to bleach it......Don't hold back, and give me some tips again....and dosing (dry) amounts, please!
 
This is gonna be quick, so I'll try to be a little more in depth tomorrow.

Two quick thingsfor now though:
Increase CO2 to 25-30ppm
Add about 3.25 tsp. of KCl at water change and perhaps 1/2 this mid-week.
Change 50% of the water weekly
Dose traces but err to the liberal side: eg. if it sais one capful, let the cap overflow a bit, dig?

Do you see any shortage of Ca or Mg?
 
Well I didn't get a reply before this evening, so I ended up doing a 50% water change today, removed as much BBA, Hair and Diatom/other Algae as possible from almost all the plants. I vacuumed up as much detritus as possible while changing water. I added ferts as follows, after filling the tank with fresh water: 2 caps of Flourish and 1.25 tsp of KCl. I thought the recommended dose of K (NoSalt) was 1/4tsp per 20-30 gal. Using this method I assumed 1 tsp would equal 100 gallons, and another 1/4 would be right on target. Why 3.25.......never heard of that measurement! Anyone else?

I also upped the CO2, getting the pH down to 6.7 (30ppm). By the way, found the KH/GH test strip bottle, and my KH and GH are both measureing around 150ppm on these strips. Thanks for the input happychem, let me know if you (or anyone else) have some more to add! I never have really "won" the war with algae in my tanks, just kinda found a "truce". If I ever went more than 1 week without changing water, things drastically went south!

Oh, and to answer your last question, I did notice a few leaves on the large swordplant with a bit of a cupped shape and other features that made them appear not optimal. I thought this was just it adapting from emerged growth to fully submersed. I do have some epsom salt if I need to use it. What made you ask about these two nutrients? Was it something in my pictures or description?
 
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:coffee2: good stuff...

I got the 3.25 from Chuck Gadd's dosing calculator, it would be enough to increase your K level from 0 to just over 20ppm, I figured that since you hadn't been dosing much that your tank could use the boost.

The only thing about increasing the CO2 to be cautious about is that it should be 30ppm just before the lights come on, not when they turn off, well, it may still be, but do the setting based on morning levels, not evening, otherwise you may find that your CO2 is through the roof and your fish are gasping. I imagine that since you've got a pressurized system that this is a pretty simple adjustment in any rate and if you do notice gasping fish that it would be really simple to tweak it down a bit. Beating out the algae will be a lot easier once you get some of those fast growers in there too. I have won the war against most types, but I do have some BBA on the driftwood in my 33g that I'm basically at a truce with. It doesn't really bother me, it stays on the driftwood and every now and then I pick some off when it grows longish. I don't get any on the plants unless CO2 dips, so it's a bit of an indicator in that respect. I could bleach the wood, but I'm leery of bleaching something porous, it would be really tough to convince myself that I'd dechlorinated everything...

I suspect that part of your algae problem is related to the fish. Plecos are messy. I don't know about blackbelts, but I suspect that it's a messy predator just dumping waste into your tank. Gorgeous fish, btw, just looked through your pics, mean lookin' fella. If reducing feeding quantities is an option, it would likely help by reducing available ammonia, which algae need.

No, I didn't pick up on the Ca and Mg from your pics, just personal experience. Those two are often overlooked and may develop a deficiency in time, depending on the amount available in the tap water, or whatever source water you provide. In my case my tap has about 5ppm of each, according to the water comission. After about 2 years, only about 8 months of really fast growth (lighting increase), I've noticed a Ca deficiency. Took me a while to convince myself of it, since I do have crushed coral in my filter that should be providing Ca, but first it was MTS' dieing off, then cupped and distorted leaves, finally I decided that it couldn't be anything else and started dosing Ca. It's only been a few weeks, so I'm not sure of the results yet.

As for your sword, back on topic ;) , how long have you had it for? It is common for swords to be grown emersed and in the first few weeks old emersed growth will start looking terrible, developping holes, leaves decomposing. At the same time, new growth will shoot out of the rosette, usually more elongated leaves with less pronounced 'stems', more lance shaped less racket shaped. If your leaves are already in submersed form but are beginning to get cupped and twisted, a little CaCl2 goes a long way, I think about 3 tsp. per water change is what you'd need, but you can get the equation from one of the Ca dosing threads in this forum.
 
HappyChem, how are you factoring dosages for my tank using Chuck Gadd's liquid dosing page? I dose DRY FERTS. That is why I'm leary of 3.25 tsp. I'm pretty sure now that people like Plantbrain used to say 1/4 tsp per 20 or 30 gallons. That's how I figured it at 1.25 tsp. BIG DIFFERENCE! :huh:

I'm not second guessing your measurements if you know that I'm talking dry, but didn't want you thinking I'm adding dry ferts to a liquid bottle, then dosing a certain amount from there! :argue: Love ya and thanks for the input so far! I may indeed try some Epsom Salt then!
 
reiverix said:
3.25 tsp is fine. It doesn't matter if you dose it dry or mix it with a gallon of water first. It will still give you 20ppm of K.
Click to expand...
Of coarse I understand that! What Chuck Gadd's page shows is how to mix a dosing bottle to give you (for instance) 1ppm of Nitrate for each ml added to the tank. I don't want to make a stock solution like this, but simply want to dose dry ferts into my sump, which should dissolve it nicely. :dance2:

Thanks for the input, though. I suppose if the two of you think that 3.25 tsp of Dry KCl is an appropriate dose for a 125 gallon volume tank, then I'll add some more tonight to get it up to these levels. I'll dose a 1.5 tsp mid week. Sound good? Any other changes?
 
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