I have a 40 gallon planted tank and have been fighting a brush algae problem on and off for a while now. Usually the brush algae would be small clumps growing on the flourite floor or in small patches on the driftwood. No big-deal as I could remove them and they weren't spreading and for a while actually went completely away.
Now recently this past week the brush algae has really been aggressive and has started growing on ALL my plants wherever they are exposed to the lighting the most, namely the tips of the leaves or tops of them.
I have a 40gal heavy planted tank, 100%flourite, 1-2liter DIY Co2(made fresh every 2-3weeks to keep CO2 ppm at about 12-15ppm) 96watt PC lighting 11hours, dosing with TropicaMasterGrow trace ferts and KCl supplement
filtration is XP2 Filstar and a Emperor 280 HOB. I dont have any phosphate test kits (were unavailable when i tried ordering them online) but I have ordered some phos-zorb packs for my canister filter and will be adding that to my canister when it arrives.
my routine is doing 40-50% water changes every 3-4 days and scrubbing the sides to take out green-spot algae, putting in 3ml of the TMG and 30-40ml of the KCl, per water change; to try and keep potassium near 10-20ppm as per chuck gadd's fert calculator. Not dosing any phosphate or nitrate. Zero ammonia or nitrite on my test kits, pH is 6.8 to 7.2 depending on how fresh the DIY CO2 is.
my plants have been thriving quite well and I have already filled another 10gallon low-light tank with the cuttings from my 40gal. (btw all those cuttings in the 10gal never grow any alage at all...maybe its the low light and no ferts given?)
I will provide some pictures of the tank and some close-ups of the algae on the plants so you can see what my tank and algae are all about.
But this brush algae has forced me to trim my plants heavily since they leaves were basically "taken-over". The brush algae is hair-like (1"-1.5" long) and has a dark green with hint of deep blue when held up closely to the light. At times there are long single strands of green algae (2-3" long) with little dot-like circles or pods equally spaced on the strand.
I'm considering a blackout of the tank but prefer not to. I'm starting to wonder if there is lack of a nutrient that is causing the algae growth but am confused since the plants are growing in size and spreading runners for the past 2 months, it seems, now.
maybe when I trim the plants there is a leak of nutrients into the water column? I often see my ludwigia "weeping" bubbles from the stems when I trim them.
sorry for the long post with erratic jumpings of my thoughts. I'll be adding some pics as soon as I can and next time I'll try to be more clear but its early in the morning and i need some sleep now...zzzz
here are the photos: you can see the black tufts on the plant leaves. It actually is worse when looking at it in RL. The photoimages don't really show how much it covers the entire leaves.
Now recently this past week the brush algae has really been aggressive and has started growing on ALL my plants wherever they are exposed to the lighting the most, namely the tips of the leaves or tops of them.
I have a 40gal heavy planted tank, 100%flourite, 1-2liter DIY Co2(made fresh every 2-3weeks to keep CO2 ppm at about 12-15ppm) 96watt PC lighting 11hours, dosing with TropicaMasterGrow trace ferts and KCl supplement
filtration is XP2 Filstar and a Emperor 280 HOB. I dont have any phosphate test kits (were unavailable when i tried ordering them online) but I have ordered some phos-zorb packs for my canister filter and will be adding that to my canister when it arrives.
my routine is doing 40-50% water changes every 3-4 days and scrubbing the sides to take out green-spot algae, putting in 3ml of the TMG and 30-40ml of the KCl, per water change; to try and keep potassium near 10-20ppm as per chuck gadd's fert calculator. Not dosing any phosphate or nitrate. Zero ammonia or nitrite on my test kits, pH is 6.8 to 7.2 depending on how fresh the DIY CO2 is.
my plants have been thriving quite well and I have already filled another 10gallon low-light tank with the cuttings from my 40gal. (btw all those cuttings in the 10gal never grow any alage at all...maybe its the low light and no ferts given?)
I will provide some pictures of the tank and some close-ups of the algae on the plants so you can see what my tank and algae are all about.
But this brush algae has forced me to trim my plants heavily since they leaves were basically "taken-over". The brush algae is hair-like (1"-1.5" long) and has a dark green with hint of deep blue when held up closely to the light. At times there are long single strands of green algae (2-3" long) with little dot-like circles or pods equally spaced on the strand.
I'm considering a blackout of the tank but prefer not to. I'm starting to wonder if there is lack of a nutrient that is causing the algae growth but am confused since the plants are growing in size and spreading runners for the past 2 months, it seems, now.
maybe when I trim the plants there is a leak of nutrients into the water column? I often see my ludwigia "weeping" bubbles from the stems when I trim them.
sorry for the long post with erratic jumpings of my thoughts. I'll be adding some pics as soon as I can and next time I'll try to be more clear but its early in the morning and i need some sleep now...zzzz
here are the photos: you can see the black tufts on the plant leaves. It actually is worse when looking at it in RL. The photoimages don't really show how much it covers the entire leaves.
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