string algae problems

jschall · 11-02-2009, 1:28 PM

Alright, this is a 3 gallon aquarium with 1 betta, 1 otto, 2 anubias barteri var nana, and 2 of some sort of cryptocoryne wendtii.

It's my mother's aquarium, I do 50% water changes on it with RO water every couple weeks, and I told her to feed the betta 5 1mm pellets of New Life Spectrum daily. I don't 100% trust that she isn't feeding more than that, but the betta doesn't LOOK grossly overfed.

I also fertilize with Seachem flourish, using the recommended dose of 1ml per 10 gallons per week.

The 9w fluorescent light is on between 9 and 13 hours. (It's a marineland eclipse system tank.)

There's hair algae on everything. The sides, the driftwood, the gravel, the anubias. It seems to stay short, but its still really ugly.

jpappy789 · 11-02-2009, 3:45 PM

Your maintenance schedule is slacking. Water change once a week should help.

Are you replenishing the RO water at all or just using 100%?

Lower the lighting to 8 hours (set on a timer) as well and see if that has an effect.

jschall · 11-03-2009, 3:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpappy789

Your maintenance schedule is slacking. Water change once a week should help.

Are you replenishing the RO water at all or just using 100%?

Lower the lighting to 8 hours (set on a timer) as well and see if that has an effect.

Just using 100% RO but i usually fert after i wc

bigwave · 11-03-2009, 12:04 PM

Personally I would black out the tank for a few days to solve the immediate problem. Then for a long term solution I would stop adding ferts. I don't think anything you have needs it except the algae. Also adding ferts in doses 2 times a month isn't really going to help much.

Algae is a symptom of imbalance. With that much light and ferts you probably either need to add co2, or reduce something else. The light timer will help, so you make sure you don't have excess light. Stopping the ferts will keep you from having excess ferts.

Short of that, get faster growing stem plans, add co2, iron, potassium and trace, trim regularly, and do twice weekly maintenance, then you won't have algae problems. That's what I do at least. :-)

Also I don't know much about the RO water, but maybe only using half RO and half tap would help buffer your water chemistry.

BigNorsk · 11-03-2009, 2:17 PM

I would guess it's likely you are feeding the algae with the fertilizer. How much are you actually adding? How many drops? The plants will tend to outcompete the algae given a chance but you are always adding more nutrients so the algae keeps growing.

I'd go with blacking out the tank to kill the algae, then do a couple of partial water changes in short order and then get back to a routine, but I'd cut back the fertilizer to maybe every other week.

angyles · 11-03-2009, 2:22 PM

I don't really think 50% water changes every couple weeks is bad at all. the only tank I do weekly WC on is the one I use the EI fert dosing method on. The others can easily go a couple weeks if properly stocked. HOWEVER, I would question the stocking of having an otto in there.

I really think your problem is your have wayyyyy to much light on the tank. The plants you're keeping only need about 1WPG and you're giving them 3. pretty much any tank with 3+ WPG in it it going to have an algae problem unless you have a very high tech plant setup with high light plants.

jschall · 11-03-2009, 3:15 PM

It sounds like perhaps I should plant some faster growing plants and a lighting timer.

Does the hardness of the water matter?

angyles · 11-03-2009, 3:37 PM

the hardness doesn't usually matter too much with plants. I would definently reduce the photo period with a timer. with that much light, I'd reduce it to 6 hours tops.

jschall · 11-03-2009, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by angyles

the hardness doesn't usually matter too much with plants. I would definently reduce the photo period with a timer. with that much light, I'd reduce it to 6 hours tops.

A lot of people on various planted tank forums were telling me that the light in that tank was severely UNDERpowered, since wpg doesn't really apply to small tanks like that.

wpg doesn't really apply at all, really. w/cm^2 would be a much better metric, but what can you do?

jpappy789 · 11-03-2009, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by angyles

I don't really think 50% water changes every couple weeks is bad at all. the only tank I do weekly WC on is the one I use the EI fert dosing method on. The others can easily go a couple weeks if properly stocked. HOWEVER, I would question the stocking of having an otto in there.

I really think your problem is your have wayyyyy to much light on the tank. The plants you're keeping only need about 1WPG and you're giving them 3. pretty much any tank with 3+ WPG in it it going to have an algae problem unless you have a very high tech plant setup with high light plants.

Given a larger tank yes, but this is a tank that is 3 gallons. Not much dilution there.

Also, wpg has no bearing on tank lower than 10 gallons or so, so the OP is correct about that.

I've been keeping plants in hard water for a couple years now. Shouldn't be a problem. Unless your tap water is undrinkable, it should be fine to use just that. Otherwise at least do a tap-RO mix.