Constantly Getting Algae on Hardscape Near Surface

DGalt

DGalt

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Jun 1, 2008
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Connecticut
When I first started the planted tank journey about a year ago I went through the usual issues of those new to planted tanks (too much light, not enough CO2 = BBA, etc.)

I have since become more experienced and don't see algae really anymore except in one spot....on my pieces of driftwood that have portions near the surface (and subsequently near my lights).

Obviously, the closer something is to the lights the more intense the lighting will be on that spot. But I plenty of tanks don't seem to have this issue; what are they doing differently / what should I do? As I said, I'm not getting algae anywhere else, including the slow growers such as anubias or crypts that I have in there.

I'm really at a loss about what I should do. CO2 levels are at about the point where if I increase them my fish start to get annoyed (been playing with CO2 a lot lately, think I have it at about the max I can without stressing the fish out too much). Currently I have 40W of CFL spiral lighting over the tank (which is 15 gallons), but I even had this issue when I was using only 26W, which is why I think it's a result of the wood being close to the lights.

The algae is specifically BBA. I haven't had anything else in the tank since I cleared up my diatom issue about 4 months ago. I've tried removing it on several occasions as well as spot treating with Excel and H2O2. They all work, but only temporarily.

I'm going to just give the tank conditions I had in the past since I just changed a whole bunch of things. The lighting was 26W CFL spiral (2x13W), Schultz aquatic soil substrate, no dosing ferts, pressurize CO2 system. Plants were mosses and anubias. Nitrates are generally around 10ppm. I have recently changed my substrate to ADA aquasoil and have added dwarf hairgrass, crypts, and dwarf sag to my plant list. And the lighting has increased to 40W, although I'm going to be switching to a new fixture soon.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

thanks :)
 
Maybe that one spot isn't getting enough circulation. I had a dead spot in one of my tanks that always got BBA. I moved the wood around and repositioned the powerhead and now it's fixed.
 
You had some pretty slow growers before which probably didn't pull enough nutrients from the tank fast enough. Maybe you should also consider a faster growing stem plant to help out compete the algae for nutrient. How are your nitrates now that you've added the new plants?
 
well I added a new filter too so the tank had to recycle (some major issues with the tank revamp). I've been doing frequent water changes so nitratres are rather low, although ammonia and nitritres are now gone so I can probably cut back on the wcs.

I don't think it's an issue of circulation, unless too much could be a problem. The configuration before had the driftwood pretty much under the outflow of my HOB (actually a little in front of the outflow, but still plenty of the flow). My new filter is an Eheim 2213 and I have the spray bar positioned across the side wall so the majority of the current is along the surface of the water, right where I'm getting the algae.

I was thinking that maybe there wasn't enough CO2 getting to the surface, but I really doubt that that could be the issue.

As for the plants before, yes they were slow growers but I had pretty low light and I wasn't dosing anything in terms of ferts. Only nutrients were coming from fish waste and food (and I feed rather sparsely; tend to forget about feeding fish lol).
 
i agree with shaadrak and redcrane.the more plants there are to outcompete the algae,the better.try some rotala indica,hygro polysperma,crypyocoryne spiralis,etc.in a tank that small you can grow almost anything because the lights right there.also,what spectrum are your lights?
 
the light is closer there so the chemistry related is different... i'd say either live with it if it is not growing as it likely wont or do a carpet plant to make use of that light like riccia or some moss. just about any plant should do really well right about (given it doesn't grow too tall) there and cover that area lessening chances of algae staying there. i'd put whatever you want as you'll have to live with it.
 
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