Green dust algae problem resolved

[Que]

I don't know what triggered it (could have been new plants) but 2 of my planted tanks came down with green dust algae. When it manifested itself I got out the magfloat and wiped down the glass only to have it come right back the next day. This went on for some time before I consulted this forum. It seemed odd to me but I took the advice of just letting it go for a week or so. In the 55 the algae got pretty thick and was consumed by snails over many days but the 75 didn't work out that way. I let that tank go too but after a week and a few days I had to scraped it down because there are fewer snails in there. The algae it hasn't returned. So I think the advice was good and although removal was different in both cases the end result was the same. Let the algae mature and removal in a week and a half or so should do the trick.

Q

 

[Bk718]

very glad to hear.. Getting rid of algae deserves a celebration!!! you shouldve taken some pix of the algae grow, woouldve really wanted to see how bad it got before scraping it off.

I finally got rid of my green water by introducing some giant stems of willow hygro, with letting them float my water cleared up in a day.. WOOHOO

 

[jmhart]

I've got the GSA as we speak...in both tanks:rant2:


I'll doing a bit of an experiment. In one tank I'm scraping every day or two, and doing many water changes. In the other tank, I'm just letting it go.

We'll see what happens in a month. I'll take pictures and keep a log.

 

[RockysDad]

I'm out to lunch on this one too... IMO I think it might be a light/nutrient balance somehow. But I'm not sure which way. Is it too much nutrients with the excess going to the algae or is it too little, which is giving the plants a hard time competing with the algae for whatever is left (this is where the higher order plants will out compete the algae for nutrients given that they are stronger at competing). Right now I'm leaning on the latter by adding a bit more NO3 (plants weren't looking as healthy) and you guys are favoring the former...



Jeff, are you still keeping the same fert routine in your experiment or stopping it altogether for this test?

 

[jmhart]

To start off, I said GSA ealier, I mean Green Dust, not Green Spot...


I have increased phosphate and reduced nitrate in both tanks. I realize this givens another unknown into the experiment, but at the same time I'm trying to get my red plants to show more read, i.e reduce nitrate increase phosphate.

I think it definitely has something to do with light. My office tank gets indirect sunlight from the window in my office. The GDA is growing very strong on the side of the tank that is closets to the window. I'm thinking of putting up blinds.

 

[Bryterlater]

I htink its light. My tank light gets left on too long lately and it really went nuts. All my plants are slow growers.

 

[plantbrain]

While I know this method worked for myself and quite a few other folks, it's always interesting to see if it works for other folks.

My issue is not so much how to get rid of it.
Rather, how to induce it in the first place.
Unlike most aquarium, I do not know how to do that with GDA.

I can inoculate a tank and sometimes get an infestation, but not always.

By doing this, we can learn a lot more about an alga, and stop it before it can grow in our tanks. An ounce of Prevention is worth far more than a pound of Cure.

The main issue is that folks allow the GDA to start to slough off(you can see it do this). It goes into another spore stage and you likely will never see it again.

If you keep wiping, it never makes it to this stages and keeps growing vegetatively rather than going to the next sexual cycle.

This phase in it's life cycle is particularly tough, some on the other hand, are not and do not bother us at all.

The big problem with this method: takes awhile and the tank looks bad you do the final wipe. The other method is simply keep wiping the glass and running a micron filter(say a HOT magnum with a pleated cartiage, a diatom, or other similar filters with lots of current)

If you leave the algae alone for 2-3 weeks, then scrub good, add Excel, do a 60-80% water change, then run the filter right after, then scrub again and couple of more times, and/or do water changes, this should gibve you about a 90-100% effective cure rate.

Lot of work, but the plants like water changes and adding ferts back also.
So you get nice plant health as well and the water is really clear.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[RockysDad]

Humm... 2-3 weeks? Its been about four days now and looking at my tank makes me want to clean it. But I will try to refrain from doing so in order to let my GDA go to the next stage to test this theory. I've heard about this strategy before but never had the patience to try it, till now. We will see...

 

[jmhart]

A little update:

So, it's probably been 10-12 days since I last scraped the "non-scrape" tank (hence forth to be called my office tank). At this point, some of the most recent growing gda has begun to brown. I attribute this to upping my phosphate.

I have orange platies in that tank, and at least one of them has started "munching" (sucking) on the gda, removing it. So far, it's not growing back.

I need to get pictures, I'll try tonight.

 

[jmhart]

I've started documenting my battle here:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1409152#post1409152