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#1
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Algae Water Bloom!?!
Once again...another algae water bloom. It seems to happen twice a month.
Its weird because it comes and then one day the tank will be clear like nothing was every there. My 55 gallon tank has been setup for abouth 6 months. It has various amounts of plants (slow and fst growers). The substrate has flourite and laterite coverd by an inch of gravel. I inject CO2 through a pressurized system. As a reactor I pump the CO2 through a powerhead (currently looking for a more efficient way). I only run filters at night and my total wattage of light is 160 watt of florescent. My lights are on at 160 watts 8 hoursof the day and 80 watts 1.5 hours doing the start and finish of the photo period. I fertilize my plants twice a week with seachums comperhensive plant supplements and once a week with leaf zone. I also do water changes once a week of about 15%. My alage crew consist of 1 CAE, 5 SAE's, 6 Octs. This type of algae is my only biggest problem. All other algae is pretty much controlled but these blooms seem to happen to often. I was wondering if any one knoew of a way to get rid of these blooms (besides complete darkness, it always seems to be a real pain on my stem plants). I have even gone as far as adding duckweed (Should I have done that..probaly not) to my tank to help. If anyone has any clue to why this is happening or any webstites that talk of this please let me know. I just wanna see my plants and fish again. Thank You. |
#2
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Algae Water Bloom!?!
My 48 gallon tank had some serious bloom a few months back. After checking
everything, phosphate levels blah blah...I nearly went insane finally figured out that it was sunlight coming in from the one end of the tank. After reducing the time that the lights were on from 14 hours to 12 hours and blocking the one sunlit side off with a piece of black panel, used a water clearer chemical and put fine floss in the filter to get out the dead suspended algae and it it went away. If you don't have sunlight coming in then that's no help to you then Dave. "B." wrote in message ... Once again...another algae water bloom. It seems to happen twice a month. Its weird because it comes and then one day the tank will be clear like nothing was every there. My 55 gallon tank has been setup for abouth 6 months. It has various amounts of plants (slow and fst growers). The substrate has flourite and laterite coverd by an inch of gravel. I inject CO2 through a pressurized system. As a reactor I pump the CO2 through a powerhead (currently looking for a more efficient way). I only run filters at night and my total wattage of light is 160 watt of florescent. My lights are on at 160 watts 8 hoursof the day and 80 watts 1.5 hours doing the start and finish of the photo period. I fertilize my plants twice a week with seachums comperhensive plant supplements and once a week with leaf zone. I also do water changes once a week of about 15%. My alage crew consist of 1 CAE, 5 SAE's, 6 Octs. This type of algae is my only biggest problem. All other algae is pretty much controlled but these blooms seem to happen to often. I was wondering if any one knoew of a way to get rid of these blooms (besides complete darkness, it always seems to be a real pain on my stem plants). I have even gone as far as adding duckweed (Should I have done that..probaly not) to my tank to help. If anyone has any clue to why this is happening or any webstites that talk of this please let me know. I just wanna see my plants and fish again. Thank You. |
#3
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Algae Water Bloom!?!
I was just about to bring "SUNLIGHT" up.
"Dave M. Picklyk" wrote in message ... My 48 gallon tank had some serious bloom a few months back. After checking everything, phosphate levels blah blah...I nearly went insane finally figured out that it was sunlight coming in from the one end of the tank. After reducing the time that the lights were on from 14 hours to 12 hours and blocking the one sunlit side off with a piece of black panel, used a water clearer chemical and put fine floss in the filter to get out the dead suspended algae and it it went away. If you don't have sunlight coming in then that's no help to you then Dave. "B." wrote in message ... Once again...another algae water bloom. It seems to happen twice a month. Its weird because it comes and then one day the tank will be clear like nothing was every there. My 55 gallon tank has been setup for abouth 6 months. It has various amounts of plants (slow and fst growers). The substrate has flourite and laterite coverd by an inch of gravel. I inject CO2 through a pressurized system. As a reactor I pump the CO2 through a powerhead (currently looking for a more efficient way). I only run filters at night and my total wattage of light is 160 watt of florescent. My lights are on at 160 watts 8 hoursof the day and 80 watts 1.5 hours doing the start and finish of the photo period. I fertilize my plants twice a week with seachums comperhensive plant supplements and once a week with leaf zone. I also do water changes once a week of about 15%. My alage crew consist of 1 CAE, 5 SAE's, 6 Octs. This type of algae is my only biggest problem. All other algae is pretty much controlled but these blooms seem to happen to often. I was wondering if any one knoew of a way to get rid of these blooms (besides complete darkness, it always seems to be a real pain on my stem plants). I have even gone as far as adding duckweed (Should I have done that..probaly not) to my tank to help. If anyone has any clue to why this is happening or any webstites that talk of this please let me know. I just wanna see my plants and fish again. Thank You. |
#4
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Algae Water Bloom!?!
"B." wrote:
Once again...another algae water bloom. It seems to happen twice a month. Several respondants sense there may be a recurring cause for your recurring bloom. As a reactor I pump the CO2 through a powerhead (currently looking for a more efficient way). I only run filters at night and my total wattage of light is 160 watt of florescent. My lights are on at 160 watts 8 hoursof the day and 80 watts 1.5 hours doing the start and finish of the photo period. I fertilize my plants twice a week with seachums comperhensive plant supplements and once a week with leaf zone. I also do water changes once a week of about 15%. You've got several recurring events here, not all of them necessary. Try simplifying your system to see what changes that brings about, then restore the complexities if you believe them necessary. The goal is to eliminate periodicity in your maintenance and lighting, to see how that impacts the periodic blooms. Specifically: 1. Leave the filters on 24 hours. 2. Go to a simple 12 on/12 off light schedule. If you want to recreate dawn and dusk to reduce fish stress from abrupt lighting, keep them to 15 minutes. I'm trying to eliminate lighting issues and maximize plant photosynthesis. 3. Although this is not likely your cause, consider mixing up all your ferts into a weekly batch, then adding 1/7 per day. At least the daily regimen will make it harder to forget! 4. Finally, more fast growing stem plants never hurts. We are assuming that you are fighting ALGAE blooms (green water). If we were talking periodic BACTERIAL blooms (milky grey or white water), the most common cause is when people periodically clean their bio filter sponges in tap water or disturb dirty substrates in under-planted tanks. In that case: A. Clean sponges and everything else in aquarium water, not tap water. NEVER clean bio filtration material in tap water! B. Use Amquel or Prime if you are not already. If you use a Python, add enough Amquel/Prime for the WHOLE TANK, not just the 15%. |
#5
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Algae Water Bloom!?!
Thanks you guys and gals for all the tips and comments. I now think that
the sunlight might be playing an effect on the tank. About 5 hours before the lights go on the tank gets partial sunlight from a stained glass window. This light is not bright but could be a reason for the bloom. I have probaly about a total of 15 fish, mostly tetras. I feed them probaly once every three days and when i do feed them that is probaly not enough. I will change my light schedule to acomadate and i will also run the filter 24/7. this will probaly help. I noticed how Leigh said to get Daphinas. Where do you get these at live. I have gotten frozen ones but not live ones. Where can I aquire this (Specifically in san diego if anyone knows). My next mission is to get the dephinas and block the sunlight and see if the algae goes away. I hope it does, becuse the water is really GreeN...UGGHH!!. Thanks once again. |
#6
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Algae Water Bloom!?!
I noticed how Leigh said to get Daphinas. Where do
you get these at live. Let me know if you get some, I need some too. I'm in bay area. |
#7
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Algae Water Bloom!?!
probaly about a total of 15 fish, mostly tetras. I feed them probaly once
every three days and when i do feed them that is probaly not enough. I will change my light schedule to acomadate and i will also run the filter 24/7. this will probaly help. I noticed how Leigh said to get Daphinas. Where do you get these at live. I have gotten frozen ones but not live ones. Where can I aquire this (Specifically in san diego if anyone knows). My next You should get the moina type. Theese tolerates tropical temperatures and can be held in very high density. This makes them perfect for the job. Try www.aquabid.com , or do a search for "moina culture sale" or something allong that alley. SEE YA !!! Malawi, The Fisher King - Ruler Of The World Conquering the world for YOU since 1972. Remove nospam to mail me. |
#8
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Algae Water Bloom!?!
Hi, this is an interesting topic to me as I currently have the same
problem with my 38 gallon tank - set up last summer. The green water problem was intermittent until recently when I added another 55 watts of light. Now the tank is constantly "greening" up on me. I have planted a ton of stem plants... but until they grow up I think the problem will persist. I "diatom" the tank when it gets really bad. I seem to get an algae bloom whenever I mess with the tank by planting new plants. Last weekend I moved some plants around and planted some more stem plants and BOOM ...algae bloom. I attribute it (may not be correct) to uprooting some Jobe plant spikes I initially put in the tank. Also I get a bloom whenever I add plant food to the water column. What is the connection between an overstocked tank and green water? (Leigh's post earlier in thread). My tank is overstocked, I think. I am hoping the additional fish will increase my nitrates, which are very low (but ammonia and nitrites are zero, so I think the tank is fully cycled). I think the reason the nitrates are so low is that I have been doing frequent water changes (about 1/3 of the tank) every week. This is because the tank is a tall..and I can't reach the bottom of it unless I dump 1/3 of the water out...and I have been putting in a lot of plants the last few months. Now the tank is pretty fully planted - just waiting for the stem plants to grow and the green to clear. If anyone from the Bay Area (Calif) is interested in going in on some Daphnia together please e-mail me. Cindy |
#9
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Algae Water Bloom!?!
Hi Leigh,
I have 110 watts over a 38 tall with a CO2/yeast jug set up late Dec. I hadn't thought of the fertilizer in the water column. My nitrate is difficult to quantify...zero or very nearly judging by the shade of yellow. I have 4 harlequin rasboras, 2 albino cory cats, 2 skunk loaches, 1 dwarf clown pleco, 3 upside-down catfish, 4 black mollies (2 adult, 2 medium fry) and 3 ottos. Does the diatom filter remove nitirifying bacteria? Thanks, |
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