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.

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.

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.

"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%.

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.

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.

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.

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

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,