RED ALGAE
 

(posted in all capitols to see if I could get a Hank-ing....testing to
see what his parameters need to be...)

Okay....20 Gal High tank, 45 watts of light. About weekly 20% water
changes. I am starting to get some red algae on the front glass...Ive
never seen this before...whats going on?

Tank is moderately planted...

Rich

RED ALGAE
 

Rich Conley wrote in message ...
(posted in all capitols to see if I could get a Hank-ing....testing to
see what his parameters need to be...)

Okay....20 Gal High tank, 45 watts of light. About weekly 20% water
changes. I am starting to get some red algae on the front glass...Ive
never seen this before...whats going on?

Tank is moderately planted...

Rich

CO2 added? If so then you don't have enough CO2(is it DIY?). Adding
nutrients that the plants need to grow will also help.

If not, add it or remove all the BBA you can, plant heavily, add SAE's
and shrimps.
You can blame the source but the fact of the matter is that if not
BBA, then some other algae would take it's place.

Good dense plant growth= no algae. So give the plants what they need
to grow. Herbivores will put dents in mild cases but they are mainly
icing on the cake.

Regards,
Tom Barr

RED ALGAE
 

Its not a BBA...its like a slime almost....or a flat type of algae on the front glass...

" wrote:

Rich Conley wrote in message ...
(posted in all capitols to see if I could get a Hank-ing....testing to
see what his parameters need to be...)

Okay....20 Gal High tank, 45 watts of light. About weekly 20% water
changes. I am starting to get some red algae on the front glass...Ive
never seen this before...whats going on?

Tank is moderately planted...

Rich

CO2 added? If so then you don't have enough CO2(is it DIY?). Adding
nutrients that the plants need to grow will also help.

If not, add it or remove all the BBA you can, plant heavily, add SAE's
and shrimps.
You can blame the source but the fact of the matter is that if not
BBA, then some other algae would take it's place.

Good dense plant growth= no algae. So give the plants what they need
to grow. Herbivores will put dents in mild cases but they are mainly
icing on the cake.

Regards,
Tom Barr

RED ALGAE
 

I have a great deal of red algae at the moment in one of small tanks....It
is brush like and velvelty when in the tank - when its out of the tank its
slimy between the fingers - its almost a reddish purple in colour. When it
is dried in sunlight it goes a vivid purple colour.

Mine started when I switched the CO2 off........as I am moving evderything
to a larger planted tank and the CO2 unit had to be moved. Suddenly there
was excess Nitrates etc and the plant food (in the case of CO2) was suddenly
shut off - the algae started then and just took off even to the point of
clogging the internal filter.

I have not managed to get rid of it yet - nothing eats it (but I have not
tried Ottos yet - and probably won't bother now). Chemicals will not atack
it (that is none of the algae chemicals that I have tried). However, when it
covers everything it does look quite nice.

Martin

RED ALGAE
 

Rich Conley wrote in message ...
Its not a BBA...its like a slime almost....or a flat type of algae on the front glass...

So now it's red, flat and slimey?
Are you sure it's not Blue Green Algae(BGA)? Or Cyanobacteria as some
enjoy calling it. It's not red in color as a rule in FW.
There are only two species of red's that commony occur in FW plant
tanks.
BBA and Staghornm, both are easy to see the branches and filaments.

If this sounds like the BGA algae, then a blackout is the best method
to get rid of it. Remove all you can and scrape the gravel line etc
with a plastic credit card etc. Vacuum up, use a net etc to remove all
you can first.
Trim tank, trim down any plants near the water surface. Clean filter
etc.

Then do a 50% water change, turn of the light and CO2. Cover so that
100% of the light does not get in. Add enough KNO3 to get 5-10ppm of
NO3. Wait three days.
Remove cover, do water change again, add KNO3 back and keep up on CO2
and nutrients in the future. It will not come back if you do this.

Regards,
Tom Barr