i love the look of a planted tank...and ive enjoyed mine alot...but this battle with algea is just killing me...ive battled black beard, hair, and green slime algea since the get...not all at the same time but i have never had this tank not have some type of algea...about a month ago i decided to do the bleach solution and worked good...i had some die off and as soon as the tank is filling out again beard algea comes back...and alot worse!!...i mean i woke up one day and it was everywhere...i coudnt believe it...i dont know what else to do...its a 55 gal with 108 watts of nove extreme t5ho...co2...eco-complete...im lost already...dont know what else to do...about to just rip everything out and quit...i dose with flourish and sometimes dose ecxel for the algea...pro's help me out...what should i do...
about to quit...so fustrated!!
- Thread starter 1SiCk Mk3
- Start date
Maybe try a different light setting.It might be too high.Is your tank in front of a window or gets alot of sun?That could also be another reason.Others may provide better info though...
Dont mean to hi jack but Im on the same boat as you.Im really having a algea problem with my 55 gallon also.With t5 ho light,pressure co2 and eco-complete to and seem like the algea doesnt seem to go away either even after the bleach bath to.
with planted tanks everything needs to be balanced light co2 and FERTZ. with flourish do you dose the hole line? or just flourish? there maybe one or two specific fertz you are missing. a get a test kit and check all of them iron natrates and all that. there is good stickies on algea if you are only getting one form of it look at the stickies and there is a link that has ways to remove that algea and what the usual reason it starts to grow. hope that helps out.
having algea is part of a planted tank thats what i think makes it more fun then normal is because it is always changing somtimes bad and somtimes good. hope you get it figured out
having algea is part of a planted tank thats what i think makes it more fun then normal is because it is always changing somtimes bad and somtimes good. hope you get it figured out
low co2 is pretty much the cause of all algae. how much co2 are you running? are you using a drop checker to monitor you co2 levels?
yea im using a drop checker...im giving it about 2-3 bubbles per second..i also only dose flourish and flourish ecxel....nothing else...i dont mind a lil bit of algea from time to time...i know it comes with the territory...but its been so bad...i also use r/o water...so i dont know what else it could be
How long do you leave your lights on?
More than 8 hours in a single period will accelerate algae growth..
Other then that, if you have a unlevel combination of Light, Nutrients, and Co2 - you will also have this problem.. but it looks like you've got most of that properly taken care of...
Could also be your plant selection.. you might have one 'overpowering' plant that is outcompeting the 3 sources of photosynthesis from the other plants..
More than 8 hours in a single period will accelerate algae growth..
Other then that, if you have a unlevel combination of Light, Nutrients, and Co2 - you will also have this problem.. but it looks like you've got most of that properly taken care of...
Could also be your plant selection.. you might have one 'overpowering' plant that is outcompeting the 3 sources of photosynthesis from the other plants..
i have had this problem with my t-5's on my indoor pond....i raised the lights up a bit and increased C02 and it went away!...now i have a new problem where my plants are growing so fast I have to trim weekly
SO, try raising the lights up a bit more, or as others said turn them off sooner...its best if you keep a log as to what is happening and you soon will be rewarded with beauty they YOU created.
DOug
SO, try raising the lights up a bit more, or as others said turn them off sooner...its best if you keep a log as to what is happening and you soon will be rewarded with beauty they YOU created.
DOug
1SiCk Mk3;2136883; said:
That could be your problem, not enough macros. Flourish is best for dosing micro nutrients and trace elements and only provides a very small amount of macro nutrients. Excel only provides Carbon, which is kind of unnecessary if you're running CO2. If your plants are not getting enough N, P, or K then they're not going to grow enough to out-compete the algae. Depending on how heavily stocked your tank is and how much/often you feed, I'd consider some sort of NPK dosing schedule.