help - plants losing out to algae

[the_deeb]

I initially called it red beard algae but I think brush alage is more accurate

 

[Tequila]

In my experince strong Algae growth may it be green, brown, brownish red & hair comes from over feeding which through one means or another puts too many nutrinents in the water that your plants cannot use. Decrease the amount you feed your fish, do an extra water change or two and maybe get a Pleco.

 

[WyldFya]

Red alga are not caused by the presence of excessive nitrogen generally. These alga generally are generally caused by excessive phosphates. Brown alga is generally a sign of weak lighting, or excessive silicates. A pleco is a poor solution for alga in general as well, as they will just provide a large quantity of nitrogen for the alga to grow from.

 

[the_deeb]

I'm going to be placing a big al's order in the next few days - I'll pick up a phosphate test kit. I also agree that the lighting could do with an upgrade - the black background and black substrate make the whole tank look quite dark.

Are there any common culprits for excessive phosphates or silicates? I'm using estes as my substrate so that should be inert. I do have some lava rock in the submerged part of my sump - could that be a problem?

The tank gets 50% water changed/week. I guess the problem could also be my tap water.

 

[donaldastwood]

Neither will eat brush or red alga.

Verry true. I did this a while back and the algae is still there!!

But what i did find was that adding a little saly to your aquarium after a few large weekly water changes (1/2 tank) tamed the algae. But unless you take out all of the infected substrate, rocks, plants etc and give them all a light bleach solution bath you never fully get rid of the algae.

 

[moxxommox]

put more plants in + remove your carbon (if you have it)

 

[WyldFya]

If you are running estes, there shouldn't be any silicates present. For the brown alga, it is likely lighting. What kind of lighting do you have? For the red alga, just dose with flourish excel.

 

[the_deeb]

I currently have 110W of CF lighting (AHsupply kit so the reflectors are good). The tank is only 18" deep and a lot of the plants are on driftwood so they are probably only about 10" from the surface.

So you suggest I just dose with 2 times the regular dose of flourish excell? Could this have any adverse effects on the fish? How long should the treatment be?

 

[WyldFya]

You shouldn't have any brown alga... that is very strange. You must have an excessive source of silicates. The excel will affect some fish, and some plants in a negative way, but that is uncommon.

 

[ChrisGray]

if yo have any kind of beard algae the best way to get rid of it is to do several 50% water changes a week to your tank and fill back up with R/O water. this will eventually kill off the algae and many other kinds too. make sure any fish in the tank will be able to handle the ph changf though