save my anubias

[WyldFya]

I just checked my nitrates. First time I have checked in a while and I was surprised (probably shouldn't be I had exams the last couple of weeks so the tank was not exactly a priority) to see they were pushing 25 mg/l. I normally do ~40% water changes. The water changes happen very regulary till about two weeks before an exam. The algae in the picture does not look anything like the algae I have.
I have always really liked jungle val, how many of them would I need for my 90 to help control phosphates. I always thought they were a moderate to high light plant.

The bigger issue you should look at is your actual nutrient levels. Phosphates aren't going to be the cause of either brown or green algae. Also, many municipals have phosphates in the water, and when doing water changes you can actually damage your balance of nutrients more. What kind of substrate do you have.

 

[Charney]

i have 50 pounds of pool filter sand, two medium sized peices of drift wood with the anubias on it, one large piece of drift wood with a java fern and a pile of lava/tuffa rocks.

 

[guppyangelram]

I have a beautiful monster anubias that is the center piece of my mixed cichlid tank. Its a 90 gallon lightly planted tank with three to four inch fish which consist of four different types of parrot fish, two oscars, and a balloon green terror (yes this is a grow out tank not the permanent tank). I recently moved and now the tank is in a room that gets lots of natural sun light and the algae growth is out of control especially on the plants. I have been trying to use an API algae product and scraping. It is not working well at all. My anubias looks awful. I just got twelve trap door snails. I am pretty sure they will be dead soon. The fish will not let the snails come out of their shells. Do you have any recommendations? I am considering ordering a bunch of bushy nose plecos, but do not really have the money to ship fish now. Any advise is appreciated thanks.

I think the problem is very simple. You moved the tank to a area that gets lots of light! Light and nutrients from "large" messy cichlids = algae.Period.
Yes it sounds to me like it's out of balance.It it were me i would try to limit lighting to only a few hours a day and cut the feeding of fish back and add lots of hornwort,any larger Val species,duck weed and any other floating plant i could find and try to find a clean up crew that can live with your other fish. Adult Bristle nose Pleco ect? After the algae levels out you can remove some of the additional plants if you don't like them.Anubias can live thru a lot and if it's not rotting and stays firm it's fine, algae and all.Anubias will live in very low light but will thrive with higher light.My 2 cents.
Best Wishes

 

[WyldFya]

I think the problem is very simple. You moved the tank to a area that gets lots of light! Light and nutrients from "large" messy cichlids = algae.Period.
Yes it sounds to me like it's out of balance.It it were me i would try to limit lighting to only a few hours a day and cut the feeding of fish back and add lots of hornwort,any larger Val species,duck weed and any other floating plant i could find and try to find a clean up crew that can live with your other fish. Adult Bristle nose Pleco ect? After the algae levels out you can remove some of the additional plants if you don't like them.Anubias can live thru a lot and if it's not rotting and stays firm it's fine, algae and all.Anubias will live in very low light but will thrive with higher light.My 2 cents.
Best Wishes

Adding things just because you think they will solve a problem is never a good choice. It is always better to find the problem and fix that rather than adding things blindly. In the case of green algae, it will be present in any planted tank, so long as the tank is healthy enough to grow plants. For brown algae, however, it is not going to be caused by too much light. It like some low light plants cannot handle moderate lighting, and will cease to grow.

 

[guppyangelram]

Adding things just because you think they will solve a problem is never a good choice. It is always better to find the problem and fix that rather than adding things blindly. In the case of green algae, it will be present in any planted tank, so long as the tank is healthy enough to grow plants. For brown algae, however, it is not going to be caused by too much light. It like some low light plants cannot handle moderate lighting, and will cease to grow.

The appointed expert has spoken! I will bow out

 

[Charney]

I was looking at the tank and thinking back to the algae progression. There defiantly is brown algae in the tank but I would say the majority of the algae especially on the class as been green. Do not know if that helps

 

[WyldFya]

Green algae in a planted tank is unfortunately inevitable. It is a sign that the parameters are right for growing plants. So it isn't a bad thing, but it isn't the best looking. I find the only fish that is really effective at removal of green algae is otocinclus. Even bristlenose can't keep up with this.

 

[dafrimpster]

I would try SeaChem Excel. Start with a mild dose and go from there. The picture sure looks like some BBA is present but hard to tell in blurry pics. If you want more info on the Excel method go to PLantedtank.net or one of the other aquatic plant forums and do a search for excel. This might fix your problem. If it returns you will need to identify the source and eliminate it. If it doesn't return maybe this is a result of the tank move causing a temporary imbalance in your system

 

[Cohazard]

I think the problem is very simple. You moved the tank to a area that gets lots of light! Light and nutrients from "large" messy cichlids = algae.Period.
Yes it sounds to me like it's out of balance.It it were me i would try to limit lighting to only a few hours a day and cut the feeding of fish back and add lots of hornwort,any larger Val species,duck weed and any other floating plant i could find and try to find a clean up crew that can live with your other fish. Adult Bristle nose Pleco ect? After the algae levels out you can remove some of the additional plants if you don't like them.Anubias can live thru a lot and if it's not rotting and stays firm it's fine, algae and all.Anubias will live in very low light but will thrive with higher light.My 2 cents.
Best Wishes

That's good and sound advice. One of the many routes one could go to fix the problem. There is no 'one' answer to this problem.

The bigger issue you should look at is your actual nutrient levels. Phosphates aren't going to be the cause of either brown or green algae. Also, many municipals have phosphates in the water, and when doing water changes you can actually damage your balance of nutrients more. What kind of substrate do you have.

So, if it isn't phosphates, and you put down my advice that it's high nitrates (which I made an educated guess that they were high, before he even told us he had high nitrates/ plus, yes, nitrates do cause algae, including brown and green), and potassium does not cause algae (that covers the macros N,P,K), what nutrients do you think is causing the problem?

At first I thought it might be silicates from the sand, but this is an established system that did not have a brown algae problem prior to the move, and the lighting level has stayed the same.

 

[Charney]

Cohazard you reminded me of something I did not mention. When I moved the tank I switched from very fine gravel to this pool filter sand. Sorry I did not include that earlier you just brought it to my attention. Everything else in the tank stayed the same. There has never been any detectable ammonia and the pH is ~7.2. Also the tank was moved around the end of July.