Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'algae bloom'.
Found 7 results
-
Has anyone ever experienced an algae bloom days after adding liquid fert? It had happened twice to me in my older tank with a kit light. Do you think it’s an issue with plants not being able to absorb the nutrients because of the lighting? I ordered two Finnex stingrays 2’s for my 20 gallons so we’ll see if it happens again. According to the site they should provide Medium/High lighting to a 20 gal. -
My aquarium has recently gotten a bit cloudier each day with a bit of a green tint. There’s a lot of algae I have to wipe from the glass, including some spot algae that’s very difficult to wipe off. I’m running a 30 gallon hang-on-back Marineland filter on a 29-gallon. I’ve heard some people suggesting using the Mini Green Killing Machine. Does anyone have any tips, whether it’s to use that or any other methods? I would really appreciate any help. Thanks! -
Hello, I have a 75g that I recently did a 25% (roughly) water change on. It kick started an algae bloom, and I am not sure what to do. Usually what I do is just darken out the tank and hope for the best. But I am afraid that if I do that, and all of the algae abruptly dies, I will have a major ammonia spike. I have a young Oscar in there at the moment, and I know they're highly sensitive to ammonia. Am I overthinking this, and should just go ahead with a black out? Or are there any other routes I can take to clear this up? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! -
I understand that these things take time but my frustration is quickly getting the best of me. The Instagram pics and videos of beautiful algae free tanks doesnt help either... My tank is cycled but I am fighting what feels like a losing battle to both diatom algae and now hair algae. I have two Oto Catfish hard at work on the diatom and I have recently cut back my light to 8 hrs. I don't want to take anything out to put chemicals on but this is getting ridiculous. I'd love some help on what else to do. If "be patient and stay the course" is the best option that is totally fine. Other things: should I get something to eat the hair algae? Should I get more plants to help combat the nutrients that algae is taking in? Should I just enjoy the messy beauty of my tank? Pics below of my tank (20g Innovative Marine). Thanks in advance! -
I have seen quite a few threads concerning a wide variety of algae, namely black beard algae (bba) and green spot algae (gsa). So i wanted to open up a discussion of algae, what are the positives and negatives of having algae in your tank. Why is bba and gsa so hard to get rid of. What causes and cures it. In my opinion algae is sorta like a bonus critter, akin to pest snails ( who wouldnt want a free, bonus algae eating invertebrate that tagged along for the ride when purchasing an aquarium plant ). Or the lowly yet somewhat disgusting detritus worms squiggling around the bucket from your water change. They are a bonus critter completely harmless to fish and plants that eat detritus, that stuff you spend time sucking up and out of your tank. I see them as a bonus, just like algae, all of these so called pests help complete and maintain your ecosystem in a box. Which is what an aquarium actually is, a small self contained ecosystem. If however you are set to fight the good fight against algae, or curb the growth of a particular strain of algae. The best to pieces of general advice i can give is #1 dont panic. Algae is a natural organism that helps remove nitrates and other organic waste in your ecosystem. It will not directly harm fish or plants, but if left unchecked can indirectly harm plants by covering leaves to the point of not receiving light. Basically do not go so far as to harm your existing ecosystem of fish and plants in an attempt to rid yourself of it. Algae is a part of life in an aquarium. #2 when combating algae be patient. As you apply treatments and make adjustments to your water chemistries it will take time to see results. Dont expect 24 hour miracles. I have fought with a bba explosion before, and it took nearly 2 weeks to see the results from some of the adjustments i made. The stuff grows quickly it seems, but dies very slowly. Give time for treatments to work before you decide it isnt working and move on to more extreme measures that could harm your ecosystem. Those are my thoughts, please add content to this thread to help everyone enjoy this wonderful hobby, instead of fretting the sometimes unavoidable but curable factors involved. Thank you for you time.- 10 replies
-
- 9
-
-
- algae bloom
- algae control
- (and 2 more)
-
I am still left scratching my head after many weeks. I have a 60 gallon tank about 14" depth, with Eco-complete substrate and dwarf hairgrass planted in the distribution as seen below. I put root tabs in about 1 month ago and have been dosing with Easy green liquid fertilizer weekly (6 spritzes). I have about 10 (put in 15 but can now only find 10) amano shrimp and 4 nerite snails as my "clean up crew" so far. I have one guppy and 3 glo-fish tetras. I do about a 20% water exchange every week. If I go much longer time period between vacuuming up the algae it gets REALLY BAD. I have a Fluval 2.0 light that I have on about 80% for 6 hours. During the water exchange I try to vacuum up as much of the hair algae as possible, but yet within about 1 week, the hair algae comes back with a vengeance. With that much algae on the hairgrass, I'm not sure that they will spread and are even looking like they are dying. I put in the hairgrass about 2weeks before Thanksgiving and am in this repeating cycle. They seem to have a more difficult type rooting, possibly because of the bigger substrate size but also am concerned the algae is blocking their ability to get the light. I am considering using the Flourish Excel but was wondering if there is a way to control the algae more "naturally." What am I doing wrong? Lower light time? Less intense light? Just try to Flourish Excel? Add in another member to the clean up crew? What do you guys think? HEEELLLLPPP!!!! Algae Infested Tank Owner -
This definitely looks like green algae water right? I did 1 week of no lights with 1 day of a short light period to not starve the plants i want. I'm in the middle of week two and I've since added excel paired with no lights to help combat it but it's tough. I also added purigen to the filter to see if it was a bacterial bloom and hoped that would help. When the tank was clear, it got about 8-9 hours of light and co2..which I'm not entirely sure how to measure. The bubble counter is about 1.5 bubbles/second and by the end of the day the co2 liquid was on the light side of green. I used to dose ferts while the water was clear, about 1 pump twice a week of easy green, but I've also stopped dosing ferts once it got cloudy. I've performed 2 water changes in the past two weeks. Current parameters are 0-0-5. Does anyone have any suggestions or should i continue the black out excel method and do another water change at the end of the week? Or maybe it is a bacterial bloom and i just need to wait it out. I couldn't find any bodies that may have caused it, but i really can't think of anything i missed. I'm super grateful for all suggestions.
