asking some guidance on my algae

[Ruud]

Hello, 

Calling the wisdom of this forum in guiding me in some directions on how to battle my algae 

Tank is a 100 liter tank, stocked with 1 Gourami, 1 Swordtail, 1 Molly, 10 cardinal tetras, 6 sterbai cories, one Oto and 2 snails. Filtration is done by a pair of Aquaclear HOB's (a 610 and a 30) and my light is a Nicer classic led with 1910LM that is currently up 6 hours a day. Soil is Aquagro plants and shrimp soil.

I change about 30% water on a weekly basis and add fertilizer I buy from a LFS (I am in Spain). My current water parameters are: 

NO3 - 10

NO2 - 0

GH > 14

KH 10

PH 7.5

Yes I have very hard water here in Spain 

I am sharing below images so you can see the issues I have. On the wood I have brown algae which has subbed down quite a bit since I toned down the light from 8 to 6 hours and started putting fertilizer in weekly. Stems of my sword are melting down, there is a hard type of build up on some of the leaves and some green algae. I think the pics speak for itself. 

 

 

So question is - how do I battle this the best way. Is this a matter of less light or more light, or better quality light (suggestions). Do I need to up my water changes, or add more nutrients. I do fully admit I do not understand the whole algae thing and balance too much but Its taking away from my pleasure of the tank, and I have tank envy when I see other low tech tanks on youtube that look marvelous. 

Thank so much, any help or suggestion is appreciated

Ruud 

Barcelona, Spain. 

Edited November 16, 2021 by Ruud

[Ruud]

I forgot to add, the tank contains two amazon Swords, though I have trimmed one down pretty extensively, 1 Anubis and 1 java fern. The tank is 1 year old and in that year the amazon swords grew a lot but the java fern actually has become smaller it seems looking at old fotos. 

[Cys aquatics]

the brown algae on the wood is called black beard algae, the way that i would recommend to combat that is by taking out the drift wood and putting hydrogen peroxide on it until the brown algae turns red and then you can scrape it off.

[Ruud]

Thank you, I will give that a try. 

In general I notice my plants are not thriving and I don't know why or what I can do to restore the balance in the aquarium? Can anyone of the brilliant fish keeper minds provide some guidance?

Thank you

Ruud 

[DaveO]

After cleaning up the BBA as best you can, try to maintain a constant 20 ppm of nitrate and lengthen the light period to 8 or 9 hours. 

[Ruud]

Thanks! Do you mean I don't have sufficient waste in my aquarium as is? 

 

 

[PineSong]

Forum member @Streetwise as well as some others have described a "dual siesta" system of breaking up your total hours of light into two periods with a resting period in between. As I understand it, plants utilize light better than algae for up to 5 hours, but then plants slow down on the light uptake and the algae keeps using it. By making your light periods 5 hours or less and allowing them to rest in between, you are giving your plants an edge over the algae. Here is a thread about it:

I am not expert enough to make any other recommendations and look forward to reading others' advice because I am also unhappy with the amount of black beard algae in my tank.

 

[Ruud]

Thanks! I forgot to mention that but I allready have this in place. My tank is currently lighted between 11-14 and 1730-2100.

I will pull out the wood and clean it as much as I can. Thinking as well to add more plants or at least put in a new Java fern and see if that helps as well. 

[PedroPete]

Hello, Ruud! I’m in BCN, too.
 

Good feedback so far. Hydrogen peroxide or liquid carbon products can be used to remove black beard algae (BBA). Also a few days without light might help the process. I haven’t had the issue at home, but my tanks at the school where I teach have struggled with it - primarily the tanks with Java fern. I have had much better results here with stem plants, floaters, and faster growing plants and keeping higher amounts of nitrates in the water. And I try to have a lot of plant mass relative to fish mass. I agree water changes can be helpful in controlling future algae outbreaks…but being careful to keep enough nitrates to help support plant growth. I also keep Amano shrimp (gamba japonica) and Nerite snails in all my tanks but I think they’re better at controlling other algae over BBA.

keep us posted 🙂

[Ruud]

Hi Pedro!

Good to see someone close by on here!! Let me send you a personal message as I have some local questions.

I have added more air to the tank as well for now, thinking more oxygen and more flow will help battle algae as well and potentially help plants grow. 

Cheers

Ruud

[Patrick_G]

Here’s how I deal with algae

-less light. I sounds like you might be ok with the six hours but might actually need a bit more to keep the plants growing.

-A clean up crew of Amano Shrimp and Otocinclus. These help with some types of algae but might not eat the BBA.

-More plants! This really seems to help the plants outcompete the algae. 

-Manual removal with a scraper or toothbrush. In the case of BBA you might want to remove the plants and hardscape before cleaning them so you don’t spread the algae.

-A liquid carbon product can be used to spot treat the algae or dosed in the entire tank. You could also remove the plants and hardscape and dip in a dilute solution of liquid carbon. 

[Ruud]

Thanks Patrick, 

My current plan is

- scrape the wood with a brush

- add fast growing plants instead of the Java which seems to be struggling a lot

- Up the air (done) 

- I already have two small Otto's but they struggle to grow somehow, don't see them helping much. My water is too hard for shrimp I am afraid

[Patrick_G]

@Ruud sound like a good plan. The slow growers like Java Fern and Anubias seem to be the plants that attract BBA in my tanks. It’s can be frustrating but it is possible to get ahead of it.