What is causing Staghorn bloom

[Mathfish]

I’m pretty sure I have a staghorn algae outbreak. However I’m not sure what’s causing it. Lights are on 80% for 10 hours. I use easy green and easy iron once a week.  Ammonia, nitrites 0 and nitrates < 5. 
it looks like only my dwarf hair grass and old leaves on a Java fern are affected. 

[B7gwap]

Could be phosphates?

I put a very small amount of Easy Carbon in tanks where I used to get stag horn and clear as a bell for months. I’m not saying that’s causal and there are other things occurring that will definitely be different from your setup (nice looking tank btw) but take it FWIW. 

[Mmiller2001]

Ammonia causes staghorn. If it's a new tank with a developing biofilter, you can get these short periods of excess ammonia. Over feeding will cause little spikes in ammonia too.

[JoeQ]

Flow is also a big contributor. Have you noticed a reduction? When was the last time you cleaned your filter? 

[Mathfish]

@JoeQ I usually clean it every 2 months. More if the prefilter is looking grody. 

you might have a point about flow. I’m using an aquaclear 20 at full power but I use a sponge over the outflow to make it betta friendly. 

@Mmiller2001 my tank is about 4 months old. How long does it usually take to establish a bio filter? I test my water weekly. Ammonia is consistently 0, but I might be leaving algae wafers in my tank to long. 

[JoeQ]

On 3/6/2022 at 6:15 PM, Mathfish said:

@JoeQ I usually clean it every 2 months. More if the prefilter is looking grody. 

you might have a point about flow. I’m using an aquaclear 20 at full power but I use a sponge over the outflow to make it betta friendly. 

@Mmiller2001 my tank is about 4 months old. How long does it usually take to establish a bio filter? I test my water weekly. Ammonia is consistently 0, but I might be leaving algae wafers in my tank to long. 

Math, i have an anglefish and struggled with staghorn as well because of my flow. My solution was pre sponge over the output which got aimed at the front of the tank, now I have nice gentle surface agitation with my plants slowly swaying. You might also benifit by adding an airstone, good luck! 

[Mmiller2001]

On 3/6/2022 at 4:15 PM, Mathfish said:

my tank is about 4 months old. How long does it usually take to establish a bio filter? I test my water weekly. Ammonia is consistently 0, but I might be leaving algae wafers in my tank to long

I would say a good 6 months. Around this time frame, the tank starts to get pretty stable and the tank starts to become more algae resistant. 

I'm not talking ammonia levels that would show up on your test kits. I like to call them micro bursts. A young tank doesn't quite clear ammonia as quickly as a well established tank. This will give certain algae an opportunity to thrive. Do your best to only feed what they eat and not hit the substrate. Double check filter turnover and maintain a clean filter. Don't turbo clean it, just make sure it doesn't have major build up.

Spot treating Excel wrecks staghorn. When I had it, I would spot treat and as the tank matured, it never came back. Keep up on water changes too.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Mmiller2001

[Mathfish]

On 3/6/2022 at 3:24 PM, JoeQ said:

Math, i have an anglefish and struggled with staghorn as well because of my flow. My solution was pre sponge over the output which got aimed at the front of the tank, now I have nice gentle surface agitation with my plants slowly swaying. You might also benifit by adding an airstone, good luck! 

Would you mind posting a picture? I have a pre filter sponge over it too but I haven’t figured out how to direct water flow

[JoeQ]

On 3/6/2022 at 6:27 PM, Mathfish said:

Would you mind posting a picture? I have a pre filter sponge over it too but I haven’t figured out how to direct water flow

I'll post it up in a bit

[JoeQ]

Here is the pre-filter fitted over my output, the grey object to the right of it is a skimmer. For this to work on a aquaclear you would have to cut a strip of sponge and lay it ontop of the outflow just before the water hits the tank. 

Another perspective 

[Mathfish]

@JoeQ thanks for sharing, I think I’m going to add an air stone or nano sponge filter, there just isn’t enough water flow with the baffle 

Thanks everyone for you help and advice, I will start with adding east carbon, adding an air stone and seeing where this goes 

@B7gwap beautiful tank! How do you get your dwarf grass looking so nice? Mine has been struggling from day 1. It’s finally rooted but the leaves are curly and definitely looks more like crab grass than lawn grass

[B7gwap]

@Mathfish thanks for the compliment! 
 

that 29’s setup has a hamburger mattenfilter from flip (will not build another tank without an HMF, they are amazing), substrate eco planted mixed with supernaturals black sand, those rocks are from a local creek and are leeching hardness, pH is about 7.0-7.2, squirt a little easy Carbon when I see more than a little green spot algae, try to do easy green once a week but don’t always remember. Fishies are 8 rummies, 8 rasbora hets, 8 gold tetra, 2 Pearl gourami, 2 male endler’s, couple peppered cories, three banded kuhlis, and some blue shrimp and lots of ramshorn and pond snails that fluctuate.  Little overstocked but the plants do a great job of eating nitrates, especially the giant duckweed that I scoop out and feed to my chickens every week. Light is a cheapie Nicrew Sky LED. Been a great setup so far.