$*#&$ Algae

[Xr4tiCrew]

Starting to get very frustrated with algae in my tank and not sure what direction to go. I am about ready to rip out every plant with the exception of my water sprite and tiger lotus. Everything else is being taken over by algae and I think it's combination of hair and black beard algae. I do a water change one a week and was dosing with EG ( but have stopped that the last two weeks just to see if I see an improvement), running my Co-Op light 10 hours a day and it's down 3 clicks from the highest setting. Any suggestions/thoughts would be greatly appreciated. 

[JoeQ]

As far as your plants go, algea only grows on unhealthy growth. Over fertalize, keeping your plants healthy will go a long way in the fight against algea covered plants.

Edited April 16, 2023 by JoeQ

[Fish Folk]

Maybe narrow that photo period to 8 hrs. Add more plants.

In the end, some algae is par for aquatics. Best way to get zero algae is to go heavy with plants that use up available nutrients, and add a few Amano shrimp. Do not overstock. Nitrates in excess of 40 ppm that remain unused by plants will invariably sponsor algae.

[Lennie]

Well, in all my tanks, I never go above 7 hours. I would start from there first. I've personally seen algae on anything above 7 hours.

In my experience the stuff that works:

Have fast growers like hornwort or elodea besides all the plants you like. Floating plants work too but they block light, so it would depend on whether u keep plants that want that high light or not. Hornwort and elodea are amazing at keeping algae under control by sucking all excess nutrients very fast.

Place the slow grower low light demanding plants like anubias in shadowy areas where it barely sees light. It works wonders to me. It gives like a new leaf once a month and flowers. Under light, direct algae.

Keep algae eater team combination. If your tank size allows it, def keep SAE. They are amazing at eating hairy types of algae from my limited experience so far. I've seen rosy barbs constantly picking on hairy type stuff too. Something like snails+ SAE+ otos+ borneos/hillstreams+ shrimp combination works great. 

Very personal opinion on this, but if you have a nice amount of fish stock, I wouldn't dose N to the tank. I don't understand the point of dosing N if the tank has a stock and if you are not running a high tech tank. I just like having active substrate, so plants can get their N from roots, water column feeders get theirs from the live stock anyway. I personally like keeping N as low as possible. I dose Tropica Premium Nutrition which does not have P or N. Just K and trace elements. I dose extra potassium as well.

There have been two times Ive seen a slight growth of bba on my bacopas. Directly threw them to the trash. Treating plants with RR, excel, etc might work, but they also require money and time. Time to shop, removing plants, quarantine them for hours in a tub, planting them again, and observing etc. So you should consider that two options here. Would you be willing to spend more on new plants, or spend some money and time to fix what you have on hand. But let's be real, you would quarantine the new plants through RR or any other dip methods anyway usually. 

In case u decide to buy new plants, even it is pricey, heavily planting from the start works the best sadly. By heavily planting, I mean actually heavily planting.  Aproximately the amount of plants you see in a random aquascaper video.

Edited April 16, 2023 by Lennie

[Tommy Vercetti]

I agree that ten hours is too long of a photo period. I run mine at 8 hours and have seen my fair share of algae with that setting. 

[Xr4tiCrew]

I’ve adjusted my light to 8 hours and will consider adding more plants. So your all saying stick to fertilizing with EG?  Here are some pictures of my plants covered in algae. 

[JoeQ]

On 4/16/2023 at 4:46 PM, Xr4tiCrew said:

I’ve adjusted my light to 8 hours and will consider adding more plants. So your all saying stick to fertilizing with EG?  Here are some pictures of my plants covered in algae. 

You might also consider moving plants to spots with an appropriate amount of light. Example; your anubis looks to be center tank when it should be in a low light area of the tank. As for fertilizing with EG that's up to the individual. I've recently moved to the EI method, I feel with the lean dosing method I was always chasing deficiencies. Either way, id Error on the side of dosing too much and doing a big weekly water change than under dosing  with minimal water changes. 

Edited April 16, 2023 by JoeQ

[Tommy Vercetti]

I use EI dosing as well (which is over-fertilizing). It works well for me. I liked easy green but could not get my phosphate level to my targeted 1.5ppm so I switched to EI method and mixing my own fertilizers from powder.

If you get those plants growing strong, there is almost no chance of algae growing on them. 

[Xr4tiCrew]

On 4/16/2023 at 2:55 PM, JoeQ said:

You might also consider moving plants to spots with an appropriate amount of light. Example; your anubis looks to be center tank when it should be in a low light area of the tank. As for fertilizing with EG that's up to the individual. I've recently moved to the EI method, I feel with the lean dosing method I was always chasing deficiencies. Either way, id Error on the side of dosing too much and doing a big weekly water change than under dosing  with minimal water changes. 

What is the EI method?

[JoeQ]

On 4/16/2023 at 9:00 PM, Xr4tiCrew said:

What is the EI method?

Here is a pretty good fertilization video that will explain the differences of the 2 different methods. Also hopefully you'll pickup a few tips on getting better plant growth.

 

[JoeQ]

Here is also a plant food chart, this however is upside down... Plants need in large quantities nitrogen, phosphates and potassium; then a decent amount of calcium, magnesium and sulfate. Followed by needing very small amounts of micro nutrients.