How get algae off of plant leaves...

[schmofam]

I have a planted tank 20-gallon tank. It's been running for about two months. I'm now getting algae on the leaves of certain plants. I'm mostly just concerned about the plant that is in the picture.

About my tank:

• The light is on a timer. 10 hours a day
• Nitrate - ~25
• 1 Mystery Snail
• 1 Nerite Snail
• I just added 6 cherry shrimp yesterday
• I do a weekly water of around 15-20%
• I use Easy Green, but about half the amount suggested when doing water changes.

I know there is no one solution but looking for any obvious changes that I could make.

[JE47]

I would think it might be something to do with light intensity? @JoeQ

[JoeQ]

Light is only a small portion of the equation. Algae grows on plants for numerous reason(s). The biggest (IMO) is poor plant health/stress. Before jumping to the light conclusion, I'd be intrested in seeing the whole tank, the Anubisiss placement and what other supporting plants are in the tank . If its a single Anubias in the center of the tank of course its going to be algae covered! As for cleaning it, @Guppysnailis a wiz with the reverse respiration method which might be ideal in your case. I myself would rather use the eco system method and put them shrimps to work, maybe move the plant to a more ideal spot and improve the health of your eco system.

[schmofam]

 

On 10/20/2023 at 3:24 PM, JoeQ said:

I'd be intrested in seeing the whole tank,

Here is a pic of the whole tank. The plant I'm talking about it is on the far left.

[JoeQ]

On 10/20/2023 at 6:00 PM, schmofam said:

 

Here is a pic of the whole tank. The plant I'm talking about it is on the far left.

To me, the root of the problems looks to be more of an issue with aquasoil leaching too many nutrients into the water colum. Which I have absolutely no experience with, so any advice I could give would only be guess work. I do envy your algae tho!! 😍 Hopefully others with aqua soil experience will chime in.

Now if it Were me, here's what I would do. I very rarely turn down the light for algae (I know this goes against the overwhelming majority). I'd probably first add something floating over top of your anubis, increase filtration, flow, aeration, water changes, let the shrimp do their thing, try to get some healthy growth going and see where that gets me.

As a disclaimer: As stated above, I have absolutely no experience with aqua soil!!! This information could be totally wrong!

Edited October 20, 2023 by JoeQ

[Guppysnail]

On 10/20/2023 at 5:24 PM, JoeQ said:

Guppysnailis a wiz with the reverse respiration method

RR kills the algae but does not remove it. Heavily infested leaves are already dying and should be removed.