GSA on glass

[nijat11]

Hi all!
I`m constantly getting GSA on my glass, scarping it every week.
Aquarium 800 liters.
Light duration 8 hours photoperid + 2 hours sunrise and sunset on 10% intensity
Filtration 6500l/h return pump + maxspect xf330
CO2 Injection, EI fertilization. 3 PPM PO4.
Highly planted.
Any advises?
Thank you in advance.

 

[Andy Pierce]

For me, boosting the phosphate component of EI ferts from 3 PPM to 7 PPM made a noticeable improvement - I was scraping every two or three weeks and now that's maybe down to a couple times per year. It's easy to try anyway. I don't think it works for everyone.

 

[riioKen]

AFAIK GSA is due to low CO2 distribution (dead spot) or organic waste build up, this suggest Dennis Wong on his blog.

I resolved my GSA problem increasing ferts (just like @Andy Pierce said) but I figured out that maybe this have something to do more with binding property of po4 than an increasing of dosage per se.

If you follow Tom Barr, CO2 is the main cause of algae, if you use EI, I would check CO2, you "can't" have low po4, if your pH is high, probably po4 bind with Fe

 

[LMuhlen]

When I had similar problems, I went with increased phosphates. It worked partially, but then I had some other issues which at the time I didn't associate with the extra phosphates.

At a much later time, I was told that one theory for this correlation with GSA and phosphates is that the extra phosphates would precipitate iron and the reduction of iron would be the reason for the reduction in GSA. I then realized that possibly my other issues were related to iron deficiencies and since then I reduced phosphates again. In all honesty, I didn't see any significant change with GSA after reducing phosphates...

So I would at least evaluate if it is possible that you have excess iron before changing phosphates, it may be easier to fix the GSA issues with a more controlled iron supplementation.

 

[nijat11]

AFAIK GSA is due to low CO2 distribution (dead spot) or organic waste build up, this suggest Dennis Wong on his blog.

I resolved my GSA problem increasing ferts (just like @Andy Pierce said) but I figured out that maybe this have something to do more with binding property of po4 than an increasing of dosage per se.

If you follow Tom Barr, CO2 is the main cause of algae, if you use EI, I would check CO2, you "can't" have low po4, if your pH is high, probably po4 bind with Fe

Drop checker between yellow and green on different spots in aquarium, 1.2 pH drops.

When I had similar problems, I went with increased phosphates. It worked partially, but then I had some other issues which at the time I didn't associate with the extra phosphates.

At a much later time, I was told that one theory for this correlation with GSA and phosphates is that the extra phosphates would precipitate iron and the reduction of iron would be the reason for the reduction in GSA. I then realized that possibly my other issues were related to iron deficiencies and since then I reduced phosphates again. In all honesty, I didn't see any significant change with GSA after reducing phosphates...

So I would at least evaluate if it is possible that you have excess iron before changing phosphates, it may be easier to fix the GSA issues with a more controlled iron supplementation.

Could be excessive IRON, because i EDDHA, DTPA, I could try to reduce Iron and to analyze.

 

[Wookii]

In my experience GSA has nothing to do with CO2. As mentioned above it seems to proliferate with excess iron levels, but also mainly with excess light levels, which are harder to avoid on the glass panels.

I think its just a fact of life that you have to clean the glass every week or two, unless you have a tank with significantly lower light levels. I have a few tanks with solid floating plant cover, and they never need the glass cleaning, but those with more brightly lit open areas usually do.

 

[nijat11]

In my experience GSA has nothing to do with CO2. As mentioned above it seems to proliferate with excess iron levels, but also mainly with excess light levels, which are harder to avoid on the glass panels.

I think its just a fact of life that you have to clean the glass every week or two, unless you have a tank with significantly lower light levels. I have a few tanks with solid floating plant cover, and they never need the glass cleaning, but those with more brightly lit open areas usually do.

Yeah excess light can be and unfotunatelly cant do much about that, but I will play with Iron dosing to see if it helps. Thank you.

 

[nijat11]

So update. I have reduced Iron dosage by 50% and almost no gsa.

 

[MichaelJ]

So update. I have reduced Iron dosage by 50% and almost no gsa.

GSA outbreaks and likely more importantly the severity is - in my experience at least - somewhat closely related to the Phosphate to Iron ratio. I used to pummel my tanks with PO4 to quell GSA and it worked. But a far more sensible approach as I later learned from @Happi was really to adjust the Iron dosing relative to PO4 dosing... My PO4:Fe ratio is now about 4:1. or P to Fe about 1.5:1. - and I dose very low amounts of both! Light levels, accumulation of organic waste, fluctuating water parameters and the like of course always plays a role regardless of the type of algae.

Cheers,
Michael