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Looks like green BBA Which loves high light, high flow Maybe the rock it's on is trapping the spores and the high light and high flow (?) is encouraging it to grow. What are your light parameters (intensity/duration) and temperature? Do you have fluctuating temperature (for instance during...

How often / how much Prime do you dose?

Presence of ammonia/ammonium and anoxic conditions (lack of oxygen) is known to reduce spore germination, not increase it. Pollutants, such as heavy metals (Hg, Cu, Cr, Co, Zn, Pb, etc.), pesticides or insecticides (carbofuran, 2,4-D, dithane, phorate, bavistin, parathion, etc.), sewage...

I have a tub of Seachem Equilibrium and an existing GH of 6, is there any point in dosing this stuff? I only ask because I'm switching back to EI after a couple years of TPN+ and I keep reading about people dosing GH Booster as well as the nutrient calculator I am using saying I should dose GH...

The black/brown stuff is probably Audouinella Heterospora because this guy seems to have induced it's gametophyte Thorea Hispida. http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/is-this-algae.37322/ The green stuff isn't Audouinella, I suspect it's Batrachosporum Macrosporum. Distinguishing Audouinella...

I've had this, I reckon it grows in the filter pipes, detaches and then get's stuck in a spraybar hole. Despite this, it's never grown in the tank even when most of the spraybar holes were blocked up with it. I stopped using a spraybar a week ago and yesterday I saw a big clump of BBA just...

Assuming you have everything setup correctly, flow, nutrients, lighting etc when your lights come on, the tank should maintain a reasonably stable pH - the CO2 being injected should be countered by both the CO2 escaping and the CO2 being used by the plants. So bps should be whatever results in a...

You might have too much CO2 for those fish. I have similiar issues with Clown Loaches, they seem alot more sensitive to CO2 that the other fish I have. Fish distress is due to both CO2 (hypercapnia) and O2 (hypoxia). You can address both by decreasing CO2 and/or increasing O2. You shouldn't...

It's not BBA, it's the wrong colour for diatoms and I doubt that it's the green algae on the rock dying. Maybe it's something leeching out of the rock?

Actually the opposite is true, plants are known to produce hormones that stimulate spore germination in some algae. Plant hormones such as indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), naphthalene-2-acetic acid (NAA), gibberellic acid (GA3), kinetin, and tryptophan (a precusor of...

Think about it, his test kit shows zero in the tank, if he can get his test kit to show non-zero then it's not faulty, but if he tests the tap water and that also shows zero then it's inconclusive which is why I included the caveat "If it does [register some value]"

It's based on maximum plant uptake so if dosed correctly you can't run out.

yes EI adds nitrate, enough that you can't run out so it sounds like something is up with your dosing! Check if your test kit shows any nitrate in the tap water? If it does then you can rule out the test kit as being wrong.

Yes it does look similiar to Thorea hispida, which makes sense because Thorea hispida is the gametophyte stage of the BBA that you have there, Audouinella heterospora.

yes, although 'Chantransia' stages are phycocyanin and chlorophyll a it does look more like a moss, or well grazed BBA under high light

Great work on the B12 link, although that is just one factor, no more or less important than organics (humic acid) and ammonia. Putting nutrients to one side, I would like to bring up environmental parameters that are known to effect BBA, such as temperature and light. Assuming BBA is...

Colour depends on light (period and intensity) as well as temperature. BBA in my tank is always green - high light, 26C.

Hey Rabbit, Can you remember how/when this all came about? Did you do any water changes before it happened, whats your tank temperature and do you make sure the new water is at the same temperature as the tank water? What's your lighting, flow and where did the BBA first appear? Do you know...

Freshwater red algae grow best under low light regimes. Generally they prefer long day, low irradiance. But before you start growing it, you have to trigger it and there is the problem. I would try varying your tank parameters in numerous ways. Vary the photoperiod, light intensity and light...

Denisonni Barbs have a quite distinctive caudal fin. When I got mine 10 years ago, they were in a tank with a Rainbow Shark - nightmare fish, it would chase them around all day and chew their fins to the extent that they barely had any colouring left. I moved the Rainbow Shark and within a...

Sounds familiar. Like you I had a livestock free tank for a couple of months. Diatoms only appeared when I added the fish. I didn't get any on the plants though, just glass and spraybar. I suspect it's just the increased ammonia that it causing the "bloom". It will take a while for your filter...

Maybe the easiest way to tie the things together is to suspect insufficient nutrients. Maybe they were fine at one point, but as plant mass increased, demand outstripped available nutrients. The plants stopped growing, so they stopped eating ammonium and maybe even started leaching the stuff...

:lol: Could be! Perhaps you just have the magic touch :roll:

Re: Outdoor Planted Tank. Possible? It's about being open minded. Your obviously an intelligent guy, helpful, insightful, knowledgable and once you get past your obnoxious alter ego then your one of the best resources on the net for growing aquatic plants :thumbup: It's a shame that your...

As a matter of interest, did it go reddish after 3 weeks?

Re: Help me fight this algae its not BBA, looks like staghorn but i've never seen green staghorn, well it's sort of blue/green under a microscope. Looks like you might have diatoms in the top picture. How long has this tank been running? Can you provide more info? Generally you want to remove...

Re: Outdoor Planted Tank. Possible? Actually if you balance your "plant perspective" with an "algae perspective" you might finally be able to solve your algae on the glass issues ;)

maybe you can get an "output nozzle" to attach that is bent so as to push the water downwards? http://fish.twenga.co.uk/aquarium-nozzle.html#hx=1&s=5&c=143f6&page=1

easy carbo won't escape from your tank I would say you want the filter up in the tank but pointing down, the upper layer of water has CO2/O2 from the atmosphere but the lower layer won't have unless you force water down there

CO2 and O2 are independent of each other, it's the difference that matters for respiration of fauna. I have a pump pushing through a venturi style diffuser delivering air bubbles for 2 hours before CO2 comes on. It produces tiny bubbles so they stay in the water longer and minimizes surface...

Yeah and Balotelli will be the players player of the year :lol:

Fair point, but kids also need role models that show them how not to behave. Barton is a great example! He is showing kids that this type of behaviour is distasteful and get's you sent off. Barton is teaching kids how not to behave which is just as important as other players teaching them how...

Can't see it - unless they buy. To be fair to Boas, he fazed out the older players because they weren't part of his 3 year plan. They would be passed their best in 3 years. So he started a rebuilding phase that means the club has to go back before they can go forward. All Di'Matteo did was...

Barton is disgraceful, but very entertaining :) I don't think the premiership was up to it's usual standard this year. The lower teams are stronger but the higher teams are weaker. Performance in Europe tells it's own story. Man Utd's defence has been poor by their own standards. Chelsea were...

Not really, CO2 takes time to build up, ferts are immediate. Although it might take up to an hour or so for entropy to ensure they are equally well mixed. Personally I dose daily well before the lights come on.

With plants it doesnt matter what your water parameters are, the plants will tell you what your missing by how they wilt and die off. That happens over time and you have lots of chances to fix them. With livestock that approach isn't acceptable. Once a shrimp starts to die there is no coming...

in theory it should keep the glass cleaner for longer since GDA only sticks to glass at night :shifty:

Great minds think alike :roll:

Is that BGA between your glass and substrate? If so then this is due to lack of nitrogen which coincidentally is how you get GDA to go red (starve it of nitrogen and it will turn into red spores). Maybe this is the source of your problems? Dose daily when you feed the fish. You have to have...

ok thanks, I was just wondering if I should use a feature of a my filter where it automatically alternates between fast and slow flow every 12 hours. so the filter will be running "fast" when the co2 is on, then "slow" at night so the fish got more places to sleep! I just didn't want to reduce...

GDA is going through it's cell cycle. Each adult cell will divide internally up to 3 times a day, producing 2, 4, or 8 zoospores. They break out and grow into adult cells. This is the algae's method of asexual reproduction and it repeats continously *under favourable conditions*. Eventually...

The most interesting thing about that article is... :shh:

for purigen, which is better - 1. fast flow with less time to bind to organic nitrogenous compounds but higher thoughput 2. low flow with more time but lower throughput :?:

What ferts are you using? Do you have a high fish load?

Re: Outdoor Planted Tank. Possible? Good luck with this. :thumbup: It sounds a real challenge and I would be interested in seeing how it goes - maybe you should start a journal? I wouldn't go for fast flow. There is a 10x turnover "rule" but thats for mixing and distribution of ferts/co2 -...

Just chuck em in, they'll be alright. That'll be £4.99 please ;)

First thing is to manually remove all the BBA that you can see. Each of those small BBA tufts, depending on where it is in your tank, will be continuously chucking out monospores (particulary if it's in high light and high flow). Once this is done, you can nuke anything that is left with...

Hard to say but it looks like staghorn algae. Squirt some easycarbo on it and see if it changes colour the next day.

I'm not 100% certain, but GDA is Chlamydomonas. This is used a model algae so alot is known about it. In terms of reproduction, deficiency of ammonium nitrogen is known to inhibit sexual reproduction leaving the algae in a vegetative state. This would suggest that your filter/plants can't keep...

something like 4 hours is "enough", but you can have them on as long as you want

If your confident you have solved your algae issues then you may as well do a 3-4 day blackout to finally wipe out any visible algae. Then a few water changes to clean and remove any spores, then you should be set to go. I wouldn't change lighting until you have a stable tank.

There is no "outcompeting" as such, more like tipping the scales. Essentially there is one big difference between your plants and algae. Plants grow, algae reproduces. This means algae has to go through a phase of producing a spore and having it germinate. This is a simple or complicated...

It doesn't matter if the organic matter decomposes in your tank, or in the filter - the c:n:p end result will be the same. Only difference is that there is no light in the filter. So what's your theory?

I doubt it. Indirectly though decomposing organic matter usually happens in places with low flow where the local nutrient balance is fluctuating due to decomposition. This favours algae.

Re: Transparent Tank - reborn mike, when you reset this tank did you have a mature filter from the old setup or was that reset as well? have your diatoms returned?

BBA seems to like decent flow across decor. I suspect changing flow, stirring up substrate and having lots of decor is a recipe for disaster :)

Personally I would think about getting shot of the background. They seem to be great sites for BBA spores to settle and germinate especially in the presence of flow. In the wild, BBA grows on the back of rocks that have water flowing around them.

Have you increased flow? Where is BBA in relation to flow? Is the BBA different colours (red, grey, black, brown, blue). Does flow create little "eddies" - like across your rock background?

You don't. Instead you provide an environment that is not suitable to algae.

Exactly right. Makes one wonder what else these microscopic organisms get up to and what effect they have on a tank. "New tank syndrome" could be exclusively because of a lack of microorganisms and an "established tank" might be one with lots of microorganisms. Do water changes suck out lots of...

lol cool were there dedicated aquarium shops?

Welcome Frederick! Your'e at the right place for help with anything hi-tech. I have to ask, what was the aquarium "industry" like 60 years ago, what were the tanks like back in those days?

Apparently so, and Amano Shrimp are probably even better. Ciliates however don't seem to be considered. This experiment tried to determine the rate at which ciliates eat diatoms http://www.springerlink.com/content/u8l9052474q24363/ Up to 90 a day, which doesn't seem much but you can have many...

errrm, excel won't kill any green algae I believe it only works on BBA and staghorn, both red algae

I don't think anyone knows why diatoms appear in new tanks. You can look at their life cycle and ecology and try to map this into an aquarium but it never seems to fit. I was looking through my microscope the other day and noticed an organism that had diatoms in it's "stomach". So certain...

don't believe everything you read on t'internet ;)

In the world of the aquarium that seems to be the case. In reality things are, not surprisingly more complex. I don't think there should be any doubt that silica, in whatever form is major trigger in diatom blooms but you won't always see it unless other factors are in play simultaneously such...

I've been running a 350l for a few months. I started at recommended dosage, so 5ml / day. Everything grew well but the moss had black areas which was fixed when I went to 10ml / day. The tank is now on 8ml / day with 6 hours lighting (200W). Green DC. TPN+ dosing is 5ml per 50l per week (not day)

Re: An inconvenient space How long are your lights on for? Also, what is the flow like in the places that have algae?

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience The local LFS has blue BBA. Thought it looked quite cool. 8) Colour seems to be species specific. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09670269500650991 Different species also have different preferences for temperature and...

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience Is the colour of the BBA related to temperature? http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... x/abstract

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience If fluctuating CO2 is the only "evidence" then surely fluctuating pH is a more likely "cause". Each tank will have a different pH for the same 0ppm CO2.

You need to T5 high light unit - it replaces your current unit http://www.swelluk.com/aquarium/fish-ta ... 27622.html

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience I've scanned alot of BBA threads in the algae section and as far as people have said, all of those who have BBA outbreaks have 10 hours or less of lighting. Still you can't expect people to up lighting to 12 hours to combat BBA but...

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience Troi, this might go a long way in answering your question as to why you don't get BBA in your non-CO2 tank Your 12 hr/day light period is stopping the BBA tetrasporophytes forming spores, thereby halting it's life cycle. :P This...

perhaps the plants at the "first point of contact" don't get enough light to take full advantage of that CO2. The CO2 that wasn't used up then moves into other parts of the tank where there is more light.

Interesting, sounds like I might be confusing movement of mist and flow. I'll take another look at it at the w/e :thumbup:

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience Also :roll: Reference...

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience Darrel, Reference http://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/26399/1/13(1)_P57-76.pdf They look at two marine species Audouillella alariae and Rhodochortoll repens and realise that they are actually the gametophyte and...

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience Exactly right, youv'e said in a much shorter succint way what we were describing earlier in the thread - the scientist can have thousands of pages of detailed information about life history/biology/triggers and even a map of the...

My Denisonni barbs will go up to the surface, turn around and flip their caudal fin, causing a big splash and making the flakes sink :) It's the only intelligent thing they seem capable of though. Because all my fish are medium size, I find that flakes break up into tiny particles and the fish...

I've not had any luck extended the spray bar to get even flow. I find that the first hole is way more powerful than the last one to the point that flow out of the last section of spraybar is rather pathetic. The CO2 mist also comes out of the first few holes with none out of the last. I think...

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience Genus Audouinella Species will be on this page somewhere http://www.algaebase.org/search/genus/d ... s_id=32946 most are marine I can dig out some pics on google and none show carpogonium and spermatangium on the same plant. Might...

Just for future reference, I can confirm that it will take 2 days for 3 medium size clown loaches to find and eat 10 amano shrimp in a fully planted 350l aquarium :shifty:

You can't get it in the UK, well maybe from a vet but there is no point. It's easy to get rid of and will only come back if you don't address the "cause". See James Planted Tank http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience Ah! Of course, that makes more sense :thumbup: Starting to bug me now though why after the excel I only saw the one sex reappear. We are talking about half a dozen small tufts but no strand/hair type anywhere. :roll:

Well said :thumbup:

Sounds like BBA - you need to nuke it as soon as possible, it's a time bomb. Clean as much out as you can then double dose excel for at least a week. There are plenty of threads about in the algae section. You must also sort out the reason it keeps appearing which is unstable/low CO2. Has your...

They clog really easily because they are doing a great job of filtering the water! I ripped the internal out of my 180l a decade ago and had similiar issues to justjason88. In my new 350l I have kept it in but have two filters - the internal does biological and trapping dirt particles, the...

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience I couldn't agree more, emergent phenomena. Chemistry emerges from physics, biology emerges from chemistry, technology emerges from biology. What emerges from technology, hmmm? It's almost as if each level of emergence creates a new...

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience For BBA that grows on the edges of leaves, your probably right in that the plant can resist it as long as it's healthy. Unfortunately, BBA also has an affinity for static surfaces, ie wood, plastic, rubber etc. so plant health in...

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience There is a "causal chain", a series of events that go all the way back to the big bang. Every event is both a cause AND an effect - since each cause is actually an effect from a previous cause and by the same token each effect is...

Just buy a bottle of TPN+ and be done with it ;) The stuff works like magic.

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience Dawkins is a science extremist, I got most of his books, he is ace but very one dimensional, the way he doesn't understand religion for example and his lack of philisophical insight, he is very reductionist. Anyway before I go off on...

As far as I know, anti snail treatments (copper) don't kill snails, they just knock them out making it easier to siphon them out of the tank. I don't know if these work on snail eggs, from what I've seen, they are quite sticky and rinsing the plants might not wash them off. As awtong suggested...

Re: Low Energy, Water Changes, CO2, Algae, and Pseudoscience Wouldn't a non CO2 tank that is fully stocked, or over stocked never reach equilibrium because the fish are constantly pumping CO2 into the water. Therefore a water change would result in a considerable drop in CO2. Tanks without many...

do you know how big they get as adults?

Wow! They look amazing. What other aspects of their behaviour have you noticed? Do they chase each other about, swim fast, are they nervy or inquisitive, greedy, passive or aggressive, do they try to eat or destroy plants etc? What sort of things were you looking for when you selected them?

Thanks awtong, I think that comparing our tanks has made me realize that they are probably suffering from boredom resulting in surprise whenever something significant suddenly changes in their environment. More fish is the answer :thumbup: Have you had any algae issues in your tank? It's look...