Hi all
I am having a few algae issues with my month-old tank. Nothing too serious at the moment, but I'm just trying to understand exactly what I have - any help would be great.
My setup is a 350l tank with 150W of T5 lights, plus two "Aqua FX" LED tubes as supplementary lighting and for sunset/sunrise.
The main lights are on 7 hours per day, and the LEDs for about 10, going through a sunrise, sunlight and finally moonlight phase before they switch off.
I inject CO2 using the FE method via in inline diffuser. I have a total of 3400lph (manufacturer's rating)from two external filters, plus a small pump pushing water across the back of the tank to help spread the Co2. I've ordered a larger (3200lph) koralia to replace that as I think that might be part of the problem. Since the inline diffuser is on only one filter, I need to push the output from this spraybar right across the tank to distribute the CO2. CO2 is on a timer and is on from 1.5 hours before the main lights until 1.5 hours before they go off. Drop-checked shows consistently green at about 2-3bps, but I know that should only be a guide.
For ferts, I'm using Aquarium Plant Food from the sponsor's site - I dose 30ml per day at the moment. 50% water changes once per week, although at the moment a little more frequently than that as it's a pretty new setup.
Now, the algae:
Firstly, I have what I'm pretty certain is green dust algae on the front glass. I've had that in tanks before and it looks exactly like that pictured on James' algae thread. This isn't a huge issue at the moment, I can scrape it off and it isn't growing rapidly. As I understand it CO2 may be the problem?
Secondly, I have this:
This I think is thread or hair algae? It's brown/green in colour and comes off in fairly long threads. It's fairly localised to the cabomba stems and a couple of other taller plants. I wonder if this will be improved with a stronger pump pushing more flow through this area of the tank? I also have similar (but shorter threads) on the redmoor (below)
I actually quite like this one as long as it stays localised to the wood, but I'd like to know for sure what type it is and how to control it if it becomes a problem.
Then the major issue really is this one:
and
Not the best pictures, but effectively this is like clumps of brown fluffy algae. It's definitely brown rather than green. It grows pretty quickly and is very easy to remove in "blobs". I wondered if it was diatoms, but more of the pictures show diatoms as a thin brown film on the substrate rather than as stringy or fluffy? Any advice on this last one especially would be really helpful.
I am new to this so any general comments on my lighting/CO2/ferts would be very much appreciated too. I'm tempted to push the CO2 up even further but the algae issues aren't bad right now so I don't want to mess with things too much without a bit of advice.
Thank you very much
Joe
I am having a few algae issues with my month-old tank. Nothing too serious at the moment, but I'm just trying to understand exactly what I have - any help would be great.
My setup is a 350l tank with 150W of T5 lights, plus two "Aqua FX" LED tubes as supplementary lighting and for sunset/sunrise.
The main lights are on 7 hours per day, and the LEDs for about 10, going through a sunrise, sunlight and finally moonlight phase before they switch off.
I inject CO2 using the FE method via in inline diffuser. I have a total of 3400lph (manufacturer's rating)from two external filters, plus a small pump pushing water across the back of the tank to help spread the Co2. I've ordered a larger (3200lph) koralia to replace that as I think that might be part of the problem. Since the inline diffuser is on only one filter, I need to push the output from this spraybar right across the tank to distribute the CO2. CO2 is on a timer and is on from 1.5 hours before the main lights until 1.5 hours before they go off. Drop-checked shows consistently green at about 2-3bps, but I know that should only be a guide.
For ferts, I'm using Aquarium Plant Food from the sponsor's site - I dose 30ml per day at the moment. 50% water changes once per week, although at the moment a little more frequently than that as it's a pretty new setup.
Now, the algae:
Firstly, I have what I'm pretty certain is green dust algae on the front glass. I've had that in tanks before and it looks exactly like that pictured on James' algae thread. This isn't a huge issue at the moment, I can scrape it off and it isn't growing rapidly. As I understand it CO2 may be the problem?
Secondly, I have this:
This I think is thread or hair algae? It's brown/green in colour and comes off in fairly long threads. It's fairly localised to the cabomba stems and a couple of other taller plants. I wonder if this will be improved with a stronger pump pushing more flow through this area of the tank? I also have similar (but shorter threads) on the redmoor (below)
I actually quite like this one as long as it stays localised to the wood, but I'd like to know for sure what type it is and how to control it if it becomes a problem.
Then the major issue really is this one:
and
Not the best pictures, but effectively this is like clumps of brown fluffy algae. It's definitely brown rather than green. It grows pretty quickly and is very easy to remove in "blobs". I wondered if it was diatoms, but more of the pictures show diatoms as a thin brown film on the substrate rather than as stringy or fluffy? Any advice on this last one especially would be really helpful.
I am new to this so any general comments on my lighting/CO2/ferts would be very much appreciated too. I'm tempted to push the CO2 up even further but the algae issues aren't bad right now so I don't want to mess with things too much without a bit of advice.
Thank you very much
Joe