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After four months (brown hair algae)

T

Thrills24

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25 Jul 2013
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I'm a member of tpt forum and when this algae first arrived I asked and got it o, good authority that there is no way to rid myself of this algae. 4 months later I have lost too many plants (due to the 4 month black out) to mention and this algae still persists but now I have decided to reclaim my tank. sign up here and see what advice my fellow uk hobbyists can give me. This algae has many different names but looks exactly like this...

CIMG6055.jpg

My tank is a juwel 180 with the accompanying t5 lights
Ferts (although none dosed in the past 4 months) "The Nutrient company"
Substrate is eco complete.

My stats are consistently @ 0ppm according to the api test kit. My tank has been cycled for years now and I'd really like some advice or pointers.
 
First of all, your test kit readings are totally meaningless, so you should throw them away.

Second of all TNC sells a variety of products, so just saying TNC is also meaningless. Exactly what products do you have and why haven't you been dosing? Having T5 lights combined with not dosing nutrition means that your plants will starve to death, especially if this is a CO2 injected tank.

Thirdly, EcoComplete is almost completely inert, so the plants are getting no help from that source.

Therefore it is not surprising that the plants die and algae dominate.
This algae could be Rhizoclonium, which is triggered by any combination of poor CO2, poor nutrition and poor maintenance.

Cheers,
 
I was using TNC Trace, KNO3, and KH2PO4 basically and EI dosing kit. I haven't dosed since the emergence of the algae neither have I added co2 because I was told a blackout would be best. I have kept a planted tank for years with weekly water changes and filter clean roughly every 6 months.

Info on this type of algae isn't really uniform and seems to vary from site to site?
 
I'd suggest the following.

- Remove what you can with some tweezers
- Lower your photoperiod for the time being
- Start dosing a proper complete mix - James' Planted Tank #3 is a popular recipe
- Start doing 50% daily water changes for the next couple of weeks to remove as much unwanted content as possible
 
@bluemoon Thanks

LancsRick said:
I'd suggest the following.

- Remove what you can with some tweezers
- Lower your photoperiod for the time being
- Start dosing a proper complete mix - James' Planted Tank #3 is a popular recipe
- Start doing 50% daily water changes for the next couple of weeks to remove as much unwanted content as possible
Click to expand...

A "proper complete mix?" could you please elaborate here. I've never heard of James' planted mix or the difference between what I have. In fact after a quick google search tnc came up on james' site, so again please elaborate because I'm all ears, so to speak.
 
Lancsrick is referring to a comprehensive fertiliser containing npk and trace elements which you seem to have the ingridients listed in your first post 🙂 either way as ceg pointed out you will achieve nothing by not feeding your plants other than dead plants which leads to rotting plants ammonia and algae. Personally I would remove as much algae and decaying plant matter carry out daily water changes and have a short photoperiod of 5 hours Untill you are on top of the situation. You also don't state if your are injecting co2 if your not I'm afraid t5 lighting is far too intense IMO so you may need to look at changing your lighting. Have a good read through the tutorials section of the forum if you have time there is some enlightening info there. Good luck with it mate. Also you may find spot dosing liquid carbon onto the algae will kill it off and make removal easier.
 
Could someone link me to a place I can buy this complete mix? As I'm at work right now and don't have time to source this myself. I am Dosing co2 when the lights are on (previously before the blackout the injection would start an hour before the photo period.)
 
Here as both cheap powders and ready made liquids.
Fertilisers

I just used the kit to make my own and buy more powders as needed.
 
Thrills24 said:
Could someone link me to a place I can buy this complete mix? As I'm at work right now and don't have time to source this myself. I am Dosing co2 when the lights are on (previously before the blackout the injection would start an hour before the photo period.)
Click to expand...
Hi mate, I would aim to have co2 on at least 2 hours before lights on and tweak from there, you need to aim for optimum concentration at lights on for the plants, mine is currently on 3 hours before and goes off 2 hours before lights out, liquid carbon will help overcome any shortfalls in your injection method and will also acct as an algacide especially spot dosed wit a pipettes whilst filters off for 5 mins, the apf link ianm posted is a good place for all your fert needs.
 
I have the rio 180 with t5 lights. They are far too bright/intense unless you're injecting co2. My solution was to fit a reflector to one of the bulbs so that the reflector shielded the tank.

With liquid carbon + ei dosing and just the one bulb (5 hour photo period) things seem stable.
 
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