cladophora and green spot

[naz]

can any one help..iv had cladophora and green spot in my tank for about 3 months now and just cant get ride of it'i have eco com substrate,and the cladophora is all in it,every week i get a tooth brush and remove most of it' but a week later it just grows back and i can see it again,as for the green spot,when i see its grown on the fast growing plants iv been removing the leaves its infected,my fert rotine is pmdd and p04,the last 5 weeks, iv uped the p04 every week,and the last 2 weeks iv uped the co2,so the drop check is nearly yellow,iv got more than enougth flow in my tank,with 1 fluval 305 and 1fluval 405,plus a koralia 2 running,can any one give me any idears how to sort this problem out

 

[CeeJay]

Hi naz

and the last 2 weeks iv uped the co2,so the drop check is nearly yellow,

My guess is your drop checker is somewhere near the top of the tank and your algae is lower down the tank. I've had a similar problem myself .
It sounds like you've got a lot of circulation but not enough CO2. Try upping CO2 levels again. Just keep an eye on your fish, if they start gasping at the surface for oxygen you've gone too far and will have to back it off a bit.
In future, to assist us, would it be possible to give more details of tank spec. in your opening posts? e.g. tank size or capacity, lighting type & duration, CO2 type & duration, filtration, ferts & how often, lightly/heavily planted etc.
I see you mention you've upped the CO2 recently. Is it DIY or pressurised? You also mention that you have a 305, a 405 and a Koralia 2 running. This sounds like a lot of flow, but if your tank was 6 foot long you may be struggling. It will just help us diagnose your problems quicker, that's all.
Also, if you are getting algae on your fast growing plants then I would have to question the plants health, not neccesarily visible to the naked eye. You may need to review your dosing strategy.

Chris

 

[aaronnorth]

It sounds like you've got a lot of circulation but not enough CO2

I would say you have a high turnover, but you are not being efficient in using the available turnover to distribute the CO2 to the lower areas of the tank.
It is all well having a high turnover but you can survive with 10x along as you are using it well

If th DC is yellow at the top then i wouldnt add anymore, simply just make sure it is reaching the lower areas. Try moving the DC lower down and see what results you get.

But we do need some more details like Chris Mentions

 

[naz]

thanks for the reply guys,appolagys for the lack of info,my tank is a 260l osaka,so it is a very deep tank 24in deep,i have 2 filters running in to an aqua medic reactor,running in to a spray bar along the back rear of my tank,pushing the water to the front,i have a pressurised c02,my lighting is 4 x39 otl luminaire, 2 x39w on for 9 hour,and a mid day burst of 4 x 39w on for 4 hours,my tank is heavly planted,im useing ro water as its a discus tank 3 1/4 ro water 1 1/4 tap,my fert rotine is p04 and pmdd of james tank,heres the stats,

2.5gkn03,2.2g kh04,11g pott sulf,20g mag, 500ml ro water macros
10g of trace to 250ml

2ml of macros to 40l of water
1ml of micros to 40l
im useing 10ml of macros a day,and 6ml of micros,im upping the dosing of the kno4 iv got a bottle of just kno4 from when i was doing ie fert dont now the stats of that,
il up the co2 again,and move the drop checker near the substrate,how about the cladophora,iv read that this isent even an alge

 

[CeeJay]

Hi naz/aaron

I would say you have a high turnover, but you are not being efficient in using the available turnover to distribute the CO2 to the lower areas of the tank.

I'm afraid I've been there, done that, in my early days
Once I sussed it with the help from you guys at UKAPS, I played musical drop checkers for one day at a time (due to the slow response time of the DC) and I was alarmed to find the DC was bordering on blue down by my HC carpet. No wonder I struggled to grow the stuff. All this was while the DC was yellow up near the surface.
Fortunately that's all sorted now .
From what I've learnt around here, deep tanks can be particularly problematic in distributing CO2 to the lower reaches, even more so in a heavily planted tank, goodness knows I'm finding an 18" deep tank bad enough when it's planted, and maybe this is the cause of your fast growing plants being attacked by algae too, lack of CO2.
You don't know how pleased I was when I sorted out my CO2 distribution . I do still get the odd green spot on the glass towards the end of the week in one corner down by the substrate, nothing dramatic, but this is removed at water change. Haven't nailed that one yet, but the difference to the tank is astonishing.
When I finally got my distribution right, so many of my problems disappeared all at once . You'll be amazed,.............I know I was.

Chris

 

[naz]

hi chis thanks for the info,iv bin messing about with the flow for about 8 months now,iv changes it and messed about with it so many times i cant remember,but i posted a thead about 4 mouth ago about flow,and cegs replied and explained how hes is set up and this has bin working realy well for me,10 times better than the other ways iv tryed,with the spray bar along back wall pushing water along the top and down the front wall on to the substate,the only way i could make it better is to up the power of my filts but i have not got the money for that at the moment.as for my alge problems,im gonna up co2 again today,keep eye on fish,im gonna up the kh04 even more this week,remove the infected leaves,see if that sorts the green spot.....
as for the cladophora i dont think this is gonna do a lot from wot iv read,if any one has had this stuff in there tank, and sussed how to get rid of it,you couldent give me any tips

 

[naz]

i