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What Kind of Algae Is This?

mark4785

mark4785

Member
Joined
4 Jan 2011
Messages
451
Location
Derbyshire, UK.
For the last month, my planted aquarium has been receiving significantly more stronger rays of light from 2 x 24w HO Hagen Fluorescent tubes since the removal of around one hundred Amazon frogbit from the water surface.

Ever since making this change for the betterment of plant growth and compatibility, small white particles have been appearing and adhering to many plant leaves and the filter box. Rather than describing the particles, please see the images attached below.

Particles on Filter
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dsc05304a.jpg


Particles on Leaves
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From the pictures provided, can anyone ID what the particles are called and how I can remove them? Most of the plants are growing very well despite being covered in particles, but one plant is not fairing too well so I've lost £5-7 in foliage to this algal particle so far.


Also, in response to the high light, the green leaves on a plant named Echinodorus Aquartica have started to die back completely but are being quickly replaced with dark red leaves. Is this normal? Hopefully, the reddening is a sign that the plant is getting ample c02?


Mark.
 
Hi,
You need to get better photos. They are not in focus. Adding more light is usually a recipe for adding more algae as you have clearly demonstrated. Reduce the lighting and add more CO2. This will fix most problems and you don't even need to know the name of the problem to know what to do in this case.

Cheers,
 
The organic matter covering the plants is what they are producing under stress, it's not algae, well not yet.
Drop the light again and sort the water flow/co2/ferts, it's a slow process.

Red sword means, high light, low macro nutrients, some plants fare well under this conditions some don't, a tank with red plants under low macro nutrients should be addressed by carefully choosing the plants, some will loose their leaves fast under 10ppm N, others are perfectly happy with it.
 
clonitza said:
The organic matter covering the plants is what they are producing under stress, it's not algae, well not yet.
Drop the light again and sort the water flow/co2/ferts, it's a slow process.

Red sword means, high light, low macro nutrients, some plants fare well under this conditions some don't, a tank with red plants under low macro nutrients should be addressed by carefully choosing the plants, some will loose their leaves fast under 10ppm N, others are perfectly happy with it.
Click to expand...

The water flow is excellent. Drop checker indicates a light green at lights on. The Co2 diffuser is producing a fine mist of co2 across the entire aquarium. As for ferts, my nitrate meter indicates a concentration of 53 ppm. Phosphates will be off the scale too.

I guess, if anything, the co2 flow is somehow to blame as a result of light levels being too high. Unfortunately, I don't have a good method for slightly lowering the light levels; the light level is either too high or made to be too low as a result of introducing floating plants.
 
I have removed one of my Hagen Powerglo fluorescent bulbs and replaced it with a Hagen Lifeglo bulb which has 1/3 of the wattage of the Powerglo bulb. Hopefully this lower light level will help with better plant growth as I can't see anything issues with flow or the rate of co2 diffusion or ways for improving it further.
 
Why not just disable one bulb altogether? I've never heard of a 12,000 watt fluorescent bulb so it's not clear what you mean. Could it be 12,000 K? If so then that value is irrelevant. Without knowing the relative PAR values, it's not easy to guess the level of energy.

mark4785 said:
the light level is either too high or made to be too low as a result of introducing floating plants.
Click to expand...
Too low is better than too high.

Cheers,
 
I've covered one bulb using a bent reflector until I solved the issues with my tank. The ballast doesn't let me use just one bulb. Hope this helps.
 
ceg4048 said:
Why not just disable one bulb altogether? I've never heard of a 12,000 watt fluorescent bulb so it's not clear what you mean. Could it be 12,000 K? If so then that value is irrelevant. Without knowing the relative PAR values, it's not easy to guess the level of energy.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

The ballast requires two working bulbs to be simultaneously installed otherwise it won't power up. Will the PAR value be listed on the fluorescent bulb's manufacturer box somewhere?
 
The white particles are getting worse and algae is growing on the back pane of glass.

Can anybody recommend a 22" HO fluorescent tube that has a lower PAR level to that of the HAGEN life glo bulbs?
 
Hi

I too had this algae sometime back, on the hardscape as well as on leaves. Its powdery, in the sense that you can brush it off at this stage.. Just do it, and decrease light period in your case.. Remove affected leaves.. If left on its own, pretty soon it starts turning black (soot-like). I havent been able to identify this, but thought it was some sort of BBA type algae (though it isnt bushy) as it takes the same meticulous, long-term bad effects..

Increase flow, fert & CO2 stability... and be patient.. try brushing Easy carbo during water changes..

Hope it helps.

niru
 
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