Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tank Plant Advice => Topic started by: Andy The Minion on May 09, 2016, 08:05:00 PM
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It must be spring in Scotland, this week the algae suddenly burst into leaf !
Has anybody else noted a seasonal effect in algal growth, maybe some nitrates in the water supply or the natural ambient light levels increased intensity or duration. To the best of my knowledge nothing I do has changed and the water parameters are all stabile, water change was the same, same temperature, no fertilisers or CO2 added, same feeding levels and food.
The dwarf water lettuce and Amazon swords are growing well the lighting didn't change and the tank doesn't get any sun.
........and yet the stupid stuff suddenly started multiplying on the glass and amongst the dwarf lettuce roots.
Does anybody have any theories?
200litre freshwater planted community
NH3 0.07ppm and NO2 0.04ppm
NO3 10.6ppm
Phosphates 0.7ppm
Hardness stable at 5dKh and 3dGh
pH 7.2/7.4
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In a planted aquarium, any outbreak of algae can be attributed to an imbalance between the three essentials for the promotion of plant-life.
There needs to be a balance between light, nutrients and carbon.
An excess or lack of any one of these elements can be responsible for an algae bloom.
The difficulty is understanding where the imbalance lies.
The way to discover which, is to change one thing at a time and observe results.
Now, if you suspect something in your tap water may have changed, then as long as it reverts back to previous parameters balance will return and your algae should die off.
One of the simplest and most often overlooked method of controlling algae is to increase the fertiliser you provide your plants with.
It might sound counterintuitive but, if you can switch on your plants to increase their metabolism, they should out-compete the algae and it will die off.
NOTE: The above only relates to planted tanks.
In tanks with no live plants the only plant-life that can benefit from light + nutrients + carbon is always Algae.
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Thanks Simon,
So the one big thing I did was to stop CO2 injection some weeks ago so perhaps restarting it would be an idea. My pH is a bit above where I would prefer it anyway or would you suggest a liquid feed in preference ?
I will look up the dissolved CO2 levels from the Kh and pH values but I guess they are low
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Funnily enough, on the well-known planted tank forums they usually advocate injected CO2 as a method of combating algae.
I tend not to recommend it as, a) I don't use it so have no personal experience, b) it's an expense and complication that many aquarium keepers don't want and c) it's only 'necessary' if you're keeping a high-tech setup with plants that need a high-tech environment.
FWIW I use liquid Carbon, but I only grow low-tech plants.
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I checked the CO2 level from tables and yes I'm low at 7.5ppm, so it looks like I'm setting the old yeastulator back up at the weekend as I don't have any liquid carbon and I guess your point a) :)
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Thank you Simon, I just had a quick google and I also saw a references to Algae not doing so well at lower pH values so that probably concludes it - It was the removal of the CO2, slowing plant growth, a drift up in pH and day length increasing that gradually favoured the algae.
That or it was the butler, never trusted him don't you know - eyes way too close together and the blighter came from Brighton.