Algae damn

Topic says it all. I'm in a life or death struggle with algae in my
big tank. The two twentys are in fine shape. The cork tank is newly
set up, the honeymoon suite, now nursery, is also clean and brite.

The 55g, now that's another story. It's been going the longest, has
the highest fish load, the most plants, the most light, and the most
fuzzy hair algae I've ever seen. All the plants are (were) covered
with it now. Also, to add to the ugliness and unkempt look, I've got a
nice crop of blue green bacteria trying it's best to cover up my new
dwarf marsh grass.

I took two steps yesterday to combat both. On the one front, I
re-positioned my power head to provide more circluation. It had been
pointing down an UGF lift tube hole for RUGF. Now it pushes water
accross the entire front wall of the tank, providing a circular flow.

To take on the fuzz, I tried the bleach dip approach. I have java
fern, Amazon swords and Crypts that are afflicted. The newer plants
I've added show minimal signs. So, out come half the swords, the
larger cruyts and all the java fern. Into a bucket of 19:1 water to
bleach for 4 minutes. The algae was visibly affected, turning white
and quite dead looking. The plants seemed no worse for wear. After
the rinse, they are back in the tank and pearling O2.

Now a question: How to keep the stuff at bay? Here's the set up:

55g tank, 48L 20H 12W
pH 6.7 with C02 injection at 20ppm
KH 3deg
temp 79f
Nitrates between 5 and 20, fluctuate with the amount of KNO3 I add.
Potassium and Phosphorus added minimally per the dosing pages. I shoot
for the optimun amount. There are a couple of plant spikes (trace
elements) deep under the large plants.

I've got 5 ottos in there, and just added a couple of large amano
shrimp, but those critters aren't going to touch this fuzz stuff if it
comes back strong like this past week.
thanks for any hints, suggestions,
steve

In article .com,
steve wrote:
Topic says it all. I'm in a life or death struggle with algae in my
big tank. The two twentys are in fine shape. The cork tank is newly

When I have a green mess Ichange 80% of the water eevry day till it clears up.
Usually 4-5 days, they 50% every other day so the gravel leeches out
properly.

It's always worked for me so far. Give it a try.

--
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633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | Killies, killi.net, Crypts, aquaria.net
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wris****ches http://watches.list.mbz.org

"steve" wrote in message
oups.com...
Now a question: How to keep the stuff at bay? Here's the set up:

55g tank, 48L 20H 12W
pH 6.7 with C02 injection at 20ppm
KH 3deg
temp 79f
Nitrates between 5 and 20, fluctuate with the amount of KNO3 I add.
Potassium and Phosphorus added minimally per the dosing pages. I shoot
for the optimun amount. There are a couple of plant spikes (trace
elements) deep under the large plants.

I've got 5 ottos in there, and just added a couple of large amano
shrimp, but those critters aren't going to touch this fuzz stuff if it
comes back strong like this past week.
thanks for any hints, suggestions,

Are you over feeding? It doesn't sound like anything other than that to me,
unless there is something in your water out of the tap.

Oz


--
My Aquatic web Blog is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/ivan.smith

On 2005-01-17, steve wrote:
Now a question: How to keep the stuff at bay? Here's the set up:

55g tank, 48L 20H 12W
pH 6.7 with C02 injection at 20ppm
KH 3deg
temp 79f
Nitrates between 5 and 20, fluctuate with the amount of KNO3 I add.
Potassium and Phosphorus added minimally per the dosing pages. I shoot
for the optimun amount. There are a couple of plant spikes (trace
elements) deep under the large plants.


Stop dosing phosphorus. Your fish food should provide enough of it.
Keep up the Potassium. Remove algae infected foliage as convenient.
You'll just have to be patient.

http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9

--
"I have to decide between two equally frightening options.
If I wanted to do that, I'd vote." --Duckman

Stop dosing phosphorus. Your fish food should provide enough of it.

ALL fishfood?

--
Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org
http://www.mbz.org | Mercedes Mailing lists: http://lists.mbz.org
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | Killies, killi.net, Crypts, aquaria.net
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wris****ches http://watches.list.mbz.org

On 2005-01-18, Richard wrote:
Stop dosing phosphorus. Your fish food should provide enough of it.

ALL fishfood?


Absolutely! ;-)


--
"I have to decide between two equally frightening options.
If I wanted to do that, I'd vote." --Duckman

In article , js1 wrote:
On 2005-01-18, Richard wrote:
Stop dosing phosphorus. Your fish food should provide enough of it.

ALL fishfood?


Absolutely! ;-)

Ok, well roughly how much phosphate is there in white worms fed pumpernikel
fed to fish 3X a week and nothing else? (my water is pretty cold)


--
Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org
http://www.mbz.org | Mercedes Mailing lists: http://lists.mbz.org
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | Killies, killi.net, Crypts, aquaria.net
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wris****ches http://watches.list.mbz.org

Richard wrote:
In article , js1 wrote:

On 2005-01-18, Richard wrote:

Stop dosing phosphorus. Your fish food should provide enough of it.

ALL fishfood?


Absolutely! ;-)


Ok, well roughly how much phosphate is there in white worms fed pumpernikel
fed to fish 3X a week and nothing else? (my water is pretty cold)


It's not what's in the food...it's what comes out the other end of your
fish. ;-)

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__

In article ,
Elaine T wrote:
Richard wrote:
In article , js1 wrote:

On 2005-01-18, Richard wrote:

Stop dosing phosphorus. Your fish food should provide enough of it.

ALL fishfood?


Absolutely! ;-)


Ok, well roughly how much phosphate is there in white worms fed pumpernikel
fed to fish 3X a week and nothing else? (my water is pretty cold)


It's not what's in the food...it's what comes out the other end of your
fish. ;-)


It's gotta be in the food, fish can't synthesize phosphate.


--
Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org
http://www.mbz.org | Mercedes Mailing lists: http://lists.mbz.org
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | Killies, killi.net, Crypts, aquaria.net
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wris****ches http://watches.list.mbz.org

Richard wrote:
In article .com,
steve wrote:
Topic says it all. I'm in a life or death struggle with algae in my
big tank. The two twentys are in fine shape. The cork tank is
newly

When I have a green mess Ichange 80% of the water eevry day till it
clears up.
Usually 4-5 days, they 50% every other day so the gravel leeches out
properly.

It's always worked for me so far. Give it a try.


Thanks for the acvice, Richard. I'll give that a go after the blackout
period I'm trying now.

steve