blue green algae and black hair algae problem?

Hi, can anyone tell me why I've got problems with blue green slime algae and
black hair algae?. the blue green algae's got so bad that after only three
days it has recovered eight square inch's of the gravel in my tank and has
grown back in every place and more on my plants!. I no that I have not been
over feeding or over stocked the tank with fish. the nitrite and ammonia
levels are at zero. the nitrate never gets higher than 5 mg/l and the
phosphate is around 0.25 mg/l. I guess that the
ph number is high and also the gh level because of the local water coming
from reservoirs on chalk/lime hills near my home, but I have not tested for
those. the tank is out of direct
sunlight and has the standard juwel lighting and reflectors that come with
there tanks. I've been thinking about replacing a few of the plants with the
fastest growing ones that I can find, but I think that unless there is a
treatment for sale in the UK "were antibiotics are not available" that will
kill it off completely it will just
start to cover the new plants, and I will be forced to remove all of them.

oh, and I change 25% of the water in my tank once a week, and I also clean
the gravel once a week with a power gravel cleaner. and my tapwater reads
zero for nitrite ammonia and nitrate and 0.25 mg/l of phosphate. thank you

"simeseninjafish" wrote in message news:wbrqc.94$2z5.76@newsfe1-win...
Hi, can anyone tell me why I've got problems with blue green slime algae and
black hair algae?. the blue green algae's got so bad that after only three
days it has recovered eight square inch's of the gravel in my tank and has
grown back in every place and more on my plants!. I no that I have not been
over feeding or over stocked the tank with fish. the nitrite and ammonia
levels are at zero. the nitrate never gets higher than 5 mg/l and the
phosphate is around 0.25 mg/l. I guess that the
ph number is high and also the gh level because of the local water coming
from reservoirs on chalk/lime hills near my home, but I have not tested for
those. the tank is out of direct
sunlight and has the standard juwel lighting and reflectors that come with
there tanks. I've been thinking about replacing a few of the plants with the
fastest growing ones that I can find, but I think that unless there is a
treatment for sale in the UK "were antibiotics are not available" that will
kill it off completely it will just
start to cover the new plants, and I will be forced to remove all of them.

oh, and I change 25% of the water in my tank once a week, and I also clean
the gravel once a week with a power gravel cleaner. and my tapwater reads
zero for nitrite ammonia and nitrate and 0.25 mg/l of phosphate. thank you

Hardness above 3 GH(general)/KH(alkalinity) is good for plants, very
low PO4 and NO3 is generally not good, and test kits get pretty tough
to trust at these low levels for a few reasons.
doing regular weekly water changes will help a great deal in removing
the organics and these include NO3/PO4 bound forms also that your test
kits typically measure.
Plants cannot use these forms directly. The can use the forms like
from dosing KNO3, Fleet enemas/KH2PO4 etc.
These salts disassociate in water and form the NO3,PO4,K in inorganic
and plant available form.

As far as treating, BGA, the blyue green alage, is very easy to treat
and kill, WITHOUT antibiotics, search Tom Barr, Blackout and BGA/Cyano
bacteria on the Aquatic plants digest. Or here, I'm sure I've said it
a few times on most every board.
Takes 3 days and is 100% effective and cost= free.
Not sure why anyone would ever argue with "FREE".
The Tropical Fish Center Board has more UK based help which you might
more to your liking and I've posted this stuff there.
Also you can find the KNO3 and other products locally in the UK that
will ship to you.This will greatly improve the plant health and reduce
the algae.

For BBA, the brush algae, it's almost always associated with poor CO2
levels in planted tanks, you want 20-30ppm of CO2, not just part of
the day, the entire day.

Regards,
Tom Barr

For KNO3/K2SO4, traces etc:

http://tropicalfish.site5.com/tfc/sh...threadid=21359

Old threads:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums...&highlight=BGA

"A 3 day blackout cost nothing, works in the same if not less time.
Your problem is one of plant nutrition, not algae. Killing it will not
cause it from coming back.

Clean off what's there, do a 50% water change, add KNO3, at about 1/4
teaspoon per 20 gal. Do a 50% water change when the balckout is over,
add thesame amount of KNO3, and keep adding about this same amount of
KNO3 once or twice a week.
Clean your filter also.

This works and addresses the long term problem.
It also cost nothing to kill the BGA. Hard to argue with FREE.

Your plants are already suffering from a lack of nutrients, the light
will never make or break any tank for 3 days. How do you think they
ship plants?



Regards,
Tom Barr "

I'm new to the group and plants, but during my general research I came
across a site explaining the use of the Redfield ratio to eliminate various
types of algae from the tank.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~buddendo/aquar...dfield_eng.htm

The article states that if you keep a proper ratio of 16:1
(Nitrogen:Phosphorus), little to no algae will be able to survive in the
tank.

Does anyone else in this group have similar findings as the person who wrote
this article?


"simeseninjafish" wrote in message
news:wbrqc.94$2z5.76@newsfe1-win...
Hi, can anyone tell me why I've got problems with blue green slime algae
and
black hair algae?. the blue green algae's got so bad that after only three
days it has recovered eight square inch's of the gravel in my tank and has
grown back in every place and more on my plants!. I no that I have not
been
over feeding or over stocked the tank with fish. the nitrite and ammonia
levels are at zero. the nitrate never gets higher than 5 mg/l and the
phosphate is around 0.25 mg/l. I guess that the
ph number is high and also the gh level because of the local water coming
from reservoirs on chalk/lime hills near my home, but I have not tested
for
those. the tank is out of direct
sunlight and has the standard juwel lighting and reflectors that come with
there tanks. I've been thinking about replacing a few of the plants with
the
fastest growing ones that I can find, but I think that unless there is a
treatment for sale in the UK "were antibiotics are not available" that
will
kill it off completely it will just
start to cover the new plants, and I will be forced to remove all of them.

oh, and I change 25% of the water in my tank once a week, and I also clean
the gravel once a week with a power gravel cleaner. and my tapwater reads
zero for nitrite ammonia and nitrate and 0.25 mg/l of phosphate. thank you

"Kirsten Johnsen" wrote in message . net...
I'm new to the group and plants, but during my general research I came
across a site explaining the use of the Redfield ratio to eliminate various
types of algae from the tank.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~buddendo/aquar...dfield_eng.htm

The article states that if you keep a proper ratio of 16:1
(Nitrogen:Phosphorus), little to no algae will be able to survive in the
tank.

Does anyone else in this group have similar findings as the person who wrote
this article?


Hi,

The ratio applies where these are limiting, if there's an ample supply
relative to light/CO2, then the ratio does not matter.

You can have 2 ppm of PO4 and 2 ppm of NO3 as long as this ratio and
levels are stable, it works fine as does 20ppm of NO3 and 0.2ppm of
PO4.

The ratio also includes NH4, which will make a huge difference if a
large fraction of the N is NH4(algae will grow). There are organic
fractions which the plants generally cannot use, a similar situation
occurs with PO4. Algae can use these organic fractions, unlike the
plants. These differences are significant when talking about plants
and algae and dominance in your tank.
Regular large water changes will keep the levels of the organic
fractions down.

In a high light tank you might have to dose more frequently to keep
this ratio but this whole mess with ratios does not limit algae in and
of it's self nor is it that horticulturally important.

As long as the growth needs of the plant are available, then the ratio
can be quite high or low. These are generalized ratios, specific algae
and plants can vary widely.

FW algae have ratios of 14:1 and FW macrophytes have about a 10:1 N:P
ratio.
Redfield's ratio is based on marine algae, not FW macrophytes or FW
algae.

We are trying to grow the macrophytes/plants are we not?
Shouldn't their needs be addressed since that is what we are selecting
to grow? I can also assure you that FW algae can and do grow nicely at
16:1 ratios N:P in many aquariums.

It seems to me if you base this arguement solely on the ratio, 16:1
would favor the algae, not the plants with their richer P content
relative to N.
There's talk about algae's ratio but not the plants which is the focus
of a planted tank.

10:1 ratios are generally mentioned as best for submersed aquatic
plants plants, but this will mainly save you a little KH2PO4 and KNO3
as you do a water changes to prevent any build up or depletion. These
are quite cheap. So as long as all the plants have either, then the
plants grow great and there's little algae presence.

A simple way to maintain a ratio: Do large weekly water changes(50+%)
to prevent any nutrient build up, dose frequently to prevent anything
from running out.

Good plant growth is the key. That is how you outwit algae. That is
the best path IME.

Regards,
Tom Barr