Algae Advice

I am trying to rid my planted tank of some BBA. The BBA grows moreso on the anubius and crypts. Here are some specs of the tank:

1. 36" x 18" x 20" tank: ~ 58gallons
2. Running 96 Watts of Compact Flourescent 8 hours/day.
3. Pressurized CO2 using a Aqua Medic CO2 Reactor w/ Eheim 2217. Running ~1-1.5 BPS. Eheim 2217 filter is a biological filter mostly.
4. Using a Cal Aqua Double Checker - They seem to be equal colors throughout the day.
5. Running a 15 Watt UV sterilizer w/ Eheim 2215 all the time. Eheim 2215 is a mechanical filter.
6. Use a Eheim Pro 3 filter as an overall filter.
7. Using ADA Amazonia for substrate.
8. Dose Tropica Master Grow in morning.
9. Dose K 3 times a week.
10. I do (2) 20gallon water changes/week.
11. Tank stocked with (2) 7" Discus, (2) 5" Discus, (3) German Blue Rams, (8) Rummynose Tetras, (2) Cory Catfish, Amano Shrimps.
12. Feed fish Hikari Frozen Bloodworms 3 times/day at (2) 3.5oz. cubes each time.
13. I do not dose any Phosphate or Nitrate. Using my Hach Phosphate test kit shows 1.5PPM Phosphate before a water change. Using my LaMotte Nitrate test kit shows about 20-25PPM Nitrate before a water change. Therefore, I figure no dosing needed here.
14. Tank is fairly densely planted: Anubius, rotala indica, rotala colorata, blyxa japonica, various crypts.
15. Plants in all parts of the tank show a nice gentle swaying motion.
16. Try to keep plants (the rotala's) trimmed.

Any ideas what I should try to stop BBA? I know this is mostly a CO2 issue but it seems like the CO2 is okay according to the drop checker. I do notice more BBA if I try to add in an additional 55 watts of lighting. Not sure if this is a dosing issue or a CO2 issue.

 

Hi Vaughn,

I think my bubbles coming out of the Aqua Medic CO2 reactor are fiarly large. Definitely larger than a bubble out of a ADA CO2 system. What bubble per second would you expect to be about right for this system?

I have already gassed the discus before (at a pH of about 6.3) so I am leary of pushing a lot more CO2 into the tank. But I can try a little more.

SO it sounds like this is a CO2 issue and not a dosing issue in your opinion?

 

Hi Tom,

What do you think of the dosing regimine I have? I only dose K and Micros.

I like the idea of the (2) 39 watt bulbs. Do you think I have too much lighting for this setup?

 

Lokii_37,

I don't dose N because the discus provide N. I've tried dosing a small amount of N and P. It did nothing for the BBA.

 

Hi Vaughn,

Yes, the fish load is pretty high. I do run (3) filters on this aquarium: a Eheim 2217 that is 90% filled with biological filter media, a Eheim 2215 all mechanical filter, and a Eheim 2076 with both biological and mechanical filtering.

I also do (2) 20 gallon water changes per week.

Each feeding is 7oz of frozen blood worms. I have thought about reducing feeding to twice a day.

 

They are 3.5oz cubes. The cubes are actually quite small.

Hikari Aquatic Diets - Aquatic diets for tropical & marine fish

 

What should my target K value be for this tank? I do a 1/2 teaspoon 3 times a week right now. Perhaps this is where I am a bit light?

 

The packaging says 3.5oz (100g). It could be for all the cubes. There are 32 cubes. So a little over 3 grams each.

 

The way they eat, I wonder if they wouldn't eat three hamburgers! LOL