Algae battle once again.

[JadeButterfly]

Hey all,

It has been a while since I've seen algae...and now its back...

I've mentioned on another thread that ever since I have added a new piece of manzanita wood into my tank with a couple of river rock to hold it in place, and a filter clean...my dwarf hairgrass started to turn white/yellow...

I've been using EI for a while and never encounter any problems...I didn't change my fert. dosage and CO2 has always been constant.

well the hairgrass is now going from white to yellow...so it maybe a better sign..and there is new growth which makes these white/yellow hairgrass less noticable...so this issue I will wait a couple of weeks...

Now, onto the algae... Ever since I added this piece of wood (i boiled twice for a long time/left it in water for a while to get it to sink), I've been getting algae. So far, lots of GSA and starting, fuzz algae. The funny thing is these algae ONLY appear on everything EXCEPT for the plants. My plants are really healthy thanks to Mr. Barr (ie. EI). So what is causing this massive GSA appearing on the wood, rocks, and glass. I have small green fuzz algae growing on the wood as well...

My CO2 is really high. My fishes start to surface for air near the last 3hours of the day. My NO3/PO4 is also really high...I have always dose high amount without any problems...

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what is causing this? I am starting to think that I cleaned my filter too well which may have caused this...because if this is so, then I'm just going to leave the tank like this for a good month until the filter gets all the bacteria it needs, instead of cleaning the algae and having it to come back immediately.

btw: I do not have any test kits at all...I dose and adjust CO2 according to EI...making sure they are all non-limited.

Thanks!

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Algae battle once again.

Remove the wood. Soak and boil it some more(wait a few weeks to add it back).
Scrub tank good.
clean filter.
Do water change.

You can prune the grass like a mower, cut it to about 1-1.5" and it'll grow back nicely.

Add more turbulance to the tank, fish should not be at the surface.
You back off the CO2 if you see that.

Scrub off algae good for the next week about once every 2-3 days, whether it needs it or not.

Clean the wood with bleach etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[JadeButterfly]

Re: Algae battle once again.

Thanks Tom for your instructions.

I'll follow them and see how they turn out.

Do you have a safe method of cleaning the wood with bleach though? I was always afraid that the wood would absorb the bleach.

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Algae battle once again.

Naws, the wood does not reallt take up much, anyway, the oxidizing from the bleach, the part that hurts fish etc, it working on the wood itself.

Adding a little dechloro to the tank after is good measure.


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[JadeButterfly]

Re: Algae battle once again.

I've removed the wood, bleached it, and now I'm gonna leave it in a tub of water for a few weeks (I'll boil a couple times before I put it back in)

I've scrub the tank pretty well (with a magnet).

I left the rocks in the tank, just flipped them over so the algae is facing the substrate...I'll be using the rocks to see if algae still grows.

I've done a good 90% W/C, cleaned filters.

So lets hope for the best.

I'll be leaving to Hong Kong next week until the end of the month...hopefully the tank won't screw up...but if it does, I'll have to work on it after I come back.