Algae Issues in another tank

[Erk]

Hello everyone....I helped my mother set up a 29gal tank a few weeks ago. We are using 1x65watt 6700K and 1x65watt 10000K....10hours a day. No fish yet, so CO2 is cranked up really fast for 12 hours a day...2 hours before lights on and off when lights off....dosing per EI. Rena xP2 cannister

I believe she doses 1/2teaspoon KNO3, 1/8teaspoon KH2PO4, 1/8teaspoon K2SO4 3xWeek, and CSM+B Trace on the opposite days

These are some pics from the first couple days after setup

I will post again in one second with the mess we have now

Thanks

 

[Erk]

This is the mess we have going at the moment

Do we need to dose more of something? She turned off the 10000K bulb to see if that would get rid of the algae, and now has much slower growth, and no more pearling The brown stuff is easily cleaned off, but the green stuff is different, and not so easy to get rid of

I really didnt expect to have algae like this.....any advice is greatly appreciated! There are no fish in there, only tag a long snails, which we dont want anyways, so we can handle these issues however you would like us to

Thanks very much

 

[ceg4048]

Erik,
130 watts over a 29 G is playing with fire. The brown stuff I believe is diatom algae which goes away after a few weeks. You also could have used twice as many plants as you have in there now. You could also benefit by doing 50%-80% water change 2X-3x weekly during the first 4-6 weeks. It's good that you shut down one of the lamps, but you'll have to scrub and trim like crazy for a few weeks to get it back into shape. Trimming an hour or two off the lighting duration also will help.

Using megawattage is the easiest way to get into trouble. All it takes is a little bit of ammonia with that much light to start an algae fiesta.

Cheers,

 

[Erk]

Thanks very much ceg4048. The brown algae easily comes off, and we cleaned it off once so far, and hasnt seemed to wanna come back yet....prolly cause the one light bulb is shut off.....we have left the co2 alone, so its full blast, with only the 1x65watt 6700K bulb on

We changed the timer to 8hours on during the week, and left it at 10hours on during the weekends.

We are working on getting more plants for in there, as well as trimming and replanting anything we can.

We will bump up the water changes for the next few weeks, and see how things go

Thanks again! Im def. still learning

 

[FacePlanted]

What you have done and what ceg suggested is exactly what I would have suggested also. I had to do waterchanges every other day for like 4-6 weeks with my new setup with aquasiol or algae would start to take over - fast!
So, keep up with the waterchanges is the 2 cents I have to put in.
Everything else that you did, that you posted, sounds like the correct course of action. Replanting the clippings like you are doing is a good idea also. Lots of plants help lots.

Good luck with the tank!

-Mike B-

 

[Professor Myers]

Try running some Zeolite in the filter for the first few months too ! ...Couldn't hurt. Prof M

 

[Erk]

Thanks very much everyone we have bumped up the water changes, and kept the one light off....I moved the diffuser yesterday, and it seemed to have "kick-started" the pearling again, so that was nice to see....I took some more plants from my tank over as well

Next water change we will toss some zeolite in the filter....I will update with new pics soon

Thanks again

 

[Pockets]

Wow it looks like there is someone else that has the kinda algae that I had in this thread here > http://www.barrreport.com/general-plant-topics/3375-emergency-algae-outbreak.html#post19005
* seen in your middle picture *



I would only use the 10k 65watt light.
* I would purchase a 13watt kit from Compact Fluorescent Lighting Kits and a bulb of your choice to facilitate in a dusk>dawn effect or peak-midday burst! e.g. Bright Blue Actinic / 5500-7800k ... and until you get things fixed i would dose all nutrients as needed instead of EI ... just my opinion right now. I am no expert by any means as you can well see my first tank in my troubled thread posted above