Algae ultimate solution

[jonny_ftm]

Hi,

It's crazy how sometimes algae issues can be easy to manage. My high tech 60gal 110W light was doing fine until I decided to stop waterchanges as I was bored. Algae appeared, BBA and green threads. I switched to 50% WC /month and 50% lower dosing, things improved but not the quiet zero algae it was

Now, I'm moving home and decided to stop the tank forever (planning on a Tanganyika)


Turned off CO2, stoped ferts completely ---> green algae bloom
I let it alone, no WC, no algae removing, no maintenance: after 2 weeks, alage is quiet gone completely, yet plants (swords, crypts, ferns and some stems) are doing fine, just growing sooo slowly. Light is the same

What I meant to show you: often, we get too much stressed about algae, especially when we start in the hobby. Once you don't care about them, they will go. Strange, but works often. The less you touch your tank, the easier an equilibrium point will be reached. Hard to resist when you see algae blooms, but you often should

 

[hbosman]

Yeah maybe when we keep messing with things, the ultimate solution becomes a moving target. It was a change that caused the algae bloom in the first place, missed water changes, missed ferts and still high lighting. Whenever I caused algae blooms is because I made to many changes at once. If I only uprooted 25 % of the plants, the ammonia increase may not initiate a green water bloom but if I move 80 %, then I'm asking for trouble. Yeah sometimes it takes all of the self control I can muster to not change such and such because, I ready made some other changes.

 

[Tom Barr]

Hi,

It's crazy how sometimes algae issues can be easy to manage. My high tech 60gal 110W light was doing fine until I decided to stop waterchanges as I was bored. Algae appeared, BBA and green threads. I switched to 50% WC /month and 50% lower dosing, things improved but not the quiet zero algae it was

Now, I'm moving home and decided to stop the tank forever (planning on a Tanganyika)


Turned off CO2, stoped ferts completely ---> green algae bloom
I let it alone, no WC, no algae removing, no maintenance: after 2 weeks, alage is quiet gone completely, yet plants (swords, crypts, ferns and some stems) are doing fine, just growing sooo slowly. Light is the same

What I meant to show you: often, we get too much stressed about algae, especially when we start in the hobby. Once you don't care about them, they will go. Strange, but works often. The less you touch your tank, the easier an equilibrium point will be reached. Hard to resist when you see algae blooms, but you often should

So are you now convinced that non CO2 w/o water changes is one of the best methods around?

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[jonny_ftm]

So are you now convinced that non CO2 w/o water changes is one of the best methods around?

Regards,
Tom Barr

Yes, I never thought CO2 could be shut down and yet no dramatic issues. Much lower maintenance.
Sadly, I won't have time to keep playing with this tank as I have to shut it down soon. I'm sure that even decreasing the light by 50% will improve things much better than now. Very fun to have a tank to play with that way. You try one thing and see how it goes. No waterchange tank look easier to achieve without CO2 than with CO2. Looks obvious though as CO2 drives the growth.

I will keep it for another 3-4 weeks before I turn it off. Meanwhile, no WC, no CO2 and no ferts, maybe 50% less light if my luminaire supports running one bulb. Let's see how it does. Soil is rich in micro. Food and fish load, should provide macro as Tom said. However, I'm really impatient to start it again as a no plants African cichlids tank. I'll open a new topic once ready to start it. I plan a +3 months no light fish-less cycling

I'll keep you informed and thank you for the feedback

 

[Tom Barr]

It seems the under sophisticated and over sophisticated attitudes get non CO2 really well.
Why bother with all this high techy stuff?
Why deal with work?

Both have a similar goal.
No water changes, no work, no testing, no algae.

Growth is painfully slow and that's the trade off, some species compete stronger than others and do not do as well for CO2.
Otherwise, it's often just what many are looking for.

I think the pretty pictures with CO2 enrichment is selling something but they really want this.

Still, with less light, you can add CO2 and add maybe 2-3x more growth and then not have any plant species issues also.
But it means low light, add sediment ferts etc..........then maybe one water change a month etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[jonny_ftm]

I get your point. I'm sure you're right. Once I decide to stop the 11 gal in my signature, I'll try 1x/month waterchanges then no CO2 + no waterchange. I'm just not tempted to mess with it now as it is a 0 visible algae tank after 7 months. I use a relatively high CO2 level but the overall consumption is very low 30-40 /mn

 

[Tom Barr]

For a CO2 enriched system, reduce the light instead.

This is something I've been suggesting for a long time now.

You still get growth with either, see Tropica's example about LIGHT AND CO2:

Look at that CO2 and light matrix, with % growth, there's some growth for each case..........so we do get growth still........how much is what is important, or the "rate".
Do you want say 1-2% or do you want 6%, maybe 6% with less light and CO2 gas, vs higher light and no CO2?

Algae will be less on an issue with real low light and CO2, but also with low light and non CO2 provided you do no water changes.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[dutchy]

I recognize this very well. My non CO2 quarantine tank always has less algae issues than the CO2 enriched tank. Plants look better, cleaner. Just too bad that some plants don't even get half of the size compared to
CO2 enriched, like L. Aromatica and P. Stellatus.

If plant size was the same, the CO2 would be gone in 60 seconds

regards,
dutchy