help me kill the weed please...

[Paul]

these are pics of my tanganykan tank, I keep gettin a thin layer of algae over everything, stats are

phos 0
Nitrates 40-60
Lights 8 hours a day
ph 8
gh and kh are stupidly high, I think from over use of api 8.2... thats stopped now

I know the nitrates are high for tangs but with the amount of amquel i am using, I need to buy shares in the company!!

Anyone know what algae this is? I was told it was due to the lighting, but as im fairly new to tangs, am having a hard time knowing what to do... and why is the nitrate so high? tap is 40...

 

[fosteder]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

looks like bga to me. Blackout (for 3 days) or antibiotics will kill it, but unless you eliminate what caused it in the first place it will come back. Normally it is caused by lownitrates, poor water quality. Are you sure about the nitrate levels? Also, do you use any plant spike that contain NH4 or urea?

 

[Ian H]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

Ugh, classic BGA Paul. Thankfully I've never had it. Fosteda is right you must address the water quality issues. In my understanding of this algae high nitrates are not the trigger as I think I've read it has the ability to fix it's own nitrates. What are your ammonia and nitrite levels like?

Ian

 

[Paul]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

Must admit, I never checked ammonia and nitrite, will do them tonight, the only reason I am concerned about the nitrates is because tangs dont like it over about 20
Thanks for the helps guys

 

[Paul]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

Ugh, classic BGA Paul. Thankfully I've never had it. Fosteda is right you must address the water quality issues. In my understanding of this algae high nitrates are not the trigger as I think I've read it has the ability to fix it's own nitrates. What are your ammonia and nitrite levels like?

Ian

Ammonia and nitrite are both 0, any ideas guys?

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

these are pics of my tanganykan tank, I keep gettin a thin layer of algae over everything, stats are

phos 0
Nitrates 40-60
Lights 8 hours a day
ph 8
gh and kh are stupidly high, I think from over use of api 8.2... thats stopped now

I know the nitrates are high for tangs but with the amount of amquel i am using, I need to buy shares in the company!!

Anyone know what algae this is? I was told it was due to the lighting, but as im fairly new to tangs, am having a hard time knowing what to do... and why is the nitrate so high? tap is 40...

Well, the tap is 40 and your tank is 40-60.
You can kill it with antiobiotics or blackout or clean the tank real good(recommended) and do more water changes and less light.

I assume there are no plants in this tank.
No light=> no algae.

You can use plants in the filter, peace lilies work great and will remove NO3 as will floating plants.

I always had plants in my Tangy tanks, see the 240 gal in the gallery on this site.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Paul]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

Thanks all

I did a 3 day black out anyway after most of the fish were wiped out, waters ok now and the tanks also been stripped and cleaned, new fish added, multies now so I will see how it goes.
When I finally get to a proper sized tank it will be a planted tang tank I think (although still tempted by discus)

 

[Ian H]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

I think discus would be a none starter unless you get that RO unit Paul.

Ian

 

[Paul]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

I think discus would be a none starter unless you get that RO unit Paul.

Ian

i know, now way would i get them with my water

 

[Laith]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

Do you know why your fish were "wiped out"?

I'm not too sure that 40mg/l of Nitrates would "wipe out" fish. It might have a longer term effect on certain delicate fish but a sudden dying off?

Could it be something else?

Just an idea before your new batch of fish suffers the same fate.

 

[Paul]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

Me and the tang dealer think it was the fact that I was using Api 8.2 to control the ph, the KH went a little mad and shot up to 24, I did a water change of 10-15% of water without buffer and it dropped to 14 (tap is 12), going to use straight tap water now with no buffering, guess I have learnt the lesson from not checking the water stats often enough

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

I've had little trouble with feather fins and Cypri's/Xeno's once they get established in the tank.

It was not the NO3, that much seems true.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Paul]

Re: help me kill the weed please...

Ok, my new fish are ok and I am happy with the water stats. The BGA is returning... what am I supossed to do to get rid of it?