How do you guys fight thread aglae?

[nicklfire]

Hey there,

Tank specs as follows:

25 gallon frshwater Planted
150w mh 6700 k
dose EI and Tailored Aquatics Trace fertz
Tropical aquatics Iron (once in a while)
Florabase Substrate
Pressurized Co2 at stable 30ppm
Running lights about 9 Hours a day
Lots of stem growers, lots of hc, java moss, fissiden

Been having a problem with thread algae, and dosnt seem to be going away. Seems like hair algae is combo with it as well. Usually i take out as much thread algae as i can but it just comes back.

I know that thread algae could come on because an excess of iron, so i stopped dosing it, but it dosnt seem to cut back the growth of the thread algae. I've been doing my regular 50% water changes.

Anymore idea?

Here's a video of the tank if needed:
YouTube - Nickflire 20 gallon Rimless !

That vidoe was done after a pruning, so the plant load is... almost 2x more now

 

[VaughnH]

It is a myth that thread algae, or any other algae is caused by dosing iron. Your plants need iron, so you should be dosing it.

Your tank is not heavily planted, because much of the substrate is visible. A heavily planted tank has very little visible substrate.

150 watts of light over a 25 gallon tank is quite a lot of light. You do have it raised so the light is about twice as far from the substrate as it would be if the light were right down on the top of the tank, so that should reduce the intensity at the substrate by about a factor of 4, which is good.

You do have a drop checker, I assume filled with 4 dKH distilled or DI water, so at least at the drop checker location you have good CO2 concentration. But, do you have good water circulation? Generally that means a powerhead or something similar in the tank causing the water to circulate throughout the tank. Without that, and with that much light, some plants will be starved for CO2. Since Tom always notes that most algae problems come down to CO2 problems, this could be your problem.

 

[nicklfire]

Well you could be absolutely right about the circulation of the tank. The spray bar is on the right side of the tank and the log is in the middle, and most of the algae is on the left hand side... there is some of it on the right but... this is something to go on i suppose.

I'd hate to just stick a power head in there, i wish i could figure out some sort of circulation system for this, it's only 25 gallon so now much room to go on. Anyone have a good idea for better circulation?

I have a eheim 2026 with the after market spray bar.

 

[VaughnH]

I don't like spray bars. I replaced mine with Aquarium Plumbing: Directional U-Tube, and the water circulation was improved considerably. You can get some pretty small powerheads, one of which could do a lot of good, if hidden back in a corner. Or, you could get the smallest Koralia unit, and then you would have plenty of water flow. I like having a circular flow around the tank, especially down at the bottom, where most of the plants are. A Koralia pump back in a rear corner, aimed along the back wall, does that very well.

 

[eyebeatbadgers]

I recently upgraded the flow in my tank without adding anything inside. Here is a link to the thread about it, and I'm very satisfied with the results.

 

[nicklfire]

thx for that link man


Does anyone think Overdose of excel would kill the clado and thread algae?

 

[phanmc]

Thread algae seems to be pretty resistent to Excel, direct spot treatment works but treating the whole tank is not effective with Excel alone.

Try cutting the photoperiod down to around 6hrs a day until you have it under control, that worked for me.

 

[tinkerman]

I just got rid of this I did a 3 day black out and added hydrogen peroxide at 0.5 ml per gal of water daily, 50% wc daily, doubled fert dose daily. I reduced lighting after and uped ferts all is gone a mo later only a few strings left.

 

[Pockets]

I think it is your light that is causing the algae.

Either raise the light even more or reduce the running time.

Personally I think that the MH 150 is the maxium peak light for your 25g tank. What I really think you are missing is viewable light for you to see your fish for the other parts of the day/evening.

I also have had problems with algae before ... here look > http://www.barrreport.com/general-plant-topics/3375-emergency-algae-outbreak.html

When I bought this light Current USA 72 inch Outer Orbit 3x150w 10K HQI-MH w/ 8x39W T5 HO & 24 Lunar Lights, 72in > 72in
the only algae I ever have a problem with now is GDA/GSA and its only minor maintenance related. This light allows me to view fish and grow plants without depending on only the MH lights which would make one tend to run them too long.

My MH lights only run from 12:30pm to 7:30pm and my tank is 24" deep



The fish will swim around more and generally be happier if you were to incorporate T-5 or LED's powerful enough for your viewing pleasure but not so high of wattage for you to be worrying about algae.

So I guess reducing MH 150w to 5-7hrs and get another light for the Before/After peak time.