brown hair/fuzz algae

[krisco]

So i noticed some brownish hailike strands of algae starting to grow on some of my plant leaves, particularly the Didiplis diandra. Doesn't seem to be anywhere else. It is real small what appears to be threads, almost thin like a new root would be. I'm guessing this is fuzz algae, but i don't know much about the algae business.

My water parameters don't really seem to be off too much.....

ammonia .25
ph 7.0
kh 4-5
nitrates 10ppm
nitrites 0 ppm
gh 12

i last tested the phosphates wednesday they were at.25
my chelated iron on wednesday was .1.

Wondering if i over fertilized. I added a little flourish fertilizer last night. The directions said 1 cap for 60 gallons, and i have a 36bow. so i added about a half a cup( but it was a little over )last night. I didn't notice the algae last night though. I also am concerned about the co2. I have no drop checker, but i always use the chart with the kh/ph conversion. Chart says i check out good, maybe a little low. I have the red sea biosystem pressurized co2 system that is supposed to be good up to 40 gallons. My plants are growing a lot, in fact, i need to trim a few. But, i still wonder about the co2 levels.

My lfs is nothing but petsmart, and they do not have flourish excel, so i would have to order offline. If i need to up the co2, and you guys reccomend adding the excel, is there something i can use as a carbon substitute until the excel can come in? Or is it something else.
I have been doing water changes on sunday and wednesday, although honestly i did not do one this last wednesday like i shoulda. got the lazy foot.

Or should i just get some black mollies? Will they eat my red cherry shrimp?

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Evil Slimy]

How come you have an ammonia reading? Has the tank been setup recently?

If the brown algae you describe is diatoms, it's very common in new aquariums. The good news is that unless you have high silicates in your water the brown algae will come and go in a couple of weeks. Once it starts dieing off clean up what you can, do some siphoning/large water change and run activated carbon for a few days to lower the dissolved organics. Otherwise dead algae leads to extra live algae of another type.

If on the other hand it's green hair algae (and this seems more likely to me) I would do a large water change and back off dosing the chelated iron for a while to see how it does, especially if you have an iron rich substrate. I don't think you overdid it on flourish. Seachem products are very diluted and dosing just once would not do it. Is flourish the only thing you are dosing? How much light is over the tank?

[krisco]

sorry, my ammonia is at 0. i meant that for the phosphates and got a little dyslexic i guess. The tank isi guess i'd say about 6-8 weeks old, so it isn't too terribly old. the lighting is a coralife 65 watt 6700k power compact flourescent.

The only thing i am dosing with is the flourish, and i do have the root tabs in the substrate. Substrate is flourite with first layer laterite. Now i did do a wter change a week ago sunday, and added the 1/2 cap of flourish then. Then added 1/2 cap friday night. The bottle said once or twice a week.

And of course i add the normal seachem prime at water change, and dechlorinator. seems like i added some bacterial supplement as well.

[Incredulous_Ed]

Is it Black beard algae? If so, its caused mainly by low co2 levels. Increase co2 and raise temp to like 80-82 and it should go away.

[krisco]

don't think it is the black beard algae, from the google images i just found. I will get a picture of it, or at least try, in the morning. Then you might could tell me for sure. My temp is 76 in the tank though. Should i be at 80. I have red cherry's, tetras, rasboras, hatchetfish, and gup[pies.

[Incredulous_Ed]

Nah your fine at 76

[Evil Slimy]

Since the tank is relatively new and you have flourite as a substrate I would stop dosing flourish for a while. It's mostly trace fertilizers and flourite will provide you with most if not all. In my experience using full dose fertilizers at the beginning is not necessary and can be detrimental, especially in a mid-light setup like yours. I'm still paying the price on my 6g :P

The nutrients in flourite and flourish are listed on these pages. As you can see they pretty much match. The root tabs are also mainly micronutrients so you have quite a bit of overlap.
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Any chance you could take a picture of the algae and post it?

Given the micros overload, I would start dosing macro nutrients in reduced dosage. I think right now your plants are getting way too many traces, some co2, light and not enough macro-nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) to really take advantage of the traces, co2 and light so the algae is using up what the plants can't use.
In general the seachem line and their dosing chart has worked really well for me: [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
After about 3 months I started using powder fertilizers because they are cheaper, but the seachem products were a great intro to the process for me :)
In your case, I would follow the chart but skip dosing flourish, traces and iron since your substrate is taking care of them for a good while.

[krisco]

ok, got a picture. it doesn't seem to be on any of my other plants.

[Evil Slimy]

That is not brown algae/diatoms. It's either the start of black brush algae or green bear algae. I would still start dosing macro nutrients.

[krisco]

seems maybe if it is that algae, that i am short on co2. I will get some flourish excel to help my co2, and i hooked up a diy diffuser with a piece of an old gravel vac i had, a powerhead, and a sponge. Hopefully that will tide me over till i get the macro nutrients and the excel. I really like that chart from seachem, slimy, thank you for that. I believe I will take your advice and go by that, with the restrictions you suggested.

In the meantime, i put in one of those jungle labs dissolving tablets to help try to up the co2. There really is nothing here locally for good co2, with the exception of the tank setup that i haven't researched enough yet to know what i am doing. Heck, all the petsmart has here for plants are florish, leaf shine, and root tabs.

[Evil Slimy]

You should be able to get rid of it, or at least keep it in check easily. All I would recommend is to be patient with it as it usually takes a week or two to see the results of whatever changes you make now.

[krisco]

well, i definitely have a co2 deficiency, at least according to the ph/kh chart. My kh is 5 degrees, but my ph is 7.4 now which translates to 4-6 ppm of co2. I kinda figured this red sea co2 system was not gonna be good enough. I just made a new mixture a week about 5 days ago, and it should last a month.

So since i cannot afford the pressurized tank systems right now, i guess i will try out a DIY system. It is a 36 gallon, so i am figuring that i need to use the 2 soda bottle method, with the 3rd gatorade bottle. I have ordered the macros from drsfostersmith, and flourish excel, but there will be a few days before they get here and i do not want plant death or algae takeover.

Maybe this diy will work. I already have an airstone if it is needed to reduce the co2 at night.

[krisco]

alright, my flourish package came in today. I got excel, potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen. I started with day one and did the recommended doses.

Just out of curiosity sake, slimy, you said you have switched to dry ferts. Any chance you would share with me where you are getting your ferts?