ACK Algae

[JohnnyRaggs]

So I have a 45 gallon bow front Amazon biotope. Its currently stocked with 10 rummynose, 7 Cardinals, 3 bronze corys (I know I need at least 3 more) a SAE and JAE (which aren't from the Amazon I know but are from my last tank, 2 assasin snails and 1 shrimp. It is a planted tank, but not majorly planted. It has been running for around 6 months and my water quality is very good. I just added a new light (about 1 month ago) in addition to my coralife single bulb ballast and all of a sudden I've had a major algae outbreak. Im getting brown hair algae on my heater and cords, driftwood and plants. Im also getting a gross slime type algae on the driftwood. There is also algae on the glass. I have currently turned off the new light and am doing daily water changes (of about 5 gallon). Is there anything else Im doing wrong? or not doing? I eventually want to turn my second light back on as it makes the tank look stunning, but don't want the algae over everything again. Is it just that I need more plants?

[funkman262]

Sounds to me like you might not have enough CO2 in the tank.

Too much light + nutrients + not enough CO2 = ALGAE

[smaug]

How much light are you running right now [wattage and k rating]? what type plants?

[funkman262]

How much light are you running right now [wattage and k rating]? what type plants?

Good questions. Also, how many hours are you running the light per day?

[JohnnyRaggs]

Not sure home much light I've got going. I have one single bulb ballast which came with the tank with a 30 w bulb and a coralife ballast with 2 bulbs, one is a 10,000k 39w T5 HO, the other is a Actinic? 39w T5HO. I did have the lights on for 12 hours but have reduced that to 10 hours. My plants are 3 Amazon swords, 1 Radican sword (echinodorus cordifolius) 2 rose swords (Echinodorus 'Rose') and a groups of Vallisneria in the back of the tank. Im not running Co2 as its a low tech tank.

[funkman262]

The problem is that by running that much light (especially T5HO), the tank can no longer be considered "low tech". When you're running that much light without CO2, algae is inevitable. I would suggest running the stock light for at most 10 hours a day and only turning the T5HO fixture on for no more than 6 hours a day until you get the algae in check.

[JohnnyRaggs]

Awesome!! thanks for the help. I figured that I was running too much light. I would like to keep the lights on, and would concider running CO2, what in your opinions are the best options?

[funkman262]

Unless someone has a better argument as to what your problem is and you decide to dose CO2, you have two options: pressurized or DIY. I have no experience with pressurized but I do run DIY CO2 in my 90g moderately planted tank. I'd imagine it's a bit more work and less reliable but I haven't experienced any major problems with it. I remember earlier on I was having some major problems with algae even though I was already dosing CO2 but I decided to add another reactor and voila, algae problem taken care of. If you go the DIY route, there are plenty of articles around the web (and I'm sure on this site as well) with detailed instructions and pictures on how to make it.

[smaug]

The actinic t5 is doing nothing for your plants,simply remove it and run the others. Co2 isn't really needed although it would be helpful. Seachem excel in a normal dose would do great for your very undemanding plants. They would be served well with root tabs as amazons are big root feeders and need very little co2.

[JohnnyRaggs]

Ok, well I've gone and set up a DIY Co2 system. Got 2 2l pop bottles feeding into a 500ml bottle feeding into the tank by way of a air ladder. Hope that it works. I have a under substrate - substrate that I put in place when I set up the tank which is for plants. Cant for the life of me remember what its called, but was told that it would help the plants. I also fertalize them once every 2 weeks with liquid fert.