mrsailboats Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 (edited) Hey everyone, After having some algae problems for the last little while and to what I think keeping my tank in good shape, I keep getting a stringy sort of hair algae. I have looked it up in many different places and never found a solution that seemed to fit my situation. I came across this today. The picture attached looks sort of similar to what I can get when its bad. And I was thinking I was given a substrate that mixed in with LFS rocks, has some marble added as well. I'm going to be double checking this tonight but does anyone think this could be my problem? Below it says to remove any marble in the tank as that could be a possible source of excess mg. I've wanted to solve this problem before diving deep into a heavily planted tank so I don't have anything that tests any sort of mg or read anything about proper levels of this. It is a very lighty planted tank and before I go into other solutions just want to see if anyone had heard of this. D.3. RODOPHYTAS SP. 3.T his algae is related to an imbalance between Ca: Mg where there is too much Mg. If you have marble in you tank, you should remove it. Use the Kno3 generic protocol plus . In future, reduce the Mg you are adding Edited March 8, 2011 by mrsailboats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Influence Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 (edited) . That's odd as I had marble slat in my tank and iv never had algea problems Blake Edited March 8, 2011 by The-Influence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 I was going to refer you to that site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsailboats Posted March 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 heh, yeah doesn't seem to be alot of info on tihs out there. The marble probably only effects certain setups I imagine. Mine is also in little pieces for the substrate so it may have a little more effects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted March 9, 2011 Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 If you have CO2 running, it'll be dissolving the marble at a faster rate than normal; and, I'd imagine with the marble being pulverized, there's a high surface area to speed up dissolution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishkabod Posted March 9, 2011 Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 Umm what about the imbalance, might i be right in saying that if you dose Ca to correct the balance that might help?? I'm guessing here. the other thing i can think of is that you could take your water in for a sample to one of the pet stores. Good luck L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubr0ke Posted March 9, 2011 Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 (edited) I dose mg in my tanks and I have no issues with algae...Ive heard of tap water containing 52 ppm of mg and not causing problems so I don't think thats your issue. You could try to add ca but our tap water has alot...it won't hurt tho... Tell me about your setup and im sure I can find the reason you are having algae problems... Tank size?..Lights?...how often you do water changes?....fertilizer?...substrate?..co2? After reading a little on marble, it sounds like its not mg thats leaching but calcium carbonate...which may cause a mg deficiency.. I would just remove the marble. Edited March 9, 2011 by ubr0ke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsailboats Posted March 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 Thanks everyone for the comments. My setup when I first encounted the algae was an old 45W Hood light not sure on the specs of it as I got it used and it was fairly beaten up. I only had a couple plants in there that would manage WITHOUT co2 so basically all I did was dose a plant grow liquid bought from the LFS. I have a 50 GAL with 3-6 gal water changed per week. Substrate is the little rocks mixed in with similar size of marble. Recently I've made the switch to 1 39W T5HO(Switched 1-2 weeks ago, 1 more coming), added a few plants (leaves becoming overrun with hair algae), and started dosing with excel as well as a different plant grow solution from LFS. I was on track to doing a DIY co2 setup but I figured if I couldn't get this problem figured out I should wait before I take on more of a challenge and really start growing plants. Ferts I definately need to research and yeah no co2 yet just the excel. I do 1 capful of excel every 1-2 days and the plant grow solution about once a week. After typing this out I realize I've got a lot of research to do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubr0ke Posted March 9, 2011 Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 (edited) Water changes are done to often...If you don't dose regular ferts and provide co2, w/c once a month is plenty... Big spikes in co2 after water change could be your problem. I would remove the marble as well just to rid yourself of that variable... what type of filter? model? What are your goals with this tank?....Do you have time to babysit it or do you want low maintanence? Edited March 9, 2011 by ubr0ke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsailboats Posted March 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 Water changes are done to often...If you don't dose regular ferts and provide co2, w/c once a month is plenty... Big spikes in co2 after water change could be your problem. I would remove the marble as well just to rid yourself of that variable... what type of filter? model? What are your goals with this tank?....Do you have time to babysit it or do you want low maintanence? My aquaclear 110 died at christmas so I'm currently running a emperor biowheel 280. My goals for the tank are to get it nice and lush and green. Maintenance is fine I'm more than willing to put in time, what limits me is a budget. If I was say to remove the marble I would have to remove basically all my substrate. I don't have anywhere other than a bucket or two to store my fish if I was to do that. That would be a pretty big change I don't know how well that would work out. I might have to live with the marble in there I'm thinking and hope its not the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubr0ke Posted March 9, 2011 Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 I don't know what else to suggest...Less water changes would help normally but with your substrate im not sure you should do that....If the marble is leaching calcium carbonate then your kh and gh will continue to rise....gh is not so important but kh swings are hard on all critters...plants included.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsailboats Posted March 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 I think I might just do the slow removal process. Stick my arm in there once a week and just pick out and replace what I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcgd Posted March 10, 2011 Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 I don't know if I agree with the water changes. I do 50% weekly. It's overkill but I like to reset my tank every week to start fresh with nutrient levels. Once a month will allow nutrients to build much to high if you don't know exactly what you're doing with dosing. Co2 addition has very few negative effects and usually only helps more than hurts. From my own experience I would say too much light is usually the #1 cause of algae, followed by nutrient imbalances or excess. You're light isn't that high. Probably around low light at the substrate and medium high up. I would have 2x39 for a high light setup on a 50. I find everything goes more smoothly for me if I add as many plants is possible from day one, don't have too much light (I think you are good there) and co2 addition is nice. The excel should be fine though. I would remove all the algae you can by hand. More plants ups the competition for nutrients and ideally, the plants win over the algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.