HUNTER

My tank is two months old and gets green dust algae on the glass everyday even i wipe it off each morning, it shows up after two or three hours after i turn on the lights. Plants are doing exceptionally well. My tank specs..
Please advice.

20G
1X65 PC
Pressurized co2
eco-complete
ph 6.8
kh 7 degrees
gh 180 ppm
No3 10-20 ppm
Po4 1-2 ppm
EI dosing
50% weekly water change

BryceM

My recent BAD outbreak was caused by nitrates in the 70-80 range. BTW my cheapie test kit had been reading 20. I got a Lamotte kit and was quite surprised. I did some massive WC's to get it back down in the 20 range. In only a few days it's really started to clear up. I previously had to scrape the glass daily. Now it still needs it, but only about once a week. I'd recommend calibrating / checking your test kits to make sure your levels are really what you think they are.

HUNTER

I had the water tested at the lfs as well to double check, and they had the same reading, i also tested the tap water and it tested what it suppose to be, i guess i need to tweak with fertilizing, i only run the lights now for 8 hours a day.

trenac

High nitrates caused my green dust algae. Once I lowered the N03 it went away. I would cut back on your nitrates and see what happens, even if the test kits are reading low.

yildirim

Try to increase your CO2 amount in the water and I don't know what kind and how much plants you have but try to increase plant quantity some more, especaily fast growings. Your tank is quite new, so this alg problem is common. Once settled it will not be a that big problem.

YILDIRIM

Simpte 27

Once you have green dust, it is not removeable by limiting or reducing nutrients. It is freefloating also. Turn off the filter, scrape the walls and do a large waterchange. May have to do this over a cpl of days. Or use a uv/diatom filter. Scraping it off the walls with no waterchange will only make you mad when you see it on the walls again in 1 hr.

HUNTER

Thanks guys, i will do all the steps mentioned above.

Gumby

Hm. I didn't know that it was a free floating algae. I've got a bad case of the green dust my self. In the name of science I'm going to hook my UV filter back up and see if this takes care of the problem. I'll report back on how it works.

HUNTER

It's part of my daily routine, wiping it off the glass with napkin, thank god i only have 20g tank.

plantbrain

It's niot freefloating per se.

It is scraped off, them swims back to a nice high light area(your glass), that's how it magically grows back in 1-2 hours, no algae grows that fast

It's like flicking a fly off your leg and it flies around and then lands back on your leg.

A UV may help some after you scrape it off.

I've been able to remove GD from every tank I've dealt with in about 1-2 weeks. Clean it a few time and water changes seems to work well.

You need to clean the glass and then time the water change right after.
Then do it again(2-3x).

The water changes are work, but so is scraping the glass clean.
Some have bombed with Excel afterwards.

Some have had minor success with 3 day blackouts.
Some by letting the tank settle in a bit.

It's annoying but poses no threat to plants.

UV/Diatoms can be useful after you scrape it off, then scrape in a about 1-2 hours later and then again till very little remains.

Then do a water change and leave the UV/Diatom on and scrape yet again.

That should knock it way way back.
You can catch it early if you scrub the glass often and do large water changes right after.

I've had higher NO3 than what's been mentioned here, it never appeared due to that in each case I did (maybe 7-10 runs at high 75ppm + levels).

So like the PO4 = algae myth, where is my GD if high NO3 cause it?
Something else more subtle causes it to bloom and good mature tanks seem to have less issue with it. It might seem like it it helped, but it did not cause it.

Higher CO2 also seems to help keep it at bay and prevents establishment, but not eradication except in a few cases.

Regards,
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com