farrenator

Lookig over your specs it looks like you have a ton of light. What is your photoperiod set at? Just recently I cut my photoperiod down from 10 hours a day to 4 hours on, 1 off, 4 hours on and it helped with the GDA I was getting on the glass. From the pics you posted I see the lights are hung a decent height above the tank but it still seems like a lot of light. FYI I have 216 watts fo t5h0 over a 75 gallon at 3" above the top of the tank.

Your water specs don't seem to be too bad. When I test my water I end up with 15-20pmm Nitrate and about 0.5ppm phosphate. I would try playing around with your lighting schedule.

slobodan

Thanks for reply farrenator..
My lights are on and off during the day, It's like this:

Righ Light ON @ 12:00
Left Light ON @ 14:00
Left Light OFF @ 16:00
Left Light ON @ 17:55
Right Light OFF @ 18:00
Left Light OFF @ 22:00

I did try that too. About a month ago I had all lights off for a week. I didn't cover it to be pitch black but off never the less.. it subdued a bit but was back in no time..
I'm really desperate and there doesn't seem to be much help..

slobodan

I have quick question, is it possible that R/O water that went through R/O filter (of course ) with DI unit contains any kind of organic nutrients, traces, phosphates, nitrites etc. ???
When I measure TDS it's 1ppm..
I think not but want to confirm.

JeffyFunk

RO is a proportional technique. In other words, the RO filter is only able to remove a certain proportion of the impurities in water across the RO membrane. Without a laboratory grade water purification system (which may also include a RO filter as a prepurification step), you will never achieve ASTM Type 1 water.

Furthermore, you have to be careful about low level TDS analysis. Unless you have a TDS Meter with a low level conductivity probe, I would take low level conductivity measurements w/ a grain of salt. Bottom line - w/out laboratory grade equipment, don't expect laboratory grade water (and you really don't have any need for home use).

slobodan

Thanks JeffyFunk..
I understand that. I was just trying to get my head around how to get rid of this blue/green algae and was wondering may be it's my water which is 100% R/O..

farrenator

By my calculations your lights are on for 10 hours per day:
2 hours at 250 watts
4 hours at 500 watts
2 hours at 250 watts
2 hours at 250 watts
Lights off for 14 hours.

Does the tank get any natural light? You wrote that you get less GDA where the light is further away. This sounds like a pretty big clue to me to cut down on your light! Have you tried an 8 hour photoperiod? At this point it seems like a very easy variable to paly with. Another option may be to see if you can diffuse the light some. Most hardware store sell rolls of black plastic screen material that should filter out 'some' of the light hitting the tank. I am by no means an expert but this seem like a painless and easy thing to experiment with.

TortoiseBoy

Hello,
I have been trying the MCI for a week or two and I have ended up with the algae in the attached pictures. Can anyone help me ID this algae and let me know what I can do about it? I was thinking it might be one of the species of rhodophytes (sp?) that Christian mentioned in his summary, but I could tell. Anyway, I never made it to GSA the first time I tried the NO3 protocol. I have lots of this algae instead. I am trying again after a big water change. I have added some MgSO4 to try to improve my Mg:Ca ratio. Oh, and CO2 and light should not be an issue.

Thanks in advance!

TB

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farrenator

You may want to post this in its own thread. This site can move kind of slowly at times and people may not be checking this thread very often. I wish I had an answer for you but I don't - but I do have that type of algae as well. It grows on my Anubias, albeit quite slowly now. I am dosing according to PPS Pro but at double the amount - the ratios between ferts is the same though.

Newt

If its black in color and not green its a type of Rodophyta 2 (red algae family). If its green then its most likely GSA. It looks black so>Increase MgSO4, cut back on Fe and photoperiod. Keep filter clean and increase CO2 and keep it steady as possible.

Nano85

Hopefully you guys can help me out.
For the past two months I have been battling algae and nothing seems to get rid of it. I recently came across Carlos' MCI method I am currently on day two of the kno3 GSA method. My questions pertain to MCI and this algae I have. It is very long green stringy algae that is attaching itself to everything, especially my glosso. I have a bit of BGA as well. I had a huge problem with GDA but this morning it seemed to be under control and I didn't have much on my glass (usually I have to wipe the sides every morning). I have been dosing around 4ppm of KNO3 for two days. Will the stringy algae go away once I figure out proper dosing or will I have to go through drastic measure to remove it (bleaching, manual removal, H2O2, etc)?
Thank you for your time!

Best
Rudy