Staghorn algae, green spot algae, and green water, oh, my! - South Western Ohio Aquatic Plant Enthusiasts (SWOAPE)

EcleckticGirl · 10-21-2005, 11:13 AM

I know why I have algae. The powerhead on my venturi reactor has been repeatedly stopping on me. The first time was stargrass leaves and other bits-o-stuff so I wrapped some java moss around the intake as a bit of filter media. The next time I found a baby snail in the impeller housing. The next 3-4 times I don't know what the %&#@ it was, it just stopped, so today I took it down to one layer of java moss and made sure no other plant material was in the "filter media" I had created. Yes, I am probably guilty of overfeeding too, to get the darned Oto interested in eating the spirulina pellets. Yesterday before the green water started, I dosed the tank with Excel and continued that today. I changed out the DIY yeast early too a few days ago one of the times the venturi stopped. I have been removing what algae I can manually. Apparently I haven't got enough Cherry red shrimp or snails for all this.

Matt, did you never resume your aspirin/green water experiment? I read the green water/willow branches thread. I don't want to injure my fauna with aspirin.

MatPat · 10-21-2005, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EcleckticGirl

Matt, did you never resume your aspirin/green water experiment? I read the green water/willow branches thread. I don't want to injure my fauna with aspirin.

I did, but I have been unable to grow anymore green water outside! The weather has been too cold (nights) for the green water to grow I am assuming.

I really need to make the time to bring in the two 10g tanks and set them up again. I have a few strip lights I can place over the tanks so if I don't get too lazy this weekend, I will start up the experiment inside.

jonathan · 10-21-2005, 12:28 PM

Cherry Red Shrimp aren't the best at eating algae. They are fun to keep, but don't really eat all that much algae. They are picky in the types that they will eat too.

Green water can be cured by covering the tank for a few days and adding a high end canister filter (optional). Have you been stiring up the gravel recently? That can sometimes cause green water from lots of nitrates being released.

EcleckticGirl · 10-21-2005, 12:31 PM

Water change is due Saturday, Matt. I can bring you some green water.

EcleckticGirl · 10-21-2005, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonathan

Cherry Red Shrimp aren't the best at eating algae. They are fun to keep, but don't really eat all that much algae. They are picky in the types that they will eat too.

I have noticed they seem to eat the soft stuff I can't seem to see, not the staghorn. It is a lot too, for the small juvie shrimp colony to keep up with.

Quote:

Green water can be cured by covering the tank for a few days.

I am not sure I have anything that would cover the tank sufficiently to keep the light out and still let me feed the fish.

Quote:

Have you been stiring up the gravel recently? That can sometimes cause green water from lots of nitrates being released.

Possibly. I did move a rock and trimming the algae damaged java fern leaves from disturbs the driftwood and stirs things up a bit. I try not to stir the gravel up when I vac, but I haven't vacced since water change last Saturday. More than likely it's the uneaten food, though the shrimp and snails seem to have cleaned up all the spirulina pellets that were leftover.

EcleckticGirl · 10-21-2005, 02:16 PM

Despite the poor CO2 with the venturi failures, I have no BBA (finger crossing here). Could the outbreak be more of an underdosing of the macro ferts? The dosing recommendation Matt gave me for the solution was 10 ml, should I try a higher dose do you think? One of the algae is (are?) the result of low phosphate, I have a spare enema hanging around, what kind of dose could I use to give the 20 gallon a boost of phosphate?

MatPat · 10-21-2005, 04:52 PM

I would bet the outbreak is more of a CO2 issue than nutrients. I'm not saying that nutrients are not part of the problem but knowing the CO2 issues and the light level on the tank, it seems to point to CO2 mostly.

The Green Spot is either a PO4 deficiency or CO2, so feel free to add more of the fertilizer and see how it works out for you.

EcleckticGirl · 10-21-2005, 06:01 PM

I am reluctant to do a total blackout since the poor nourishment of the plants is causing the outbreak. Taking away the light is taking away the number one need of the plants and that seems like the worst thing to do to plants not getting nourished... Blackout for me is worst case scenario treatment and this is just barely cloudy water right now.

Simpte 27 · 10-22-2005, 07:34 AM

Are you sure its staghorn algae? I had what I thought to be staghorn (and Matt also I believe) which turned out to be hair algae.

EcleckticGirl · 10-22-2005, 09:49 AM

I have green hair algae, possibly what you are calling thread. It's quite beautiful and is growing in the substrate and the moss. The fish and shrimp seem to enjoy eating it and I don't mind a bit of that really; it's part of the food chain. What I am calling staghorn is coarse, branching and gray; no one eats it. It's growing primarily on the un-mossed section of driftwood and the java fern. There could also be thread algae too, I don't see a separate entry for it in the Algae Finder here at APC.

The green water was clearing when the morning lights came on for feeding. I made sure I got the lights off as soon as I saw everyone had eaten. When I got home from errands and my driftwood hunting walk this afternoon, I saw that the green water had pretty much cleared when the lights had come on today for the "day." Last night I had given the tank 10 ml of a generic Fleet enema thinking that what little I was giving couldn't hurt considering the water change was coming up today anyway. I doubt it did much. I think getting the venturi running and the two days of Excel finally paid off.

Water change this evening after choir practice (I got a solo part!

) and before dinner and hopefully the rest of the algae will fall in line. I picked up 4 free buckets from my friend today (recycling the kitty litter buckets, a very good thing). I am making the job easier on myself with more buckets to do the job this time around instead of one bucket going back and forth.