[pmikota]

Hey Peeps,

Just checking in to see if anyone can lead me in the right direction. Have always had problems with algae of all sorts. Today is BBA.

I'm wondering do I have enough light? or too much? Should I reduce the time I leave the lights on? Should I be using ferts? What are your recommendations on what I should be doing?

So here is my setup. Have Chiclids... Little overstocked... Crushed Coral as my substrate

1) I have two T5HO 30" lights (6700k) on my 56-gallon tank. Total watts is 78. Its a bow tank. So height of the tank is around 20"
2) Phosphate levels are always in check. Around 0.25
3) Nitrates are always between 10-20 ( i use Purigen to control Nitrate levels) and do water changes when I need too
4) Recently started using CO2 and very recently trying to keep it around 30 ppm
5) Have been using Flourish Excel for some time (started witht his before getting into Co2). Just recently started double dosing along with Co2. 10mL for 100 Gallons (hoping this will fix my problem)

I was leaving lights on for 8 hours a day... but when I started with co2 I thought I could go to 10 hours but as soon as I did that.. I did notice a rise in the amount of algae in the tank.

 

[Virc003]

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/algae/87902-cause-solution-bba.html

Above link is a good read on bba. The main cause of bba stated in the link is a dirty tank. Nitrate levels of 10+ ppm tell me the tank might be dirty.

For me I had a bad spot in some moss that would grow algae a while back. The rest of the tank was clean and had no problems with algea. I vacuumed the moss and found tons of mulm where the algae was growing. After that the algae slowly died off. Although this was a hair/staghorn type algae, not bba, the point is that the whole tank does not have to be dirty.

I think 8 hours of ho light is enough and if you are running a proper co2 setup, then I also think excel is excessive as well.

 

[pmikota]

Thanks. I'll have a read.

I do gravel clean the tank weekly... Lately I hold off a little to ensure Nitrate stays around the 10-20 mark. I keep the Nitrate levels at 10-20 because I read somewhere that I have to leave it there so the Nitrogen levels are good for plant growth in the tank

 

[NYC]

less light, higher co2, massive flow. those 3 main things will take care of algae.