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I had removed too many plants and continued dosing ferts as I was when it was more full. Almost before my eyes, I ended up with lots of black hair algae. Long strands are growing from the tips of my java ferns. I cannot bleach some of them because they initiated and embedded in my mopani wood. I don't want to risk bleach getting into the wood where it would be difficult to eliminate.

My nitrates are about 5ppm and phos remains at 1.0ppm, which matches tap water. I've got a bunch of plants coming in a week that I hope will take up the phos, but can run my phos-zorb bag overnight which should reduce it, but I'm wondering if it is the phos or likely something else.

I've been dosing Flourish, Flourish Iron, Flourish Potassium. My iron levels read zero and the only reason I started adding iron is everyhing went yellow on me a few months back and responded to the iron. I added potassium to help with iron uptake.

I can stop all of this if need be and rely only on the nitrate and phos in the water.

Of all that I was putting in, what likely caused the black hair algae? I've always had a little in my tank, but it is kind of growing out of control.

Oh yeah - lighting is about 10 hours and is 20w over 12 inches of water. It is a single flora-glo light flourescent.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 20-Mar-2005 13:08

Di,

Check if your potassium is high... Heavy water change (50%) and black the tank out for three days. The higher plants should be none the worse for wear and the algae should be reeling at the end of the period. High potassium can be a source if your plant load is insufficient to utilize it.



Last edited by bob wesolowski at 20-Mar-2005 16:09

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Is there a way to measure potassium? I've not seen a potassium test kit yet so please link me to one if you've seen it.

I'll stop dosing the K and will do another water change today. My only concern is that the nitrate is only 5ppm. If I further reduce the nitrates will that make things worse?

I think when I get more plants in the tank my tap phos level of 1.0 won't be an issue.

Black Beard algae is almost always a sign of inconsistent or not enough Co2. I'd suggest increasing Co2 and perhaps supplementing with Flourish Excel.

That was my first reaction was to add the Excel back into the tank because I know if functions somewhat as an algaecide.

I can't add more co2 at this time. It could be a couple weeks before I can add another bottle (DIY). It's in the plans. I'll just split the line to the bubble ladder that came with my Hagen.

co2 is running at 8.48ppm based on my calculations (4.48 dkH; 7.2 pH) I'd like to get over 10 and hopefully a second bottle will do that.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 20-Mar-2005 17:59

Cory,

I have the two nutrafin canisters with the one diffusor on my 46g. I'm getting between 1 and 2 bubbles every 3 seconds. I also have a small problem with thread algae. I see both hairy green algae on my sag and the black thin stuff on different leaves throughout my tank.

I have a phospad in my cansister filter, ph is around 7, kh 3, so my co2 I guess is still low for the tank.

I recently purchased some Cabomba (which I hope makes it) to increase plant load.

MY nirAte level is still reading zero after adding about 1/2 tsp of KNO3.

My Scapes

Check the instructions on your phospad. It may be removing nitrate too. It's amazing just how much stuff some of that media can remove. I've studied many that I was considering when I was looking for something to help me with my overloaded goldie tank on nitrates only. Several removed ammonia and nitrite too, something I did not want. I finally found the Nitrazorb, which is holding its own. My nitrates go to 20ppm after one week, as opposed to up to 60+ppm, now that I have the nitrate pad in there. I need to add live plants again and that will help. Bottom line is that these guys need a bigger tank, but I can't give it to them until I move. Until then I don't want to be doing daily water changes.

I then looked for a phosphate removing pad or media because I had somehow gotten my phosphate up to 5ppm! Once again, many of them removed much more than phosphate. I decided on Phos Zorb. I soaked it ten minutes as directed, then put the bag in my filter and the following morning I was at 0.5ppm phos. I removed it so I wouldn't deprive my plants of that remaining phos. It now matches my tapwater phos of 1.0, but I am hoping the added plants will snatch it up.

Cory,
You can get rid of the algae on thew wood easuily, use H2O2, peroxide 3% on it when the water level is low during a water change. Brush it on etc or use a baster.

It breaks down into O2 and H2O, so it has non toxic by products, do not use too much(say 5mls per 10 gal of tank), treat like bleach.

You have a CO2 issue. Don't mess with bleach or H2O2 till after you fix that issue.

Stop the algae from growing first, then remove what's there(I prefer to trim the leaves).

I suggest folks build a DIY CO2 reactor for DIY CO2 sources, works equally well with gas tank CO2 but was designed specifically for DIY CO2.

http://www.barrreport.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11

If this link does not work, try creating a user name and password.

These cost next to nothing and are the best internal reactors.

Regards,
Tom Barr

I had black brush/beard algae really bad too, I bought some true siamese algae eaters online and it is totally gone now. They eat pretty much any algae, even regular fish food too! Good luck!

Lauren