Bluish Greenish Algea Growing In Plants...

[ddavila06]

Just like the tittle says, i never had this color of spyder web- looking algea...just noticed it on my water sprite and hornworth...how do i get rid of it? what are the reasons that it started growing?

[PaulS]

Damian,
Perhaps Kris's article on algae may help.
http://www.guitarfish.org/algae
Paul

[ddavila06]

thanks, i'll see what i can do about it...or maybe i;ll just ignore it, is actually pretty nice colored

[ddavila06]

question, i have green spot algea in my mom's 75, well...i always had it but now i noticed some more when doing a water change. anyhow, the article explains that adding phospates to the water should help eliminate it (or getting some nerite snails) but anyways, i though that P. were like algea-esteroids im i completely wrong? is there different tipes of P.? or does it have to do with the concentration and tank size help

[krisw]

Damian, you're understanding of phosphate causing algae is from the "fish" world. This isn't necessarily true in a planted tank. In a planted tank, we strive for balanced nutrient levels. When those nutrients become unbalanced, that's when algae creeps in.

The reason is that with balanced nutrient levels, plants are able to use the available nutrients, and usually out-compete algae. But when one nutrient runs out, the plants can no longer grow as much, and effectively give algae, a chance to creep in.

With green-spot, what has usually happened is that the plants have used up all available phosphate in the water column. Without phosphate, plants have a harder time growing and using up N/K because they need all of these macro-nutrients. Algae, on the other hand, does not, and hence your problem. By adding a little bit of phosphate, you'll hopefully jump start your plants again.

Note, that you may still want to scrape the green-spot that's on your glass, and introduce nerites to help with your anubias leaves, but if you keep your nutrient levels in balance, green-spot is not a hard algae to defeat.

[ddavila06]

i got it, its very confusing but i will get some of that for now and keep on reading, thanks Kris

[krisw]

Hopefully not too confusing. In fish-only tanks, you don't have any plants to suck up the nutrients, so it's very important to not add any N or P, and to clean out your fish poop. Algae's the only thing in there that'll use it, and will.

Planted tanks suck up nutrients, so you just need to make sure they're available. Look at the principle behind EI dosing. In EI, you pour in WAY more nutrients than your plants possibly need, but prevent algae by doing water changes every week so that the nutrients never reach levels that are toxic to your fish or plants. I don't agree with this method, as I think it's wasteful and bad for the environment, but the logic is the same.

You feed the plants, and they'll take care of the algae.

[ddavila06]

i just purchased the three basic ones, NPK, im going to mix them for easier dosing and set a minimun dosage container. now, as i said before i don't think im going to do a daily dosage thing but will think about maybe byweekly? any input appreciated!

[ddavila06]

its been slightly over a month since i bought the NPK chemicals and have notice lil to no difference in the anubia nana (the one with the most damage to the leaves). description: turns black and starts getting holes on hem. also another anubia i recently adquired has two new leaves but they came out very yellow. i have been dosing twice a week with the suggested general instruction in the bottle (there are instructions for the experts as well) should i do more of something? less of something?

[krisw]

Are you dosing any trace elements (micro nutrients) or iron?