green spot algae in new tank

hey guys

i have a problem with small round spots of green algae all over the left side and front of my tank. the tank unfortunately gets sunlight and as there is no where else i can place it will have to continue to get sunlight. i have a product that claims that it will not affect plants or fish but i dont want to use it and lose all my plants as they all looking wonderful right now and i have baby swords forming:bigsmile:. the algae is irritating tho and the magnetic cleaner thingy doesnt really work very well it keeps breaking apart and it takes for ever to clean the glass with it. what can i do to help get rid of the algae im getting a tad desperate right now

 

Laure has done a "personal study" on GSA. He has found that you need to get the fertilization to CO2 to light balance right. He has a thread here somewhere where he talks about it. I'll try find it for you... very well worth the read...

HERE it is (Get's a bit scientific at times, but a good introduction to keeping healthy plants AND successfully beat algae

 

Thanks Zoom

GSA = high NO3 to PO4 balance, along with low CO2 and high light.

As you say, you cannot do anything about the sun light. One of the biggest problems in planted tanks are the imbalance between light and CO2, with the former normally too high as people think they need masses amounts of light to grow some special light demanding plants. And they neglect the CO2. Perhaps supplement the carbon requirement with liquid carbon such as Happy Life Happy Carbo. Are you dosing any water column fertilizers? Tell me what you are dosing and then we can look at that also to try and get your NO3O4 balance right. But GSA is often not just NO3O4, sometimes low CO2 also.

 

i hav a very low tech setup laure, i have a 40w globe and of coarse the sunlight. im not dosing with CO2, and at the moment im using tetra plant ferts once a month added directly to the tank, though i am looking into getting some of profs ferts. i have been meaning to test my water and i just keep getting side tracked but the algae is growing pretty fast right now and i cant keep up with the cleaning. so your help is really appreciated, i read some of that thread when i first joined and i couldnt make any sense of it lol

 

where would one find happy life happy carbo?

 

good question ferryman lol

 

this might not sound very high tech but you can put a cover over the tank and only leave the front open making sure a bit of the top is also open,it also makes the light in the tank look a lot nicer,this will only slow algea growth,take Zoom's advice since he also has a bit of an algea problem.

 

I'd say you have 2 options:
- Get Otocinclus
- Get a nice sponge on a stick

I use both methods where necessary. I'd recommend a "buff-puff" facial exfoliator as a sponge, I found one at home a while ago and it works much much better than the magnetic cleaner that cost me R120.

 

Firstly, The Happy Life range is available from Prof Dirk...

Secondly, an Ottocinclus will NOT eat GSA. Rather get a glass scraper with a razor on the end, or just use a razor blade. Just remember, you're not solving the problem with that.

 

Perhaps I don't have green spot algae then?
Mine is pretty easy to remove with a sponge, and it's green, and it looks like a spot.

 

GSA is normally easy to remove if it is caught early enough. It can become a pain if left for a few days.

 

oh yes you telling me zoom. im gona take a plastic pot scourer to mine on monday its gona take me forever to get it all off my big tank. im also gona try catch the guppies i used to cycle the tank with which have now multiplied as guppies are want to do and went from 5 to bout 15 now the lil buggers are fast though so its not easy and sometimes i end up catching the danios by mistake. *sigh* serves me right for leaving it though

 

Just be very very careful with those pot scourers! Most if not all of them have abrasive particles in them that will scratch your glass something terrible. Maybe try your LFS and see if they have any algae scrubbing pads.

 

I have good success using filer wool and batting (from a fabric store) as a scourer for glass.
Just my 2c.

 

Yep. My mom does sewing and quilting, so batting is always in abundance when I visit her. The problem with it now is that a lot of it is starting to be chemically treated to prevent fishmoths and things like that from creating havoc.

 

what bout those yellow sponges with the green tops? i had one of em in mind to use for cleaning

 

They also work... but when they are new, they can scratch the glass. Also make sure the sponge doesn't leach any type of dye into the tank

 

this one isnt new, i used it to clean the tank wen i first got it and its been sitting outside with the rest of my tank cleaning stuff for the last couple of months, my 18mnth lab cross got hold of it yesterday and procedded to take a few chunks out of it lol sill lil girl

 

Heehee...

Windfire... you can also look at doing a blackout.

You need to also consider the fact that any type of algae is rooted in an imbalance of nutrients/CO2/light in your tank. Which is why I referred you to the Fertilization strategies discussion between Laure and the Prof. Yes they are mainly discussion fertilization in the beginning, but laure does cover a lot of the algae later on in the thread, and how to get rid of it.

I did a 3 day blackout on my tank when I have green dust algae in my tank. I probably introduced it to the tank via plants... and it bloomed in my tank conditions. I then did a 4 day blackout, which meant the algae died... and therefor didn't start again. The proble with cleaning algea is that you always land up leaving spores behind in the water, which blooms the moment the conditions are correct.

For your system, I would recommend a 3-4 day blackout. But check up on that thread to see what you need to correct in order to get the balance right. GSA is actually sometimes WANTED... you will see in that thread!