STAGHORN ALGAE

Hi all,

Poxy algae strikes again!!! I have a case of staghorn algae (getting worse) and there seems to be many conflicting ideas on it. Also worrying too, is that I saw a small trace of BGA. Removed it.

My KH and GH are very low. Testing KH from my tap is 3 d (german scale)when changing from blue to yellow/orange, but when I test tank water, the water does not even go blue at all, just goes yellow after 2 or so drops. So is KH 0? Some web forms suggest a KH of zero is ok?? GH from tap is 3 and tank is 2. PH is also low.....6.0. Could this be Aquasoil ? Tank is running 3 months and initially all was going great....nice HC/hairgrass carpet and moss doing well.

Co2 injection(drop checker green). Ammonia 0. Nitrate 5. Nitrite 0

Tank is 260L and I add 3mil Tropica plant Nutrition daily along with 2mil TPN+. Also i put in 5mil Seachem flourish excel daily. Some people suggest Nitrates should be 0 and others say up to 10 ?

Any help welcome,
Cheers, Dave.

Normally if i get algae in a high light planted tank i will physically remove as much as i can and do 50% water changes every day or second day untill it is gone. IMO trying to figure out what caused the algae to take hold is the tricky bit.
If it was my tank i would check the fertz. I have a 60L high light tank at the moment that only gets 1ml Tropica N+P per day and no algae.
I think if you test the Nitrate before lights on and just after lights out you will know how much Nitrate the plants are using.

I also have low Kh going in to the tank that can quickly drop to 0ppm as you have experienced. I think some plants use up carbonates and the filter bacteria will also use it as a source of carbon. This could explain why it is dropping to 0ppm in your tank. I just replace some of the water to keep some KH in the tank. Usually about 1ppm. I would prefer 4ppm but i cant get that without adding chemicals and if you add chemicals i dont think your drop checker will give a correct reading.

The low ph of 6 could be from the Aquasoil. Co2 will also lower ph by about 1 degree at roughly 30ppm

Sorry i cant be of more help but i hope you get something from this.

Thanks Platty...might try that test with Nitrates before and after lights.

U may want to check your level of phosphates, they are responsible very often for algae growth too
Kh 0 is ok until u have CO2 injection, there are some plant species which can possess carbon from bicarbonates (hco3-) (vallisneria americana, egeria densa, potamogetons) so keeping Kh on some low level is always good

Yeah Bart, I was debating on getting a phosphate test kit....debate is now over;)

Cheers.

Possible causes:
Low or fluctuating CO2.
Overfeeding fish and excess mulm.
Dirty filter.
Also disturbing dirty substrates without doing water change afterwards.
Possible solutions:
Check CO2 levels. Reduce feeding,
Vacuum the substrate and remove mulm.
Overdosing Flourish Excel may help.

n03 should never be 0 in a planted tank. n03 is a nutrient that plants need to grow to out do any form of algae. depending also on how heavy planted the tank is i would say your adding way to much ferts on a dayly bases, and why are you dosing both TPN & TPN+?

you realy do need a p04 kit if your dosing TPN+ as this p04 could be way to high for such a low n03.
when or if you get the p04 kit aim for the n03/p04 of a ratio of 16:1 (redfield ratio)

"and why are you dosing both TPN & TPN+?"


Cheers...Mr A.

Some have good experiences with this leaner NP dosing technique i.e. effectively diluting the NP but keeping the trace content..... The lads at "The Green Machine" (planted tank experts!!!) suggested this to me.

At a guess it would seem that you may be "over-doing it" on the plant fertiliser. Perhaps the plants are being spoiled for choice with regard to nutrients. AS a result they may not be absorbing the nitrate from the water efficiently, thus creating a niche for the algae to grow with. Furthermore, if this is the case, this algae is particularily invasive a rigorous grower and often requires a thorough manual "extermination" process of removal, as any threads left in the tank quickly multiply.
It may seem stupid to suggest but is the room the tank in particularily bright? You say that the "algae is back again." Just wondering if this is possibly a seasonal occurence that maybe could be attributed to the lengthening days and relatively strong sunlight.
If it was my tank I'd certainly cut back on the fertiliser for a while, if nothing else but to rule it out as a possible cause.

Can you add to many fertz to a tank?

The current tank I have going would read on a testkit (if I had one) about 50ppm no3, 3-4ppm po4 with plenty of trace added as well, CO2 injected 1 bubble per second non stop and wait for it.......no algae.....just healthy plants. KH is very low in my water as well <3, ph is about 6.

The EI or estimative index method of dosing is based on adding all nutrients to excess so there are never any shortages. So by that measure you cannot dose to much, within reason of course but the margin of error here is huge, its when you run lean or short of nutrients thats when you will have the problems with algae IMHO. Your dosing regime atm could be considered lean.

Curefan its hard to know where your problems are, but IMHO the BGA usually comes about due to lack of no3, this is my experience as well, although a dirty substrate filter can be a problem here as well sometimes, but more times than not in a planted tank it is lack of no3.

The staghorn usually indicates some severe lack of balance in the tank, so one nutrient is well out of whack with the rest, hard to tell which one though, it may not be the no3 alone more probably the CO2 is the culprit here. Several large water changes over the course of several days or a week along with manual removal can go a long way to getting the tank back in order. The water changes alone will reset the tank, so now you can go about redosing the tank with a clean slate and try new things.

Good advice from Mr A IMO all possible explanations with good correctional measures to boot.

Good luck