Help with algae

[bizfromqc]

I've been struggling with an algae breakout in my 25g SA tank...

It started on the piece of driftwood, on the upper part of it closest to the lights.
Lights are 24" ML DB LEDs on for 8 hours a day from 3pm to 11pm. The tank does get a bit of natural daylight but nothing significant (or that's what I thought). It looks to me like hair algae and from what I read, it's usually caused by too high and/or too long photo period. Never thought I would have to deal with this with these sorts of LEDs but the light may be too close to the top? (sits right on top).

I was going to live with it but now I've got what seens to be another breakout of algae on my swords, mainly the echinodorus amazonius and echinodorus parviflorus. Looks like it might be a different type.

1) I do abour 40%-50% WC every other week
2) lights (as described earlier) LED for 8 hrs a day
3) Dosing about 6ml of Metricide 2.5% daily/every two days
4) No ferts, no co2
5) Fishload: 3 BN pleco, 18 neons, 2 A. cacatuoides, 7 C. paleatus
6) Filtration: Fulval 205 + Eheim 2213

Look at pictures for reference.

Any ideas, recommendations and truly welcomed 

Eric

[brotherluv]

Looks like its time to give up... sell all your tanks. Lol

[androo303]

I have the exact same, if anyone can help all the better!!!!

[exv152]

4) No ferts, no co2

I would venture a guess of either inconsistent co2 levels or high nitrates.

[fischkopp]

I can spot black brush algae, staghorn and green spot algae. But none of it is major. I would remove affected leafs, and maybe give the piece of wood a scrub. If it can be removed easily (without annoying that BN pleco too much) then you can also rinse it under hot water in the sink.

The sunlight might just have pushed the nutrient demand over the edge, but it's really a minor problem. You can try to play around with a simple NPK fert sparsely once or twice a week and observe how the plants respond. Staghorn and GSA are usually good indicators for CO2 issues as well. You can try if a slight increase in Excel dosing does the trick.

A good old chinese wisdom says: no algae, no fun!

[pm]

Eric, a trick that worked for me when I had black bush algae was to squirt excel or peroxide from a syringe directly on it with filters off.  The BBA turned pink within a few days and my shrimp took care of the rest.

Can't comment of the staghorn, luckily I have never had to deal with it.

[charlie]

Apart from all the sound advice you have received this link should give you some help too
http://www.rexgrigg.com/Algae1.html
Treatment only addresses the symptom  from a cause, finding the cause is your goal/homework 
Errol

[sas]

Apart from all the sound advice you have received this link should give you some help too
http://www.rexgrigg.com/Algae1.html
Treatment only addresses the symptom  from a cause, finding the cause is your goal/homework 
Errol

Great link thanks for putting it up there .

Peroxide may work in the short term, but you'll be continuously battling it if you don't find the root cause as charlie has mentioned.

[wolfiewill]

Looks like its time to give up... sell all your tanks. Lol

I've had this problem so often in the past that I actually was going to give up and get rid of my tank(s). But I control it with Siamese Algae Eaters. I wish I had pictures. I could never really get rid of it without lots of elbow grease until I realized that my SAEs were eating it in my other tanks. I have three mature (3")  and three little ones. The mature ones eat it all. The little ones don't (not hungry enough?). It grows it some tanks and not in others and I keep the SAEs in the problem tanks. Here are some after pictures.

http://s1157.photobucket.com/albums/p595/wolfewill17/Brush%20or%20beard%20algae/

[bizfromqc]

A good old chinese wisdom says: no algae, no fun!

Good one 

Seems like the problem is in check, for now at least. I basically pruned the affected leaves, removed one of the ML DB Led fixtures (I had been using two just because I had an extra one...) and also upped the Metricide 14 dosing (2.6% glut) to 6ml/day.

I still can't get rid of the fuzz on the top part of the driftwood but I'm just about to give up and keep it as decoration. I'm thinking since that part gets a lot of light intensity, there's not a whole lot I can do. I manually remove some when I do WCs but I've kind of gotten used to it :-)

I've thought about the SAE but I'm a little an@l about what goes in this tank. I want to keep it SA only and the SAE is well... not from SA  Thanks for the tip though.

Eric

[exv152]

Removing some light is not a bad thing, you're basically slowing growth down – including algal growth. But you're basically running a low tech planted tank, with a low plant mass, and doing 40-50% WCs, even if it's every couple of weeks, will cause CO2 fluctuations. I would take some nitrate and phosphate readings, if these are deficient then that's something to address with the addition of KH2PO4 & KNO3. You can also control CO2 fluctuations by doing smaller water changes. These factors are huge when dealing with algae.

[Nerine]

some people have all the fun I have been trying to grow algae with no luck hahaha

[bizfromqc]

some people have all the fun I have been trying to grow algae with no luck hahaha

Show off 

[Nerine]

haha I used to get tons of it !

I JUST recently started getting some again!! I find if I have algae in the tank the fish leave the plants and filtration system alone!

[dpatte]

REAL Siamese Algae Eaters (note REAL), especially young ones (unspoiled by commerical fishfood) do a great job of keeping Black Brush at bay.

[androo303]

Show off  

ill trade!

I think my prolbem is a lack of light for the CO2 and EI dosing, my next purchase is a T5HO lighting, any suggestions.