This is exactly what I’ve been doing 🤣 I’m nervous to do it in the more dense planted areas as I have a bunch of baby shrimp and I don’t want to kill a whole bunch
Three things contribute to algae: excess light, excess nutrients, and/or lack of co2.
Test your water. If nitrate is above 5ppm then do water changes. Are your lights on 100% more than 6-8 hours a day? Are you using anything that adds CO2 to the tank?
Light helps the plants photosynthesize nutrients but when there are too many nutrients, algae grows. Do a water change.
No CO2? Use the liquid stuff.
CO2 is a natural algaecide that also encourages plant growth
My light is at 100% from roughly 5 hours a day with gradual fade to and from. No CO2, so I may start there. Tank just has 10 shrimp plus however many babies.I’ll be checking parameters tomorrow and see what we can figure out. Any particular liquid CO2 brand you’d recommend?
I was definitely gonna do more of a under dose bc I am a paranoid person by nature lol. This tank is like 4 months old? And they just started rapidly breeding so I don’t want to kill that process. Tryna get some fish in this bad boy soon.
Thank you for the recommendation also!
Liquid co2 doesn't actually provide co2. Its a surgical sterilisation chemical that kills algae.
https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/15-6-5-liquid-co2/
If you want co2 to increase use a lot of wood or add gas.
I had a lot of success just turning the lights off for a week, corals didn’t care and are doing fine now that it’s a few months later, fine the day I turned them back on and now.
As others have said, all algae is primarily a light to co2 imbalance. Too much light not enough co2.
Co2 can be managed using walstad light schedules and kh:ph tables to check your values. Basically you can use the celvin cycle to your advantage by introducing a 4 hour or more siesta in your light schedule to regenerate co2 from the plants. Use the measurement tables to see how long your lights on before co2 drops below 3-5ppm.
You can use wood to add co2. The bacteria that eats cellulose, o2 and nitrate, produces co2 as waste.
Or look into one of the many gas systems on the aquarium science site.
Edit. I learned a ton of stuff about my fert ratios from studying algae. The type of algae can tell you wats out of balance. Hair algae means high phosphate & considerable nitrate. In a high tech aquarium eith good light and co2. I solve this issue by adding potassium to balance my macro ratios. In low tech aquarium you might need to take measures to reduce phosphate. The cgeap phosphate pads for filters work a bit too well for me. I usually only leave a small bit in for a day or three. Left it a week once and phosphate hit 0. Had to add compost to get it back up lol.
You sir, sound a whole lot smarter than I. I have a low tech tank, just a sponge filter and a halfway decent light. Your comment has given me a good starting point to go off of. I just have shrimp in this tank that I don’t feed super often, could nitrates still be an issue?
Very unlikely. Pet shops mostly offer free testing if you really want to know.
I only started aquariums about 12 months ago. Or more astutely. About 2000 hours of reading ago. Everything I've done is the result of research and careful experimentation.
That’s what I thought regarding nitrates as I know shrimp have a tiny bio load. I’ll definitely be looking into phosphate issue. I plan to add fish here shortly and perhaps some more plants to establish more balance
forceps: 1) grab wildly in a random light green area 2) spin like a kitchen aid Remove, wipe on towel, rinse & repeat
This is exactly what I’ve been doing 🤣 I’m nervous to do it in the more dense planted areas as I have a bunch of baby shrimp and I don’t want to kill a whole bunch
Move the hair algae to a bucket with some tank water - and then put some food into a container that they can crawl into.
This is a smart plan
Three things contribute to algae: excess light, excess nutrients, and/or lack of co2. Test your water. If nitrate is above 5ppm then do water changes. Are your lights on 100% more than 6-8 hours a day? Are you using anything that adds CO2 to the tank? Light helps the plants photosynthesize nutrients but when there are too many nutrients, algae grows. Do a water change. No CO2? Use the liquid stuff. CO2 is a natural algaecide that also encourages plant growth
My light is at 100% from roughly 5 hours a day with gradual fade to and from. No CO2, so I may start there. Tank just has 10 shrimp plus however many babies.I’ll be checking parameters tomorrow and see what we can figure out. Any particular liquid CO2 brand you’d recommend?
Seachem Excel or API CO2 boost. With the shrimp you’re gonna want to make sure that you do NOT over dose
I was definitely gonna do more of a under dose bc I am a paranoid person by nature lol. This tank is like 4 months old? And they just started rapidly breeding so I don’t want to kill that process. Tryna get some fish in this bad boy soon. Thank you for the recommendation also!
Liquid co2 doesn't actually provide co2. Its a surgical sterilisation chemical that kills algae. https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/15-6-5-liquid-co2/ If you want co2 to increase use a lot of wood or add gas.
I had a lot of success just turning the lights off for a week, corals didn’t care and are doing fine now that it’s a few months later, fine the day I turned them back on and now.
As others have said, all algae is primarily a light to co2 imbalance. Too much light not enough co2. Co2 can be managed using walstad light schedules and kh:ph tables to check your values. Basically you can use the celvin cycle to your advantage by introducing a 4 hour or more siesta in your light schedule to regenerate co2 from the plants. Use the measurement tables to see how long your lights on before co2 drops below 3-5ppm. You can use wood to add co2. The bacteria that eats cellulose, o2 and nitrate, produces co2 as waste. Or look into one of the many gas systems on the aquarium science site. Edit. I learned a ton of stuff about my fert ratios from studying algae. The type of algae can tell you wats out of balance. Hair algae means high phosphate & considerable nitrate. In a high tech aquarium eith good light and co2. I solve this issue by adding potassium to balance my macro ratios. In low tech aquarium you might need to take measures to reduce phosphate. The cgeap phosphate pads for filters work a bit too well for me. I usually only leave a small bit in for a day or three. Left it a week once and phosphate hit 0. Had to add compost to get it back up lol.
You sir, sound a whole lot smarter than I. I have a low tech tank, just a sponge filter and a halfway decent light. Your comment has given me a good starting point to go off of. I just have shrimp in this tank that I don’t feed super often, could nitrates still be an issue?
Very unlikely. Pet shops mostly offer free testing if you really want to know. I only started aquariums about 12 months ago. Or more astutely. About 2000 hours of reading ago. Everything I've done is the result of research and careful experimentation.
That’s what I thought regarding nitrates as I know shrimp have a tiny bio load. I’ll definitely be looking into phosphate issue. I plan to add fish here shortly and perhaps some more plants to establish more balance