Algea (again)

[Thomas and Jennifer]

Hey everyone!

I recently upgraded my lights from 13w to a saltwater LED. About the same time, I got a major algae bloom. I have cut down the the light hours to 12 and added a nerite snail, but that does not seem to help. It looks like green hair algae and green spot algae.

The tank is 20 gallon with HOB filter, 6 cardinals, 5 black skirt tetras, 1 dwarf guorami and a massive Chinese Algae Eater (6" long and does not eat algae), 1 small nerite and 1 ghost shrimp.

I was thinking about adding 4 or 5 Amano shrimp and 3 more snails for algae/clean up crew. That seem like enough, too much? Or should I just turn the light down and live with a dark tank again?

Thanks!

[troy tucker]

Albino bristalnose plecos are the best algae cleaners.
You should cut the light back to 8 hours a day.

[mnemenoi]

+1 8 hours max, Might have to try a blackout first for a few days to lower the algae volume first. Amanos and Nerites are great, but not miracle cures. Try dosing Excel, it can help a bit or spot treat during a water change with Hydrogen Peroxide.

[prostreet69camaro]

What does Hydrogen Peroxide do? It will stop the green algae?

[mnemenoi]

Indeed, though certainly read over a handful of articles prior to use or spot treatment

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/plants/Podio_Algae_Hydrogen_Peroxide.html

http://fish-etc.com/knowledge/tank-maintenance-tips

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=93074

[Thomas and Jennifer]

I turned down the timer to 7 hours at 60% intensity. That is nice feature of LEDs. I'm looking into using Excel. I used to work at a plant that made glutaraldehyde. Oh well. I'm surprised about using hydrogen peroxide in a whole tank. It is a very intense oxidizer, but beaks down into water and oxygen. That way, there is no long lived residue. Neat idea. Thanks!

[mnemenoi]

Yeah, I was a bit wierded out when I first came across it, but its great on bad algae BBA/Hair on plants. Just lower the water in a WC and take a dropper ad it foams up on contact, refill tank and its dead and brown in a few hours. Not great for long term management, but effective short term while you tinker with the variables.

[Thomas and Jennifer]

I'm buying a fresh bottle of peroxide today.  I need a water change anyway, so I was going to try the whole tank dose and see how it goes.  Worst case: the tank is algae free and I get to start the gourami tank I have been thinking about.

[mnemenoi]

Right on, let us know what you did and how it works. We just spot treat, so have never tried the full tank dosing before. We just does Excel, interested in your results

[Thomas and Jennifer]

The experimental conditions were:
All livestock remained in tank, not changes, other than: HOB filter turned off and lights off

H2O2 added at rate of 2 mL/gallon (I poured the peroxide near the worst areas) and allowed to sit for 30 minutes. A couple of the algae covered fake plants were effervescing for the 30 minutes. Algae on the glass did not fizz.

After 30 minutes, 50% water change. No visible changes in algae or livestock. I will post more as we go.

[mnemenoi]

very Cool, We had the best success when applied full strength to algae and plants that had been taken over

[Thomas and Jennifer]

It has been more than a few days. The algae has stopped advancing (I think the low light helped), but the peroxide treatment does not seem to have helped much. All of the livestock have no visible ill effects, but the algae does not look harmed either.

[troy tucker]

You can turn the lights out and cover the tank with a blanket. Black the tank out for three days.

[Thomas and Jennifer]

Then everything algae should be dead? What happens to all of the dead algae? I will give it a try Sunday night. I want to have the weekend to see my fish before they disappear for three days.

[mnemenoi]

Water Change after a blackout as your Nitrates will rise with the dying algae. All the algae will die, plants will be fine (we never lost any after one)