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White filmy thread algae?



Hi!

Am still about 60 posts behind after being away for 3 weeks at
Christmas..... but am getting frustrated with my lowest light level tank
having a very persistent white form of what looks like a weird form of algae
- it is so filmy, it disintegrates when you touch it, and it streaks the
glass like very fine thin cirrus clouds.  It likes to hang off leaves and
also covers the gravel where it is bare in a few places.

I have been getting rid of as much as possible in my 80% water changes,
usually weekly, increased it to twice a week last week but didn't get there
midweek, this week.  It had no noticeable effect.... maybe not often enough
to count yet.

Parameters:  KH 4, GH 12 dH (via Equilibrium), NH4 0-.1, NO2 0-.2 at the end
of the week; NO3 at 5-6, PO4 at .2-.3, Fe .25, Ca 60ppm.  I add K via K2SO4
every other day, and have changed to potassium carbonate a few weeks ago,
instead of baking soda to set the KH (tap has none).

Lighting is a 14w T-8, was an Aqua Glo, changed it to a Sun-Glo last week to
see if it helped, no difference discernable.

I add carbon via Excell every day, about 3ml for that tank (2.5-3 full
squirts of the tiny dropper that comes with the smaller Excel bottles.  It
drops the pH to about 7.0-7.2, depending on when you measure it.

Plants are lots of different crypts, a big stone covered in java moss,
several small anubias nanas, a tiny sword, some bacopa and hygrophila to
provide fast growth, and lileaopsis as groundcover in front.  I also added
about a 3" diameter, thick mat of riccia as a floater soon after the tank
got this stuff about 4 weeks ago...... no difference.

Substrate is soil mix covered by gravel; tank was established October last
year (my newest tank).

Only thing I can think of to try is to up the nutrients - more N and P,
maybe more K too..... and more carbon - have been a bit conservative, I
suppose, as a 10 gal gets out of whack very easily.

Inhabitants are 6 adult guppies, and some snails.

One clue may be that I have been having a huge amount of snail deaths in
that tank, more than in my other tanks, which have also been hit a bit
recently - I suspect too much copper, I was adding a hydroponic trace mix
but stopped about 4 weeks ago (timing works!), thinking the snail deaths
were caused by that.  But they've kept going, and I have hardly any snails
in that tank, despite chucking in stray ones from other tanks whenever I do
water changes or pull something out of another tank with snails on it.  I am
constantly pulling out dead ones, and replacing them in that tank.

But why this tank..... I have another 10 gal with the same lighting, less
plants, more rocks, which had the Sun-Glo on it, but it gets sunlight,
whenever there is sun in Vancouver in winter!  Had the odd sunny day or two
in the last few weeks.

Am getting some Cuprisorb tomorrow, see what that does for the rest of my
tanks too.  My tap water is very acidic, about 6.0 pH, and this is an old
house....... moved here last July, so it has probably taken a while for the
copper to build up, and over winter, I am using more hot water in the mix
for water changes, so maybe that's it.

All advice appreciated,

Susi