[APD] RE: Slimy brown algae

["Thomas Barr" <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

>   I wonder if anyone can provide advise on how to deal with a bloom of
brown 
> slimy algae that appeared in my planted 70 Gallon tank this week. I did a 
> 50% water change on Monday, along with removing most of the duck weed
that 
> had overgrown to the point of blocking out most to the overhead light. On 
> Tuesday night I added 8 young discus and four small blue rams.  Then on
Wed 
> the slimy brown algae bloom appeared on almost all plants near the
surface 
> of the tank. I removed most of the remaining duck weed and pruned all of
the 
> effected parts of the other plants and discarded them. I also did another 
> 50% water change on Friday.

Well remove all the duckweed you possibly can to the point of eradication.
How old is the tank?

> My tank is a 70 gallon long, with 260 watts of Compact fluorescent
lighting 
> on 12 hours daily and CO2 injection at 30 bubble per minute.

Likely CO2 is the issue, typically it is in about 90% of the cases.
You will probably need around a bubble a second or so.
Do the pH/KH thing to determine the CO2.
See here:
http://www.aquatic-plants.org/articles.html

Read CO2 table and also Fertilization.

 The water is 82 
> degrees F, 6.5 ph (electronically controlled) with low carbonate
hardness. 

Specifically what is the KH?
You need about 20-30ppm of CO2 for the entire photoperoid.

> The substrate is Eco Complete gravel and a cable heating system is
installed 
> under the gravel.
>  The fish are fed once daily on live Black Worms, and an assortment of 
> frozen foods.

Feed light on the live food and heavy of the frozen(feed more x a day
rather than a lot of live food all at once).
50% water changes, maintain a KH of 3 or so, GH the same or slightly higher.

Do 2x a week water changes till the algae clears.
Dose back the nutrients afteer the water change(see the estimative index).
You will want to add about 1/4 teaspoon of KNO3 3-4x a week.
About a 1/8th of KH2PO4 and about 15mls of traces 2-3x a week.
But the CO2 must be in good shape. 

You can fluff the algae off some of the plants, prune etc, but do the water
change **after** you do all the cleaning etc.
It should turn your tank around in about a week to 3 max.

Few people use cables in conjuction with Eco Complete, flourite etc, but it
does help nor harm. I used them for 10 years, never found that they did
anything.

You need to work on the CO2 and do not drop the KH below 2-3 degrees.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

> Any advise that can be provided that would help me to address the algae 
> problem would be appreciated. By the way this is my fist time posting to
the 
> list so please excuse me if I did not follow all the correct protocols.

> Thank for your assistance,
> Tom Cunningham 



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