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A disastrous algae outbreak.
I have been "lurking" around here for a while now, and being quite the novice
I am hesitant to share my experience as a model for others, however, I (or
rather my 38 gallon tank) seems to have survived a major algae outbreak
recently, so I thought I would offer a description of my experience: I
recently set up a 38 gallon tank, hoping to combine an "Amano" type aesthetic
with as many dwarf cichlids as I could cram in. I bought a nice selection of
plants from Arizona Aquatic Gardens (bolbitis, java fern, anubias, various
crypts, cabomba, e. tennelus, saggitaria,etc), planted them in flourite, and
started adding fish. BTW, the tank was lit with a (rather expensive) "Phazer
IV" light I bought from That Pet Place which holds 4-30 watt Triton bulbs.
After about a month, disaster struck in the form of spreading masses of what
Peter at my LFS called "filamentous hair algae." This was essentially
stringlike blue-green-gray algae, between 1/4"-1 1/2" long that rapidly
covered most of the (previously healthy) leaves of virtually all of the
plants in the tank (the cabomba was spared for some reason). The algae clung
tenaciously to the plant leaves, and was therefore essentially impossible to
remove manually. And it was apparently of no interest to the algae eating
fish I had in the tank at the time (ottos, plecos, and several false
siamensis). Needless to say, my version of a "Nature Aquarium" looked more
like an abandoned algae pool than one of Amano's tanks.
Having been on the verge of giving up and tearing down the tank completely
several weeks ago, I am happy to report that (to cut to the end of the
story) the tank is now essentially completely free of that awful hair algae
and the plants are growing nicely. Following is a list of the various
tactics I used which (probably in combination) solved my problem:
1) Sera Algopur (a copper based algicide); 2) Aggressive water changes
(20-40% 3 times per week); 3) (Lots and lots of) Sera Phosvec, to reduce the
(insanely high) phosphate levels in my tank from >3 down to about 1 (I
suspect this was the major cause of my flourishing algae);4) Reducing light
duration from 11 hours per day to 9; 5) Adding a CO2 system, which may have
helped the plants compete more effectively with the algae; 6) Aggressive
trimming of the most severely affected leaves; and (the coup de grace),
adding 4 (which, unfortunately soon became 2) true siamensis. Within a day or
so after the true siamensis had been added the remaining algae looked like it
had magically been vacuumed away, and my tank was rescued.
Well, hope this is interesting to someone out there...Linc Duffy, Pleasant
Valley NY