algae - 2 questions

girlofgod

i listed my stats in my previous post...and my lights tend to stay on from about 8 in the morning to about 10 or 11 at night. and my tank is next to a window, but i do keep the dark shades drawn most of the time. maybe i am letting the light stay on for too long.

as of an hour ago these are my stats

ph:7.4
alkalinity:160
nitrate:20ppm
nitrite:>.5ppm
temp 80-82

thanks!

bettababy

I'm going to ask you to check phosphate levels, I want to make sure that's not the cause of the brown algae problem before we go any further.
I'm also wondering how soon before you intend to upgrade the size of this tank? With the population you have listed, that tank is quite crowded with fish. Angelfish shouldn't be put into a 10 gallon tank. Angelfish average 8 inches in diameter when full grown, and grow quickly. The other thing about angelfish is that they are territorial and get more aggressive as they mature. I would expect to see conflict between the fish sometime in the next few months for that reason alone.
As for the lighting change, what might have been meant was a different type of bulb, not a higher watt bulb of the same type. The spectrum of light being put out by your bulb will have a huge effect on what happens to algae growth. Brown algae thrives on the red/orange spectrum... if you change the bulb to something without such red/orange intensity to it, this may indeed help.
I read through your tank stats, and for starters, the fish were added quite soon after starting the tank, which may have caused some problems with acheiving your balance properly with cycling. The .5 nitrite you are now showing could be due to cleaning everything in the tank. If you depleted any of the bacteria culture, especially that soon after cycling, you may have caused a mini cycle, which is what it appears to be to me.
One thing to remember, when cleaning, don't clean the filter/media at the same time you clean gravel and other decorations in the tank. These are the 2 places your bacteria culture will thrive, and if both are cleaned at the same time, the tank will go through a "mini cycle" until the bacteria level catches up to the waste level.
I guess at this point all I can do is wait on results for phosphates and heavily suggest moving the angelfish out to a minimum of 55 - 75 gallons, and possibly upgrading to a larger tank for the remaining fish. I wouldn't work with anything less than 25 - 30 gallons for what you have now, minus the angelfish.

xingumike

I am tring to grow Java Moss onto some driftwood in my pleco tank, been in about 2 weeks and has developed brown algae on the plant which being the only plant in the tank looks a little unsightly imo. 2 days ago after the advice of someone i trust ay my lfs, i removed the carbon from my filter and have replaced with a couple of bags of Hagen green-x phosphate remover at the last stage of filtration. I will be post the results as and when i notice a difference, should start working immediately from what i understand and once i have found my turkey baster to remove the existing algae hopefully these inserts should stop it regrowing, fingers crossed! I will update when i can!

girlofgod

thanks dawn...how do i get my phosphates tested? i havent seen a kit for that at my lfs...and i am upgrading to a 47 gallon tall tank probably in the the next two weeks. it has been in the works for several weeks now as i know that my tank is overstocked and i want to move my angel to a larger tank asap. i feel bad for the cramped-ness so i try to keep it extra clean, but i am working on getting that bigger one as soon as possible.

as far as the lamp goes, how do i tell what spectrum it is? its just a standard bulb that came with the kit. thanks for all your help. i have been leaving the light off completely for several days now...seems to help a tiny bit anyways.

bri

bettababy

Hi Bri,
When shopping for a bulb, if it's an aquarium bulb, the packaging should have a chart on it, with an explaination of the color spectrum for that bulb. If you compare them, you'll see a difference in the color spectrum. You'll want to go with the bulb that has the least red/orange in the spectrum.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...pc=1&N=0&Nty=1
Check out the link for an example of a phosphate test kit. I found this one at Dr's Foster & Smith. Their prices are pretty good and they are a reliable store online in case you can't find one at your LFS.
Good Luck and let me know if you need any further help.