55 gallon tank out of control for algae - help

I have been gone for 2 weeks for vacation and now that I am back I have massive brown algae all over my plants, rocks and drift wood. I had a small amount of this before I left but obvioulsy it has bloomed. In addition, I have a lesser green filamentous algae issue. I did have a neighbor feed the fish and he did this appropriately as he raises fish too. I mention this to note that I do not believe that over feeding and extra feed is the problem.

I can live with the green filamentous algae as it is rather easy to remove (not as fast growing as the brown) from time to time but the brown algae is pervasive and would be very difficult and probably impossible to remove. The brown algae looks terrible.

Question: Can anybody give me a regime to remove or kill the brown algae? I would prefer not to start over on the tank. I have reduced the daily light exposure to the tank but don't know where to go from here. Surely others more experianced than me have dealt with this in the past and have a good plan of action. Is there a chemical control solution that will not hurt my sunfish? Can you share?

I am afraid my super efficient LED lights are partly to blame and I have had them on daily for about 10 hours. The green plants have grown remarkabley well but along with that was algae growth that started slow and then took off. I meant to reduce this to 6 to 8 hours for the past few months but I never did. I know that the tank is seeded with pond water (which contains algae) from time to time as I add plants and fish so algae will always be a potential issue. After I rid the tank of the brown algae how best to I control future algae growth do not to have it rise to this level again? I have a small UV light on the tank but am afraid it was not much help.

I will try to add pictures later today.

Usil

Edited by Usil, 31 January 2012 - 01:51 PM.

Step 1: Identify the algae. Here is a guide: http://www.guitarfish.org/algae
Step 2: If you have a phosphate test kit, use it. Also measure your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in ppm. Ammonia should be 0 ppm, nitrite should be 0 ppm, and nitrate should be less than 30 ppm. If any of your values are different, you need to do more frequent water changes.
Step 3: Treat the algae with a technique specific to the type of algae it is.

Edit:
I had a lot more typed but I deleted it because my advice can't really get specific until you identify the type of algae you have and post on here with a confirmed ID. What type of algae it is changes how you treat it. Step 2 up there might also include, "take notice if your nitrate is less than 10 ppm, because that can cause fuzz algae". *nods* So I'll wait until you ID your algae before I type things that don't apply to your particular case.

Edited by EricaWieser, 31 January 2012 - 02:10 PM.

Ok, I will get my microscope out and give it a look. I will post photomicrographs of the algae along with tank pictures in the next few days. It has been too long since I had a class in this so hopefully my images will help with the id process from those in the forum.

Will check the water chemestry tonight.

Usil

Ok, I will get my microscope out and give it a look. I will post photomicrographs of the algae along with tank pictures in the next few days.

You don't need to use a microscope. I mean, you can, but you don't have to. Did you click on that link I had in the previous post? You can macroscopically tell the difference between the major types of algae. Link: http://www.guitarfish.org/algae

I explored the link. I thought you needed species instead of a more generic identity.

Usil

Nah, just general will do.

Edit: I'm not trying to discourage you from getting a species ID as well, it's just that knowing what type of algae (in general) it is will tell you which water parameter is off.

Edited by EricaWieser, 31 January 2012 - 04:02 PM.

Here are pictures of the algae:











Are these sufficient to ID them?

Usil

Oh, dear... that's red algae (not brown). And it's a royal pain and really difficult to remove. You can't scrape it off, and nothing seems to eat it. I would use the peroxide routine, aimed at the largest clumps with a syringe or turkey baster. If you don't have either, you can just add it to the water but it will take a tad longer.

Yup, rhodophyta. And is that hair algae too? Going back to http://www.guitarfish.org/algae , both of those algaes are caused by excess iron in the water. What's your pH? (measure it now that the algae's fluorishing)

The photos show a bit of filamentous green (could be Spirogyra, Oscillatoria, Pithophora, or others; it doesn't matter much). The peroxide will take care of that too. As Erica said, it is thought that a higher iron concentration is a contributing factor. Are you doing anything differently these days?

I have not been doing anything different lately. These algaes were slowly growing for a few months then just bloomed. I will check pH and water chemestry tomorrow and see what's what.

As for using H2O2 do you use the concentration found in the drug store? Squirting it on with a turkey baster - how long before it dies? Since it is on everythihg what amount too use for the 55 gallon in general if added to the water. How long does it take the H2O2 to loose the O? i.e. do you need several treatments?

The green algae I have identified as spyrogyra.

Usil

Do you use activated carbon in your filter? How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?

It's odd that you have so much iron in your water. What substrate are you using and what fertilizers are you dosing with?

Edited by EricaWieser, 31 January 2012 - 09:52 PM.

It's odd that you have so much iron in your water. What substrate are you using and what fertilizers are you dosing with?

Not odd. Many people have lots of iron in their tapwater, especially if they use well water. Turns their clothes yellow, even. But even municipal water can have a lot of iron in it.

Not odd. Many people have lots of iron in their tapwater, especially if they use well water. Turns their clothes yellow, even. But even municipal water can have a lot of iron in it.

Interesting. Do you know of any good ways to remove iron? I had read a few papers about removing it with activated carbon, magnets, and a pH of 8.5 or above before I started getting suspicious. The activated carbon seems the most trustworthy method, but the problem with it is that you never know when it's full and needs to be changed. This person seems to have used it and had positive results: http://www.aquariuma...ellow-5967.html
I'm curious about the Seachem Co. product Purigen ( http://www.seachem.c...es/Purigen.html ) because unlike activated carbon it changes color when it's used up, and it can be replenished by soaking it in bleach. I kind of want to try it or find someone who's tried it.

If you have your own well water supply, iron can be readily removed with a home water softener (which exchanges ferrous ions for sodium ions). If you are connected to a municipal water supply which has high concentrations of iron (say 0.3 mg/L or higher), it is likely sequestered using an orthophosphate product. In this case, the iron exists as colloidal ferric compound, usually Fe(OH)3), and will not be removed by a home water softener. My recommendation would be to let the water sit in a bucket or carboy for several days to weeks to let the iron coagulate and settle. Ferric hydroxide is very insoluble and will not persist unless it is organically bound. Adding 5 mg/L bleach per mg/L iron may speed up the process. If you can't wait or are simply a scientist at heart, you can raise the pH to about 9.5 - 10 using sodium hydroxide (lye), settle and/or filter and then reduce the pH back to 7 with hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid). Don't go too high with the pH as you can precipitate significant quantities of calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide (which will make your water soft and likely unstable due to removal of the bicarbonate alkalinity).

You probably have too much light for the available CO2. You could supplement a liquid product such as Flourish Excel, but if the lights are intense enough, CO2 supplementationis the only solution, unless you decrease the lighting. In any given system there will be a limiting factor on plant growth. If that limiting factor is carbon, you will almost invariably have algae problems of one kind or another. With a proper balance of CO2 a level of iron that was causing a detrimental algae bloom can become a plus,stimulating thick, lush growth. Very often in heavily planted tanks iron is the limiting factor.

Well, after I reset my 55 gallon tank from scratch early this year, algae has not repeated it's ugly scene. In fact everything has been under control for many months (at least 6 months). I changed the lighting routine to 9 am to 5 pm daily (on auto on/off). I used to let it stay on for 12 to 14 hours a day. Now it gets 8 hours and a bit from the windows in the morning. Also, added a few snails, shrimp and 2 SAEs. I know they are not native here but they do a great job of eating all left over food and scrubbing the plants, logs and rocks. The active algae management seems to be working fine.

Usil