Massive algae breakout - help

[enigmatic]

Hi,

I've been battling an algae breakout for several weeks now and have not got anywhere with it. It has got to the point now where my wife is complaining about the state of the tank so I need some help.

Basically, the algae consists of two things:

1. Algae on the glass. Dark green and some dark brown/black spot algae. This is very hard to get rid of, doesn't rub off the glass easily.

2. A thick, sludgy, stringy green algae that started to grow on the plants and is now attached to everything. Impossible to get rid of as it breaks up and drifts onto anything else in the tank.

I suspect that this has come about as a result of me accidentally topping the tank up from a the rainwater tank and not the normal tap.

What can I do to get rid of this from my tank? Will running a UV on the tank help kill the algae?

Thanks,

Chris

[fishgeek]

most likely is that the tank water contained some ammonia source that the alage have been able to utilise

the spot algae... well thats always going to be about


i would suggest a good clean and trim out badly affected plants
a large water change. to remove algal spores and level out any nutrient imbalances(though the algal growht has probably done that)

what light level... if high back off as this will slow algal speed of growth and let you have more time to correct the real problem


any CO2 ? is the levels steady , fluctuations favour algae over planst as the plants take some time to adapt(alter enzyme levels needed to utilise carbon and convert into C6 chains that make up plant - thats where excel and similar come in.. they provide a C6 chain)

if all still grumbling a 3 day blackout should reset the tank and let you begin again minus algae and stll trying to work out why it occured, if just the water change then can be avoided

best of luck

[ILLUSN]

get some florish excell and double dose the tank for a week the algae will start to dissapear, if not try what andrews suggested and go for a 3day blackout.

[enigmatic]

Thanks for the advice. I've had a good go at the tank and cleared out a great deal of the algae.

I was double dosing with Excel a while back but I think with so much algae in there it wasn't working. Now it is right down, I'll start again and try and stay on top of it.

I'm not running CO2 into the tank now, that is connected to my homebrew beer keg ;-)