Water Parameters

[agaupt]

Here are my water paramters for my 46 Bow tank.

Ph = 6.6
Phosphate = 2 ppm, color was hard to tell but was dark green/blue
ammonia = 0 ppm
nitrite = 0 ppm
nitrate = 20 ppm
Kh = 2 degrees
Gh = 12 degrees
Temp = 79 degrees
No cos injections
Light = 1.4 watts per gallon on for 11 hours a day

I seem to have algae building up on the back wall of my tank and some hair algae on my lava rocks that is getting worse not better. I do water changes once a week about 10 gallons.

What can I do to stop the algae from growing?

Thanks.

[Tommy Gun]

How long has this tank been up and running? From appearances, this seems like a cycled tank with pretty good parameters and not much to worry about. The phosphates in your tank can come from some fish foods (you can look on the "Guaranteed Analysis" on most cans of flake foods) and even your tap water. I feel that it is always good to test your tap water from time to time just to see what you are actually starting out with before you put the water in your tank.

I think your algea 'problem' could be one of three things....Diatoms, which from what I understand are more of a brownish spotting within the tank...Cynobacteria, which is not an algea, but looks very similar and grows exceedingly fast from my experiences with it...or just good old algea. Algea is going to grow in most any tank, and in most cases, it is not of huge concern for most people (I am sure some exceptions apply here though) and most people can deal with it by the addition of an algea-eating fish or snail of some sort. Light is also a necessity for algea, and so if you limit the amount of light in a tank, you can usually limit the algea. From my 'lessons learned' while dealing with my tanks, I found that about 8 hours of light was the best for my situations as far as controlling too much algea. That is also considering that I do not have any plants in the tank, which may need a longer 'photo-period' (light), however, from what I have read in the planted tank thread of this site, usually algea is limited because the plants are sucking up the nutrients that the algea would need.

So, I would look first at two things, reducing the amount of light in your tank, as well as reducing the amount of nitrates in your tank through larger, or more frequent water changes. I would also wait to see if Jay has some pointers for you as he seems to know quite a bit about algea and other problems that you could be having right now in your tank.

[agaupt]

Thanks,
the tank has been up for about 3 months, my tap water paramters are zero across the board
Ph = 7
Phosphate = 0 ppm
ammonia = 0 ppm
nitrite = 0 ppm
nitrate = 0 ppm
Kh = 3 degrees
Gh = 8 degrees

I actually like the algae on the rocks and prefer to keep it as long as it will not kill off my plants. The first pic is the rock where I think hair algae is growing the second is my tank. I think it is hair algae?

[RubberFrog]

I think you're just getting too much light. I see that you're tank is visible from two sides- how much sunlight does it get?

[agaupt]

I dont think it gets any sunlight. The back and right side are against a wall and the front faces a window about 15' away which I always keep the blinds closed.

If I reduce the time my light are on will it hurt the plants?

Thanks

[BJP]

If I reduce the time my light are on will it hurt the plants?

It shouldn't hurt them unless they are barely clinging to life now which your pictures don't attest to. It will slow their growth though. From what I can see, you don't have a background scene on the tank and it isn't used as a room divider for double sided viewing so just let the back wall go. It's mostly blocked anyway, the algae that grows there will take food sources away from algae wanting to grow elsewhere and some fish like to have that source to graze or nibble on. As for the lava rock it appears worse at the top closest to the light. An easy fix is to attach a piece of java moss or java fern to the top of the rock, maybe via rubberband to cover that area. An alternative is to block the light to that tiny section directly by placeing something dark between the bulb and the glass. Aluminum foil is the easiest thing I can think of that most people should have on hand. That way the direct light to that section will be blocked and with a small piece of foil plenty of light should come in from the rest of the top to maintain the appearence. If you want some more dramatic affects I've used small sections of colored plastic sleeves that fit over the flourescent tubes to achieve little spot light colored visual sections.

[agaupt]

Thanks, I bought another powerhead and put it directly flowing over the top of the rock, and have cut my feedings down to once a day, I will try to put the java moss over the top.
Thanks