| Posted: 10 Jun 2021 11:34 AM PDT
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| 30L Qubic Green Hair Algae issues! Posted: 10 Jun 2021 07:48 AM PDT Hi all I have a 30L nano tank, qubio with built in filter and heater. It's about 3 to 4 months old and I've had algae issues since day 1 especially hair algae. I currently have 4 Sakura blood red shrimp, 7 neon tetras and 3 Amano shrimp. Earlier on I changed my light intensity and reduced the hours down to 8 hours split up into two sets of 4 hours. I made sure the blinds were closed to stop daylight getting in, minimal amount of feeding every other day, changed/added plants/moss balls and did regular water changes weekly but no matter what the algae would come back at a ferocious pace. I bought loads of water test kits and everything seemed ok, no ammonia, pH 8, nitrates and nitrites minimal and I read phosphates can cause algae so I started using GoPhos and hair algae killer but it didn't seem to be working at all. Then I found out my water source from the tap has high phosphates! Really high as soon I tested it the test went dark blue (over 3.0 I think the test kit went up to). At this point I did a big deep clean scrubbed all rocks, moss balls and big hardscape rocks that I bought new. I also replaced the plants as I couldn't properly clean all the hair algae off. I changed my filter sponge for a new one. I tried using distilled water with the minerals added back in but it took ages to distill water, so I switched to using bottled mineral water. From the deep clean I switched out about 80% water and then did 10% change every couple of days for a couple of weeks to try and get rid of the original phosphate water. I then went way for 6 days and had the wife feed small amounts every day, I did a 20% water change the day before I left and I've come back to hair algae everywhere again! My question is, I did have 9 Sakura shrimp and now I only have 4 (lost 5 in space of 2 weeks), would this contribute to phosphate or nitrates and/or algae? Would the moss balls and rocks from the old phosphate water have held on to phosphates and leeched back into the new mineral water? I always end up with a biofilm on the surface too. I'm at a loss as to what to do, I feel like stripping everything out and buying new substrate, hardscape and plants and starting again. [link] [comments]  |
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