Hello again. In my 100 gal tank I have a lot of floating greenery. During the Winter last year I developed Black Algea. I removed all of the planted greenery. Removed and washed the rocks, wood etc. It continues to get on the filter hoses, rocks and wood. I have 4-48" T5 lights ( Daylight) Should I be using something different. I purchased the light at a Fish store (Local not a chain) They were not really knowledgable on the lighting matter. The fixture originally had lighting for coral, saltwater. If I can use a different light spectrum or style let me know. ALso, I am using an inline heater. The hoses get pretty nasty. Should I clean the heater and the hoses out from time to time? The Black ALgea is on top of the gravel also. You know, Black balls of algea. I just hate it. ALso, will more frequent water changes help with this stuff?
Thanks
Ken

I use 6500k lighting.

if (when) i get that black algae I kill the lights and suspend feeding for a few days until it clears. Then resume with shorter duration lighting and less feeding so it stays away.

my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

What bulbs do you have in there? The kelvin rating? What are the dimensions of the tank? The type of algae sounds like BBA. If it is, the only thing that I know that will help is Flourish Excel. The rest you'll need to remove manually. It will not die off with lowering light times, but lowering the light times will help keep it from continuing. If you have coral type bulbs, actinic, then that may actually promote algae growth.

Hello ken...

Would agree with the 6500 K bulbs. A T5 is giving your tank very intense light over a small area. I keep large tanks and use 6500 K, 32 watt, T8s in taller tanks and 6500 K, 40 watt, T12s in the wider tanks.

I also keep a number of fast growing stem plants. I float Water sprite and Water Wisteria attached to pieces of driftwood. Getting these two close to the a moderately strong light source will accelerate growth and fast growth requires a lot of extra nutrients. Nutrients the algae uses in your tank now.

Pennywort, Hornwort, Anacharis (needs strong light), Rotala, Ludwigia and varieties of Hygrophila are also fast growers and will use up more nutrients.

Get these plants into your tank and start weekly water changes of a minimum of half the tank volume and the algae will start to shrink due to lack of food.

B

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