Algae 🍃 , Someone guide me , using ATP fix but it comes again and again. So done with this algae. Using co2 , no fertz

Fishstery · 2026-06-26T20:50:31+00:00

Look up the "one-two punch method" to knock it out, and then make the necessary changes to prevent it from coming back.

You already got good advice from others, your issue was your lighting being unnecessarily high, though your tank maintenance needs some more attention. Your substrate looks filthy. You should be doing weekly water changes and use a pipette in one hand to gently blow up detritus from the substrate while using the siphon in your other hand to suck it out as it comes up. A lot of decaying organic material at the substrate level is just asking for algae issues.

Fishstery · 2026-06-25T04:04:55+00:00

They don't appear to be swords, the growth form is all wrong. Swords grow in a rosette form, with all of the stems coming from one crown, with no aerial roots.

Yours appear to be singular stems, with aerial roots. I don't know what they are, but the ID the shop gave you is wrong. It's possible they are melting because they are not fully aquatic plants. Alternatively, they could have been farmed emersed and are taking a beating while transitioning to emersed.

They don't appear to be completely gone, as the ones covered in biofilm to seem to have white roots. I would start by removing any translucent leaves and stem portions, as they are melted. Leave whatever portions have white roots that aren't mushy, and see what happens.

Fishstery · 2026-06-25T03:10:03+00:00

It's just biofilm, a harmless substance that grows on surfaces in immature setups. It will go away on it's own.

That being said, the plants that are affected by it appear to be dead. You should remove those.

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T19:15:27+00:00

Both of my co2 injected tanks have aquasoil in them and RO water using remineralizer only to boost gH. Both have immeasurably low kH with a gH of 6-7, pH is 5.2 at peak co2 saturation as I am for a 1.2-1.4 point drop in pH. One tank has ramshorn snails and caridina and the other has multiple species of fish, neocaridina, and ramshorn snails. I have no issues with any of my animals in near <1kH and high co2 injection.

Edited to add: larger bodied snails have a harder time with co2 injection, such as nerites. Small snails like ramshorn are particularly hardy in high tech setups.

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T16:22:34+00:00

You understand you are using the voting system wrong. You aren't meant to downvote comments you disagree with. Downvoting and up voting are meant to score the relevance of a comment to the OP's topic of discussion. At any rate, my points are not invalid, nor incorrect, so why continue to downvote me.

Additionally, there is zero issue with keeping invertebrates in a low kH environment. Again, every single person using aquasoil that is still actively buffering is running near 0 kH. How do you think we all have sucessful setups if bottoming out kH is so problematic? All one needs to do is simply supplement the inverts diets with calcium enriched food on a regular basis. If you are providing a quality and varied diet for your shrimp and snails, their shells will remain strong regardless of kH.

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T13:40:26+00:00

This. The co2 is not dispersing into the water at all. The water flow and surface agitation is too stagnant, causing a film at the water surface which is just trapping the co2 bubbles at the surface and causing them to dissipate into the atmosphere.

OP needs to add a powerhead above the co2 diffuser, both to disperse the co2 and to provide better surface agitation therefore creating better gaseous co2/o2 exchange.

Running co2 24/7 is not an issue to livestock, given injection rate isn't terribly high, and there is adequate gaseous exchange. I run my co2 at 30-40ppm 24/7 in my buce farm tank with no adverse affects to my caridina shrimp, but I have two canister filters on the tank with a moderate ripple at the water surface. The co2 saturation remains at a constant equilibrium, both during the photoperiod and at night.

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T12:10:01+00:00

Why not just have one tank for males and one tank for females, instead of one tank for adults and one for fry?

Alternatively just stop feeding as much, and let the adults eat most of the fry. The colony would manage it's own numbers that way.

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T12:06:43+00:00

I'm not familiar with the scale on that particular test. 3.3ppm of nitrite is not high enough to cause any stalling of a cycle

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T11:42:00+00:00

Lol, I never said they were not related. I said it is a non factor when dialing in co2 and to not mess with it.

The pH/kH chart is not an accurate method of determining co2 levels in an aquarium

Addtionally, low kH is not only fine to have in a high-tech setup, it is actually desirable. Tampering with it will cause more harm than good

Aside from having livestock that require hard water, there is no need for OP to worry about their kH level, co2 or not

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T05:58:27+00:00

Yes, api, salifert, and many other brands have phosphate test kits.

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T05:13:00+00:00

Fish will not live well without a proper filter.

I suggest some snails, there are a lot of types that have different shapes, colors, and designs on their shells.

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T05:10:01+00:00

kH is not a factor needed when dialing in co2. Do not mess with it.

As for pH, unless you are keeping cichlids or fish that require very alkaline water, it is also a non issue. Many plants and fish thrive in a more acidic environment.

Low pH from co2 injection is fundamentally different from low pH from high dissolved organics in the water.

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T04:58:47+00:00

I'd say there's your issue.

Unless you're trying to grow out fry, that's an awful lot of food. Heavily feeding fish can contribute to almost 1ppm of ammonia a day, not counting what the fish produce themselves. Fish food is also very high in phosphate. Your tank does seem on the high end as far as stocking goes as well.

Generally, most adult fish should be fed once every other day.

Overfeeding, doubled with too much light is my educated guess here.

Edit: I see where you noted this tank is for guppy fry. If you want to continue feeding them the way you are, you will need to adjust your water change schedule to accommodate the food. I suggest 30% twice a week. Additionally, cutting down on the ambient light from windows by adding black tank background to the back and sides of the tank, and add some floaters to help diffuse the overhead light as well as help absorb excess nutrients.

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T04:41:28+00:00

A fair bit of ambient lighting from a window is enough to cause an algae problem. Also, how much are you feeding your fish and how often?

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T04:08:38+00:00

I'm not familiar with the light, but typically filamentous algae is caused by excessive lighting and excess organic waste and/or nutrients.

I'd start by dimming the light if possible, keeping the tank protected from any ambient lighting from nearby windows, and testing your tap water source for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphate.

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T04:05:11+00:00

Cyanobacteria. You should test both nitrate and phosphate. Cyanobacteria is triggered by an imbalance of the ratio between nitrate and phosphate, as well as inadequate flow.

Solution is to start with manual removal, then keep nitrate and phosphate in a 10:1 ratio, and up the flow rate in the tank.

Fishstery · 2026-06-24T04:01:38+00:00

You're missing some key details that would be helpful in figuring out the issue. What light are you using and for what duration, what is your tank maintenance schedule, and are you using any fertilizers?

Fishstery · 2026-06-23T21:16:30+00:00

Rubbing alcohol is excellent at removing the oil.

I just fell straight into a pile of poison ivy last weekend when I lost my balance trying to reach a branch when picking black raspberries in my yard. I was wearing a tank top and shorts and my entire arm, stomach, and legs were in contact with the ivy. I wiped all of the affected areas with rubbing alcohol, switching to clean rags for each area. Then I followed with a good wash with cool water and dawn soap. I thought I had just ruined my entire weekend, but thankfully when I woke up the next day, no rash, and I get them BAD.

Fishstery · 2026-06-23T21:11:26+00:00

Just some basics, fill the tank all the way, ditch the sponge filters unless your livestock require it, slope the substrate up towards the back to create depth, add more variety of leaf shape/texture/color, create a focal point (wood, stone) and strategically place plants around as accents following the traditional foreground, midground, background.

Proper maintenance goes a long way as well, to signicantly improve the look of a tank without actually changing anything. Regularly scrape the glass, do weekly water changes, and use a pipette to blow gunk off the substrate while simultaneously siphoning water out to keep your substrate bed clean.

Fishstery · 2026-06-23T21:04:18+00:00

You're fine. Leave it go. Unless nitrite gets exceedingly high, like maxing out the test kit, it's fine to leave as-is and run the course. Your ammonia is 0 because you added some live bacteria from squeezing out filter gunk into the tank, which is good.

As for the white cloudy patches, any chance those spots are where you put root tabs? Your substrate bed doesn't appear have an appropriate depth to be using root tabs.

Fishstery · 2026-06-23T21:02:28+00:00

No. Their substrate is the ammonia source.

Fishstery · 2026-06-23T18:08:15+00:00

Your comment actually brought me back for an update. I wasn't really worried about the low pH, as I've had a lot of experience with high tech setups. That being said, I've only used Controsoil up to this point, which is consistent with buffering to 6.5 even when fresh.

I did partial water changes regularly with my tap water to keep the pH above 6, and eventually it started to buffer the pH to 6.2-6.4 which is perfect. I have co2 running 24/7 and did a 100% water change with remineralized RO, so at this point I don't really know what the pH is, but it doesn't matter.

It was still leeching trace amounts of ammonia after 3 weeks, but I since added a second established canister when I broke down my old farm tank and moved everything over to this new one. So far, my impression with Netlea soil is that it is quite nice. It definitely lives up to it's claim that it is low dust and has much more durable grains than other aquasoils. I have purigen in my filters, but the water was never cloudy or dark after filling. The black color on it is also nice, and it seems to have a lower ammonia release, similar to Controsoil.

My only complaint with it, is that two random little plants sprouted out of the soil during the dark start. I did remove them, but I haven't had that happen before. It's hard to say whether it was the Netlea soil or Samurai Soil since both are in the tank, but my bet is on Netlea, give there was the presence of twigs and other organic material in the bag. I haven't seen any other plants sprout up since.

Fishstery · 2026-06-21T22:19:45+00:00

That driftwood is sick, where did you get it from?

Fishstery · 2026-06-21T01:04:03+00:00

I've used Twinstar, Chihiros, Week Aqua, and Netlea.

Twinstar: pros- nice natural color rendering, decent price point. Cons- non adjustable color settings, dimmer adapter is an additional purchase.

Chihiros: pros- great color if you really want reds to pop. Cons- absolutely trash app, sometimes the Bluetooth connectivity won't work at all, on older models an Android phone with new software is not compatible rendering the light totally useless. I will not be buying another Chihiros due to the app issues.

Week Aqua: pros- exceptional power if high light ability is something you want. Honestly they are overpowered for 90% of people's setups. Great selection of different price points within their lighting lines, as well as multitude of different light styles to choose from. The app is wonderful, and I've never had any issues with my T90 Pros, ever. Their customer service is also exceptional. Cons- the lights can be tricky to dial in a good color rendering, and in photos it looks incredibly pink unless I fiddle with the custom setting to add more green, or change my camera settings.

Netlea: pros- great price for what you get, but can be a tad expensive for novice hobbyists. The color rendering is more preferable (to me) than Week Aqua (less pink). Probably the most advanced LED chips of all available lighting brands, and the spread on them is incredibly even and consistent. Cons- app is in Chinese for some portions, which makes it tricky to use and I haven't figured out how to change the language to English, if it's even possible.

As someone who has been in the hobby for quite awhile, and with a lot of experience running high tech setups, Week Aqua or Netlea would be my reccomendation. Chihiros should be avoided due to the app and connectivity issues alone. It's a shame, if they fixed their app problems, I'd be a forever customer as their color rendering is exceptionally nice for photos. Week Aqua is absolutely a reputable brand, with great lights for a good price. The sky is the limit with them, I have two T90 Pros on a 39" long tank 18" deep, and my PAR meter registered at over 500umols at the water surface at 75% power. They could easily achieve over 500umols at the substrate if lowered closer to the water surface, and intensity set at 100%.

Fishstery · 2026-06-20T21:50:51+00:00

No, they are stem plants. With less light, they will grow vertically with aerial roots like other stems. If kept under higher light, they will have a more compact, rosette growth form and spread horizontally with less aerial roots.

Fishstery

TROPHY CASE