UV sterilizers + strange black balls

MalcolmV8

MalcolmV8

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#1
May 31, 2003
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Hey Guys,

I have a 90 gallon tank in my living room that's been established and running for about 2 years now. Everything is great except I have the strangest little black hairy balls growing out of the drift wood. Nothing eats them, not my pleco, the fish or the snails. It's sort of a fuzzy mossy algae for lack of better explanation. They eventually after a few months expanded to some of the rocks in the tank in addition to the wood where they started and I've seen the odd one attached and growing on the HOB filter return and even on the plants.

Well about a year ago I put some pieces of that same drift wood I had laying around in to my 20 gallon and sure enough those same black ball things started growing in there after a while. So I know for sure it comes from the wood.

So anyhow my mom's had outdoor koi ponds for years and swears by the UV sterilizers or lights. We where chatting about them and it got me to thinking. Maybe I should install one of those on my tank and see if I can get rid of those pesky black algae like things. It's supposed to clean up a lot of bacteria, algae and even some parasites if you have the gph slow enough through the UV light.
I have a Marineland C520 canister on there which has way to high of a gph. Most UV sterilizers are rated around 100 to 300 gph for a 90 gallon tank. So I was thinking of installing some other little less powerful external pump and inline UV sterilizer but wanted to see what others have done and get some ideas.
I'm wanting something outside of the tank to keep it as clean looking as possible.
Any insight to UV lights or experience etc. is greatly appreciated. I tried doing some forum searching but "UV" is to short of a term to search on and no one types out ultra violet lights in their posts so I was hosed on that :)

Thanks guys
Malcolm
 

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epond83

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#2
Mar 11, 2007
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The think about a UV is that at the proper gph it kills what goes through it. It won't kill your Black Brush Algea, which is propably the worst kind.

A bleach solution or hrdrogen per oxide will get rid of it very well, but will also dissolve a little of the wood but probably worth while.

Is this a palnted tank? if it is more CO2 will help if not do more water changes and run the lights less. This is all without knowing more about your set up.

*So i just noticed your sig... Do you have any CO2 injected into your tank? how is it set up and how much and how long is the light on? With my 40 gal. i did DIY CO2 and evenually my BBA went away.
 

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MalcolmV8

MalcolmV8

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May 31, 2003
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Thanks for the info. I actually do not have a DIY CO2 system in this 90 gallon. I had one in my old 20 gallon years ago and it was a lot of work and quit doing that.

My setup is an Emperor 400 and a Marineland C530, 200 watt heater, and two 48" 40 watt bulbs from my local Lowes :) I built the canopy myself as I had non with my tank. My lights come on at 10am and stay on till midnight so 14 hours a day.
Water changes are usually once a week but sometimes it slips to every two weeks.

I took a few pics so you can hopefully see the black balls I speak of.

Thanks
Malcolm
 

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Newman

Newman

Elite Fish
#5
Sep 22, 2009
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#5
really cool tank. I like you you set up everything yourself, and built the stuff :)
The algae would no doubt be BBA. (black beard algae or black brush algae. same thing)

14 hours of light a day is letting this thing grow, so i would reduce that to no more than 8 hours a day. the plants will be fine with that.

There are a few ways to treat it (including blackout of tank+water changes/ or peroxide spot-treatment)
But your best bet would be to limit the light and solve the initial cause of this algae in your tank. I hear CO2 fluctuation is the reason this stuff persists in our tanks (i used to have a bad case of this crap too -_- )
 

MalcolmV8

MalcolmV8

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May 31, 2003
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Thanks man. The canopy was a huge under taking for me as I don't normally do wood work but I couldn't find one that I liked. I made it from the same solid red oak that the base cabinet is made from and let me tell you that wood is unbelievable hard and tough to work with. I had to strip the base cabinet too and sanded and stained it to match the top. It turned out great though.

I'll change my lights down to 8 hours tonight. You may have noticed that it's right by my TV and the reason I have the lights on till midnight is I love to sit on the couch in the evenings/nights and watch a bit of TV and the fish tank too. I get so much more use out of the tank than it rather been in the basement or something like that. Even if I'm not watching TV but just working around the house and moving about it's in a great spot.

I'm also still really interested in getting some sort of UV sterilization going after I get this black algae taken care of. I read and hear a lot of good things about it and I think it would be a nice addition to the tank and help in keeping things healthy.
 

MalcolmV8

MalcolmV8

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May 31, 2003
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So when should this black algae die? I left my lights off all of last weekend and changed them from 14 hours a day down to 8 hours a day and the only thing I see dying off and looking terrible now is my plants :(
The algae however looks no different.
 

Newman

Newman

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#8
Sep 22, 2009
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#8
i remember reading it has a life span of a few months...

the blackout should be no less than 5 days. if you let light in anytime during that period, you just gave the algae a chance to live through it..

Your plants shouldn't start dying just from reduced light 0_0
8 hours is normal for a planted tank. I myself am slowly reducing my light duration for my planted 40 gal as well. It used to be 10 hours a day, and i recently moved it to 9 hours and everything's growing even better now...

14 hours is waaaay too much.
 

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epond83

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#9
Mar 11, 2007
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If you keep you tank on an 8 hour photo peroid and keep nitrates at alevel that your plants have enough but not execes the algea should mostly go away, might not completly dissaper but most should, give it time.
 

Newman

Newman

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#11
Sep 22, 2009
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#11
5ppm.

I have 0 ppm nitrates in my iwagumi tank, so i actually add a nitrate supplement in there once every 2 weeks...

I'd say at 0-5 ppm the plants are using it all up leaving very little for your BBA. Then again there are algae species other than BBA that actually LIKE LOW NITRATES. so then you might have to battle another type lol
 

MalcolmV8

MalcolmV8

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May 31, 2003
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I have some plants. I don't really know what they are, had them for years. I suppose a picture would best describe them. I'll see if I can dig one up.
Lights are dual 48" generic shop lights from Lowes. No CO2 system at this time.

EDIT: I have pics in on the first page of this thread if that helps.
 

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epond83

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Mar 11, 2007
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well you have low light which isn't really a bad thing, just means that you don't need CO2. What that also means is that the plants aren't growing fast enough to out compete the algeas. So water changes would be good.

If you want plants to take over and keep your nitrates low you would have to upgrade lighting and do something for CO2.

And with 40 -60 ppm of nitrates that is def. going to be growing algea. Plus most fish don't like to go above 40ish
 

MalcolmV8

MalcolmV8

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May 31, 2003
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Do I have low lighting because a pair of 40 watt 48" 6500k shop lights are not adequate and I need to purchase some bulbs made for fish tanks or I have low lighting because I simply do not have enough bulbs?

As for CO2, an injection kit has always been on the wish list. I just never got around to doing it. Seems like I need to bump that up on the priority list and see what I can get.

Also I think my nitrates are actually a little lower. I normally do water changes every weekend. Some times every other weekend but when I did that nitrate test I had not done a water change for a month. I've since run out of nitrate tests and need to purchase some more.

In the 90 gallon tank I usually drain anywhere from about 4 to 5.5" water level. At approx 3.75 gallons per inch that means I'm changing 15 to 20 gallons roughly. 20% of a 90 gallon tank is 18 gallons so I guess I'm in the ball park of water changes.

Thanks
Malcolm
 

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epond83

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Mar 11, 2007
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It appears you have T-12 bulbs (1.5" in dia.) T-8 would give you some more light if your ballast will run them. Some run both 8's and 12's some don't. But yes you could put some more bulbs in there to get more light. T-5's are the way to go, very bright per watt. But that can get exspesive. CO2 would be a good thing to add but will not have max benifits unless you upgrade lighting also.

If you do plan on doing CO2 you might want to look into a retro fit kit for t-5 depending on how handy you are. Two 54 watt T-5's (48" hugh output) would give you medium light, and 3 or 4 would give you very high light needing CO2.

What is the depth of your tank, i'm not fimlaur with 90 gal dims. The deeper the tank the more light you need.
 

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