algae already? :-/

[Evaunitone]

I have a 20 gallon long panted tank that has been set up for one week. My plants have been in there for exactly a week, with one 39 watt 10,000 k bulb and an actinic bulb, EI dosing and sand substrate. I just did the first 50% water change and I've discovered that algae has grown on my anubias and a little on one of my rocks, literally overnight. Lighting is 12 on and 12 off. What's up with this? Any suggestions?

Oh, so I'm bad and I got two platys (tank not cycled yet obviously) because I figured with the weekly 50% water changes they would be fine and help to cycle it. Could they be making the nitrates in the tank too high? That cause the algae?

 

[mgamer20o0]

are you dosing EI for a 20 gallon tank? the thing about EI is its for a fully planted tank. if its set up for a week i dont think it can be a fully planted tank unless you dumped a lot of plants in there. also cut back the hours you leave your lights on. try 10 and still have problems go with 8. i personally wouldnt be adding any ferts to the tank to start with. get your basics down before you start jumping into the harder stuff like fertz.

 

[Evaunitone]

Well several people told me I needed fertilizers but it makes sense to not use them in the beginning when I only have a sparsely planted tank.

 

[mfdrookie516]

Something i do to combat algae because i dose little to no ferts is run my lights 8 hours a day, 4 on, 4 off, 4 on... running 4 hours without the lights has helped me tremendously

 

[mgamer20o0]

who told you?

 

[Evaunitone]

I'm sure its not important who told me that. They probably didn't actually intend for me to use fertilizers at the very beginning but I didn't realize that. I'm not going to use fertilizers now until my tank is densely planted.