Algae/deficiencies

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blizowman1

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Dec 1, 2011
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I have this brown or green algae coming up on my anubius.
And some of my amazon swords either have white or see threw leaves.
My lights I use are the beamsworks 10k on a timer for 10 hrs. Eco complete with root tabs in some areas, about 10 in the substrate right now but have 10 more in the mail.
Last time I checked : ph 7.6 ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 20
I have quit a few dry ferts from back in the day. Right now I have a bottle of micromacro mix made up from aquariumplantfertilizer.com.
I don’t want to over dose cause I don’t dose co2 or excel. But right now dose 2 caps a week.
I recently just removed the carbon I had in the canister, ran it for maybe a month to remove tannins
 

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Which root tabs are you using?
How much macro / micro mix did you put into how much solution?
How big are the capfuls?
 
Seachem flourish tabs
I put 30g in a 250ml bottle
Cap full is 5ml
The brown algae on the anubius is getting worse and my clown pleco and nerite snails aren’t eating it
 

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okay, assuming 55 gallons of actual water and 10 mL does of MacroMicro mix you are only adding:
1ppm of NO3 per week
1ppm K per week
0ppm PO4 per week

and for micros you're getting 0.077ppm Fe per week.

So, essentially nothing. Also, Flourish tabs supply barely anything at all. I would suggest some DIY osmocote+ tabs.

Certainly the clear leaves and algae are likely from a lack of nutrients. The pale yellow color in the anubias leaves could be an Fe and S deficiency.

The clear leaves in the sword is likely a combination of K, NO3 and P plus Fe and other micro nutrients.
 
I also have all these I had left over from my 90g. I want to keep this tank as low tech as I can, no co2 if possible
 

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I also have all these I had left over from my 90g. I want to keep this tank as low tech as I can, no co2 if possible

What is your water change schedule like? Frequency and size % ??

Also, do you have a gH reading of the tank water?

I'm assuming you use tapwater with a conditioner?
 
Looks like diatoms to me, how long has the tank been operating for? Diatoms are common in new set ups and generally disappears as the tank matures. I’d also knock your lighting back to 8 hours.

50% weekly water changes will help a lot and saving your hand over the plants and substrate to stir all the crap up before u water change is a good idea.
 
I do use tap with prime
I don’t have a gh test but my dad might cause he has a 180 gallon saltwater tank
And I do a 40-50% weekly water change
I’ll cut my lights back to 8 hrs this weekend
It’s been about 1 1/2 months up and running but it was a used tank
And my tank runs at about 80f, I tried turning my heater down and the temp never lowered so I unplugged it for almost 10 hrs and added a second thermometer to make sure and the tank still just runs at 80f. It’s weird idk why it stays so warm I use a sunsun filter with eheim heater, glass tops and my house stays 72
 
I agree the brown algae is likely diatoms and will go away on there own.

But, that yellow growth and clear growth are nutrient deficiencies.

I would:

Use up those Flourish Tabs until they are gone, then make the switch to Osmocote+ into size 00 gel capsules.
Dose KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4 and CSM+B. Also, consider using a DTPA 11% Iron or a Seachem Flousih Iron product because of your pH.

You can likely get away with EI "light" or PPS-Pro dosing.

https://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php

play around on that website

Or, you can target:
10ppm NO3
3ppm PO4
10ppm K

after a water change, and then target:

0.1 - 0.2 ppm Fe using CSM+B (with added DTPA Iron if you want) 3 or 4 X weekly. Flourish Iron every day if you choose to use that Iron source.

These values are used w/ roughly a weekly 50% water change.

That will cover all the plant nutrient requirements for a slower growing non-CO2 tank. You can also look into dosing some Flourish Excel or Metricide 14 for additional algae control.
 
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