Need Help: Algae or nutrient problems?

[NeptuneJoe]

My 56 gallon column tank has been planted for almost 6 months. This is what it looked like when I first set it up:

Here's what it looks like now:

And my plants are starting to do this

Any suggestions? My water parameters are as follows:
pH: 7.2
ammonia: 0
nitrIte: 0
nitrAte: 5
I maintain the water at 78* with the lights (6- 24" T-8 day light bulbs) operating approximately 10 hours per day. I add one teaspoon of iron every other week following the weekly water change. No additional fertilizers or supplements are added. I perform 30% weekly water changes. Any help?

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Some of the algae looks like diatoms a.k.a. brown algae. Do you have any ottos in the tank I couldn't tell.

If not, I suggest getting like 8-10 of them. They will clean all that brown algae up quick.

Also just another suggestion, you should get some more plants, get a little varity in there. I love the rock work though.

 

[NeptuneJoe]

Thanks for the compliment. No, I don't have any otto's. Did you purchase your ottos at a LFS or order them? I can't find any within 50 miles. The plants I have now are crowding the bottom of the tank, but I have considered adding some to the rockwork.

 

[brutus]

you use 6x24 in bulbs?how many watts is that ?I like the first two pics better.

 

[brutus]

if it was me i would pull the plants get a bucket of water dump some excel in it or bleach dip them 20/1 clean them up as best you can.Trim the leaves off if you cant get it off replant put a few root tabs under them.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Amazon swords are fairly slow growing plants, but are also very nutriet hungry. They are strong root feeders, so in a newly established tank, with out a whole lot of nutrients in the substrate, you will find they grow even slower.

With anything, slow growing usually means some algea, discoloration, browning, and dying leaves.

Some of that algae looks like BBA in the pictures I reviewed. Are you injecting CO2? If not, you might want to look into it to give your plants a bit of a boost to encourage new leaf development. Also, check your phosphate levels. Low CO2 levels in conjunction with high phosphates and low nitrates (due to high plant uptake) will encourage BBA. Your phosphates should maintain a 1:10 ratio to nitrates. i.e. 1 PPM phosphates to 10 PPM nitrates or 2 PPM phosphates to 20 PPM nitrates.

Consider putting in some plant tabs at the roots of the plants.

Here is the biggest advice I can give you. DOn't be fearful of plucking off damaged, old, algae infested leaves. I have 3 amazon swords in my 56 gallon column too. As soon as they start looking a bit ragged or old, I take them off. This doesn't hurt the plant and actually encourages the plant to make a new green unalgaeified (i made that up) leaf, rather than trying to repair the old one. DOn't let the plant dedicate its energy to the old leaves, and rather give it a reason to put out new ones.

It looks like you have had some good leaf development considering the two pictures, so feel free to really trim them up. Get your nutrients inline, and inject CO2 if possible and you should be good.

Amazons are medium light plants but will survive in mid-low light. The difference is, they will grow tall.

HTH.

 

[brutus]

that's what you want...unalgaefied leafs ...sounds good.

 

[NeptuneJoe]

you use 6x24 in bulbs?how many watts is that ?I like the first two pics better.

A 24" T8 provides 15 watts per bulb. 6X15= 90. Slightly less than 2 watts per gallon. My goal was to avoid using C02 if possible. I might retrofit the lights to HOs in the future.

 

[NeptuneJoe]

Amazon swords are fairly slow growing plants, but are also very nutriet hungry. They are strong root feeders, so in a newly established tank, with out a whole lot of nutrients in the substrate, you will find they grow even slower.

With anything, slow growing usually means some algea, discoloration, browning, and dying leaves.

Some of that algae looks like BBA in the pictures I reviewed. Are you injecting CO2? If not, you might want to look into it to give your plants a bit of a boost to encourage new leaf development. Also, check your phosphate levels. Low CO2 levels in conjunction with high phosphates and low nitrates (due to high plant uptake) will encourage BBA. Your phosphates should maintain a 1:10 ratio to nitrates. i.e. 1 PPM phosphates to 10 PPM nitrates or 2 PPM phosphates to 20 PPM nitrates.

Consider putting in some plant tabs at the roots of the plants.

Here is the biggest advice I can give you. DOn't be fearful of plucking off damaged, old, algae infested leaves. I have 3 amazon swords in my 56 gallon column too. As soon as they start looking a bit ragged or old, I take them off. This doesn't hurt the plant and actually encourages the plant to make a new green unalgaeified (i made that up) leaf, rather than trying to repair the old one. DOn't let the plant dedicate its energy to the old leaves, and rather give it a reason to put out new ones.

It looks like you have had some good leaf development considering the two pictures, so feel free to really trim them up. Get your nutrients inline, and inject CO2 if possible and you should be good.

Amazons are medium light plants but will survive in mid-low light. The difference is, they will grow tall.

HTH.

I am still new to keeping fresh water plants, but I have learned something new every day. I currently do not have CO2 as I was fearful to invest so much money into plants considering the how little success I had with them in the past. Although, I was using Flourish Excel when I first added the plants, and will add it again if necessary. When I first started using Excel, the plants grew like crazy for the first six weeks, but I discontinued the use of it when the leafs began to die one by one. Finally, I discovered the plant’s ailment was due to a lack of nitrates due to the plant's rapid growth. After discontinuing the use of excel and removing all dying leafs, the plants began to turn green, but grew much more slowly. Since discontinuing the use of Excel, my fish population and nitrate levels have risen. Should I consider using excel again? It was a big help in controlling algae. Also, I was told when performing water changes NOT to vacuum fish waste from the gravel, as it acted as a nutrient to the plants. Is this correct? I also plan to order a phosphate test kit on Tuesday. Thanks for the help.

 

[brutus]

You can vac light in areas where there are no plants. When the plants where growing well with the excel thats when you should have added a fert with NPK in it.Swords are heavy root feeders so a gravel root tab with NPK in it is better then in the water column.

 

[fort384]

I would think something else to consider is even though you should have enough wattage in theory to grow your plants, will t8's penetrate to the bottom in a tank that deep? I seem to recall reading a few articles about the difficulty of keeping live plants in deep tanks, since so many of the aquatics we grow are found right at the surface in the wild. Just a thought, I am by no means an expert on this subject.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

I am still new to keeping fresh water plants, but I have learned something new every day. I currently do not have CO2 as I was fearful to invest so much money into plants considering the how little success I had with them in the past. Although, I was using Flourish Excel when I first added the plants, and will add it again if necessary. When I first started using Excel, the plants grew like crazy for the first six weeks, but I discontinued the use of it when the leafs began to die one by one. Finally, I discovered the plant’s ailment was due to a lack of nitrates due to the plant's rapid growth. After discontinuing the use of excel and removing all dying leafs, the plants began to turn green, but grew much more slowly. Since discontinuing the use of Excel, my fish population and nitrate levels have risen. Should I consider using excel again? It was a big help in controlling algae. Also, I was told when performing water changes NOT to vacuum fish waste from the gravel, as it acted as a nutrient to the plants. Is this correct? I also plan to order a phosphate test kit on Tuesday. Thanks for the help.

My guess is, you saw a nitrate drop DUE to the use of excel. Because you were supplying the swords with additional micro nutrients, your macros (or nitrates) bottomed out. This lead to dying leaves. Now, you have the reverse, your plants have macros, but not enough micros (excel). The key here is to find the balance. Try to maintain 10-15 PPM of nitrates while dosing micro nutrients. This will lead to the best growth in your circumstance. If necessary, considering dosing nitrates in powder form too if your bio-load isnt sufficient to keeping up with the plants macro needs.

I don't really gravel vac my tank much. My tank is heavily planted, and the heavy root feeders like the mulm and waste in the gravel. On the other hand, its important to clean up excess waste, both for the visual impacts as well as to ward off any problems with gasses which can be created by excess waste that can harm your livestock. When I do vac, I don't push the vac into the gravel, but rather clean up the stuff laying on top and then try to clean the gravel at the front of the tank which is visible to anybody viewing the tank.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

I would think something else to consider is even though you should have enough wattage in theory to grow your plants, will t8's penetrate to the bottom in a tank that deep? I seem to recall reading a few articles about the difficulty of keeping live plants in deep tanks, since so many of the aquatics we grow are found right at the surface in the wild. Just a thought, I am by no means an expert on this subject.

I have the same tank as the OP. My swords did find with (2) 65 Watt CFs. I recently upgraded the fixture though to (2) 150W HQI and (4) 24 watt T5.

I think his lighting is sufficient to maintain, but might not see aggressive growth.

 

[fort384]

I have the same tank as the OP. My swords did find with (2) 65 Watt CFs. I recently upgraded the fixture though to (2) 150W HQI and (4) 24 watt T5.

I think his lighting is sufficient to maintain, but might not see aggressive growth.

I am just speculating here, but I am guessing there is a difference though in the depth that a t8 can penetrate versus the depth that your CFs penetrated. Of course I could be far off course...

 

[NeptuneJoe]

Thanks for the additional feedback guys. I began dosing Excel again, and have trimmed back some of the older algae covered leafs. When I first built the canopy, I had many second thoughts regarding the use of T8s and the tank depth, although the plants seem to be growing fine. I have also considered upgrading to HOs or PC. I'm going to be monitoring the nitrAte levels over the next couple of weeks closely to be sure they don't bottom out, although I feel the additional bioload which has accumulated (in terms of new guppy fry ) will help keep it higher.

 

[NeptuneJoe]

I think his lighting is sufficient to maintain, but might not see aggressive growth.

That is my goal. I'm not trying to grow plants as aggressively as many other forum members. Rather, I am simply trying keep a few alive for water quality and asthetic purposes.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

That is my goal. I'm not trying to grow plants as aggressively as many other forum members. Rather, I am simply trying keep a few alive for water quality and asthetic purposes.

The only draw back to that might be HOW they grow. The original planting configuration you had looks nice. 3 amazons in the midground infront of a hard backdrop. Simple. Pleasing. I like it.

With the amount of light you have, the plants might actually develop huge longer leaves trying to "reach" up for the light. This could drastically change the desired setup as you had it established.

Brighter light will help keep them low and compact. Just something to think about.

 

[NeptuneJoe]

The only draw back to that might be HOW they grow. The original planting configuration you had looks nice. 3 amazons in the midground infront of a hard backdrop. Simple. Pleasing. I like it.

With the amount of light you have, the plants might actually develop huge longer leaves trying to "reach" up for the light. This could drastically change the desired setup as you had it established.

Brighter light will help keep them low and compact. Just something to think about.

Thanks for the feedback. What would be a better lighting solution? I'm not big on pendants or other suspended light fixtures. I would like to use something I can re-install in my canopy which I built in August. What wattage and type of fixture (PC, HO) would you recommend?