Algae bloom

[India_R]

I have recently started adding fertilizer to my planted tank as my nitrate levels were low, and I was noticing deficiencies in my plants. I have been adding fertilizer for about a month now and the algae in my aquarium has significantly increased. This would be fine as I could just manage the lighting, but my nitrates haven't increased and the deficiencies have just been getting worse. I don't know what to change.
Any advice would be appreciated as I'm new to the hobby.

[Aiken Drum]

What fertiliser are you adding? What light fixture are you using? How long is the light on for? What type of plants are you keeping? What is the nitrate? Can you give more details about the deficiency you are seeing?

[India_R]

I am using seachem flourish. The light is a strip light and is on for about 12 hours, less on the weekends as I turn it on when I get up and then after I have tea. I can get a wifi timer if it needs to be on for less time. The plants I currently have are wisteria, vallesnaria and one other I can't remember the name of the other plant, however it isn't as fast growing as the Val or wisteria.

[India_R]

I have an api testing kit which reads the nitrate at 0-5ppm normally 0ppm. I think that the deficiency is lack of nitrate as my Val is beginning to get some discoloring but I think maybe calcium too? I don't currently have a picture but I can add one later. The new growth on my dwarf Brazilian chain sword is pale and twisted/deformed. The growth on my Val is deformed too. I haven't noticed any effect on the wisteria yet.

[Aiken Drum]

Flourish essentially contains zero nitrogen so will do nothing for the nitrate levels of your water. Very few aquarium fertilisers have nitrogen or phosphate because they are considered to promote algae growth and normally fish waste will provide enough of these essential nutrients.

Some fertilisers do have nitrogen and phosphate. NA Thrive if its available in your location (N. America). We have TNC Complete here in the UK. Aquarium Coop do a fertiliser that has these nutrients in them, Tropica too.

Before we go down that route, can you tell us a little more about your tank. How big is it? What fish? How many? What plants?

Most aquariums stocked with fish and planted with low demand plants will not have issues with low nitrate. I would double check you are doing the nitrate test correctly. Really shake the heck out of bottle #2. Like bang it on the countertop. Take a sample of water to your LFS and get a 2nd opinion.

You might be over lighting too. 12 hours is a lot, and it could be causing the plants to strip out all the nutrients and causing poor growth.

[India_R]

My aquarium is 30L or 7.9 gallons. I currently only have a very low bio load as my stocking is 2 guppies. The plants are vallisneria, wisteria, and dwarf Brazilian chain swords.

Thanks for the tips on the nitrate test I will try it again and see if I get a different result. I live in New Zealand so not sure how many of those other fertilizer options are available down here, but I will look into it. I have heard that aquarium coop os good but I don't know if they deliver to NZ. I will also lower the lighting and see what that does in terms of the plant growth. I may not be able to get a sample tested by my LFS but will try.

Thanks for the advice so far.

[India_R]

Here are some photos of my plants.






Sorry of the links don't work I am struggling to work out how to attach an image.

[Aiken Drum]

Wisteria is going to pull a lot of nitrogen out of the water, ammonia or nitrate.