Help with algae!

[Ashindle]

Been battling brown algae in my tank for a while now...with a 6 hour photoperiod, dosing liquid carbon and adding nerite snails it's getting better. But now I'm getting what I believe to be green spot algae? It seems to be spreading and plants seem to be suffering. Pemnywort barely hanging on and ludwigia gladulosa died. I'm guessing I got some nutrient problems and would love some advice! I dose 2x the daily amount of excell, flourish comprehensive once a week and have root tabs under the sword, chain swords, and hygrofolia augustinafolia Spelling ??

55 gal tank
2 t5ho 6500k lights. 6hrs/ day
Ph 7.8
Nitrate always 0... Problem?

Any help is much appreciated!

 

[tiger terror]

From the looks of pic#1 it seems like you have an actinic bulb on the fixture...if so,actinic bulbs offer nothing to plants...

 

[Ashindle]

From the looks of pic#1 it seems like you have an actinic bulb on the fixture...if so,actinic bulbs offer nothing to plants...

Must be angle pic was take .. No 2 geissman bulbs one daylight one flora max. Other plants seem to be growing well. Like sword and hygro and rotala ...

 

[Rivercats]

Do you know your phosphate readings? Usually when you have GSA raising your phosphate levels will make it go away.

You really need to be using dry ferts so your dosing all the macro and micro nutrients the plants need. In a planted tank you want your nitrates at 10-20ppm and phosphates anywhere from .5-2ppm. I actually run phosphates at 5-10ppm.

 

[Ashindle]

Going to get phosphorus testkit tomorrow and find out... Sorry I'm new to the hobby and will read up on dry ferts... They used like root tabs and go under substrate?

 

[Rivercats]

Here's the ferts.... Estimative Index | Aquarium Fertilizer | Green Leaf Aquariums.

Here's the 3 dosing bottles you need... Fertilizer Dispenser | 500 mL (16 oz) | Green Leaf Aquariums.

Here's a thread you can read about dosing them but only read the opening thread not all the comments... Newbie Guide to PPS-Pro - PPS Analysis and Feedback - Aquatic Plant Central.

You dose these into the water, they are not like root tabs.

 

[Ashindle]

Thanks river cats! I really appreciate the advice, my only friends in the hobby have African cichlids so they not a lot of help with the plants. Went ahead and orderd the ferts/bottles.. Def seems cheaper then the liquid products. Just got the phosphate test about to test.. Suspect it's will read zero...

 

[Ashindle]

Tested phosphates and turned up zero.

 

[Rivercats]

Your plants will do good once you get the ferts going.

 

[aqua_chem]

Obligate plug for EI

If I were in your position, I would use EI in the short term to address the algae issue, and then consider switching to PPS. EI is better in cases of unstable tanks as it provides a "shotgun" approach to addressing all deficiencies (which I'm going to include GSA in), while PPS assume a steady state not in flux, ie, a healthy, already a landed tank.

 

[Ashindle]

Your plants will do good once you get the ferts going.

I hope so

 

[Ashindle]

Obligate plug for EI

If I were in your position, I would use EI in the short term to address the algae issue, and then consider switching to PPS. EI is better in cases of unstable tanks as it provides a "shotgun" approach to addressing all deficiencies (which I'm going to include GSA in), while PPS assume a steady state not in flux, ie, a healthy, already a landed tank.

Thanks for the info! Reading up on both methods and def can't wait to start. Dry ferts are on back order, but bought some seachem phosphorus liquid fert for now. And some amino shrip too for good measure lol!

 

[Ashindle]

Ok all set up with mixed solutions! I read that it is better to dose the macros and micros on different days to prevent unwanted reactions... But how often do you dose the tank? Obviously ill test the water pretty frequently to see where I'm at getting started. Any suggestions? Also green spot algae starting to get better since i increased the phosphate. Can't wait to see what a lil extra nitrate will do!

 

[Rivercats]

Are you dosing El or PPS-Pro?

 

[Ashindle]

Gonna start with pps-pro... Seems much simpler

 

[Rivercats]

Then start by dosing 1ml of each macro solution per 10 gallons of tank water at one end of the tank and 1ml of the micro solution at the other end of the tank. When you mixed your macro's did you mix nitrates in a bottle by themselves and then mix phosphates and potassium in another dosing bottle? By using macro's at one end of the tank and micro's at the other end you don't have to worry about the iron precipitating with the potassium.

Now I keep my tank at certain levels, 10ppm for nitrates and 5-10ppm for phosphates. So at the end of each week right before my WC I test my nitrates and phosphates to see where my levels ended up after a week of dosing. Then since my macro's are split up I can dose the same or use more or less of them if needed to keep my levels where I want them. I dose the micro solution the same daily period, it never changes. In all of my tanks I rarely ever dose nitrates anymore as my tanks run at around 10ppm normally, which is right where I want them to be.

 

[Ashindle]

Yes I mixes the N, and K-P in separate bottles. Sounds pretty straight forward, I'm excited to get started! So you dose daily, and test at the end of the week to fine tune your recipe?

 

[Rivercats]

Yes I mixes the N, and K-P in separate bottles. Sounds pretty straight forward, I'm excited to get started! So you dose daily, and test at the end of the week to fine tune your recipe?

That's exactly what I do. Plus I rarely ever dose nitrates as my tanks run right at about 10ppm which is exactly where I want them.

 

[Ashindle]

That's exactly what I do. Plus I rarely ever dose nitrates as my tanks run right at about 10ppm which is exactly where I want them.

Thank you so much for your help rivercats! I hope my tank really takes off now!

 

[Mijo51380]

Thanks for the links