Help with first tank and weird algae

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DavidVillarreal

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Aug 21, 2020
Messages
6
Hello aquarium community. I need lots of help with my first tank that I have had for about 4 months approaching 5 months. For my first tank I bought a 29 gallon tank and a 700 cascade penn plax canister filter off Amazon as well as a NICREW planted plus light. I decided to go with dirt as my substrate (dumb idea) as I imagined a heavily planted tank and has really allowed my ludwigia, and wisteria to grow out and cover most of the tank. I first capped off with a thin layer of white sand and then black rocks as I change my mind on switching from white to black substrate. To cut the chase Over the past few months I’ve been dealing with this black algae I believe to be staghorn and it’s almost taken over the tank. I’ve tried dosing excel but I can’t dose enough to kill it all. I’m almost to the point where I might just tear down my tank. Here are pictures to help. Any tips or advice would be amazing. My life stock includes 5 otos, 8 rasbora, 5 zebra danios, and 5 barbs.
 

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How often do you dose the excel?

I dose only the amount recommended every day that I can directly on the algae through a syringe. Although if I’m being honest, I’m not home some days and quite busy so I would say it’s more like every other day. The algae turns red, then white and will go away but there’s just too much of it in the tank to spot dose with the recommended amount.
 
How long ago were you making these changes to the substrate?

I’m not an expert in plants, but just when it comes to a closed eco system, that substrate is crucial to have the right bacteria to balance the chemistry.

This isn’t going to be a problem that will fix itself overnight. Just keep things steady, and monitor the changes. If it blooms and gets way worse, then you might have to scramble, but in my experience, just try to keep things steady for a couple of weeks, and the system will likely recover.
 
How long ago were you making these changes to the substrate?

I’m not an expert in plants, but just when it comes to a closed eco system, that substrate is crucial to have the right bacteria to balance the chemistry.

This isn’t going to be a problem that will fix itself overnight. Just keep things steady, and monitor the changes. If it blooms and gets way worse, then you might have to scramble, but in my experience, just try to keep things steady for a couple of weeks, and the system will likely recover.


I actually never removed any substrate I just added black rocks over the existing sand I capped the dirt off. My first layer of sand was not very deep so I just decided to add a very small layer of the black substrate over it to cover the sand about 6 weeks ago. It’s virtually impossible to remove or change substrate entirely due to the dirt. I don’t think my substrate is an issue but I could be wrong and hopefully my tank recovers.
 
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