My Planted Tank is Going Down the Tubes. Help!

[shrike37]

My plant/fish/equipment specs are included at the bottom of this post for your reference.

I have a fish tank that was fishless cycled correctly and have had plants and fish in it for the last 6 weeks. This is my first planted tank. I have tried to go "low tech" with the appropriate plants. Water Parameters for the last 4 weeks have been pretty consistent at pH 7.5-7.6, Ammonia 0-0.3, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0, with a 5 gallon water change once per week. I am running my Finnex 24/7 light in the 24 hour day cycle simulation mode.

The fish all seem super healthy. I have two problems: the plant growth appears to have slowed quite a bit and algae has started taking over.

The plants all seemed fine within the first approximately two weeks. The Bacopa and Pennywort were both growing pretty fast and needed trimmings once a week and the wisteria quickly lost most of its leaves and grew them back (apparently normal as it adapts to the new water conditions). The Bacopa and Wisteria have pretty much stopped growing completely; the pennywort still grows, just slower and it has some poor looking leaves that get trimmed.

I have been dosing fertilizers at the following rate:

Flourish Comprehensive 1.5 mL once a week (bottle recommends 2.5 mL weekly)
Flourish Excel 1.5 mL every 3 days (bottle recommends 5 mL twice weekly)
Flourish Potassium 1 mL once a week (bottle recommends 2.9 mL every other day) (because the pennywort was getting multiple leaves with a lot of little dots)

As shown in the following pictures, within the last 3 or so weeks the algae has really taken off. The biggest problem is this short hairlike algae creating a fuzzy look that covers a lot of my plant leaves and stems, driftwood, and the background. It is by far thickest within the top 5-6 inches of the tank. I also have this really long single strand type of algae that grows up to like 5+ inches long before I manually pull it out. Those single strands are also relatively strong.

I have a couple theories that may be causing or contributing to the problem, but I would defer to more experienced input.

1. Nitrates are 0 so I am worried my plants are missing nitrogen.
2. Since algae is much worse at the top 6-inches, there might be too strong of light.
3. Fish stocking is too low for the tank.
4. My water filter is not quite powerful enough. The box says it is good for 20-50 gallons and I have a 29 gallon tank. There doesnt seem to be very much of a current on the left side of the tank (the java moss barely moves on that side).

How do you recommend I get my plants growing and the algae reduced?

Thanks for the help!









Plants
Java Moss
Brazilian Pennywort
Bacopa caroliniana
Java Fern
Water Wisteria
Anubias Nana

Fish
6 X-ray Tetra
7 Neon Tetra
3 Peppered Cory
1 Amano Shrimp

29 Gallon Rectangular Tank (18-inches high)
Finnex 24/7 Light
Gravel Substrate (finer grain than average gravel) @ 2-3.5-inches deep
Aquaclear 50 (HOB) Filter (no carbon)
pH 7.6
Hard Water (I don't know the numbers, but it is hard for sure)

[Tropicalaqua]

Hello,
first you want to take look inside your filter, be sure it is not blocked.
if that is all fine, try to find a stronger UV light from your local aquarium,this will advance growth in plants and reduce the algae.
you could also buy some catfish to eradicate the algae.
as a last resort, buy a C02 producer to enhance the plants. once the plants become healthy again, the algae will be reduced dramatically.
hope that helped

[Caliban07]

Hi shrike37

Most of your troubleshooting is sound.

Most planted keepers opt for around 5-10x the tank volume turnover per hour. Flow is great for a planted tank because it moves essential nutrients around the tank and makes them more available to plants.

Take the 24/7 fixture to one setting (not 24/7 mode) and reduce the intensity to about 70%. You want the photoperiod to be between 6-8 hours a day. This will provide a stable photoperiod that the plants can adapt to. Light intensity dictates the rate and amount of nutrient uptake in a plant. More light = more nutrients and more carbon dioxide.

Low tech tanks are limited in terms of carbon dioxide and they rely on substrate matter, respiration of organisms and gas exchange for co2. The level of co2 produced by an aquarium will vary and may well not be able to supply enough to meet the demand. Different plants have different co2 requirements and is one of the reasons that a select few plants with relatively low co2 requirements are chosen for a low tech setups.

Algae do not care about any of this as the co2 and nutrient requirements are significantly lower than that of higher plants. All they care about is light for photosynthesis and so more light = more algae. This is especially true when the higher plants are failing.

Therefore the steps I would take to help rectify your issue are as follows.

1) manually remove as much algae as possible.
2) alter photoperiod to reflect one 8 hour period at 70% intensity (70% is just a starting figure you may need to go lower)
3) dose liquid co2 DAILY. Do not worry about the effects of livestock. Follow the recommended dosage but administer daily. This will help with the co2 demand.
4) buy a more powerful filter.
5) buy macro fertilisers such as nitrate, potassium and phosphate and administer 3 times a week.

You should start to see a noticeable difference just by adding the excel daily.

Hope this helps.

Good luck.




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[Khuligirl93]

Solid advice from Caliban.
I would NOT recommend getting a stronger light. As caliban stated, algae loves light and doesn't have restrictions like plants do.


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[shrike37]

Originally Posted by Caliban07

Hi shrike37

1) manually remove as much algae as possible.
2) alter photoperiod to reflect one 8 hour period at 70% intensity (70% is just a starting figure you may need to go lower)
3) dose liquid co2 DAILY. Do not worry about the effects of livestock. Follow the recommended dosage but administer daily. This will help with the co2 demand.
4) buy a more powerful filter.
5) buy macro fertilisers such as nitrate, potassium and phosphate and administer 3 times a week.

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Your post seems like it will be very helpful! I have a couple follow up questions.

1. Most of the hair algae is attached to the leaves/stems of plants pretty good and difficult to remove without damaging the plants. Is it worth it to trim a bunch of the plants to get rid of more algae?

4. With the recommended bigger filter, is it better to buy another smaller filter to bring the total GPH flow rates from both filters to the correct amount, or is it better to scrap the old filter and buy a bigger one so I only have one in the tank?

Thanks

[Caliban07]

Originally Posted by shrike37

Your post seems like it will be very helpful! I have a couple follow up questions.

1. Most of the hair algae is attached to the leaves/stems of plants pretty good and difficult to remove without damaging the plants. Is it worth it to trim a bunch of the plants to get rid of more algae?

4. With the recommended bigger filter, is it better to buy another smaller filter to bring the total GPH flow rates from both filters to the correct amount, or is it better to scrap the old filter and buy a bigger one so I only have one in the tank?

Thanks

You're welcome. If you still have enough unaffected growth to sustain the plant after trimming then I would trim. Excel is a mild algaecide to so you should start using that more as soon as. As new, healthy, unaffected growth grows through you can clip more of the affected leaves/stems off as you go. Eventually it will all disappear provided you follow the above advice.

As for the filter, you don't necessarily have to buy a replacement filter, you can simply add a smaller power head to the setup of you have enough plug sockets and don't mind the extra mech in your tank.


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[Khuligirl93]

Side note: if you get a new filter to replace the old one, make sure you transfer the old filter media into it so you don't have a mini cycle.
If you add an additional filter but keep the old one you have nothing to worry about.


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[Bert2oo1]

I've had a long painful battle with hair algae myself, to fix the problem I followed these steps and it's slowly fading week by week.

I dimmed my lights from 100% to 70

Made sure my co2 dosage was enough (30ppm pressurised)

Dosing EI ferts as recommended

Weekly water change of 50% (make sure its weekly and no longer)

Scrub as much as u can off.

It's been 4-5 weeks since I did all of this and my plant growth is strong and the algae is fading.

Patience is key to rid this algae!

Good luck


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank

[traceyrollin]

I would add some algae eaters too just to be safe. 29 gallons is plenty of room. Beautiful fist picture! Best wishes.

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[schpanky]

I think your tank is really beautiful. You've got a good eye for aesthetics.

You might enjoy the benefits of pressurized C02. I'd highly recommend it. You'd pat yourself on the back everyday. Well worth the investment and almost no care after initial set up. Nothing could be easier than a low light high tech tank.

No more worry about melting plants, no worrying about putting chemicals in your tank with your fish. Would you ever consider?

[Caliban07]

Hi shrike and improvements?