Ferts help please! Growing a tank of algae

[MurphyFish]

My 38 gal rescape is well underway (pics below, let me know what you think!) For recap, I added a new light (39w t5HO) about a month ago, bought a ton of the Seachem ferts, and changed the substrate last week. I think the gravel in there was breaking down or something because the water was getting harder and harder despite changing it with deionized water.
I love the look of the EcoComplete, but it did mess with the pH quite a bit- took it from 6.4 to 7.6, the GH and KH is off the charts. The tank went through a quick cycle as expected with removal of the gravel that was 10+ years old, and things are going well. It is in a nitrate spike right now- 40ppm, normally is around 10 and I have to add N to the tank.

My tank walls and plant leaves are growning an assortment of algae, which I have not had an issue with before. The glass is easy enough to clean, but I am worried about the plants getting smothered. The Anubias is the most severely affected- it has black spots on the lefts and black edges, and green carpeting-like algae on the upper leaves. The snails eat some of it, but their population took a hit with the substrate change and removal of what seems like 8 million babies.
What do you recommend in terms of lighting/ferts to control the algae?? I ordered 2 SAE, but I am hesitant to put anything else in the tank- there are nearly 50 fish already. I purchased 10 ghost shrimp and the pictus ate them all in 2 days.

Current parameters:
pH: 7.6 NH3: 0 NO2: 0 NO3: 40
lights on 8 hours/day
Heavily stocked: schools of cardinals, harlequin rasboras, rummynoses,bloodfins, 5 cory cat, 3 misc fish from a previous tank
I have most of the Seachem stuff available to use- N,K,P, trace,excel, root tabs.

Here are some pics:

1. The before.. boring! this was the plants before the lighting upgrade

2. Early stages of algae covering the Anubias

3. The rescape so far. More background plants are on the way....stay tuned! Since upgrading the light the crypts have gone crazy, and are even starting to crinkle!

 

[happygirl65]

Firstly...I LIKE your rescape...nicely done.

Next, some questions...

How many hours per day do you have your lights on?
What filter are you using?
Exactly what ferts are you using? How often? How much?
Do you have a CO2 source? Even Flourish Excel will help with the BBA
Is it only the annubias that have algae?

If it's just the annubias, I would pinch off the leaves that are completley covered in the carpet sounding algae. You can also do a Hydrogen Peroxide dip on them which will kill the BBA.

If there are several kinds of algae growing and on other plants as well I would do a 3 day blackout. This is hard if you are doing daily water changes to keep the fish healthy during a cycle....but when it's done you could do one, it cures most algae outbreaks but you still have to address the imbalace of nutrients.

The mini cycle and the light will grow all kind of algae so I would leave the lights off if you are cycling. The fish don't need it and the plants will be fine for a few days. At the very least cut the time you light way back for now until everything is stabilized from the rescape.

 

[MurphyFish]

Hi,
Thanks for your help!

I'll try to address each question

1. Light on 9 hr/day. The fixture has the capability to run 2 x 39W T5HO, but only one bulb currently because I was afraid of an algae explosion with the limited CO2.

2. As far as filter...it's a whisper 3. I bought it in 1996 and its been running since. It is a workhorse. I scrub it it every few years and it runs like new. I don't even think they make that filter anymore. The Whisper 60 (330g/hr) looks like the new version.

3. For ferts, I am adding Excel twice a week, have a yeast/sugar CO2 thing too. Once weekly dosing with seachem trace. I previously had been dosing Seachem NPK once a week, but stopped when I upgraded to eco-complete and the tank started to cycle again (nitrates jumped from 5 to 40ppm). I do a 30% PWC weekly and use the API tap water filter for the replacement water

The anubias is the only one with the carpet algae. Some of the others have diatoms and most have really fine transparent hair-looking stuff growing on them. The tank wall is growing light green algae with dark dots, and the heater is growing this scary fluorescent green stuff that is hard to scrub off.

I will try the lights-off approach. Should I scale back the trace or start the other ferts again? Latest test tonight:
pH 6.4/ NH3 0/ NO2 0/NO3 10

I ordered 3 siamese algae eaters from liveaquaria but on arrival it looks like they are not true SAE. I don't know exactly what they are eating aside from Not Algae.

Thanks!

 

[BigJim]

Hydrogen peroxide does wonders. I've had a BBA problem in my 29g for a few months, ever since I put some really crappy fertilizer in the tank. I have a big piece of driftwood in the tank with an anubias nana, a softball-sized java fern and several little ferns. The BBA was taking over the driftwood and I was worried about it killing my plants. I pulled the wood out of the tank last Saturday, doused it with H2O2, and scrubbed it with a filter brush. It looks a lot better already.

 

[happygirl65]

The green and hard to scrub off algae sounds like green spot algae and it is often one of the last algaes, I usually had to just live with a small amount of that.
the BBA is usually fluctuating CO2, so I would keep dosing the Excel and try to keep your yeast/sugar CO2 thing as consistant as possible...that can be difficult to do.
You could also bumb your water changes to 50% just to cut down on any organics that are pushing your phosphates up and that helps with the green algaes.
Best wishes to you. Planted tanks are so much fun once you find that balance.

 

[fort384]

Agree with all of the above. My concern would be P... it sounds like excess nutrients rather than bottoming out.

Since you are going high tech, I would consider picking up a PO4 test kit. It will help you get that balanced. Dosing P can be tricky.

H2O2 as mentioned is a good method... spot treating with a medice dropper of excel can also be very effective... especially to fight BBA. That stuff is a nightmare.

Your DIY CO2 system... it is very important you keep it running as consistently as possible. Don't wait to change the mix on it.. If it is barely producing or not producing at all, it is causing unstable CO2 fluctuations, which can significantly contribute to BBA. When I had BBA issues back in the day, I killed it with spot treating excel, and kept it away by bumping up my CO2 injection a bit, and keeping it consistently above 25 ppm.

 

[MurphyFish]

Thanks for the suggestions, Fort. So far things are going ok- I ended up just removing the anubias since it seemed to be the most severely affected plant. The crypts got a quick dousing in H2O2, fingers crossed they don't melt.
I have also stopped dosing everything except Excel, and I watch the CO2 closely. It seems like most of the bubbles are getting trapped in the bubble ladder, and the majority are pretty small bubbles so should have more surface area for diffusion.
This tank is turning out more high tech than I ever thought. My old plantkeeping strategy was throw in whatever looks cool and replace it when it dies!
I am pricing out a tank upgrade because I am way overstocked, and when these plants grow out there really isn't going to be room for anything else. When that occurs I think I will probably have to go for "real" CO2.

PO4 kit is on the way. Also scaled back the fish feeding and photoperiod, and the BBA has receded about 50%. There are some ghost shrimp and little algae eaters in there, but they prefer to fight over shrimp pellets instead.

 

[MurphyFish]

A few pics of the algae. It doesn't really clump like the BBA did. Very fine, almost transparent. Is this hair algae? Also a recent FTS. It's only been 10 days since the last one, I think the crypts are diggin' the ecocomplete. You wouldn't guess from the pic but there are about 50 fish in there.
Anne