[Wet Thumb Forum]-Ready to rip them all out...

[Sprout]

Hello all, I am a newbie in desperate need of some help. I am a little nervous about posting on a board that has so many plant experts on it but here it goes.... sorry it's so long but I wanted to give as much pertinent info as I could.

I have a 55 gallon heavily planted tank that has been up since December 2002. Currently I am fighting a losing battle with almost every kind of algae and don't know what to do at this point. Like I said I am ready to rip all the plants out...

Here's the stats:
55 g with 110 watts of compact fluorescent lighting (GE® 9325° Kelvin 55 watts x2), and 30 watts (Hagen Life-glo 6700K 15 watts x2). Gives me 2.6 watts/gallon. Substrate is three inches of 3 to 4mm gravel over a thin layer of laterite. Water out of the tap is: pH 8.0 to 8.2, kH 10, gH 140ppm. I have three Hagen CO2 kits running...more on this later... Currently, my pH is 7.6, kH 90, gH 140.

Plants:
Elodea, hydrocotyle leucocephala, sunset hygro, java fern, two kinds of valls, dwarf sags, rotalas indica and wallichi, ludwigia arcuata, alternanthera reineckii ''roseafolia'', bacopa, anubias, one echinodorus uruguayensis and one madagascar lace plant. I had to remove water wisteria that started out beautiful... first plant put in... because it was dying and the hydrocotyle leucocephala as well. The elodea will be next.

Fish: 6 Neon rainbows, 8 Silvertip tetras, 1 bristlenose, 3 otos, 6 cories, 3 small angels and 3 SAE's.

Originally, I had just the 30 watts of Life-Glo... plants really did not do well and brown algae became a problem. Then I added the cf's and at first things were good, brown algae disappeared, plants were pearling for the first time, growth was pretty good. Then the algae started up again, this time green hair or green beard, not really sure.... at this point I wasn't dosing anything... I'd been told not to mess around with ferts by an 'expert' and being a complete newbie I was scared to try them. Then I was advised to start dosing KNO3 2-3 x a week because my plants were losing leaves, had limited growth, transparent leaves, browning leaves, etc... this did not help the situation at all. Around this time I discovered this forum and started reading... tons of good info here!!

After I did lots of research on my own I decided that my plants were probably deficient in everything (amm 0, nitrites 0 nitrates 0, iron 0,
phosphates 0... had been since week two of tank) so I purchased pretty much the whole Flourish line, excluding Flourish Nitrogen and Excel. I started dosing every second or third day, 10mL of Flourish Trace, 2mL of Flourish, 5.5mL Flourish Potassium and 25mL of KNO3 solution (1 teaspoon to 300mL distilled water). I did this for about a month, things were good at first, lots of pearling, new growth etc. Then I noticed that plants were starting to go downhill again and green hair/beard algae was really starting to overrun tank. I started dosing every day 10mL of Flourish Trace, 2mL of Flourish, 5.5mL of FlourishPotassium, 3mL of Flourish Phosphorus, 5.5mL Fluorish Iron and 25mL of KNO3 solution.
Since then, plant growth has not really improved but algae growth has exploded. Especially bad is Black String and a bit of BBA and Green Hair. I even have a little bit of Cyano. Last week after I did a 35% water change
( I do about 35% a week) I noticed that plants were pearling afterwords -which hadn't happened in a while. So I didn't dose anything at all, and haven't since then. I removed a lot of black string algae affected plant parts. This seemed to slow down the black stuff a bit but the green started growing with a vengeance again...
Now I'm not sure what to do. My tank is growing algae faster than I can remove affected plant parts. Even the recent addition of the SAE's hasn't made a dent in it... If I keep this up, I won't have any plants left. The cyano is very minor thank God!!

Now back to the CO2 problem. I cannot keep it stabilized... I think this is where most of my problems come from. The 3 CO2 units should be enough but are not functioning well enough to do the job. The plants are not using the nutrients efficiently because CO2 levels are too low and unstable... I think. I am going to be getting a pressurized unit in a month or so but until then... well I just don't know what I can do to prevent the algae from overrunning my tank. The CO2 levels are roughly less than 10ppm according to many kH/pH charts I have seen. My pH fluctuates between 7.2-7.6, kH between 80-95. I have a Hagen master test kit and test regularly for PO4, NO3, pH, kH and iron, tests for PO4, NO3, and iron always show zero no matter how much or how little I've dosed, which is particularly frustrating!

Please give me some advice!! I am totally at my wits end, feel like a failure and I really hate seeing my tank like this.

Sprout... a grateful newbie

[jpmtotoro]

hey i just thought of something else, you could possibly borrow/buy a... what are they called... diatom filter? or a UV sterilizer. i don't think the UV sterilizer is the best for planted tanks, but it's negative impact is marginal compared with the positive algae-spore killing effect. i haven't tried this, but you could search around the forum for info on it. if you're really getting your butt kicked by algae, this might keep it from spreading so fast. i'm sorry i can't offer any real info on these since i haven't used either method, but it might give you something to look at. once again, good luck!

JP

[jpmtotoro]

double whoops! hey in my defense, i was only speaking proper english. it's grammatically proper to refer to a person as "he" unless the person is known to be female. that's my story and i'm sticking to it!

[jpmtotoro]

b3dlam, i was just recommending him take off the CO2 setup and dose excel because i had a similar problem and i have a similar setup and it worked ok for me running excel instead of CO2 for now, plus he's already got 3 hagens on there, i dunno if throwing one more on is gonna help a ton, do you?

JP

[b3dlam]

jpmtotoro: Yups...no prob. I also noticed that he had 3 Hagen units running. If the readings are correct, he doesnt seem to have enough CO2 in the tank. Using Excel to wholly supply the carbonate for the plants might be more expensive and 'riskier' for a tank of that size. I hope i didnt sound like I was attacking your views. It was just meant to provide another point of view is all...

[jpmtotoro]

once is not enough to tell a guy, 3 or 4 times. one must always assume that a man hears 1/4 of the conversation. there are exceptions, if you started with "i'm a hot, single, canadian chick" then i probably would have remembered... but then again, i probably wouldn't have been too interested in your algae anyway, it sounds like the bleach bath had some of the same affects on yours as it did on mine. mine turned ghostly white on most of the plants, i just let the SAEs eat that stuff up. patience and a healthy dosing schedule should help out... you know what else would get rid of the algae? a terrarium anyway, hopefully the bleach bath stalled the growth of the algae for a few days at least. gives your clean up crew the chance to catch up. the only other thing i could think of would be other algae eating fish like flag fish or those rosy barbs i think... that's about it. patience my dear! patience! (or a terrarium)

JP

[Sprout]

Hmmm... given that now I have conflicting information regarding whether or not I should remove the CO2 systems I'm totally not sure what to do at this point.
Um... anyone else wanna weigh in on this one?

Ekim... I also dose 25 mL of a KNO3 solution as well(1tsp/300mL water) is that still not enough potassium?

I'm pretty sure that if the Hagen systems were working like they are supposed to that 3 would be enough... I do replace one bottle each week in a rotating schedule. The problem is that it usually takes at least a day or two to start producing properly or for the bubbles to climb the ladder thingy properly. Also, they are forever being jammed up by snails or algae or plant bits or something. Very frustrating let me tell ya!! So there are not many days when all 3 are going like they should. Anyone have any tips or suggestions for what I can do about this? If I can't keep them stable I believe that JP is right in that they are doing more harm than good. Geez, I sooo wish I could afford that pressurizer right now!!

Anona... it is possible to overdose when I'm using both?

I haven't done the bleach bath yet, I got called in to work today so I may just save it for tomorrow, I'm expecting it to be a LOT of work!!

Thanks again everyone for your help!!

Sprout... who btw is a SHE not a he!!

[Sprout]

Oh yeah, if my K levels are way too low which it seems they are....doesn't that affect the amount of nutrients my plants are able to suck up? Did I read that somewhere?? Could this have been a major factor in the algae growth? Should I step it up right away or do it gradually? I don't know that I can afford to dose as much Flourish Potassium as I'd need to!! Would it be ok to step up the KNO3? Can someone suggest an appropriate amount?

Thank you so much for all your help, did I mention that you guys rock?

Sprout

[Sprout]

Hello all, I am a newbie in desperate need of some help. I am a little nervous about posting on a board that has so many plant experts on it but here it goes.... sorry it's so long but I wanted to give as much pertinent info as I could.

I have a 55 gallon heavily planted tank that has been up since December 2002. Currently I am fighting a losing battle with almost every kind of algae and don't know what to do at this point. Like I said I am ready to rip all the plants out...

Here's the stats:
55 g with 110 watts of compact fluorescent lighting (GE® 9325° Kelvin 55 watts x2), and 30 watts (Hagen Life-glo 6700K 15 watts x2). Gives me 2.6 watts/gallon. Substrate is three inches of 3 to 4mm gravel over a thin layer of laterite. Water out of the tap is: pH 8.0 to 8.2, kH 10, gH 140ppm. I have three Hagen CO2 kits running...more on this later... Currently, my pH is 7.6, kH 90, gH 140.

Plants:
Elodea, hydrocotyle leucocephala, sunset hygro, java fern, two kinds of valls, dwarf sags, rotalas indica and wallichi, ludwigia arcuata, alternanthera reineckii ''roseafolia'', bacopa, anubias, one echinodorus uruguayensis and one madagascar lace plant. I had to remove water wisteria that started out beautiful... first plant put in... because it was dying and the hydrocotyle leucocephala as well. The elodea will be next.

Fish: 6 Neon rainbows, 8 Silvertip tetras, 1 bristlenose, 3 otos, 6 cories, 3 small angels and 3 SAE's.

Originally, I had just the 30 watts of Life-Glo... plants really did not do well and brown algae became a problem. Then I added the cf's and at first things were good, brown algae disappeared, plants were pearling for the first time, growth was pretty good. Then the algae started up again, this time green hair or green beard, not really sure.... at this point I wasn't dosing anything... I'd been told not to mess around with ferts by an 'expert' and being a complete newbie I was scared to try them. Then I was advised to start dosing KNO3 2-3 x a week because my plants were losing leaves, had limited growth, transparent leaves, browning leaves, etc... this did not help the situation at all. Around this time I discovered this forum and started reading... tons of good info here!!

After I did lots of research on my own I decided that my plants were probably deficient in everything (amm 0, nitrites 0 nitrates 0, iron 0,
phosphates 0... had been since week two of tank) so I purchased pretty much the whole Flourish line, excluding Flourish Nitrogen and Excel. I started dosing every second or third day, 10mL of Flourish Trace, 2mL of Flourish, 5.5mL Flourish Potassium and 25mL of KNO3 solution (1 teaspoon to 300mL distilled water). I did this for about a month, things were good at first, lots of pearling, new growth etc. Then I noticed that plants were starting to go downhill again and green hair/beard algae was really starting to overrun tank. I started dosing every day 10mL of Flourish Trace, 2mL of Flourish, 5.5mL of FlourishPotassium, 3mL of Flourish Phosphorus, 5.5mL Fluorish Iron and 25mL of KNO3 solution.
Since then, plant growth has not really improved but algae growth has exploded. Especially bad is Black String and a bit of BBA and Green Hair. I even have a little bit of Cyano. Last week after I did a 35% water change
( I do about 35% a week) I noticed that plants were pearling afterwords -which hadn't happened in a while. So I didn't dose anything at all, and haven't since then. I removed a lot of black string algae affected plant parts. This seemed to slow down the black stuff a bit but the green started growing with a vengeance again...
Now I'm not sure what to do. My tank is growing algae faster than I can remove affected plant parts. Even the recent addition of the SAE's hasn't made a dent in it... If I keep this up, I won't have any plants left. The cyano is very minor thank God!!

Now back to the CO2 problem. I cannot keep it stabilized... I think this is where most of my problems come from. The 3 CO2 units should be enough but are not functioning well enough to do the job. The plants are not using the nutrients efficiently because CO2 levels are too low and unstable... I think. I am going to be getting a pressurized unit in a month or so but until then... well I just don't know what I can do to prevent the algae from overrunning my tank. The CO2 levels are roughly less than 10ppm according to many kH/pH charts I have seen. My pH fluctuates between 7.2-7.6, kH between 80-95. I have a Hagen master test kit and test regularly for PO4, NO3, pH, kH and iron, tests for PO4, NO3, and iron always show zero no matter how much or how little I've dosed, which is particularly frustrating!

Please give me some advice!! I am totally at my wits end, feel like a failure and I really hate seeing my tank like this.

Sprout... a grateful newbie

[ekim]

Look around for K2SO4 (potassium sulfate)$2 for enough for a year or so.
Add 20ppm once a week, yes right away. Yes this could have been causing you problems.

Good luck