HELP! My fish tank has weird algae and dust

[Ingiequeen]

HI y'all, i am really worried about my 4ft discus tank, i have no co2, and it is planted, although the plants dont do well at all, i use flroutish and flourish excel, and just ordinary dark gravel for my substrate, no heating cables or anything, but ever since about a month after i set it up it alwayshas weird dust and algae growing all over it, and it just started growing weird dark green tufts of algae, nitrites 0, nitrates never above 10, ph 6.5, gh 5, kh 2, and thats about it, i dont know what to do about it someone PLEASE HELP i ant my tank looking lush and green like so many other tanks.

[NeonFlux]

How long do you leave the lights on? How often do you clean your filter? Need to know

[Ingiequeen]

HI, i leave them on for about 12 hours a day, i clean the external canister once a month.

[Veloth]

Your lighting period may be too long depending on the amount of light you're running. Is the tank a new setup if so the brown may diatoms.

[Ingiequeen]

No it is not diatoms, i know what that is, it is not mainly on the glass it is all over the plants, its like brown gloppy dust, and there are little brown hairy things on the back glass of the tank, all the plants look sick except the anubias and a couple of crypts.

[dewalltheway]

Any pics? Also, is your tank 55 gallons and give some details on your lights.

[Ingiequeen]

I should upload some pics soon, it's a 110 gal, i know i do not ave enough lighting, i only have a hagen glo twin HO t5 light, with 2 x 54 watt globes.

[Esox lucius]

Originally Posted by Ingiequeen

No it is not diatoms, i know what that is, it is not mainly on the glass it is all over the plants, its like brown gloppy dust, and there are little brown hairy things on the back glass of the tank, all the plants look sick except the anubias and a couple of crypts.

If it is brown, and not dead green algae, it is diatoms, and there are many different species, some form hair like colonies, some are dust like. From what I have researched they are caused by excess silicates in mature tanks. I have some issues with diatoms, and they seem to come and go, I will be doing all future water changes with RO water, hopefully that will alleviate the issue if there is silicates in my tap.

[Tex Gal]

Flourish is micros and excel is the carbon source. Where are your macro ferts? Do you use plant tabs? You need some source for your macros. If your plants can grow enough they will out compete the algae and it will go away. Flourish does make separate bottles of potassium (K), nitrogen (N) and phosporus (P) that you can use, as well.

[Hoppy]

You are not low on light. Instead, you most likely are not providing the nutrients the plants need to grow, which are nitrogen (from nitrates), potassium, phosphorus (from phosphates), carbon (from CO2, preferably, or Excel), and trace elements from a trace element mix. Read up on the Estimative Index method of dosing, for a simple, easy to follow method for dosing all but the carbon.

[Ingiequeen]

Hey all, umm ok, i now have that green slightly black algae that looks like grass...what is this caused by? and i dont really use flourish or excel anymore, also, everyweek i usually do a water change of 10%, but the 10%just evaporates do i just replace the evaporated water with fresh water, is this bad? should i go back to CHANGING the water? Also the plants dont really grow at all, and the algae is quite bad. I will have some photos up soon but my stupid sim card reader isnt working at the moment.
Also my gravel is not exceptionally small, it is normal size/small, i dont have any heating cables, no fertilazer and no root tabs.

[el_santo]

you should be doing water changes, evaporation isn't exporting out waste and by just toping off you're not removing waste that is still accumulating in the water column.

[sunfire99]

Originally Posted by Ingiequeen

Hey all, umm ok, i now have that green slightly black algae that looks like grass...what is this caused by? and i dont really use flourish or excel anymore, also, everyweek i usually do a water change of 10%, but the 10%just evaporates do i just replace the evaporated water with fresh water, is this bad? should i go back to CHANGING the water? Also the plants dont really grow at all, and the algae is quite bad. I will have some photos up soon but my stupid sim card reader isnt working at the moment.
Also my gravel is not exceptionally small, it is normal size/small, i dont have any heating cables, no fertilazer and no root tabs.

Pictures would help but it sounds like you may have several types of algae. All of them have a "cure", and all of them have a cause also. The black algae may be BBA, black brush algae. Do a search on that and look at the pictures to see if it matches up. Excel or H202(hydrogen peroxide) will kill BBA handily. You might also mention what kind of cleaning crews you have. Do you have any shrimp, catfish, snails, etc.? How long has the tank been set up?