[Crabsticks]

Hi!
I have a 17 gallon tank.
It is heavily planted with dwarf puffers and galaxy rasboras.
I recently decided to scape it and make it a fully planted tank a little over 4 months ago.
For a long time my plant was stagnant and after some reading, i decided to get seachem ferts and follow the weekly dosing chart.
My plants started growing but i started having hair algae. It got so bad that i stopped dosing altogether and switched off the tank lights. The tank gets ambient light from the balcony as well as from the light in the living room where it is placed. The co2 has been left on.
Over the past 2 weeks, the algae has reduced and is almost gone.
I wanted advice on what to do regarding the fertiliser schedule and lighting hours now that the algae is gone. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Plinkploop]

Start slow with lights. Starting with 4 or 5 hours. How are your plants doing without the ferts? I'd say start lean on the ferts since you did say they were helping with growth. Have you got your co2 dialed in? I noticed a bit of hair/ thread algae creeping in where I had a dead zone. I'm still in start up algae mode, though, so that may not apply to you at all.

 

[Discusluv]

@Deanna can help.

 

[Deanna]

Please provide as much of the following as possible, which may involve some research on the forum:

• Light (make & model): ideally, PAR and PUR reading/estimate at the substrate and photoperiod?
• CO2 setup (if any) and, if you inject CO2 (pressurized or DIY?), what is the CO2 ppm level, how is it measured and how is it timed with your photoperiod?
• Current NO3, PO4, GH, KH, pH and TDS readings and which test kits/devices are used for each?
• What you are dosing (product and quantity), in terms of ppm, and how often?
• Substrate type?
• What is your filter setup?
• Cleaning regimen (filter and water change frequency and amount)?
• Circulation: surface rippling and are all plants gently moving from top to bottom?
• What is your water source and do you use a water softener?

 

[Crabsticks]

Start slow with lights. Starting with 4 or 5 hours. How are your plants doing without the ferts? I'd say start lean on the ferts since you did say they were helping with growth. Have you got your co2 dialed in? I noticed a bit of hair/ thread algae creeping in where I had a dead zone. I'm still in start up algae mode, though, so that may not apply to you at all.

Plants are okay. Not thriving but just okay. Cabomba is not growing at all. Stagnant. The monte carlo is growing fine. I think all plants had growth during the lights off except for the cabomba. Another thing i noticed is the the red ludwigia i had started growing new green leaves but dropped almost most of its bottom leaves.
My co2 is maximum i believe. I dialed it down a bit when i noticed that my fish was gasping.
Dead zone was my first guess but i had it in all parts of my tank.

 

[Plinkploop]

Is there potential for a nitrogen deficiency? I think that's what causes the lower leaf darkening and dropping with lights new growth. Don't quote me on that one but I'm about 70% sure lol. Cabomba need pretty high lighting for success, it would make sense that it would die off when lighting is restricted. Plants don't tend to need extended photoperiods, but algae does. If you start out slow with resuming your lighting you may help promote growth on plants and limit the ability for algae to grow, though ambient lighting may trip you up on that (I have this issue in a couple tanks).

 

[Crabsticks]

Is there potential for a nitrogen deficiency? I think that's what causes the lower leaf darkening and dropping with lights new growth. Don't quote me on that one but I'm about 70% sure lol. Cabomba need pretty high lighting for success, it would make sense that it would die off when lighting is restricted. Plants don't tend to need extended photoperiods, but algae does. If you start out slow with resuming your lighting you may help promote growth on plants and limit the ability for algae to grow, though ambient lighting may trip you up on that (I have this issue in a couple tanks).

Thanks for the advice. How do i know if im overdosing on ferts? And what ferts exactly?

 

[Plinkploop]

Excess ferts= excess algae, I've found spot algae to be a good indicator, along with beard/ brush. Sometimes it's because of a certain item (my current iteration of this is a piece of decaying driftwood getting a full south facing view of the sun) other times it's due to over fertilizing plants (I routinely have to blind test ferts because of my lack of testing supplies). The most common imbalances usually occur between nitrate and phosphate in macros and iron and trace uptake minerals in micros. These are just my observations. Other members would be better suited at advising on ratios, blind tests have rendered my starting and ending points moot.