[ecampos]

Hi there ! I'm new to the forums and also pretty new to planted tanks.
Have started an ADA 60-P about 2 months ago and i'm experiencing some heavy algae problems since the last month or so; not sure of what type it is, but looks to be some filamentous type, started with long green filaments, now turned into some kind of filamentous balls covering monte carlo and acicularis carpets, moss on wood and stone as for the diplis diandra on the back. I'm dosing Seachem Flourish Line

Current setup:

Tank: ADA 60-P
Filter: Eheim Classic 250/Eheim surface skimmer
Twinstar M5
Lightning: 2 x ADA Aquasky 601 (only 1 running at the moment), 8 hrs/day
CO2: About 2 b/s
Fish: 18 cardinal tetras, 1 rummy nose tetra, 5 otocinclus
Substrate: ADA Clear Super, ADA Tourmaline, ADA Bacter 100, ADA Power Sand L, ADA New Amazonia (Normal type), ADA Amazonia (Sand type)
Water changes: 30% 2 times/week
Fertilization: Iron, Excel, P, K, N on a daily basis (depending on measured iron, phosphates and nitrates - Nutrafin or API test kits), + Trace 2 x week.

Par at the lowest substrate level is 85 if using 1 fixture, about 185 if using 2... 185 was a bit too much reason why i'm not using the second fixture anymore. Levels were measured using my friend's Apogee MQ-200 meter.
Tank seems to be absorbing lots of iron since levels at the end of the day are under 0.1ppm; so currently dosing about 12ml wich should give about 1.8ppm consumed every day :surprise:

K dosing in similar quantities as for Iron in order to keep about 10ppm every day (theorical since i don't have any test kits for that)

Even with proper (i hope :laugh2 fertization, my monte carlo looks closer to yellow than the nice bright green i had during the first 4 weeks.

See picture. Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[Raymond S.]

I'm wondering if anyone has an PAR info on that light.
If you are using both Micro and Macro ferts, the health of the plants is probably not
in question. Poor plant growth seems to help algae growth. There was a list on here just a little more than a year back that named several plants which produce algae inhibiting chemicals when they are growing well.
But if your plants are doing well then it's the level of light that's causing the algae.
Either too high or too long or a combination of those. That is why I made the comment about that light fixture. If someone knew the PAR it gives, it would be much easier to adjust for that. Only thing reasonable to try is limiting the hrs it's on to less than
you are using now.

 

[ecampos]

Par at the lowest substrate level is 85 if using 1 fixture, about 185 if using 2... 185 was a bit too much reason why i'm not using the second fixture anymore. Levels were measured using my friend's Apogee MQ-200 meter.

 

[Raymond S.]

Then that explains the algae. 85 though not extreme, is way over what causes
algae if your not quite good at balancing it.
And just for the record, I know you see people displaying their new high tech carpet
or other feature of a tank, but how old are those tanks ?
You need to do something to lower the PAR or the number of hrs it's on if you want
to get rid of that algae.