[ChrisX]

I really like your aquascape! Its a nice traditional scape with lots of color.

IME, BBA seems somehow linked to flow. Both high flow and low flow areas seem susceptible. You might try a wavemaker on the side glass aimed across the tank bottom.

Also, the relatively low plant mass can make things more difficult. You might try adding a large fast growing, "cycling" plant to increase plant mass, that will be removed later on.

If you get the dosing correct for low plant mass, when the plants grow out you will be off target. Planted tanks are not easy! (But you are doing great so far.)

 

[ChrisX]

Just a small update. Have kept dosing the same for the most part. Tried adding 15 ppm Mg this week, based on the results of others, to see if it makes a difference. Everything else is the same. I may try decreasing K too since it appears that has been successful for others as well.

I'm still dealing with a lot of algae issues. BBA on older leaves of plants and growing heavily on the hardscape now. A little GSA on glass and hardscape. And some pretty bad diatoms on the substrate. I've been trimming off leaves with lots of BBA and vacuuming the sub to try and remove as much of the diatoms as possible. I've also been using a combo of H202 and Excel on the hardscape to try and kill the BBA. I've had mixed results so far. I've removed the Zoomed bulb for now just to reduce PAR a little to help. I've been worried about excess organics as a possible cause so I added a second filter, SunSun 303b. So now I should be over 10x filtering on this tank. Hopefully that helps.

I've lost a few plants as well. My blyxa struggled with the algae, but I thought it got back on the right track. Unfortunately the fish decided it looked like a good snack and ate the last good growth until it was gone. Will have to get some more at some point. The staurogyne repens has struggled as well. It got some heavy bba essentially covering it. I removed what I could and attempted to kill the rest. Some of it still died. I only have 2 stems left that are holding on. And the Syngonanthus is struggling too. It took some heavy algae. It's still there for now but not looking good.

Most everything else is actually growing pretty well and the tops all look great. Once I get the algae under control I think it will start to look pretty good. Here's the FTS after the last water change and trim.

This looks amazing! The only suggestion I can make is to remove the SunSun spray bars if possible. (?)

I used to use the spray bars, but they give you enough elbow parts to make an articulating outlet that you can aim (L/R/U/D). It works much the same way as a wavemaker, so I was able to remove a wavemaker AND the spray bars.