[Shadey]

When I only had the stock light, I was experiencing okay growth and dark green plants with crypts/anubias. But I upgraded my light, and although it seems really bright, I've always had really pale plants and slow growth... And a lot of algae. Semi-recently I've upgraded everything else in the tank to try and keep up with the light - lots of plants, more fertilizer, raised the light up and shortened my lighting periods to reduce algae, and I haven't seen much improvement.

Any suggestions?

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Fluval Spec V 5 gallon

Light- 16" Finnex FugeRay Planted+ LED
Substrate- UP AQUA Sand for Aquatic Plants
Ferts- Flourish Excel, Trace, NPK
Stock- 1 betta, 5 amano shrimp

Photo-period- 3.5 hrs 2x a day
Dosing: about the recommended (2x a week) for trace elements and NPK . For CO2 dosing at start of each photo period (about half a cap)

ty!! :grin2:

 

[loach guy]

You can try several things. The first is knowing what the ppm of each of your ferts are. I would also try backing off your photo period to 3 hours each. However I am suspecting that one of your main issues is that with the addition of your new plants, you lost a lot of flow in the tank. I noticed that all of your algae issues were at the bottom. Having said that, you have a beta, and flow is not conducive for them. So I would rethink your plant selection. I hope this helps. Best of luck.

 

[Shadey]

that's probably true about the flow (that it isn't very good), but I've been having algae in those areas since before I put the plants in. I don't think that the plants themselves are obstructing the water... I might turn the pump nozzle downwards at least, I think it's pointed up / towards the back right now. and you know, i actually get pretty decent growth I guess, but only if the plants are above two thirds up. there were some that were doing pretty good until I cut them down and replanted them, they haven't grown at all since then basically. blahh.

I'll lower the photo period again and look over my ferts. Thanks!

 

[loach guy]

I was thinking about your problem again. You could try upping your excel and spot dosing it right onto the algae. I do this in my tanks. It kills it off, and your amano's will eat the dead matter. Someone on here helped me out when they told me to use enough carbon and ferts such as to make my light the limiting factor and that really helped me gain focus.

 

[Shadey]

hmm, neat. how do you do that? eye dropper it on when the tank is half empty from water changes?

 

[loach guy]

I use a syringe. You can usually get 5ml ones in the baby isle at the store. You can dose it with water in the tank. Just make sure you have all of your pumps off for about 5 minutes. I do this during water changes before I fill the tank back up. That's another thing. Algae hates water changes. You may want to try doubling up on those for a little while and see if that helps.