Need help- Algae and lack of growth- tank deteriorated significantly last 6 months!!

lauraleellbp said:

Careful with the Excel as it's likely to kill your Vals.

Looks like your stem plants got leggy due to lack of light at the bottom of the tank.

I'd guess that the Vals and the Crypts stopped growing from lack of nutrients- giving them some root tabs would probably help. Your stems also are probably nutrient-deficient due to your heavy water change regimen. I'd either back down on water changes to once a month, or if you're afraid that would compromise the water quality too much for the fish, start dosing ferts.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response!! I was thinking lack of light could be a culprit. So I actually replaced both bulbs with 6500k 40W replacements from Home Depot 2 months ago. Didn't make any difference. The thing that kills me is that they were doing so well for several months, not leggy at all with all their leaves.

Will Excel kill the Vals? I thought at worse it would just cause the leaves to fall off and then they would grow back. I was just trying to use Excel agressively to kill the algae.

To tell you the truth, the Crypts seem to be doing okay now, growing slowly but better than the other plants. The Java Ferns are also okay. The Moss is really overrun by the algae.

I never thought of slowing down the water change schedule. I always thought changing water helped most freshwater tanks issues. I try to keep up with it as a way to get rid of the algae I scrape off the glass. I remember my problems started after a period of stretching water changes to 2 weeks and I figued the algae was my punishment!!

It's all about finding balance- and that can be a tricky thing. You might experiement a bit with your water changes to find what works best for your tank. Sometimes water changes cause fluctuations in CO2 levels, which can trigger algae, or they can remove too many nutrients for the plants, or if you go too long they can leave excess nutrients in the tank... every tank is different so it takes a bit of trial and error.

When I dosed my 90gal with Excel some time ago it killed off my Vals and they died completely, I had to buy new ones to replace them. Others report that their Vals did grow back, and some have reported that their Vals didn't change at all with Excel dosing... so YMMV for sure! lol

If it's really the moss that's having algae issues I'd probably use a syringe or eyedropper and just "spot treat" it directly rather than dosing the whole tank. That tends to be pretty effective.

I'm looking at your stocking and I'd probably add in some smaller algae eaters in addition to the BN plecos- Amano shrimp, nerite snails, and/or Otos- to also help keep things in check.

Thanks again for the responses people! I also forgot to mention in the beginning that I reduced my lighting from 12 hours per day to 9 hours per day when the algae first became an issue.

I am using medium grain silica sand, basically the same as pool filter sand.

Someone asked if the algae is just in the java moss. No, it's pretty much on all of my vals and all the old leaves on the cypts as well as my driftwood. The Cypts do seem to be growing decently again and all the new shoots and leaves are algae free. I did a cleaning yesterday and cut out most of the algae covered leaves and scraped the glass. I held off on my water change as I'm going to experiment with slighly less frequent changes. I'll try a 40% change every 2 weeks and see how that goes. My increased attention to the matter appears to have helped. I think I'll keep at it with the Excel as the tank is clearing up a bit. The Vals seem to be surviving the Excel and even sent off a new runner that sprouted. And I've added a few root tabs- dang those things aren't cheap!

As far a spot treating goes, do you use a watered-down mix of excel? I was thinking of making an excel bath and pooring it over my driftwood when cleaning the tank.

I'm on the hunt for some Otos. Can T8 bulbs go in a T12 fixture?

I wanted to give you all an update. I stood the course overdosing with Excel, have been keeping algae off the glass, and I've kept up with trimming plants with algae growth on their leaves. Seems to have really helped and the tank is looking much better after a month of this treatment. I also slowed down my water changes. My nitrates were still around 10 after 2 weeks without a change when I measured last night. So I just topped off the tank and cleaned the pre-filter foams. That would be great if I can stretch changes out to monthly!

Then, over the last week or so, I added to my java fern so it's now covering most areas of the driftwood in the middle of the tank. I also got 2 bunches of Wisteria for the back corners. I hear that fills in quickly and is low maint so it will give me the dense looks I want for the tank. I've also started adding some regular flourish liquid fert, 2 capfuls per week, and a few root tabs.

Future plans- I'm going to swap in 2 T8 bulbs into my T12 fixture. Should I try for 6500k bulbs? I plan to try Home Depot. I'm also considering the splitting of the photo periods mostly due to the fact that I'll be around more when the lights are on haha. Would 5 hours on, 5 off, 5 on, then 9 off for nighttime work?

Check out this YouTube (I can't figure out how to embed it so click the link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yepXNDWmRf8

I also went photo crazy so check it out: