[Nath514]

I have a 20 gallon tall which has been established for about a year. I did a major plant cut back about 2.5 months ago and ever since I have had bad algae problems.

I use EI ferts and have a pressurized co2 tank running through an atomic diffuser. For lighting I have a finnex ray 2 and a current USA satellite+. The tank is stocked with 8 CPD, 4 cory cats, 3 amano shrimp and 1 nerite snail.

I use the EI liquid fertilizers from Nilocg found here:
Liquid NPK+M - NilocG Aquatics

I do a 50% water change every Sunday. I am running an eheim canister filter with a variety of hard filter medias topped with purigen and filter floss.

I think that at least on the glass and the anubias I am looking at green spot algae so for the past two weeks I have been dosing additional mono phosphate but have not really seen any improvement.

Please let me know what type of algae you see in the picture / and advice on how to get rid of it.

 

[Solcielo lawrencia]

The plants are suffering from micro-tox. Do a 200% WC and then stop dosing micros until plants show a decline in growth or deficiency. Dose only 1/10 the micros to begin with and observe plant response. Dose less if this is too much.

 

[tatersalad]

What do you have for circulation? Not much circulation will cause alage to grow also. I would get a couple of fans and possibly up your CO2 a little as well.

 

[Nath514]

I have not increased my dosing of micros since I started doing EI over a year ago. Why would the dosing suddenly be to much? As for circulation my canister filter does a good job making sure there are no dead zones. I can see all the plants in the tank moving. For co2 my drop checker already hits a light green color so I am not sure if I should go higher.

 

[Solcielo lawrencia]

High CEC substrates adsorb metals. When the substrate is new, there will be plenty of adsorption sites. But over time, the adsorption capacity diminishes. This results in the substrate unable to chemically bind to the metals which will stay the water column.

 

[Nath514]

I just took some water readings before my weekly water change. Everything looked pretty good except possible phosphates.

My phosphates showed up as 10+ using my api test kit not sure if that is too high when doing EI dosing. Even after my water change the phosphates still read 10+.

Another thing I have been noticing is I had a nice clump of riccia fluitans that has now turned yellow and melted away.

 

[fablau]

I have not increased my dosing of micros since I started doing EI over a year ago. Why would the dosing suddenly be to much? As for circulation my canister filter does a good job making sure there are no dead zones. I can see all the plants in the tank moving. For co2 my drop checker already hits a light green color so I am not sure if I should go higher.

You can really have accumulated too many traces in your tank, and that may happen even if you follow EI dosing with weekly water changes. Try what Solcielo is suggesting above. My BBA almost disappeared when I stopped dosing micros for a week. Let us know!

 

[Nath514]

Will do, I have dropped my micro dosing to almost nothing. Should I continue to dose macros?

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[fablau]

Will do, I have dropped my micro dosing to almost nothing. Should I continue to dose macros?

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Yes, stop just dosing micros and observe for at least 10-15 days. It's paramount that when you make a change in your schedule, you change just one variable at a time.

 

[Nath514]

Will do, thanks! Starting tomorrow macros only.

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[fablau]

Will do, thanks! Starting tomorrow macros only.

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Please, keep us posted

 

[Nath514]

Will do, thanks for the help. Hope I can get the tank back to looking good. Right now it just stresses me out to look at it.

 

[Nath514]

I have been dosing only macros and even those at a reduced rate and I think things are balancing back out. The plants are looking better and I am having less algae build up on the glass. I am hoping that conditions will continue to improve.

At what point should I start dosing again.

Another unrelated problem is that my atomic co2 diffuser causes so many micro bubbles in my tank that are rather unsightly. I tried to setup a SERA co2 reactor but my eheim canister didn't have the flow rate to get it working. I have been considering an inline co2 diffuser but have read a lot of bad reviews about them failing.

Any Thoughts?

 

[Nath514]

I have had some bad melting happen. The plant circled in the attached photo was looking pretty good and growing rapidly and then all of a sudden almost completely melted away. Is this a sign that I should start dosing ferts again?

 

[Seetide]

As to your CO2 injection issue, if you can, get the Carbon Doser EXT5000 reactor as it will work great with your canister output. It runs about 130 with the optional PH probe holder and is worth every penny. I will be using one on every tank I set up moving forward, you won't have to mess with anything except filling an empty cylinder again!

 

[Nath514]

I am starting to have algae problems again. Things were getting better for a while but they have taken a turn for the worse again. I have moved my co2 diffuser under the intake for the canister filter as the micro bubbles in the tank were really detracting from the look. I once again have most plants being covered in green / brown algae.

 

[Nath514]

Here are some pictures of the currently algae situation

 

[fablau]

I am sorry about that, are you dosing any micros now? I'd resume dosing half EI for now. Also, what are your water KH and GH? How much light are you giving to your plants right now?

 

[easternlethal]

I had similar algae issues with my tank after about 1 year, which I discovered was actually due to too much organics in my substrate. So cleaned my substrate over several weeks stirring up open gravel with a chopstick, replanting old and non bushy stems, getting rid of old leaves and making sure my flow was really getting in between the plants. That was what fixed it for me. I did try reducing ferts, especially po4 and fe which seemed to work for a while but that wasn't the root cause.

 

[CowBoYReX]

Just my 2¢ but I can't imagine 10+ PO4 to be good for keeping algae at bay. Also imo op asked how after a year could the dosing change? Op said they did a major cut back. That would cause much less plant mass absorbing the nutrients making the same dose now an overdose.
One last thing is the tank looks nice arrangement wise, but it also seems to be at least 90% low light/slow growing plants.