[mistern2005]

Okay, so here are my tank paramaters...
34 gallons
2x65W 6700K lights
Eco-complete substrate (been in for three months now)
Rex's Co2 set-up with Rhinox 5000 into Powerhead (drop checker is green)
EI fertilizing marcos with Greg Watson Ferts (KNO3, K2PO4, KSO4)
EI fertilizing micros with Florish
Lights on from 11:00am-10:15pm
Fish: 2 bolivian rams, many nerite snails, 2 baby bristlenoses (added two days ago), two macmasteriis, 1 blue ram, a few shrimp

So, honestly in my mind it seems like I am doing things right. I have a good setup and have been following the advice I've researched here over time. I am going to upgrade to a Co2 reactor becuase to get the Rhinox to work properly I am having to jump through hoops.

Anyhoo, I went on vacation for a week. About two weeks before I left I noticed my plants hadn't been growing that much. A few days before I left I removed the giant standard issue pleco and rafael catfish from the tank. While I was gone, my "fish sitter" dosed macros but no micros....whoops! The C02 ran like it usually does - on/off with the lights.

When I came back the tank looked horrible. The front glass was completely covered with green algae (it was short and furry), the plants were covered in brown algae as well. The substrate now has some algae gowing under it . I also had to start medicating to get rid of the cyanobacteria growing all over the bogwood.

Since I've returned I did some scrubbing of the algae, a 60% water change, and have not added any ferts. I got two little bristlenoses to help with the clean-up and they are slowly cleaning up the bogwood....they haven't really started cleaning the plants yet.

Attached are some pictures of the post vacation aftermath...

Cyano and algae on bogwood...

Algae on/in substrate...

Stunted red temple covered with algae...

L. Aromatica covered with algae and not growing in purple...

More brown algae on not-so-red sunset hygro

Cardinal plant also covered with brown algae...

My question to all you wonderful folks is how do I get my tank back to normal and the algae under control? What do I need to do to get my plants to color up, grow unhindered, and look pretty? Where I am going wrong here and what do I need to do to fix it??? I appreciate any and all constructive comments and criticism.

 

[epicfish]

-Prune and manually remove all the algae you can.
-Do a 50% WC, vaccum the gravel, get everything as clean as possible.
-Drop your lighting to 6-8 hours a day, cut it to just one bulb since that's still ~2WPG.
-Keep your CO2 up.
-Keep fertilizing.

See how it goes after that. It doesn't look like the type of algaes you have are too severe or too hard to get rid of.

Next time you go on vacation, convert your tank to low light low tech a few days before. Drop the lighting to minimal levels, keep the Co2 off...etc. Maybe I'm just paranoid about having things run without me being there, but every time I've gone away for a week or more and converted my tank to low light low tech, it's been OK.