7.3IDIDSL

Ive had my 55 gallon tank set up for about 8 months. Being my first tank I started with just fish...then a couple months ago I added 3 live plants.

The plants did fine for the first few weeks. But ill admit I didnt research like I should have before I bought the plants and it appears im paying for it now. The plants slowly started deteriorating about a month ago and I noticed a little bit of algae that was mainly growing on the plants. I thought the plants were dieing so I went to the LFS and was told I should look into fertilizing my tank to help the plants grow so I bought a flourish starter pack that came with a small bottle of flourish, flourish excel and flourish iron. I followed the directions on the bottles but my plants never got any better and the algae got worse. When all the bottle of flourish were gone I never bought anymore cause it didnt seem like it helped. Now my algae problem has gotten even worse and it is starting to cover everything in the tank and grow on the glass.

Yesterday I did some reading about algae and I think im dealing with a type of beard algae. Ill post a few pictures and maybe the experts here can tell me what type of algae im dealing with and how I can deal with it. Thanks

7.3IDIDSL

I also went out and bought iron, phosphate and Co2 test kits.

I just tested these today but I did a %50 water change yesterday and did a good cleaning.

Right now my nitrate is 5-10ppm, Iron is 0ppm, Phosphate is 0.5ppm and Co2 is 0ppm.

For lighting ive got 2X54 watt T5 HO.

From the reading ive done today about planted tanks it looks like my Co2 and iron is too low for the amount of light I have for my plants to grow properly. What do you guys think?

coffeebean

you may need to use co2 injection with that level of lights. how long do you keep the lights on each day?

7.3IDIDSL

Right now the lights are on for 14 hours which is probably too much. Ive got them set to come on at 7 because thats when I leave for work so I feed them on my way out the door.

Should I shorten the amount of time my lights are on? or maybe turn them off for a few hours halfway through the day?

Butterfly

A shorter lighting period probably wouldn't hurt. Also does that tank get any direct sun or indirect bright light from outside? What type of plants did you have? Fast growing plants will usually starve algae out(floating plants are good for this). I have real good luck with Flourish excel but the few times I used the iron I wound up with algae. don't know why. I understand additional iron isn't necessary unless trying to grow red plants.
Carol

coffeebean

what other plants do you have in the tank?
i would reduce the time to 12 hours maximum.

Nate McFin

What type of plants are they? Its a little hard to tell if they are Anubias in the pic. If they are Anubias they could be fine but the leaves almost look like Brazilian Swords which arent true aquatic plants.
If they are Anubias you really most likely dont need to dose ferts. Iron isnt needed unless showing deficiency. I think the culprit as far as the algae goes is as other have mentioned- too much light (cut back to 10-12 and see if it gets better you may need to go back even more)
Too little Co2 for the amount of light. Injected Co2 or Excel as mentioned would help there. Excel is more expensive long term but cheaper short term.
Also adding more plants would help. Plants that eat nutrients would be the best. Try Wisteria. The more plants you have the less nutrients for the algae.

Butterfly

I'm almost certain the bottom is a java fern The way the tip looks it looks like Java Fern red http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_viewer.php?id=245
As far as I can see they are all low light plants. Flourish excel will help plants use the nutrients in the tank better but being slow growers and low light plants the ferts and high lights are perfect for an algae outbreak. I personally would shorten the light period, and if using ferts would invest in some fast growing plants like stem plants or floating plants.
Carol

7.3IDIDSL

Im not sure if these are the correct names for the plants but this is what they were labeled as at the LFS. Of the pictures I posted the top pic is a ozelot sword and the bottom pic is a java fern. The only other plant i have in the tank that I dont have a picture of is a green wendtii.

Im going to cut back the light to 12 hours a day and see if that helps. I currently have the light coming on early in the morning so I can feed the fish in the morning before I leave for work. I was wondering if I could make the light come on a little later in the morning and instead of feeding them before work I will feed them in the afternoon after I get home from work. Would that be a problem? I only feed my fish once a day.

Does anybody have any recommendations for some fast growing or higher light plants that I could add to the tank? Thanks

coffeebean

you really dont need that much light, CO2 or ferts for those plants.

i have some plants i can sell you if you want to pay the shipping. i have creeping ludwigia which is a tall fast growing stem plant. really easy to propagate, you just snip and replant parts of it. canadian pond weed is another stem plant i have.
PM me if you want to discuss that.

anyways you need some stem plants, they will win out over the algae

Red1313

I wish you luck with you're alage battle. I ended up having to re-do my tanks with a soil substrate. You could put your lights on timers to help with the lighting time. Also like others have said you'll need fast growing plants to outcompete the algae for nutrients.

Good Luck!