Algae decimation

I am really struggling with my aquarium. I can’t seem to keep the black algae under control. I’ve read so many articles on how to control black algae and nothing is remotely helping at all. My plants are growing quickly, but they are getting completely decimated by black algae. Each week I am having to prune at least 50% of leaves that are covered in black algae. It is spreading all over my rocks and other decorations. I’ve been working on trying to eliminate it for months now but nothing I do is helping.

aquarium setup:
30g tank
Fluval fresh and plant 3.0 LED lighting
2-3” Fluorite Black substrate
CO2 injection
Fluval 407 canister filter

plants:
Anubius
Dwarf sagittaria
Amazon swords
African fern

livestock:
7 white cloud minnows
20 exclamation point rasboras
1 panda garra
5 panda corys
4 Amano shrimp
1 Nerite snail

Ferilizer
Aquarium coop ez green (3 pumps/week)
Aquarium coop root tabs (6” grid)

water change
20% weekly
Weekly gravel vac

Feeding:
I try to change up the types of foods I give. Currently they are on krill flakes, bug bites, and sinking algae wafers. I feed them just enough that the minnows are happy and the clean up crew are actively eating algae.

Here are some pictures:

 

Wanted to update this. What a MASSIVE difference from last weeks water change! Virtually zero algae growth this week. Plants are about 25% bigger and much healthier looking! Still BBA on some of the rocks and filter, but the SAEs are attacking it voraciously.

i did my water test today before water change.

GH = 16
KH = 14
PH = 7.2

Based on the pH and KH chart, I have just enough CO2, could probably increase it a hair.

not sure where the GH comes into play?

 

Update here. And could use some more help!
I’ve been following all the advice you guys have been giving me, growing out my plants has been a success! I have a little bit of normal green algae which is easy to remove each water change. My fish are very happy now, with lots of places to swim and hide.
I believe I am now at the point where I can start trimming my plants and aquascaping a bit. I am not sure how you typically trim these dwarf Sagittaria plants. They are now over 2 feet long! Should I trim the tops off, or cut out some of the longest leaves completely?

 

Oh my goodness what beautiful jungle vals. I think what you bought and what you got are two different plants. Dwarf Sagittaria normally only gets 3 to 5 inches tall. These plants would look great lining the back of your tank.

StarGirl do you trim your jungle vals and if so can your offer some help here?

 

Oh man, you sure got those plants to grow. It looks nice and healthy though. Now you just need to clear some space in the middle for viewing (if you want). Those dwarf sagittaria don't look so dwarf anymore. If you want to check to make sure they aren't actually a vallisneria, run your fingers down the edges of the leaf. If you can feel little teeth, it's a val. If it feels smooth, it's a sag.

It has been a while since I grew sagittaria, and I don't remember how it responds to trimming.

 

Yes, you guys are correct! They are vallisneria

 

Oh my goodness what beautiful jungle vals. I think what you bought and what you got are two different plants. Dwarf Sagittaria normally only gets 3 to 5 inches tall. These plants would look great lining the back of your tank.

StarGirl do you trim your jungle vals and if so can your offer some help here?

I do but they don't like it. They turn brown on the ends but keep growing. They grow so fast it really doesn't matter. They grow several inches a day. I have tons thou and they are always swarming up top in a few days after trimming them.

 

I do but they don't like it. They turn brown on the ends but keep growing. They grow so fast it really doesn't matter. They grow several inches a day. I have tons thou and they are always swarming up top in a few days after trimming them.

Yeah they don't like it and they don't look the best with damaged cut ends but there's not really an option if you need them shorter. Except perhaps to cut off the longer outer leaves at the base leaving the younger shorter ones. But that would be a painstaking task that would need to be repeated frequently.

 

Great looking Vallisernia jungle!
We find cutting them like grass works, a 45° angle seems to slow them...a bit lol.
Remember to cut the runners if you wanna thin out the jungle. I haven't found a substrate that Val can't send runners through!