Do i need more plants?

I keep reading that the more plants you have in your tank the easier their battle is against algae. I have been battling algae for quite some time now and am trying to figure out a way to increase my odds vs algae. I dose seachem fertilizers daily, I have a canister filter, c02 injection and a heater. PH is 6.5, ammonia, nitrite is 0, nitrate is 10. I have a phosphate test kit on the way to me now, so I check if there is too much phosphate in the water. The algae isn't yet out of hand, but I fear that in time it just may get there. I'm always on top of my maintenance, I clean the dwarf hairgrass "mini" carpet as much as 2-3 times a week on top of my Sunday 30% water changes. Starting tomorrow I'm going to start dosing excel every day instead of every other day to see if that helps. Maybe the fluctuation in c02 levels is causing the algae to grow since the excel dissipates from the water column after 24hrs. I already dropped my lighting duration to 6 hours for around 3 weeks, its been cranked up to 7 hours now for the last week. I'm hoping that by dosing excel daily, correcting my phosphates(if they're off) and adding more plants will help fight the algae. I also plan on getting a few amano shrimp at my LFS next time I'm there, they'll help just a little bit.

So what do you think? Will adding more plants to my planted aquarium help with my battle against algae or do you think I've already got enough plants and the lack of plants isn't the
cause of algae? Any input would be appreciated! I currently have 7 different plants in the tank. 13 bloodfin tetra, 1 betta, and 10+ blue shrimp.

 

It should actually be enough. Do you cut your plants? I know it helps to let the plants grow out for a while until algae retreat.

 

How long are your lights on for? Although all 4 of my tanks are heavily planted, I do not use co2. I use Nilocg Thrive on a weekly basis and a few of the seachem produts. I do not recommend using excel on a daily basis. 2-3 times a week is more then enough. What type of algae is it? I would also do at least a 50% or more water change every week.

 

Are those Rotala Rotundafolia and Macrandra? You can just trim and replant the cuttings and u’ll have more plants

 

I have no clue - I think you have enough plants. I have 4 tanks (one with co2). All four get the same treatment but only one has hair algae; one has a bit of black beard algae and one doesn't seem to have much algae at all (though perhaps the guppies are eating it). The last - the one with the least plants - has no algae (but I treated it with phosphate removal which might have helped - treat might be the wrong term - I put phosguard behind the filter to 'absorb' the phosphate).
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Btw your tank looks really nice what did you plant on the substrate; i've tried microsword, cryptocoryne parva and dwarf hairgrass but none have done well.

 

MacZ AJSFishKeeper
So I have trimmed the stem plants once in the past. At first I accidentally planted the stems in the back too heavily and they weren't spread out enough so I had to replant after they started to get a lot of algae. They are finally growing back in with nice new growth but still a little bit of algae. The AR MinI got out of control as well so I cut and replanted the tops. I won't be trimming my stem plants anymore for a while as they need to naturally grow in thick. The Dwarf HairGrass MinI carpet got a fresh trim today to help promote new growth and remove algae.

Dennis57
Light is on for 7 hours a day right now. Still not sure if I should leave it there or increase duration. I also just read last night that excel dissipates after 24 hours. Excel is like c02 for the plants so if i'm only dosing excel every other day or every three days then that would cause a c02 imbalance which algae thrives off of. If I go to dosing every day, then there shouldn't be as much of an imbalance.

jake37
If I find that I've got high phosphate then I'll add something to my canister filter to get rid of the phosphate.

Plants I have planted are as follows, glad you like the tank.

Fluval Stratum used as substrate

Dwarf Hairgrass MinI - Carpet
Dwarf Echinodorus Parviflorus - Rear Right Corner
Alternanthera ReineckiI Mini - Rear Left Corner
Anacharis - Front Left Corner
Ludwigia sp. 'Super Red' - The tall stem plant to the left of the Dwarf Echinodorus Parviflorus
Ammannia Senegalensis - The stem plant left of the Ludwigia sp. 'Super Red'
Nesaea pedicellata 'Golden' - The stem plant left of the Ammannia Senegalensis

 

I see, so you had to cut them mostly. I think it will help to give them time to just grow and maybe turn off the CO2 for a while, so the plants and the algae actually have to compete.

 

I would say keep it open for the dwarf hair grass: that stuff loves light and CO2.

 

MacZ
Doesn't algae outperform plants in an environment lacking c02? As of now I already have the c02 turning off 45 minutes before the lights shut off. I have a c02 checker in the tank and it stays green for about almost an hour after the c02 shuts off. So the plants and algae fight for the remaining c02 for at least 45 minutes before the light turns off.

dcutl002
I agree that they prosper well when in direct light. I was just thinking about something that grows really short and doesn't send off a lot of runners.

I have been contemplating buying some bucephalandra and attaching it to the smaller piece of driftwood that's closest to the center of the tank. Should I remove some of the bush of AR MinI from the rear left corner of the tank and put something tall there? At one point I thought of maybe removing just a bit of the AR MinI to put a section of Giant Hairgrass there.

 

How long did it take your dwarf hairgrass to grow ? I've tried in the past and it never does anything - it doens't die - it just doesn't grow in my environment.
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I tried it in a 20 long which has very high light because it is shallow but no co2; and a 120 which has co2 but no not nearly as strong light since it is much taller.

 

When I was growing DHG I used to have to remove Cladophora manually and dose a little Met 14 every day to keep the stuff under control. I also would EI dose fertilizer, use high light and CO2 to get the plants growing quicker. Spot treatment with H2O2 and a syringe works well also.

 

How long did it take your dwarf hairgrass to grow ? I've tried in the past and it never does anything - it doens't die - it just doesn't grow in my environment.

DHG needs High Light, CO2, and lots of fertilizer. I used to dose by the Estimated Index, but that requires very strict water changes.

 

I think what contributed to my success is my using the dry start method for 2 months with my dwarf hairgrass mini. Helped it carpet and get rooted. For the dry start method all I did was an inch+ of fluval stratum and root tabs placed all around the tank and let it grow. This is the first time I've ever trimmed the carpet to such a degree. Before this I had only trimmed a couple spots here and there that were uprooted and being a pain in my .

 

I saw the title and thought, of course it’s not enough plants! It’s never enough!

But yes I think your tank looks good.

Some carbon filters can aggravate phosphorus levels and algae growth.

 

Well, you have a nice carpet going on! A lot of Planted Tank Aquarists want what you have! Nice and open for the fish to swim.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll let everything just grow in from this point forward. Also going to go ahead and pick a bucephalandra to attach to the driftwood to just get one more plant to help fight off the algae (and because like Addictedtobettas said, you can't really have too many plants!). Will add 3-5 amano shrimp to the tank, as well as dosing excel daily instead of every other day. If my phosphates/silicates are not where they should be then I'll take care of that and maybe see some improvements. Will keep everyone posted if I see results.

 

That looks great! As the plants grow and roots deepen, they will consume more nutrients and starve out the algae. My biggest fixer against algae was switching to frozen foods 100% and never the shelf stuff with preservatives and additives. literally 0 algae now and whatever soft layer that develops is food for the snails!

 

ZAN I'll add switching to higher quality food to the list. I do feed flake food to the fish so maybe that's not helping. I don't strictly feed flakes though, I also feed freeze dried bloodworms. I feed using either the worms or flake in the morning, then in the evening. Betta gets little pellets. I have thought about switching to some form of "live" food as I suspect the fish would appreciate it more and like you said I'd be adding less preservatives and additives to the water column. Thanks for the tip, I'll go ahead and look into a better food alternative.

 

guyfromfl

Yes! and I am able to feed them a TON more! Way more than I did when I fed any sort of shelf food. I cut up the cube and let it go all over the tank, turn the filter off for an hour an let them hunt and graze on the food. Then I go make my own breakfast, by the time I am done, so are they and I can go turn their filter back on. I do this twice a day during my meals... When it's natural food, the ecosystem takes care of it, it feeds everything in your tank, when it's unnatural, then you end up with issues. This is my experience. I treat my tank like I treat my gut/health and own body-- if that makes sense. Try it for a month and see what happens... !

 

guyfromfl

Yes! and I am able to feed them a TON more! Way more than I did when I fed any sort of shelf food. I cut up the cube and let it go all over the tank, turn the filter off for an hour an let them hunt and graze on the food. Then I go make my own breakfast, by the time I am done, so are they and I can go turn their filter back on. I do this twice a day during my meals... When it's natural food, the ecosystem takes care of it, it feeds everything in your tank, when it's unnatural, then you end up with issues. This is my experience. I treat my tank like I treat my gut/health and own body-- if that makes sense. Try it for a month and see what happens... !

Not to derail the thread, but I was contemplating going to an almost all frozen diet for my 75g. My platinum green tiger barbs are susceptible to bloating on every commercial food I’ve tried except NLS micro pellets.
And if the algae in my tank decreases as a side effect, I’d not be upset!

 

Still having somewhat of an issue with the algae. I added a small java fern next to the rock in the center, 5 amano shrimp and 3 nerite snails. The snails and amano shrimp have done good work on some of the algae but it's obviously still there. Maybe the fern will grow out a little bit but not too tall hopefully, I'll have to wait and see. May have to move it in the future if I find a better spot for it. All of the plants seem to be growing pretty well though, but I can tell that they are somewhat suffocated by the algae.Hair algae is a pain in the let me tell you what...

My paintball tank ran out of air yesterday and everything is closed due to this virus going around so my tank my grow more algae now that its got no co2 during the lighting cycle, but at least it will get flourish excel. I'm till pushing forward and doing the best I can with this tank. I still don't know if my water has a too much silica or not but I did get the phosphate test kit and the levels are unreadable, so there is that.. Taking it day by day, hopefully I see more improvements sooner than later but i'm sure it's about to get worse due to no co2 until I can get the tank refilled.

 

be careful with the excel it is more of an algaecide than liquid co2. Just a wee bit too much will kill or hinder certain plants.