Explosion of Staghorn Algae...

So my natives tank has become more of an algae-scape. Last night I had to take all the hardscape out and scrub it under scalding hot water with a toothbrush, almost all the plants have staghorn, and even the sand substrate has staghorn. I'm at a loss. Many of the plants I introduced died, leading to what I am assuming is the nutrient spike that caused this. Plants are covered in the stuff along with green spot algae on the leaves. I have my lighting (Chihiros A301) on full blast but have been dosing NilocG Thrive S fertilizer 3x a week and have injected CO2. The tank gets 50% weekly water changes with thorough siphoning of the substrate.

What is going on in this tank? The surface is almost completely covered by frogbit and salvinia, is my lighting still too intense?

 

I had a significant amount of stag horn algae in my 40 gallon breeder tank a while ago and Seachem Excel cleared it up. I just checked my aquarium log. I gave it the initial large dose on July 23, and then daily smaller doses (all according to the label directions), and on August 2 I could no longer see any of it (and my plants looked better). I think that's pretty impressive.

 

I had a significant amount of stag horn algae in my 40 gallon breeder tank a while ago and Seachem Excel cleared it up. I just checked my aquarium log. I gave it the initial large dose on July 23, and then daily smaller doses (all according to the label directions), and on August 2 I could no longer see any of it (and my plants looked better). I think that's pretty impressive.

I've been dosing excel every week though, no improvement.

 

I've been dosing excel every week though, no improvement.

By every week, do you mean dosing once per week? The directions say one big dose initially (I forget how much), and then smaller doses daily.

 

By every week, do you mean dosing once per week? The directions say one big dose initially (I forget how much), and then smaller doses daily.

Yes, I have a pump bottle filled with a diluted solution of Excel so 1 pump treats 1 gallon (tank is 7 gallons).

Anyway I just reset the tank temporarily. Took out all the substrate, there was tons of decaying plant matter and even a dead shrimp. It is bare-bottom with just floating plants and a few pieces of driftwood until I can get the funds for new substrate and plants...