Help! high tech nutrient balance

my 20g heavily planted tank wasn't running enough co2 and i was getting green spot algae so I upped it to 3 bubbles per second and raise my lights a little bit. i also broke up my fert dosing into a daily schedule to try and make the nutrient levels more consistent. that was a few days ago. now i have black beard algae and staghorn growing in my tank and it wasnt there before! i know its because i changed my co2 concentration, lighting height, and dosing method all at the same time but maybe you guys can help me with my nutrient balance.

equipment: Chihiros WRGB 60, 60W 3500lm
diy co2 @ 3bps with standard ceramic diffuser (works fine with diy despite what you may have read)
photo period: 8 hours
nutrient dosing: 2 pumps of thrive S daily (recommended dose broken up into daily doses) + seachem flourish advanced

I tested my nitrates just now and im sitting at 5ppm. so i know that my plants are using up the daily ferts properly now. before switching to daily dosing i would sit at 20ppm all the time. which i thought would encourage algae growth. obviously i messed something up with these changes because now i have less of the good algae and more of the bad algae

any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

edit: wrong forum, sorry. i didnt know "marine" meant "from the ocean"

 

Maybe too much light or not enough CO2. Any idea what PAR level the light achieves? I don’t know much about DIY CO2, how do you estimate CO2 level, do you use a drop checker or pH table?

 

Maybe too much light or not enough CO2. Any idea what PAR level the light achieves? I don’t know much about DIY CO2, how do you estimate CO2 level, do you use a drop checker or pH table?

thanks for responding. i think i figured it out. im over 100 PAR (closer to 150) so its not the light. for the co2 i just run 3.3 bubbles per second and forget about it. i just doubled my co2 so i doubt its not enough co2 since im getting way more than before

my nitrates are only at 5ppm so i think my issue is a nutrient poor environment. i have a LOT of fast growing aggressive plants so thats probably why. i have a bristlenose pleco in this 20g so obviously the plants are consuming everything like crazy

tomorrow im going to add 4 pumps of thrive and check my nitrates at the end of the day, if its between 10-20ppm ill be happy. i might have to dose more than the bottle says if thats the case.

i also have a lot of floaters and a big beautiful pothos sucking things out of the water column

 

ugh, now im not even sure. Tom Barr says to keep nitrates between 10 and 30ppm all the time and other sources say that a lean environment will reduce algae. who do i trust in this situation? stay conservative or El dose my tank? :/

 

Whats your water flow like. I found too low a flow to encourage algae in spots. I used to get BBA in one spot around my outflow pipe that didnt get much water movement.

 

Whats your water flow like. I found too low a flow to encourage algae in spots. I used to get BBA in one spot around my outflow pipe that didnt get much water movement.

Im running 2x 40g sponges on a Fluval Q1.. i found that the circulation was poor so i added a cycled 10g HOB.. it made a difference but the motor was dying. i just bought and installed an Aquaclear 20 about 2 hours ago. So now Im running the Aquaclear 20 with 2 oversized sponges

whats weird is that some of the BBA is growing in areas of high flow.. i have a large piece of driftwood sitting right over the outflow from one of the sponges and it gets bombarded with bubbles.. the outbreak is in that area but also in two areas that i know have low flow

im really hoping that my water flow is good enough now. what are your thoughts? I'm sitting at 160 GPH between the AC 20 and the 2 sponges now

im thinking i have 2 options here:

option A: dose my tank to maintain 20ish ppm nitrates every day and keep my photoperiod at 8 hours
option B: continue maintaining my lean environment (that still provides the plants with enough nutrients, just not an excess like Tom Barr recommends) and reduce my photoperiod to 7 hours

other factors to consider:

-i just raised my lights by 2 inches or so. should i put them back?

-ive been doing 25% water changes every 2 days. i make sure to do them at the end of the day before turning off my lights. i know this is a lot but its only because im stocking my tank right now. im considering moving to water changes twice weekly. is this a good idea?

its easy with no co2 and regular lighting, this high tech stuff is hard to figure out especially when the information out there is so conflicting

 

BBA will thrive with inconsistent CO2 levels. I had BBA issues with my high tech tank a while back until I dialed in my CO2 levels, having CO2 on a timer turning on and off at the same time each day is pretty crucial to maintain consistent levels. I also had to reduce lighting period a bit too. Every tank is different though of course so the cause of my BBA may not be the same cause as your BBA.

 

BBA will thrive with inconsistent CO2 levels. I had BBA issues with my high tech tank a while back until I dialed in my CO2 levels, having CO2 on a timer turning on and off at the same time each day is pretty crucial to maintain consistent levels. I also had to reduce lighting period a bit too. Every tank is different though of course so the cause of my BBA may not be the same cause as your BBA.

i have read that pretty much everywhere. what i dont get is that i recently improved my co2. before it was in a spot where it was barely diffusing and now its running at a good steady rate in a spot where i know its diffusing properly. i think that changing it contributed to the outbreak but i dont think its a good idea to mess with it further

 

First thing i would try is to remove any hardscape from the tank with BBA and clean it off.

I wouldnt worry about your nitrates too much as long as your getting a constant reading of at least 5.

The other thing i would do is get better ferts. Seachem seem to have a pretty bad. Dry dosing is pretty simple and gives you greater control or you can also buy them premixed.

Also how are you reading your co2 levels.

 

First thing i would try is to remove any hardscape from the tank with BBA and clean it off.

I wouldnt worry about your nitrates too much as long as your getting a constant reading of at least 5.

The other thing i would do is get better ferts. Seachem seem to have a pretty bad. Dry dosing is pretty simple and gives you greater control or you can also buy them premixed.

Also how are you reading your co2 levels.

I'll remove the driftwood if I have to but I literally built the entire aquascape around the driftwood so that would mean tearing the whole tank apart

Im using Thrive S mainly, I also use Seachem Flourish Advanced which isn't a fertilizer.. its a hormone supplement that I've had good results with. The plants aren't getting nutrients from any Seachem products aside from root tabs

I have not checked my CO2 levels... everything in Canada is expensive and I just can't afford to order yet another accessory right now unfortunately. Like I said though, I recently upped my CO2 output so I doubt the issue is "not enough" CO2. I'm running my tank with more than before

 

With a PAR of 150 you'll need to balance that with plenty of ferts and CO2. That's assuming that you have the plant mass to utilise it. Otherwise I'd try reducing the light intensity.

 

Tom Barr to the rescue yet again. I found some old posts of his. He was saying that below 10ppm plants usually adapt to low co2 and will nab any spare carbon they can find, thus outcompeting the algae. when co2 is really high, like 40-80ppm, algae is also not an issue because it causes lots of issues such as too much loading. the algae decides that its not a good time to germinate and the plants thus outcompete the algae.

but if you have co2 bobbing between 10 and 20ppm, thats the hot zone. algae will try to outcompete your plants with a vengeance.

when i doubled my co2 i probably pulled it into that 10-20ppm range. i doubt it was above 10ppm before

 

So you have 100 to 150 PAR and you're dosing ThriveS?
First step is dial down that PAR, you don't need more than 100, and if this is your first high tech I'd take it down closer to 50. Where are you getting your PAR values btw?
Second step is a more concentrated fertilizer or dry ferts, this is good for both your wallet and the plants.
Third step is a drop checker, or at the minimum, pH testing before and after CO2 comes on.

You're doing good by reading Tom Barr's stuff. Dennis Wong's info is quite different but also very helpful - check out

 

So you have 100 to 150 PAR and you're dosing ThriveS?
First step is dial down that PAR, you don't need more than 100, and if this is your first high tech I'd take it down closer to 50. Where are you getting your PAR values btw?
Second step is a more concentrated fertilizer or dry ferts, this is good for both your wallet and the plants.
Third step is a drop checker, or at the minimum, pH testing before and after CO2 comes on.

You're doing good by reading Tom Barr's stuff. Dennis Wong's info is quite different but also very helpful - check out

Theres a thread from a different forum where a guy used a par meter to calculate tons of different light brands and published the results. The light I have was 186 PAR with the diffuser and 226 without the diffuser. My par is probably higher than 150 tbh :/

I just realized last night that I need to be using thrive+, not thrive s

I should have mentioned that I do test my ph like that.. it never moves from 7.0. I check in the middle of the night when the co2 is blasting with the lights off and it's still 7.0. I found a chart last night that shows kh/ph/co2 and according to that chart my co2 isnt going above 12ppm if my ph isnt changing but that's super confusing to me and honestly makes no sense. Is there a difference between 3 bubbles per second with pressurized and 3 bubbles per second with diy? Either way it's the same amount of co2 isnt it? Very confusing

 

It will depend on what type of diffuser you are using. Big bubbles that quickly rise to the surface wont allow much CO2 to dissolve, the smaller and more time bubbles spend in the water the better.

 

It will depend on what type of diffuser you are using. Big bubbles that quickly rise to the surface wont allow much CO2 to dissolve, the smaller and more time bubbles spend in the water the better.

im using a ceramic diffuser, the bubbles are very small and its positioned right under the outflow of my hob

i decided just to put everything back the way it was a few days ago when i didnt have bba or staghorn. i kept the co2 though. all my plants are pearling again and they had stopped when i raised my lights. so i think ill be okay. im going to spot treat with half doses of excel starting tomorrow and i have 5 big amanos coming in on wednesday.

thanks to all who answered