Plant leaves have algae growth

Hello everyone!I have not posted in a very long time,just been very busy.
First off,my water parameters are 0,0,10 with a ph of around 7.8.My tank is 20 gallons,and I do a 5 gallon water change once a week.You can view my profile to see my live stock.I am posting my question in the plant section because my issue is with algae.I dose every other day with flourish excel,and feed my fish very little once a day.I have shortend the time in which I keep my lights on from 12 to 8 hours.I also try to keep direct sunlight off the tank.Once a week I scrape the leaves
of my plants to remove algae growth.Does anyone have any ideas on what else I can do to minimize algae growth on my plants.Sorry if I chose the wrong section to post my question.Any help would be appreciated.

 

Seeing that you have t5ho (I am guessing it is sitting on top of the tank?) I would say you likely have too much light. While 12 hours was too long, the intensity of the light is as (or more) important than the duration of the light. Your light is likely just too intense!
How high do you have your light mounted?The following link has a chart that is very helpful to decide mounting height for the desired light level. Note- if you go medium or above you will likely need to follow a good fert regimen and also have pressurized co2.

Here is the chart- please read the full thread to understand what it means! ALL CREDIT GOES TO HOPPY!


What type of algae do you have? The following link may help you ID it. Different types require different treatments.

Best Wishes,
Nate

 

Hey Nate.My lamp is about 3 inches above my tank,both tubes are 24 watts each,one tube is 6000k and one is 5000k.Not sure what type of algae.The algae grows mostly on the plants and is more black in color.Thanks for the link,I will research it when I get a minute.Could dosing with excel be part of the issue?

 

Dosing with excel is not the issue. In fact it may be saving you a little.
Do you have a 20 gallon long or 20 gallon high? (or what is the tank height) With 2 t5ho tubes my guess is you have too much light. I would suspend the light above the tank to get the desired amount of light. I had to do this with my 40 gallon tank , as I was having major algae issues as well. Once things were suspended to reduce the intensity, I did a clean up and got rid of the algae. It went away after that for the most part. Alot of folks (myself included) buy t5ho lights to grow great looking plants not realizing it is really too much light for most tanks unless you REALLY crank up the co2 and ferts. I have pressurized co2 and I was still getting algae....balance is key and with too much light the balance is very difficult if not impossible to achieve.

You can see in this pic I suspended my light a good 16" above the top of the tank and a good 2 feet from the substrate. If I decrease either my co2 or my ferts the algae comes back....


If you take the measurement of your tank height I can kind of direct you as to a good starting point for light height.

 

My tank is 17" tall. I really love the way you suspended your light,it looks great!Does your tank have a lid,and what type of ferts are you using?

 

My tank is 17" tall. I really love the way you suspended your light,it looks great!Does your tank have a lid,and what type of ferts are you using?

Thanks, I wanted it to be easy to move up and down and yet still have some function.
I don't have a lid on my tank, I use a screen that I made. It is the same as this one...

With regards to height... If you are regular with your excel and ferts, I would say you could do 16"-18" above the tank and 2 bulbs. If you don't want to fight it and have a little more wiggle room with algae, I would disable 1 bulb and go with a 10"-12" above the tank.
I use dry fertilizer from these guys...(also great to deal with if you ever want a pressurized Co2 set up or have planted tank questions in general)


A nice easy one liquid fertilizer is this....easier to use but more expensive.

 

Thanks for all the great info!!