Please Help Me With My Planted Tank Problem

Hello everyone, I seem to be getting black beard algae and was wondering why. My current setup is as follows

- Low tech tank (No CO2)
- 45G tank that's 20" deep
- 4 inches of ada amazonia aquasoil
- Finnex planted+ (The distance from light to top of substrate is around 16")

The plants in my tank are: Monte Carlo, Java Fern, Anubias, crypt wendtii, Jungle Val, Hygro Corymbosa and Red Ludwigia

I have 2 flourish tabs in the tank somewhere and dose 4 ml of liquid flourish in there once a week and excel once a week too at 4 ml as well. (both after my weekly water change)

I keep my light on for 12 hrs a day.

Water test: Ammonia = 0ppm Nitrite = 0 ppm Nitrate = around 10 at most

As you can see my plants aren't super high demand plants. Id say the most demanding plant I have would be the monte carlo. So the two questions ive got are

1) How many hours of light should I leave the light on
2) Why am I getting Black beard algae/ is it due to the 12 hours of light ? I need enough light for the monte carlo to carpet.

Thanks in advance

 

12 hours a day is a little too long. And most carpent plants need CO2.

BBA starts with fluctuating CO2 and in my experience excess PO4.

You can use excel, or hydrogen peroxide and spot kill your BBA.

As with any algae and trying to prevent it, it is all about finding your tanks balance.

And with a low light tank no matter if you leave your lights on for 24 hours a day your light can only penetrate so far, so by leaving it on for 12 hours it's doing more harm than good.
To make your Monte Carlo grow you will need a higher par light and CO2.

I don't think your planted + is doing its job also because from the light to top of your substrate it's 16inches, and that's a long way for light to travel.

 

I did a lot of research and monte carlo was one of the few, if not the only, which quite a few people said grew well in low light and no co2. However they did say it took a long time too. Is this not true?

 

Lights should be on 6-8 hours.

BBA is usually caused by low co2 or inconsistent levels. Excel is a carbon source and should be dosed daily.

 

Thanks AlyeskaGirl for your response. If my tank has Otos and Cherry shrimp will it harm them if I dose daily?

 

In my experience most carpet plants need high light and CO2. I've read that MC can grow In low light low tech tanks but the ones with the most success is the ones that are running a high tech tank. The trick to carpet plants is that you need to get it going, once it gets going and starts to send out its runners then that's the fast part. The hard part is getting it going.

You can dose excel with oto's but with cherry shrimp you need to be very careful. You can spot treat your BBA or if you tank is really bad you can do a total tank blackout. It's like resetting your tank. Any plants that are dying will die but the ones that are going good should be ok. Your fish will be fine also.
If you spot treat use a syringe and shoot very little excel on the BBA

 

Thanks Tanks and Plants for your quick responses. Appreciate it very much. The BBA isn't CRAZY bad at all. I caught it early and I found it growing on some Anubias, monte carlo and java fern. Ive placed my SAE from another tank Ive got into this tank to try and eat it up. I don't feed my 45G since I don't have any fish other than oto's so it'll also force the SAE to eat the BBA.

So I will dose 4-5mL of Excel DAILY ? and spot treat where I still see the BBA and reduce the lighting to 6 hrs for the next few weeks. Then perhaps bring it back up to 7-8 after that. Does that sound like a good plan?

 

Thanks Tanks and Plants for your quick responses. Appreciate it very much. The BBA isn't CRAZY bad at all. I caught it early and I found it growing on some Anubias, monte carlo and java fern. Ive placed my SAE from another tank Ive got into this tank to try and eat it up. I don't feed my 45G since I don't have any fish other than oto's so it'll also force the SAE to eat the BBA.

So I will dose 4-5mL of Excel DAILY ? and spot treat where I still see the BBA and reduce the lighting to 6 hrs for the next few weeks. Then perhaps bring it back up to 7-8 after that. Does that sound like a good plan?

I'm not the person to answer your question but I'm starting a low-tech planted tank as well I'm interested to see how this goes. Please be sure to let us know!

 

Thanks Tanks and Plants for your quick responses. Appreciate it very much. The BBA isn't CRAZY bad at all. I caught it early and I found it growing on some Anubias, monte carlo and java fern. Ive placed my SAE from another tank Ive got into this tank to try and eat it up. I don't feed my 45G since I don't have any fish other than oto's so it'll also force the SAE to eat the BBA.

So I will dose 4-5mL of Excel DAILY ? and spot treat where I still see the BBA and reduce the lighting to 6 hrs for the next few weeks. Then perhaps bring it back up to 7-8 after that. Does that sound like a good plan?

I would follow the directions on the bottle especially because you have shrimps in your tank. And I would use the dose to spot treat the BBA.

 

I would start with half dose daily with Excel so the plants get used to it. Then work your way up slowly. Every planted tank is different. Have to find what works for your tank and not affect your shrimp in finding the balance between light and dosing the Excel.

 

Thanks for all of your help. Would excel be better or hydrogen peroxide ? Ive been doing some research and some say that used correctly it won't kill any living things in the tank.

 

You can do what AlyeskaGirl said and instead of just putting that dose into the water column, use that dose and spot treat the BBA. You will be dosing and killing at the same time.