What deficiencies do my plants have

I have been trying to battle BBA and have been looking at my plants and I haven't been to worried about them because I have been busy. but know that I am not as busy I am starting to worry and they are getting worse. they are all yellow with dark veins and the aren't growing straight. And also they are rotting. I just need them to grow to battle the BBA and I need to know what deficiencies they have to know what ferts to by. recommendations on kinds of fertilizers are appreciated also. Thanks!

 

yellow/dark veins...lack of iron and/or magnesium
brown edges...too bright lights

...would be my first guess

Regarding fertilizers, you need to figure out a regime of dosing micronutrients and macronutrients, in relation to your plant and fish stock, your light settings, and CO2 levels.

I favour overstocking with plants and a conservative approach regarding lights and fertilizers (in my non CO2 injected tanks) and don't mind if some plant (species) struggle to the point of letting it decay (as long as others are doing fine). Over time some fragile equilibrium appears.

 

yellow/dark veins...lack of iron and/or magnesium
brown edges...too bright lights

...would be my first guess

Regarding fertilizers, you need to figure out a regime of dosing micronutrients and macronutrients, in relation to your plant and fish stock, your light settings, and CO2 levels.

I favour overstocking with plants and a conservative approach regarding lights and fertilizers (in my non CO2 injected tanks) and don't mind if some plant (species) struggle to the point of letting it decay (as long as others are doing fine). Over time some fragile equilibrium appears.

ok thanks! What is fragile equilibrium also according to a post aquarium coop made this is a low light I am not sure how I would get a lower one. I have a really high bioload and I have my lights on for 6 hours a day and I have my c02 on for 6 hours a day with 1 and a half bubbles a second.

 

Low light - images can be deceiving of course, but that doesn't look low light to me.
CO2 for 1.5 bubbles per second - equals how many ppm in your tank?

A tank with many fish, a few plants and bright lights can be challenging to say the least. For this reason, I switched to just a few fish, a vast number of plants, and dim lights well over ten years ago. Got rid of any algae problems pretty much instantly.

Sometimes, when we have guests over, I get asked the question if there are any fish living in those tanks that contain all that water with plants in it .

 

Low light - images can be deceiving of course, but that doesn't look low light to me.
CO2 for 1.5 bubbles per second - equals how many ppm in your tank?

A tank with many fish, a few plants and bright lights can be challenging to say the least. For this reason, I switched to just a few fish, a vast number of plants, and dim lights well over ten years ago. Got rid of any algae problems pretty much instantly.

Sometimes, when we have guests over, I get asked the question if there are any fish living in those tanks that contain all that water with plants in it .

Yeah I have a lot of algae problems but I don't trust anyone to give my fish to if I had someone to trust I would have to see there tanks and there fish to see their experience. How do I calculate the PPM of c02 in my tank? Thanks!

 

- Some people use drop checkers, although it is not that reliable.
- Others measure kh and ph levels, given the relationship between these and CO2; others factors affect the relationship so it should be approached in terms of relative change.
- Still others, observe plant health and growth.

 

You sure it's BBA? Looks like black staghorn to me. I actually had staghorn that died off and "turned" to BBA. Both like low surface agitation, CO2 and need similar eradication methods but are still different. I heard staghorn is less of a hassle to deal with and less harmful to plants due to its small, stringy look that still allows light in but I could be wrong. Hope I helped somehow and I wish you good luck!

 

You sure it's BBA? Looks like black staghorn to me. I actually had staghorn that died off and "turned" to BBA. Both like low surface agitation, CO2 and need similar eradication methods but are still different. I heard staghorn is less of a hassle to deal with and less harmful to plants due to its small, stringy look that still allows light in but I could be wrong. Hope I helped somehow and I wish you good luck!

it is growing black stuff on my glass to and like this almost grey fuzzy stuff on my glass. I keep hearing they like a lot of flow but then I hear they like little surface agitation so IDK. Thanks!

 

it is growing black stuff on my glass to and like this almost grey fuzzy stuff on my glass. I keep hearing they like a lot of flow but then I hear they like little surface agitation so IDK. Thanks!

Definitely low flow. I had a small outbreak of BBA in my goldie tank when I decreased surface agitation. I never had it with high flow

 

Definitely low flow. I had a small outbreak of BBA in my goldie tank when I decreased surface agitation. I never had it with high flow

ok. I have a question with that. How come people with 2 filters and everything have no problem but my with a filter that is barely the right size is having a problem? Thanks!

 

ok. I have a question with that. How come people with 2 filters and everything have no problem but my with a filter that is barely the right size is having a problem? Thanks!

I had 4 filters running at 250x the size of the aquarium. I had a lot of flow until I removed the strongest filter providing the most flow and it caused BBA. If it's "barely the right size" then low flow's your issue. However, it could also be low CO2. Increased flow will help with this as well (and any plants you have in the tank). You could also try expensive, high-tech CO2 gas systems or dose Seachem Excel, even directly onto the algae

 

I had 4 filters running at 250x the size of the aquarium. I had a lot of flow until I removed the strongest filter providing the most flow and it caused BBA. If it's "barely the right size" then low flow's your issue. However, it could also be low CO2. Increased flow will help with this as well (and any plants you have in the tank). You could also try expensive, high-tech CO2 gas systems or dose Seachem Excel, even directly onto the algae

I have a c02 tank and a diffuser if that is what you mean by high-tech gas system. I also am using seachem excel I just left my filter off when dosing it accidently for like 3 hours today but I see no problems so I think it will be fine. when you definitely low flow I thought you meant high flow causes it but I understand now thanks for the help! My birthday is March 24th so I will ask for a filter for then I already asked my parents for a hob but I will just put that on my 20 gal and its not like I am going to say nevermind I don't want it, and besides they are cheap anyways. And I will take that small Hob filter from that tank and use it for this one.