Algae Issues!

[mrjezzi]

Hi all, new to forum and really joined to try and sort out my aquarium issue.

Here's the spec:
Juwel Rio 125 (33uk gallons)
Standard lights are 2x 18 watts with reflectors
Have additional T5 lights (I think they are T5) with 2x 55 watts.
2x Nutrafin CO2 System (it says each kit is good up to 70 litres so I run them 2 weeks apart changing once a month)
I am adding plant ferts, there are root tabs under nearly all plants. Substrate is gravel and some propper stuff I think made by Nutrafin.
I'm using the in-tank filter that comes with the tank - all the filters (active carbon etc) are in there are are changed when required.
25-33% water change once a week.
Bubbler is running but only through a small airstone and only 4 inches from surface and is turned down low.
Nitrates and Nitrites appear fine, pH is about 6.5-6.8 steady, Hardness is OK

The tank is heavily planted but all I seem to get is algae on the glass, cos diffusers and plant leaves.... and now on the bogwood and rocks.
There are a couple of red leaved plants that have gone back to green - i suspect this means there isn't enough light! Lights are on for 12 hours a day - I'm only using the 2x 55watts at the moment, i did use a light break in the middle of the day but algae wasn't affected. I've also used the smaller lights and not much differs. You can use all the lights to make 146watts (4.5-5 watts per US gallon) and again no real difference. I've tried reducing the air-stone but fish seem distressed. I've also tried running it normally at night and having it turn off 2 hours after the lights come on in the morning to up the co2 effect when the plants need it.

What am I doing wrong? Should I take out the active carbon filter media... (this has only just occured to me while writing this!), am I adding too much light or too little, any suggestions would be great!!! All the plants seem to slowly grow (if at all) or get covered in green algae and then die. Have treated for algae but doesn't seem to stop it. Have been wiping the glass with magnetic float every third day - hope that show's how quickly the algae grows.

 

[nry]

CO2 - swapping alternate Nutrafin mixes every 2 weeks is not good especially if you use the stock mix. Read the pinned thread on this forum and aim to swap a cannister mix every 3-4 days. Unstable CO2 is a major algae trigger, and running this alongside high light (i.e. 2x55w) is asking for algae to come visit - personally I would look to ditch one of the 55w T5's and run a single 55w alongside the existing Juwel lighting, to be honest you may get away with just the 55w depending on what you want to acheive.

Keep up with ~3.5wpg and CO2 and you are strongly in Estimative Index (again see pinned thread on this forum) territory - stick in loads of light and CO2 and your plants will strip out the nutrients from the water very quickly leading to major deficiences - the algae will then love you further.

Add-in your airstone and things get worse as this will be driving off the CO2 pretty much as quickly as you are adding it - if the fish get stressed when you turn the airstone off then either the CO2 level is too high or you are either overstocked or have too little water flow across the tank surface (or something is really up with your water quality).

Carbon - in a planted tank the plants will take up things better than the carbon, and the carbon will simply strip out stuff that the plants need to grow. You're better off with additional biological filter media instead. I also assume you are not actually chucking away 'old' filter media and buying new stuff, you are best to simply rinse no more than half of the sponge every few weeks in old tank water - tap water will kill off the beneficial bacteria and shouldn't be used for cleaning the filter media (apologies if you know that!).

Lastly (I'll stop soon honest!) your light period - stick to ~8 hours. Your red plants going green should not be related to your existing light levels - sticking lights on for longer does not make up for lack of light and you certainly don't have lack of light!

 

[nicklfire]

I see nothing related to you dosing EI, i see that you do your root tabs but you have no EI dosing. Your tanks out of balance and your algae is taking off excess nutrients, your plants arnt out competing them, i dont think they are growing aswell as they should because of excess in other nutrients. If your running your co2 and have lighting at 3.5 wpg without any EI dosing your bound to get some algae.

Look into dosing EI method, add some more stem plants if you dont have many in there.

 

[mrjezzi]

I see nothing related to you dosing EI, i see that you do your root tabs but you have no EI dosing. Your tanks out of balance and your algae is taking off excess nutrients, your plants arnt out competing them, i dont think they are growing aswell as they should because of excess in other nutrients. If your running your co2 and have lighting at 3.5 wpg without any EI dosing your bound to get some algae.

Look into dosing EI method, add some more stem plants if you dont have many in there.

The stem plants are the only ones that do well - they grow real fast! I have adjusted the lighting to one 55w T5 and the Juwel lights 2x 18w as per the first response. I did look into EI and my water changes would work with it. I suppose my next question is who recommends the best website to buy trace elements etc for EI as I have talked to a couple of my LFS and none of them show much interest or are of much use. Have pointed the outlet of the filter directly upwards and reduced the air-stone. is it possible to gently reduce it with the fish getting accustomed to it or should i reduce the fish load, there is 1 angel fish, 4 tiger barbs, 1 small plec, 4 tux. mollies and 4 orange ones. There are a couple of danios... maybe 5 and a small gurami (he's very shy - but he was a gift so suspect he's been bullied in another tank), also 1 small weatherloach and a ghost knife fish. Don't think that's overstocked to an excess, what do you guys think?

 

[radioman]

Instead of carbon try purigen.

 

[nicklfire]

Sorry just read that... your running a air stone and co2...?

So your running to your airstone to drive off co2 saturation.... i'm confused now lol.

 

[mrjezzi]

Sorry just read that... your running a air stone and co2...?

So your running to your airstone to drive off co2 saturation.... i'm confused now lol.

I know it sounds strange! The airstone was running right from the start and I added co2 later. I talked to various local aquatic centers and they all said to reduce it slowly - Other than one that told me to put it on with the light!!!! Not knowing how bad that information was I murdered 8 fish. ooooops! Since then I've tried reducing the air and or running it during the night only. The result always appears to be unhappy fish - or an unhappy girlfriend when her puffer fish go belly up! From the fish I listed earlier in the thread does my tank sound overstocked?

 

[nry]

For EI powders - www.aquaessentials.co.uk

They also do a trace powder but I found (and this is rare but can happen) that it made my water a bit cloudy - I now use Tropica Plant Nutrition (the normal one, not Plus) and this is fine, no more cloudiness at all. Worth trying the powder as it is cheaper long term.

 

[mrjezzi]

I live in the Chilterns and have hard water, not sure if anyone wants to suggest any other elements I should also add or even if that has any effect! I'm going to order later today the dry chemicals mentioned in the EI article so any suggestions / responses in the next hour or so would be much appreciated.

here are the 3 I'm going to order: (copied directly from article)

Potassium Nitrate
Potassium Phosphate (monobasic)
Traces - these can either chelated trace mix (CSM+ or a commercial product such as Tropica Plant Nutrition or Seachem Flourish.

Thanks!

UPDATE:
Have ordered relevant chemicals (and a few others the EI page suggests are optional), will post results if good! Thanks to everyone for their help.

 

[mrjezzi]

More help required please! The issue is now just lighting as will be going down the EI route. I've got a Juwel Rio 125 that has ballasts with lights built into the hood as an integral part - these give 2x 18w. I've also got 2x 55w lights.

The tank 33 US gallons and the wpg calculations work out as follows:

Original lighting= 2x18w -> 1.09wpg - clearly not enough even with reflectors!

Original lighting + additional 2x55w= 146w -> 4.42wpg - on the high side!

This tends to suggest that just using the 2x55w lights and ditching the original ones would be the best bet and give 110/33 -> 3.33wpg

What I want advice on is whether you guys think that is the right amount as using just the 2x55w setup would mean dismantling the original kit and it will probably never be possible to put it back together (lots of plastic rivits and glue holding it together)! Any help or advice apreciated!

 

[nry]

Is there an option to keep just 1x55w or perhaps 1x55w plus the original lighting?

3.3wpg is pretty high, if you can get ~1.5wpg then you'll be fine with your tank for the vast majority of plants, 2wpg and above will start to need very careful maintenance.

 

[Underwurlde]

Original lighting= 2x18w -> 1.09wpg - clearly not enough even with reflectors!

Lighting Watts is always that considered WITH good reflectors.

Also, what type of lights are you using? This is probably just as important...

Andy

 

[mrjezzi]

The 55w lights are T5 compacts. The issue seems to be location - with the original lights in their position the 55w sits right at the back or right at the front and algae growth is rapid on the glass.

I've just removed the original tubes and made the ends water-tight with electrical tape (properly, not a bodge job as its an experiment after all!), I've then managed to fasten the T5's where the normal tubes would have been which appears to be the best situation to reduce algae on the glass. I've also done the 1/3 water change after clearing all the algae off the glass. The T5's now have reflectors on them and the wpg is 3.3. I surpose maybe the thing to do is remove the reflectors or reduce the light duration if algae doesn't die down? Just incase it matters much the tubes are 'Daylight Plus' and 'Plant Growth...' of the same range.

The problem is the in-built nature of the Juwel Rio tank hood - there isn't really a decent option for 2x18w and 1x55w! Aquatic Essentials emailed on Friday to say the traces and chemicals would ship on Monday as they are coming with some shrimp too. Will have to re-evaluate in a week or 2 and go from there.

Just stuck my girlfriend's camera on charge and will try to upload a couple of photos in 20 mins or so. #### Update ####, photo attached.