Help! Continued Live Plant Growth Problems

[slowcountry]

A couple months ago, I posted regarding plant growth problems due to 'hairy algae' growth on my plants. I have added additional plants, adjusted the lighting time and continue to suffer the same problems.

Tank water conditions;

55 gallons
pH 8.5
Water hard Indiana well water from water softner
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 40 – 60 ppm
Ammonia 0

Lighting

Corallife T-5 Series Double Linear strip light
1 – Corallife 28 watt 6700K bulb
1 – Life Glo 54 watt 6700K bulb
Lighting period 8 hours


Filter

HOB Aqueon 55 filter
2 – 6 inch long air stones at the back bottom of the tank spaced equally to help water movement.


Substrate

Standard aquarium gravel, fairly coarse about pea size.


Plant compliment

Several bundles Hornwort
2 – Sword plants
1 – Moneywort bundle
4 – Bundles Pennywort
4 – Bundles Cambombia
5 – Creaping plant (Thin bladed plant that shoots a sprout and springs up in the gravel a couple of inches away from the original plant)

The Swords, Pennywort, and the ‘creeping plant’ appear to grow very rapidly while I have the hairy algae under control and then become stifled when the algae returns. I had taken some advice and added a double dose of SeaChem Carbon, which caused the algae to disappear after 4 days or so. The downside was that it killed off all my Hornwort and killed off the previous growth on the ‘creeping plant’ The Moneywort has never recovered and stays in a dormant state with dark green film covering the leaves with some of the hairy algae.

Since the last post, I have added some Cambombia plants that seem to grow extremely fast. It has doubled in height in a month. They do not show any sign of the hairy algae, but about 50% of the plants stems rot and will not root, while the others are just fine. The Pennywort grows fast towards the top of the plant and shoots off roots that get as long as 6 inches or so just floating around in the water. The lower leaves of the plant's edges have the hairy algae with some dark algae on the center of the leaves.

With the amount of Nitrates available in the water, do I really need to add fertilizer? I have tried adding Sera A fertilizer tablets every other week. On a couple of occasions I have tried a liquid fertilizer.

I have about 30 to 40% of the gravel planted with living plants. I’m sure my tank is overstocked causing the high Nitrates. I would like to understand what else to try to get the moss under control so that my plants will grow as expected.

 

[baron von bubba]

what are the stocking levels?

yes you should be adding ferts. probably just micros/trace if you think the stocking is too high, something like tpn.
far more important than the root tabs, most of the plants will be taking the nutrients from the water column.

http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
check out this to identify the algae.

what is the rated flow of the filter, the airstones will do very little to aid flow around the tank.

 

[slowcountry]

what are the stocking levels?

yes you should be adding ferts. probably just micros/trace if you think the stocking is too high, something like tpn.
far more important than the root tabs, most of the plants will be taking the nutrients from the water column.

[URL="http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm"]http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm[/URL]
check out this to identify the algae.

what is the rated flow of the filter, the airstones will do very little to aid flow around the tank.

Staghorn and green spot algae seem to be the best culprits.

Can you elaborate on the fertilizers, what is micros/trace? What is tpn? I also have the Sera Flore day drops which I believe just provides trace minerals and elements.

I don't know the flow rate of the filter, it moves quite a bit of water, but like most HOB filters, the flow is pretty much on one end of the tank. Do you recommend something to move the water around the entire tank?

what are the stocking levels?

yes you should be adding ferts. probably just micros/trace if you think the stocking is too high, something like tpn.
far more important than the root tabs, most of the plants will be taking the nutrients from the water column.

<a href="http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm" target="_blank">http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm</a>
check out this to identify the algae.

what is the rated flow of the filter, the airstones will do very little to aid flow around the tank.

Staghorn and green spot algae seem to be the best culprits.

Can you elaborate on the fertilizers, what is micros/trace? What is tpn? I also have the Sera Flore day drops which I believe just provides trace minerals and elements.

I don't know the flow rate of the filter, it moves quite a bit of water, but like most HOB filters, the flow is pretty much on one end of the tank. Do you recommend something to move the water around the entire tank?

I'm ashamed to tell my stocking levels. I have roughly 50 sword tails, guppies, mollies and some tetras in this tank. I have a total of 6 tanks and sell a number of my live-bearers. This particular tank is my display tank however, right now I have an over abundance of fry not large enough to sell, so my display tank is over stocked. I was hoping the plants would reduce some of the nitrates and make the environment healthier for the livestock.

 

[loraxchick]

add some more fast growing stems. elodea, camboba, hornwart, wisteria, etc. will help out compete the algae.

 

[baron von bubba]

Staghorn and green spot algae seem to be the best culprits.

Can you elaborate on the fertilizers, what is micros/trace? What is tpn? I also have the Sera Flore day drops which I believe just provides trace minerals and elements.

I don't know the flow rate of the filter, it moves quite a bit of water, but like most HOB filters, the flow is pretty much on one end of the tank. Do you recommend something to move the water around the entire tank?

I'm ashamed to tell my stocking levels. I have roughly 50 sword tails, guppies, mollies and some tetras in this tank. I have a total of 6 tanks and sell a number of my live-bearers. This particular tank is my display tank however, right now I have an over abundance of fry not large enough to sell, so my display tank is over stocked. I was hoping the plants would reduce some of the nitrates and make the environment healthier for the livestock.

the plants require phosphate, nitrate and potassium, these are the macros, they are mobile in the plants and deficiencies will show in the older leaves as the plants can move them into the areas of new growth.
the micros or trace elements are the other requirement of the plants, iron zinc, copper, magnesium etc these are not mobile and any deficiencies will show in the new leaves.

tpn is tropica plant nutrition, its micros/trace and potassium. the nitrate and phosphate will be supplied by fish, food and dead plant matter etc!
so try not to over feed the fish, if there is food left in the tank after a couple of mins you are overfeeding!

a small power head, something like a korolia will possibly be a good investment!

that stocking should be ok if they are all small young fish.

add some more fast growing stems. elodea, camboba, hornwart, wisteria, etc. will help out compete the algae.

well, if the plants are deficient in nutrients or the flow isnt upto scratch then adding more plants will only make the situation worse!

 

[slowcountry]

Staghorn and green spot algae seem to be the best culprits.

Can you elaborate on the fertilizers, what is micros/trace? What is tpn? I also have the Sera Flore day drops which I believe just provides trace minerals and elements.

I don't know the flow rate of the filter, it moves quite a bit of water, but like most HOB filters, the flow is pretty much on one end of the tank. Do you recommend something to move the water around the entire tank?

I'm ashamed to tell my stocking levels. I have roughly 50 sword tails, guppies, mollies and some tetras in this tank. I have a total of 6 tanks and sell a number of my live-bearers. This particular tank is my display tank however, right now I have an over abundance of fry not large enough to sell, so my display tank is over stocked. I was hoping the plants would reduce some of the nitrates and make the environment healthier for the livestock.

the plants require phosphate, nitrate and potassium, these are the macros, they are mobile in the plants and deficiencies will show in the older leaves as the plants can move them into the areas of new growth.
the micros or trace elements are the other requirement of the plants, iron zinc, copper, magnesium etc these are not mobile and any deficiencies will show in the new leaves.

tpn is tropica plant nutrition, its micros/trace and potassium. the nitrate and phosphate will be supplied by fish, food and dead plant matter etc!
so try not to over feed the fish, if there is food left in the tank after a couple of mins you are overfeeding!

a small power head, something like a korolia will possibly be a good investment!

that stocking should be ok if they are all small young fish.

add some more fast growing stems. elodea, camboba, hornwart, wisteria, etc. will help out compete the algae.

well, if the plants are deficient in nutrients or the flow isnt upto scratch then adding more plants will only make the situation worse!

As suggested, I purchased a Koralila Nano power head on my lunch hour and installed in the tank. I believe it may be a little undersized however, it is visibly moving the water around where it didn't before.

I was not able to find TPN at any of the local stores, I will try to find it on the Internet. In the interim, I will start using the trace fertilizer I have from Sera.

Thanks so much for the assistance!!!