Plank Is Going Wrong, Black Stuff And I'm Worried

[weathermen]

I need some advice on what’s going wrong, I have either brush algae or something else that’s just appeared in my tank, system has been running for about 8 months, added T5’s three weeks ago and the plants went nuts, bubbles off most plants going real well, Java moss not great. Then last week bubbles stopped! This did happen after I added JBL algol to get rid of algae, “was this a wrong move� CO2 still injecting and lights on for 10 hours a day with a dim 2 hour break midday! Help, is it something to do with the ferts? Also does RO water help stop algae? If so I’m looking at purchasing one! Sorry for all the questions, Oh yeah I did up the C02 but the fish went to the surface so I’ve reduced it again!

plants in tank are
Java Fern
Jave Moss
Moss Balls
Bacopa
Hygro
Anubias
Roseafolia
Vallis

System spec,
55 gallon Tank
Filter Fluval 405
Uv steriliser
Hydor External heater
C02 reactor with 25 kilo pressurised cylinder
Lighting 2 x 55watt T5’s and 2 x 36watt 48†T8’s
50% water change each week

Fish Black Neons
Glow Lights
Bleeding hearts
Phantom Tetras
Otto’s
Bristle nose Plec x 2
Clown Loach x 2
Cory’s x 8 I love these little fellas

Also have 15 Tiger shrimps,

PH 7.2
NO3 25
NO2 0
GH 16
KH 3

TEMP 77

AS FOR FERTS

I dose Seachem excel
Seachem Iron
JBL ferropol

Each water change
Substrate has iron tabs under each root,

Thanks sorry again for the war and Peace

 

[Dave Spencer]

I think you need to take a more considered approach to your problem, rather than dosing chemicals in your tank and upping CO2 in an uncontrolled manner.

First off, adding the T5s has given you a serious amount of light, and could be your algae trigger. Just running the T5s would give you about 2WPG.

Algicides can adversely affect a lot of plants, so it is a bit Catch 22 because your main line of defence against algae is a large number of healthy plants.

Look for a 75% substrate cover of plants, stable CO2 at 30ppm (try to achieve this target over a period of time for the fishes sake) and that large biomass. Give the plants all the ferts they need and they should start flourishing, to the exclusion of algae.

If it is BBA that you have, it could be a sign of low CO2.

 

[Underwurlde]

^^^ Seconded!

 

[weathermen]

thanks for comments, coverage is over 75% I can't see that much gravel, I will turn of the T8's and run T5's only, keep adding ferts and see what we have,

What about RO water? will this be a benifit?

 

[Dave Spencer]

Looking at your water spec I don`t think you have a need for RO. I have access to the purest water imaginable at work, but I don`t use it because I have soft tap water with a very low KH and GH. Maybe you could consider a mix of RO and tap water if the nitrate and phosphate content is high.