Plants, Algae, Nitrogen, Carbon

[Lady J]

Hi all,

I have a 30g. with 78w. of t5s (strong par). The bioload is low with 1 male betta and 6 small corys although I will be adding 8 rasboras in the next few days. The tank is medium planted. In addition to the Penguin filtration system I am using one nano powerhead so that the plants aregently swaying.

Currently I am dosing carbon daily (Flourish Excel), have fertilizer tablets in the sand substrate, and am adding Flourish 2 x week as the bottle instructs. The nitrates in my tapwater are low at 5 so I might need to dose nitrates. I have no test kit yet to check the phosphates. My concern is that two of plants are growing a small amount of algae on them although they are growing very well.

So, does anyone have ideas regarding what is out of balance in my tank? I need to correct this before it becomes a problem.

Thanks.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

I should probably keep my mouth shut as I am totally useless as this stuff - but - different types of algae are caused by different things. Can you either post a picture of the algae or let us know what it looks like/what you think it is?

 

[Lady J]

I don't know how to post a picture but it looks like a normal "brown" algae and barely on the leaves.

I have two thoughts although I doubt I know what I am talking about.

My nitrate level is too low for a planted tank at 5 and I don't yet know what the phosphates are at. So, perhaps the necessary requirement of their 10:1 ratio is off (ie: nitrates at 5 but maybe phosphates at 2 or 4 etc.)

Or

I am dosing 3 ml. of carbon everyday for a medium planted tank and the plants cannot use that much so the algae is taking up some of it.

Or

Both.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Na, sounds like what you've got there is diatoms. Algae can't use carbon, in fact it's toxic to it which is why people often use it to combat algae problems.

Diatoms are totally normal for newly set up tanks and it will eventually disappear on its own. All you can do is: manually clean it off (a toothbrush works well; it's not hard to get off) or add something to eat it and/or add purigen to the filter - it helps - and wait. I was impatient so I added some BN plecos to my tank lol - luckily I had the space. Nerite/zebra snails and otos eat it too. It can take a couple of months before it starts to disappear on its own, at least that's my experience.

Regarding your concerns about nitrate. If you feel low nitrate is causing you problems and thus far it doesn't sound like it is since your plants are growing fine, you just reduce the frequency and size of your water changes to retain the nitrate in the water.

 

[Lady J]

Na, sounds like what you've got there is diatoms. Algae can't use carbon, in fact it's toxic to it which is why people often use it to combat algae problems.

Diatoms are totally normal for newly set up tanks and it will eventually disappear on its own. All you can do is: manually clean it off (a toothbrush works well; it's not hard to get off) or add something to eat it and/or add purigen to the filter - it helps - and wait. I was impatient so I added some BN plecos to my tank lol - luckily I had the space. Nerite/zebra snails and otos eat it too. It can take a couple of months before it starts to disappear on its own, at least that's my experience.

Regarding your concerns about nitrate. If you feel low nitrate is causing you problems and thus far it doesn't sound like it is since your plants are growing fine, you just reduce the frequency and size of your water changes to retain the nitrate in the water.

Ok, this sounds good. The tank is newer, only been running 8 weeks. Glad to know algae can't use carbon.

On Saturday I changed out ~25% of the water so this week I'll do a bit less. I still need to check the phosphate level but I just haven't had time to go buy one.

Thanks for your input Anything else you can think of? And, I hope you're having a great day. I like emoticons, can ya tell.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

I'm not actually aware of any freshwater keepers that check for phosphates lol - but I may very well be wrong! I am very new to planted tanks. Yes I noticed that the diatoms in my filter pipes just started peeling away in chunks a few weeks ago. I wouldn't be able to tell they were going otherwise because my bristlenose plecs eat it all

 

[Lady J]

I'm not actually aware of any freshwater keepers that check for phosphates lol - but I may very well be wrong! I am very new to planted tanks. Yes I noticed that the diatoms in my filter pipes just started peeling away in chunks a few weeks ago. I wouldn't be able to tell they were going otherwise because my bristlenose plecs eat it all

I'd like to check simply because I was surprised at the low nitrate reading. I just don't want it to get away on me.

 

[Lady J]

almostawesome,

Thanks for your help. I need to leave for work now so I hope you have a good day and hopefully we'll get a chance to talk again soon.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

OK you have a nice day too!

TTYL

 

[stu40]

Agreed is sounds like Diatoms.
How long are the lights on for.?

 

[stu40]

As AA has said, Diatoms are quite common in new set ups.
Personally i wouldn't bother testing the phosphate levels.
If you're dosing carbon, then in the long run you will need to start dosing ferts with Nitrogen & Phosphate.We tend to dose a little more than the amounts on the bottle (that way the plants are bound to get enough).
This is balanced by weekly waterchanges to remove organic waste produced by improved plant growth.Typical amounts are 50%, but this is not set in stone.

 

[Lady J]

As AA has said, Diatoms are quite common in new set ups.
Personally i wouldn't bother testing the phosphate levels.
If you're dosing carbon, then in the long run you will need to start dosing ferts with Nitrogen & Phosphate.We tend to dose a little more than the amounts on the bottle (that way the plants are bound to get enough).
This is balanced by weekly waterchanges to remove organic waste produced by improved plant growth.Typical amounts are 50%, but this is not set in stone.

Thanks for responding. I have to dose carbon because of the t5s which in turn now requires nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers. I know that the nitratehosphate ratio is way off which also might be part of the issue. Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!! I also probably need to start adding some iron in addition to the Flourish trace. My plants are doing great as they all are growing and adding leaves, I was just concerned about the little amounts of algae (which are more than likely due to a new tank as both you and AA said).

I'm enjoying learning all of this---I just want to get it correctly balanced.

BTW, I just added the 8 rasbora espei's and I like them a lot.

Sorry, forgot to add this: I'm keeping the lights on for 6-7 hours. When I FIRST started I was running them for 10 hours and then all of a sudden thought, OMG, this isn't a reef, turn the darn lights off!

 

[stu40]

As AA has said, Diatoms are quite common in new set ups.
Personally i wouldn't bother testing the phosphate levels.
If you're dosing carbon, then in the long run you will need to start dosing ferts with Nitrogen & Phosphate.We tend to dose a little more than the amounts on the bottle (that way the plants are bound to get enough).
This is balanced by weekly waterchanges to remove organic waste produced by improved plant growth.Typical amounts are 50%, but this is not set in stone.

Thanks for responding. I have to dose carbon because of the t5s which in turn now requires nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers. I know that the nitratehosphate ratio is way off which also might be part of the issue. Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!! I also probably need to start adding some iron in addition to the Flourish trace. My plants are doing great as they all are growing and adding leaves, I was just concerned about the little amounts of algae (which are more than likely due to a new tank as both you and AA said).

I'm enjoying learning all of this---I just want to get it correctly balanced.

BTW, I just added the 8 rasbora espei's and I like them a lot.

No worries.
There's a lot going on right now,so replys may be a little slower.
What plants are we talking about?
Love the Espei's

, i've currently got T.Hengeli
Don't overdo the lighting period to start with.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Yeah keep it to 6 hours for the first couple of weeks I'd say. So glad you finally found them! Just wait until you've had them a while and they get all fed up nice. Their colours will be stunning!

 

[Lady J]

As AA has said, Diatoms are quite common in new set ups.
Personally i wouldn't bother testing the phosphate levels.
If you're dosing carbon, then in the long run you will need to start dosing ferts with Nitrogen & Phosphate.We tend to dose a little more than the amounts on the bottle (that way the plants are bound to get enough).
This is balanced by weekly waterchanges to remove organic waste produced by improved plant growth.Typical amounts are 50%, but this is not set in stone.

Thanks for responding. I have to dose carbon because of the t5s which in turn now requires nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers. I know that the nitratehosphate ratio is way off which also might be part of the issue. Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!! I also probably need to start adding some iron in addition to the Flourish trace. My plants are doing great as they all are growing and adding leaves, I was just concerned about the little amounts of algae (which are more than likely due to a new tank as both you and AA said).

I'm enjoying learning all of this---I just want to get it correctly balanced.

BTW, I just added the 8 rasbora espei's and I like them a lot.

No worries.
There's a lot going on right now,so replys may be a little slower.
What plants are we talking about?
Love the Espei's

, i've currently got T.Hengeli
Don't overdo the lighting period to start with.

No problem on when you can reply---I'm just appreciative that you can.

Ooooh, I knew someone would ask me what types of plants I have. Well, let's see, I have 3 anubias, a bunch of Ludwigia, and I think I have a bunch of Aponogeton crispus (these are tall and bright green--when new leaves open they have a fern-kind-of-look about them). Oh yeah, and my beloved little banana plant (sprouted 3 new leaves in 3 weeks--very cool).

I am LOVING my little espei's. They're active but not totally psycho like the rummynoses were. And, they and the betta are doing fine whereas the rummynoses went after the betta soon after they were in the tank. It may sound stupid, but I'm not sure the betta would have survived with the rn because he JUST wouldn't come out and this went on for 2 days. Maybe he would have come out eventually but I didn't feel like taking the chance with him. If I could take good pictures I would show him off. He's a half moon, irradescent baby blue and red. He absolutely shimmers against the black background of my tank!

I definitely was overdoing the photo period. Do you ever have those days where you just shake your head and roll your eyes at yourself?
I mean really, what the heck was I thinking leaving the lights on for 10 hours?! I wasn't thinking.