Plants Versus Non Planted

[mister-t]

ok if anyone has read my posts about my trouble with bga,now please correct me if im wrong about what im going to say.
bga is not a true algae correct,and it exists in nearly every form of water,not sure if its in tap water.
and it relies on photosynthesis to grow just like plants,so i have two tanks,one with plants one without
both use the same water from my hma filter,the one without plants has the same amount of light as my planted tank but never had any algae problems,i know that plants are supposed to outcompete for nutrients so as algae cannot get a foot hold,so why are my two tanks so different,or am i missing something important here
mister-t

 

[Squid]

Do you add any nutrients into the planted tank?

Squid

 

[mister-t]

i add root tabs,also add add plant nutrition+,also just ordered the dry ferts so as i can try the ei method

 

[Squid]

Well, I guess there is the potential that you are adding too many nutrients to the tank, or you need some fast growers that can use up the nutrients.

The questions is; if you added no nutrients to either tank, would your planted tank still have an alage problem. I have seen a few posts on here where people have been discussing advice on the side of nutrient bottles. They often advise an amount of nutrients according to the size of the tank, where really it depends on the planting levels too.

To put it another way. If we added a certain amount of food into a 4 bedroom house and there was a family of 6 living in it, the consumption of food may be a little different to the same house with two OAP's living in it. The leftover food would go to waste, and in the case of your tank would feed the algae.

I may have over-simplified this and end up being totally wrong, and so this is just my opinion. Perhaps others could post their comments

Cheers
Squid

 

[mister-t]

Well, I guess there is the potential that you are adding too many nutrients to the tank, or you need some fast growers that can use up the nutrients.

The questions is; if you added no nutrients to either tank, would your planted tank still have an alage problem. I have seen a few posts on here where people have been discussing advice on the side of nutrient bottles. They often advise an amount of nutrients according to the size of the tank, where really it depends on the planting levels too.

To put it another way. If we added a certain amount of food into a 4 bedroom house and there was a family of 6 living in it, the consumption of food may be a little different to the same house with two OAP's living in it. The leftover food would go to waste, and in the case of your tank would feed the algae.

I may have over-simplified this and end up being totally wrong, and so this is just my opinion. Perhaps others could post their comments

Cheers
Squid

so i could be adding too much nutrients so feeding the alga

 

[mister-t]

so then if i removed all my plants didnt add ferts i would have no algae,im getting really confused now

 

[TribeOfShroom]

Keep the plants, lose the ferts (or cut down on adding the ferts) and if squid is correct, then you would see a reduction of algae growth.

To be honest me thinks Squid is correct in thinking that there might be a possible OD of ferts. As said, plant density has a lot of impact when trying to get the correct doseage.

For example:

Just for arguments sake, say your ferts say for 125L you need 50ml of ferts

125L with a 5 small plants of Valli isn't going to require all of that dose and will probably lead to algae problems;

whereas

125L densely planted with Valli, hornwort, frogbit, Amazons etc etc. would require all of that dose (and maybe more? )

Hope this helps

 

[mister-t]

ok i understand the reasoning but i think my tank is pretty well planted,ill try and upload a pic so as you can judge for yourself

 

[Squid]

yup, i think you and mr shroom have got what i was saying... although I am no expert, I have had to go on a bit of a common sense type of approach.

Let's see what the more experienced then me have to add ..

I do partially speak from experience though. I have trouble finding the balance too. If i add full dose ferts as per the instructions, my alage levels seem to rise. if i add no ferts (as i have pretty easy going plants), they don't grow as fast, but i have less algae problems. The trick is to find the middle ground. perhaps half the dose and work up..

Squid

 

[mister-t]

heres a pic of my tank

 

[TribeOfShroom]

Very nice Correct me if I'm wrong, but those discus?? If so, are they in black water conditions?

This might be a missing piece of the puzzle. Most blackwater products have something along the following " will encourage plant growth" as part of their selling point. This is because there certain nutrients in the black water conditioner that plants need.

So add that with regular fert dosing and you'll possibly be adding more than you need.

 

[Squid]

I would say that your tank is not heavily planted. From my understanding (which again might be wrong), a heavily planted tank is where at least 75% of the substrate is covered by plants.

So- my inexperienced advice would be to drop the level of ferts by about 50%. Part of the reason of for the large water changes in EI is so that nutrient levels are not too high and therefore cause algae. so although you aren't doing EI, you may be suffering the same effects.

Cheers
Squid

 

[mister-t]

what you cant see very well in the pic is the front of the tank is covered in pygmy chain sword,i think thats what they are called anyway.i do 50% water change every week because my discus like the water change,black water conditions not sure what you mean by that sorry

 

[TribeOfShroom]

what you cant see very well in the pic is the front of the tank is covered in pygmy chain sword,i think thats what they are called anyway.i do 50% water change every week because my discus like the water change,black water conditions not sure what you mean by that sorry

Don't worry, if you haven't heard of it, then you probably don't have blackwater conditions.

 

[aaronnorth]

it looks like a lot of swords which mainy feed from the roots so it is probobaly nutrients