the reason i was asking about ferts and such was when i did test my tapwater i had a high phosphate reading about 4. and i was wondering with the fact that it was high and having Discus in the tank plus adding more phosphate and Nitrates that maybe it was all to much for the plants so it was then starting to feed the algae more.
Please Help My Plants Are Growing Funny
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SuperColey1
Planted Section
You still have 2.5WPG including 2 T5s which are a multiple of!! plus a reasonably large tank which requires less WPG than the WPG rule!! I would cut the light right down until you have got control of things.
Cannister filters don't need cleaning every week. Monthly with a heavy fishload should be fine and not reduce the flow any!!!.
If you want to see if it is the phosphate then don't dose phosphate for a week. keep dosing nitrate, potassium and trace and son't make any other changes. phosphate should be the only one you change. You should see algae increase rather than decrease because you will now be causing a defficiency.
If your sister in law has good results then ask her about her whole setup and try to compare the 2 tanks like for like. See if there is a difference that is causing a problem. We already know your lights are much higher than hers. High lights are often a problem especially with new tanks or inexperienced planters because light drives the plants to grow faster and defficiencies cause the algae to grow at a much faster rate. This then gives you less time to react to the defficiency which means the algae keeps on top of you. This is what you are experiencing!!
If you really want to get on top of the problem try cutting the light right down 1 tube and then tinkering with what you are doing with regard to ferts and CO2 (one thing at a time). Keep manually removing and be patient give the tank time to see if there are effects before tinkering with something else. this lets you rule things out. i.e. Is phosphate causing the problem. stop dosing phosphate. If the problem remains or increase then you can rule phosphate out as the problem etc.
At the end of the day nutrients never cause algae. What you need to do is find out what is triggering the algae because if you remove the nutrients, you remove the plant's food too which causes...you guessed it...more algae.
Ammonia is what causes algae and we remove it with water changes. Fishload is not the only cause of ammonia and the filter should be able to cope with the ammonia theplants don't take up. The problem is normally deteriating plants leeching ammonia and then triggering the algae. Once the cycle of plants deteriating is started its a testing time to get back on track but well worth it.
2 months ago my tank had the same algae as you!!!. It was due to the fact I have just moved home and I rescaped at the same time. My plants are mainly Crypts which don't like disturbance and therefore melted. this leeched ammonia and the algae took hold. 2 months on and loads of leaves removed as soon as they were seen in anything but tip top condition here it is now.
There are still patches of algae in there but it is receding. So don't give up. Once you find out what the cause is you will really start to love the hobby.
Cannister filters don't need cleaning every week. Monthly with a heavy fishload should be fine and not reduce the flow any!!!.
If you want to see if it is the phosphate then don't dose phosphate for a week. keep dosing nitrate, potassium and trace and son't make any other changes. phosphate should be the only one you change. You should see algae increase rather than decrease because you will now be causing a defficiency.
If your sister in law has good results then ask her about her whole setup and try to compare the 2 tanks like for like. See if there is a difference that is causing a problem. We already know your lights are much higher than hers. High lights are often a problem especially with new tanks or inexperienced planters because light drives the plants to grow faster and defficiencies cause the algae to grow at a much faster rate. This then gives you less time to react to the defficiency which means the algae keeps on top of you. This is what you are experiencing!!
If you really want to get on top of the problem try cutting the light right down 1 tube and then tinkering with what you are doing with regard to ferts and CO2 (one thing at a time). Keep manually removing and be patient give the tank time to see if there are effects before tinkering with something else. this lets you rule things out. i.e. Is phosphate causing the problem. stop dosing phosphate. If the problem remains or increase then you can rule phosphate out as the problem etc.
At the end of the day nutrients never cause algae. What you need to do is find out what is triggering the algae because if you remove the nutrients, you remove the plant's food too which causes...you guessed it...more algae.
Ammonia is what causes algae and we remove it with water changes. Fishload is not the only cause of ammonia and the filter should be able to cope with the ammonia theplants don't take up. The problem is normally deteriating plants leeching ammonia and then triggering the algae. Once the cycle of plants deteriating is started its a testing time to get back on track but well worth it.
2 months ago my tank had the same algae as you!!!. It was due to the fact I have just moved home and I rescaped at the same time. My plants are mainly Crypts which don't like disturbance and therefore melted. this leeched ammonia and the algae took hold. 2 months on and loads of leaves removed as soon as they were seen in anything but tip top condition here it is now.
There are still patches of algae in there but it is receding. So don't give up. Once you find out what the cause is you will really start to love the hobby.
Hi
Thanks for the long reply its much appreciated. i have kept fish for a long time now from goldfish to saltwater fish with corals and anemones to Discus. and i have never had a problem. but god this planted stuff is not easy .not sure which way to go now. if i where to just run one tube on this tank how long would the plants last with only one light over them? would they not just die over a few days. would they still need the ferts and co2. or i could cut the lights down by another tube and just run the two T5s giving me 110 watts of light and keep the ferts going as normal and see what happens. But the last time i only ran two tubes the plants never pearled at all. there are so many different angels to this planted aquarium its enough to drive a man to drink
Thanks for the long reply its much appreciated. i have kept fish for a long time now from goldfish to saltwater fish with corals and anemones to Discus. and i have never had a problem. but god this planted stuff is not easy .not sure which way to go now. if i where to just run one tube on this tank how long would the plants last with only one light over them? would they not just die over a few days. would they still need the ferts and co2. or i could cut the lights down by another tube and just run the two T5s giving me 110 watts of light and keep the ferts going as normal and see what happens. But the last time i only ran two tubes the plants never pearled at all. there are so many different angels to this planted aquarium its enough to drive a man to drink
When i said my plants where pearling i mean that i had a lot of bubbles that seem to come from the sand and there where only a few plants that seemed to have very small bubbles coming from the leafs. but most of them come from the sand. is that how pearling should be ? or should it all be coming from the plants.
Thanks
Thanks
SuperColey1
Planted Section
pearling is when the plant produces bubbles of oxygen from its leaves.
There are other causes for 'false' pearling:
Water changes bringing oxygen into the water which 'catches' under leaves and hardscape before eventually rising.
CO2 bubbles can catch under the leaves too.
Pearling doesn't come from the substrate, this will be due to oxygen being released either from substrate movement, digging fishh, growing roots etc.
People assume that all healthy tanks pearl. This is not the case. pearling occurs when a plant produces excess oxygen. This only normally happens in high light tanks. Low light tanks can get pearling but only of certain plants and more often than not no pearling at all.
You should be able to get away with 1 tube. Is it the length of the tank? The plants would need to adapt to the change in light first and you may see them deteriate a little before they improve and you will get more algae initially. After they do get used to it then manually removing the algae should be easier as it will grow slower with lower light. The plants will also grow slower but due to the slower growth you will be ensuring that as you try to rule each possible problem out that the algae doesn't get beyond control.
Ammonia is the known cause of algae and I would gues if you are seeing bubbles from the substrate then this is where the ammonia is leeching from. digging fish, human inteference etc with the substrate will let ammonia out.
I only use 0.9WPG all day apart from 2 hours where I add an extra 0.6WPG so even in this 2hour period 1.5WPG. Your tank is bigger so you shouldn't have to use so much light.
This is my tank
Andy
There are other causes for 'false' pearling:
Water changes bringing oxygen into the water which 'catches' under leaves and hardscape before eventually rising.
CO2 bubbles can catch under the leaves too.
Pearling doesn't come from the substrate, this will be due to oxygen being released either from substrate movement, digging fishh, growing roots etc.
People assume that all healthy tanks pearl. This is not the case. pearling occurs when a plant produces excess oxygen. This only normally happens in high light tanks. Low light tanks can get pearling but only of certain plants and more often than not no pearling at all.
You should be able to get away with 1 tube. Is it the length of the tank? The plants would need to adapt to the change in light first and you may see them deteriate a little before they improve and you will get more algae initially. After they do get used to it then manually removing the algae should be easier as it will grow slower with lower light. The plants will also grow slower but due to the slower growth you will be ensuring that as you try to rule each possible problem out that the algae doesn't get beyond control.
Ammonia is the known cause of algae and I would gues if you are seeing bubbles from the substrate then this is where the ammonia is leeching from. digging fish, human inteference etc with the substrate will let ammonia out.
I only use 0.9WPG all day apart from 2 hours where I add an extra 0.6WPG so even in this 2hour period 1.5WPG. Your tank is bigger so you shouldn't have to use so much light.
This is my tank
Andy
very nice tank you have there mate. wish i had one like that 
SuperColey1
Planted Section
This is a tank still with loads of algae BUT it is under control.
There is more than usual due to my lapses in my routine during the last 2 months (redecorating whole house) which has meant I have very similar algae to you around the moss, anubias and some on the tall crypts to the right.
I have kept on top of dosing, water changes and CO2 over the past 2 weeks and it is gradually declining but still there.
(p.s. the pic is of course after I had remove a whole handful of coarse green clado)
a month or so more and it should be back to naturally algae free (meaning minimal as there is no such thing as no algae)
This is what I mean by patience. 3 months when I already know how much to dose and that my circulation is spot on etc.
You still have to find your balance so it could take longer than 3 months BUT once you find that balance you will never look back.
Its a much prouder moment when you show someone your tank knowing how hard it is to get to that stage rather than getting it right first time. You will also have much more knowledge gained if anything occurs at a later date than the person who never had the problem.
Experience is always better than theory!! Its easy to get advice but it takes your experimenting to find which is the right advice. In this hobby it is hard to give the right advice because there are so many variables but we can give you pointers.
This is my tank at various stages over the last year with staghorn and all sorts of other algae in there (plus the last which is the last time I let it get out of control) The problem was......................too much light and poor circulation/CO2!!!
Andy
There is more than usual due to my lapses in my routine during the last 2 months (redecorating whole house) which has meant I have very similar algae to you around the moss, anubias and some on the tall crypts to the right.
I have kept on top of dosing, water changes and CO2 over the past 2 weeks and it is gradually declining but still there.
(p.s. the pic is of course after I had remove a whole handful of coarse green clado)
a month or so more and it should be back to naturally algae free (meaning minimal as there is no such thing as no algae)
This is what I mean by patience. 3 months when I already know how much to dose and that my circulation is spot on etc.
You still have to find your balance so it could take longer than 3 months BUT once you find that balance you will never look back.
Its a much prouder moment when you show someone your tank knowing how hard it is to get to that stage rather than getting it right first time. You will also have much more knowledge gained if anything occurs at a later date than the person who never had the problem.
Experience is always better than theory!! Its easy to get advice but it takes your experimenting to find which is the right advice. In this hobby it is hard to give the right advice because there are so many variables but we can give you pointers.
This is my tank at various stages over the last year with staghorn and all sorts of other algae in there (plus the last which is the last time I let it get out of control) The problem was......................too much light and poor circulation/CO2!!!
Andy
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