I have 4 tanks, all planted. 3 have flourite 1 has eco complete. 1 of my 29's with flourite has an issue with algae, the others are fine. I treat with the seachem flourish line and have been hesitant to add phosphates to this tank since I already have algae.
Phosphate causing algae has been proven to be wrong by Tom Barr and many others.
Your not dosing any F. Phosphorus (phosphate) may be one of your problems. Missing nutrients or unbalanced nutrients can trigger algae growth. Go ahead and start dosing F. Phosphorus (phosphate). The dosing info is below.
I am using diy co2 big enough for up to a 40 gal tank on the 3 tanks 29,29,36bf. I just removed some hygro from this tank, but it already had the algae problem. It wipes off easily with a green scrubby pad.
Nerite snails may eat this algae. They can't breed in freshwater, but they do lay eggs that don't hatch. They reproduce in saltwater.
Is this a non issue or is there some tweeking to do with my ferts? I dose according to the directions on Wed. and Sat. Use excel every other day.
Your dosing frequency on two products is a problem. You should dose F. Excel and F. Iron daily. They remain available to the plants for around 24 hours and that is it. This available, not available, not available, available, not available, not available, etc routine of dosing these two is causing an up and down swing of nutrient availability.
Do you have Microsoft Office Excel 2003 or 2010? Or, Open Office? I've written a Seachem dosing calculator that is based on the chart below. It is easy to use. Just enter your aquarium size in gallons, hit your Enter key and it tells you how much to dose and on what days. You can move the dosing days around some, but not the dosing frequency. It is based on the Seachem dosing chart below.
Office Excel 2003 version
Office Excel 2010 version (slightly different than the 2003 version)
4 6700k 20 watt bulbs
8 serpae tetras, 5 emerald cories, 5 otos
2 AC 50's
How many hours do you run your lighting? If it is 12 hours or more, try running it 8 to 10 hours per day until the algae problem is fixed.
Also, you have 2.76 wpg on your 29g. This may be a bit too much for DIY CO2. Running two light bulbs with DIY CO2 may be another option if you are running them 8 to 10 hours and have a problem. Or, you may want to go pressurized. When you do try pressurized CO2, you will be throwing rocks at your DIY yeast/sugar and wondering why you didn't try it sooner.
Java moss, anubias bartieri, anubias nana, jungle vals, cork screw vals, a bunch plant with reddish colored leaves I can't remember, a corkscrew grass plant I can't remember. and another plant that came in with some snails I never new what it was but I've pruned and planted several times. sorry for lack of info.
The info is just terrific. You explained your situation very well. I'll bet that it is a very pretty tank w/o the algae as well as the others.
