I've been lurking on these forums for awhile and learned alot! So thanks! I decided it was finally time to say hello.
I've always kept fish, but just recently ventured into the planted part realm. I am really enjoying it, but have a few nagging problems that just won't go away and I'm hoping someone may have some suggestions/advice.
First and foremost problem (picture below), many of the plants I get look absolutely great when I get them, but seem to just grow weak and die over time (there are a few exceptions). The tank is a 30 gallon bow-front with a black flourite substrate. I fertilize it with a few drops of FlorinMulti every day, and am also adding CO2 every couple days by the use Sera tabs. The tank has 48 watts of T5 lighting, one 10k and one 6,700k bulb. I understand that 2 watts per gallon or more is a generally accepted rule and I'm only sitting at about 1.7, but before I go out and buy a more expensive T5 setup I wanted to confirm my suspiscion that I may not have enough light.
You can see how the plant is semi-transparent as it weakens with dying baby leaves and tips of mature leaves.
The second problem I'm having is thread algae. Drives me crazy since it's shown up a month or so ago. I prefer not to add any new fish and am nervous about adding extra light to solve the above problem only to make the thread algae worse. The heavily planted tanks I've seen at the local high end fish stores have zero algae problems like this and my goal is to equal theirs in looks and health. Any ideas on how to reduce the hair algae? My hunch is that since the plants aren't growing well, and I'm fertilizing the tank daily that I have an excess of iron. My test continues to show 0ppm but I have a feeling it's wrong.
Ewwww, algae!
Thanks for your time.
I've always kept fish, but just recently ventured into the planted part realm. I am really enjoying it, but have a few nagging problems that just won't go away and I'm hoping someone may have some suggestions/advice.
First and foremost problem (picture below), many of the plants I get look absolutely great when I get them, but seem to just grow weak and die over time (there are a few exceptions). The tank is a 30 gallon bow-front with a black flourite substrate. I fertilize it with a few drops of FlorinMulti every day, and am also adding CO2 every couple days by the use Sera tabs. The tank has 48 watts of T5 lighting, one 10k and one 6,700k bulb. I understand that 2 watts per gallon or more is a generally accepted rule and I'm only sitting at about 1.7, but before I go out and buy a more expensive T5 setup I wanted to confirm my suspiscion that I may not have enough light.
You can see how the plant is semi-transparent as it weakens with dying baby leaves and tips of mature leaves.
The second problem I'm having is thread algae. Drives me crazy since it's shown up a month or so ago. I prefer not to add any new fish and am nervous about adding extra light to solve the above problem only to make the thread algae worse. The heavily planted tanks I've seen at the local high end fish stores have zero algae problems like this and my goal is to equal theirs in looks and health. Any ideas on how to reduce the hair algae? My hunch is that since the plants aren't growing well, and I'm fertilizing the tank daily that I have an excess of iron. My test continues to show 0ppm but I have a feeling it's wrong.
Ewwww, algae!
Thanks for your time.
