NEW TO LIVE PLANTS NEED SOME ADVICE!!!

S

Skate3002

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Aug 16, 2009
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i had an all plastic plant set up since i started the tank a few months ago and everything looked good to me for some time until they became completely covered in algea so i decided to try my hand with some live ones after hearing that they will compete with the algea. now the live plants are getting algea growth on them like the plastic ones did. i dont want to kill them... should i be worried and if so what can i do, thanks.

Plants-
Rotala
Dwarf Baby Tears

Fertilizing with Seachem Flourish Ecel (LFS recommended this, will it be sufficient or should i get another product?)

Dont know if it will help but parameters are as follows
Ammonia- 0
nitrite- 0
nitrate- ?20
pH- 8.0
GH- 11º 196.9 ppm
KH- 8º 143.2 ppm

again thanks in advance for any help
 
It helps a lot if we know what your lighting is and how many hours you have it on...and how much sunlight , if any, the tank gets.

For example...the plants MIGHT be fine, but maybe you need to shorten the time the lights are on.
 
kj5kb said:
It helps a lot if we know what your lighting is and how many hours you have it on...and how much sunlight , if any, the tank gets.

For example...the plants MIGHT be fine, but maybe you need to shorten the time the lights are on.
Click to expand...
yes and spectrum (color) would help also. should be listed in K for kelvin or nm for nanometers.

in most cases you would want to dose NPK (macros) and micros in addition to any carbon source.
 
is there any chance you might be overfeeding too? I think the extra nuitriants from that give algae a good excuse to grow.
I'm currently combating a bad algae problem in my planted tank and the culprits were too much light and slight overfeeding. I have cut back on the hours of light, feeding less and dosing flourish excel every other day and it seems to be working really good so far.
 
Erm... What lighting do you have?

What kind of algae is it?
Use this to help ID it
http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

Anyways, you probably have low lighting, which is somewhat helping the plants grow, but it's helping the algae a LOT more than the plants.
And you're probably not keeping track of the time that you leave the lights on... Correct? You should only have them on for about 6 hours a day. Any more time than that, your only helping the algae.

If you have low lights, the fertilizers aren't really helping the plant, sure they help a little, but the algae is eating it at a much faster pace than the plants.


Update us with what type of algae, and how much light you have over the tank (look at the bulb and it should say how many watts it is)
Also, how big is the tank?
 
red_wall said:
Erm... What lighting do you have?

What kind of algae is it?
Use this to help ID it
http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

Anyways, you probably have low lighting, which is somewhat helping the plants grow, but it's helping the algae a LOT more than the plants.
And you're probably not keeping track of the time that you leave the lights on... Correct? You should only have them on for about 6 hours a day. Any more time than that, your only helping the algae.

If you have low lights, the fertilizers aren't really helping the plant, sure they help a little, but the algae is eating it at a much faster pace than the plants.


Update us with what type of algae, and how much light you have over the tank (look at the bulb and it should say how many watts it is)
Also, how big is the tank?
Click to expand...

my tank is the 29 gallon biocube, i took the corallife bulbs out because i intend to try my hand at reef keeping down the road (the way this tank is going it'll be WAY down the road)and i wanted to save them(actinic and 10000k) and replaced them with the lights out of another all in one tank i have but they dont say what they are. they have the same shape as this light http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA...4/cl0/allglass10000ksuperdaylightpclamp55watt and all they say on them is...
FSL
YDW36 - HRR
2007

as far as the algea from that link u gave me it looks like the blue green algea except it grows on everything and long strands will appear one day hanging off everything. it says cyanobacteria can be caused by poor circulation and this stuff grows on the glass right were the returns the water to the main display (directly in font). also what seemed to look like dust floating in the water is actually green when i look close at it. i have the lights on a timer but i let them run 8 hours a day.. i wouldnt have thought 6 hours would be enough.
thanks for the help and if you have any other light suggestions it will be appreciated
 
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The light you have in there is fine, it's a 36 watt, I should've explained the markings a bit more. I have something like that in my ten gallon (well, not really mine, but my girlfriends, I take care of it, so it's basically mine). I honestly think the filter isn't strong enough. My 46 gallon gets 92 watts over it.

Your tank gets 1.2 watts per gallon, mine gets about 2 watts per gallon.
I haven't ever had that type of algae.

How long have you had the plants?
If you've had thm for a few months, then try stopping the fertilizers for awhile.
Stop until you notice yellowing of the leaves, or any change in the look of the plants. Then start adding the ferts again. That way you can tell if the fertilizers are aiding in the algae growth.

Also, when do you change the water, and how much.

You should do at least 20-30% every week. If not, then that's definitely helping the growth.
 
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