Major Algae Problems- Please Help!

[CinnamonPearl]

My 38 gallon aquarium has been having algae trouble for a long time. But now it's starting to get really bad. My plants are dying out. The anubias were hit the worst and all theirs leaves died except one on each plant. The crypts are slowly melting. The amazon swords' leaves are dying. I'm panicking now because I don't want all my plants to die since I worked so hard on this tank.

The types of algae are green diatom, green spot, and green hair. The tank has two 39W T5HO bulbs running six hours a day, is dosed daily with Excel, and is dosed with nutrients weekly using the EI method. The tank has really heavy filtration. It's not overstocked and the fish are fed every other day. If you want to see the exact stock, check my signature. Does anyone know how I can fix this problem? Thank you.

 

[authmal]

Just out of curiosity, how old are the bulbs for the fixture? They're really only good for about a year.

 

[myswtsins]

Algae = an imbalance in nutrients (including co2 and light). Just have to figure out which one it is and that's the hard part.

What are the parameters? pH, KH, GH, Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, Phosphates, Iron etc? Whatever you can get.
Are you only dosing ferts once a week?
What brand light is it and is it right on top of the aquarium or raised at all?
How much flow do you have? Filters, powerheads?
Are you certain on the diagnoses? Pictures are good.
CO2?
Are you doing 50% WC once a week? Do you vacuum the gravel?
Have you taken any steps to combat this already?
Do you have any fast growing plants?
How old is the tank?
Crypts and swords are heavy root feeders, what kind of substrate do you use? Could it need mineral replenishing? Do you use root tabs?

Sorry for all the questions but it is hard to help without more info, especially because the 3 types of algae you listed all have different causes. Some generalizing though, anubias probably has a lot of the green spot right? That mean you need less light and/or more co2, particularly for that plant.

More generalizing....
~A few days to a week of a shorter light cycle usually helps, with diatoms in particular.
~Good flow, clean tank, ample nutrients including stable co2 but lower light has worked well for me and many others (but isn't the only way of course!)
~Pictures are worth a 1000 words!

 

[CinnamonPearl]

Algae = an imbalance in nutrients (including co2 and light). Just have to figure out which one it is and that's the hard part.

What are the parameters? pH, KH, GH, Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, Phosphates, Iron etc? Whatever you can get.
Are you only dosing ferts once a week?
What brand light is it and is it right on top of the aquarium or raised at all?
How much flow do you have? Filters, powerheads?
Are you certain on the diagnoses? Pictures are good.
CO2?
Are you doing 50% WC once a week? Do you vacuum the gravel?
Have you taken any steps to combat this already?
Do you have any fast growing plants?
How old is the tank?
Crypts and swords are heavy root feeders, what kind of substrate do you use? Could it need mineral replenishing? Do you use root tabs?

Sorry for all the questions but it is hard to help without more info, especially because the 3 types of algae you listed all have different causes. Some generalizing though, anubias probably has a lot of the green spot right? That mean you need less light and/or more co2, particularly for that plant.

More generalizing....
~A few days to a week of a shorter light cycle usually helps, with diatoms in particular.
~Good flow, clean tank, ample nutrients including stable co2 but lower light has worked well for me and many others (but isn't the only way of course!)
~Pictures are worth a 1000 words!

I'm only dosing ferts once a week. I dose NO3, PO4, and K. I will start dosing iron but I need to mix the fertilizer.
The light brand is Zoomed and it's raised about two inches over the tank.
I have an Aquaclear 70 filter. I'm not sure what GPH it is. I use a sponge to make the flow less because the output was pummeling the plants.
I'll get pictures soon. The lights are off for the day.
No CO2. I dose Seachem Flourish Excel once a day, but I skip some days. I'm very forgetful.
Yes, I do 50% WC once a week. I don't vacuum the gravel because of the plant roots but I skim over it.
To combat it, I've tried shortening the photoperiod (it used to be longer than 6 hours), syringe-dosing excel on spots with more algae, using floating plants to subdue the lighting (the duckweed ended up making a mess so I took it out), and employing an army of ten otos, six amano shrimp, and several trapdoor snails to eat away what they can. Nothing's working.
The fastest growing plant I have is dwarf hairgrass. The rest are slow-growers.
The tank will be on year old in August.
I'm using eco-complete. I also add root tabs.

Just out of curiosity, how old are the bulbs for the fixture? They're really only good for about a year.

The bulbs are three months old.

 

[myswtsins]

Lights, flow, WCs, Excel, substrate, mature tank all good! Dosing once a week and missing excel sounds like where the problem lies. Dosing once a week causes great fluctuations in the tank. Day 1 after dosing there are a surplus of minerals and everything tries to gobble it up but the plants can't handle it all at once so there is leftover for the algae. As the week goes on the minerals diminish and algae needs are far less the plants so the algae can survive better until the next tidal wave of nutrients come in. This is how you should be dosing with EI.

20-40 Gallon Aquariums
+/- ¼ tsp KN03 3x a week
+/- 1/16 tsp KH2P04 3x a week
+/- 1/16 tsp (5ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change

Do you test the water regularly? I know it is not required of EI dosing but it is can be a great insight when you are having a problem.

And I would recommend getting some fast growing floating plants like pennywort, hornwort, wisteria or frogbit etc for now to help starve out the algae faster and try to keep the nutrients stable throughout the week.

 

[FreshyFresh]

No CO2. I dose Seachem Flourish Excel once a day, but I skip some days. I'm very forgetful.

That's your carbon source right there (CO2).

Like said, skipping days or not dosing enough could very likely be your problem.

You've basically got ~80 watts of T5HO on a 38g, so you'd need a decent amount of your liquid CO2 to keep up I'd think.

 

[CinnamonPearl]

I knew my forgetfulness would be my downfall!

So I'll switch from dosing once a week to three times a week. Does Sunday after the WC, Wednesday, and Friday work?

I'll start the new dosing method this weekend since I already dosed for the week.


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[FreshyFresh]

I knew my forgetfulness would be my downfall!

So I'll switch from dosing once a week to three times a week. Does Sunday after the WC, Wednesday, and Friday work?

I'll start the new dosing method this weekend since I already dosed for the week.

What's the bottle say for dosing of flourish excel?

I know with the API liquid CO2 I use, it's 1mL per 10g, once a day.

 

[myswtsins]

That would be fine but remember to dose your trace nutrients a few minutes after your macros because the iron in the trace reacts with the KH2PO4 and becomes insoluble. I just noticed what I listed didn't include K2SO4, which some forms of EI don't use but include that too at 1/16. A lot of people dose every day but alternate what they dose, example - Monday KNO3, KH2PO4 and K2SO4, Tuesday Traces, Wednsday KNO3, KH2PO4 and K2SO4 etc. But either way works, do what is easiest for you.

 

[authmal]

Take The V's advice (granted, he uses it when he's travelling) and use a pill box. Take the time to set it up for a week or two in advance, and then when Sunday rolls around, dump those in, and so on. If you set up two, you can get around to refilling one sometime during the week, and then it'll be ready to go when the second is empty.