55g planted tank, plants yellowing.. help

[lemonlime]

Hi Everyone, great forum you have here!

I got a fantastic deal on an entire 55g setup a couple of months ago from an LFS doing some renovations. I got two filters, stand, heater, substrate, fantastic lighting and more. They even threw in several large pieces of drift wood covered in plants, that literally almost cover the entire bottom of the tank. The plants rooted right into the wood and rocks. They looked beautiful.

They looked beautiful when I got it setup, but a couple of months later, they are yellowing, and seem to look generally unwell. Some of the leaves are beginning to curl. I'm unsure of the plant types, so I'll see if I can get a picture later. I'd love for some help ID'ing them actually.

Anyhow, I have also been fighting a real battle with beard/hair algae, and even have some brown aglae forming on some of the leaf tips. I'm guessing that this may very well be related. I always keep up with my weekly water changes, and generally, the water quality is very good at all times.

Things I have just recently done to date:
Placed lighting on a timer, to restrict lighting to 11 hours per day. Hopefully this will help with the algae problem as well.
I just started weekly dosing of liquid fert. that I picked up from my LFS. I am unsure if this is sufficient. I'll try to get some more info on the fert when I get home.

Could this also be a because the plant roots are not in my substrate, but rather in open water, attached to the driftwood/rocks?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I'd love it if these plants could recover and flourish. They really are very beautful in the tank. Also, could CO2 help?

Here are some facts about my tank that may be relevant:

55 Gallons
w/d/h 48x13x20
Lighting: 3x48" fl. very bright, unsure of wattage. >1.5W/g I would assume.
Fish: 4x Bronze Cory Cats, 1x Pleco, 2x Skunk Loaches, 1x Chinese Algae Eater. (all bottom feeders for now, they do not seem to be interested in eating the plants, and they all seem very healthy)
Filtration: Fluval 404 & Aquaclear 500
Temperature: 77F
pH: 8.0 (is this too high? although I am unsure how accurate my test kit is)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5

<EDIT> I found a picture of the tank not long after it was setup (see attachment). There were no fish a the time of this photo. Anyone have any ideas about the types of plants there?

 

[phanmc]

Are your lights power compact fluorescent or the regular fluorescents in shoplights? Putting the lights on a timer is good, how did you usually leave the light on before?

Common plants that can attach to wood and rock are java fern (long slender leaves), java moss (bushy strands that look almost like algae), and various types of anubias (broad leafs). They're fine just attached to the wood and may even die if you plant them too deep into the gravel. Are the plants attached to the wood the only plants you have? They are slow growers and have a hard time competing with algae by themselves. See if your LFS has any hornwort, water sprite, or water wisteria. They're fast growers and great at outcompeting algae for nutrients.

Edit: Yeah, looks like alot of java ferns with an Anubias barteri in the middle. Nice tank BTW

 

[midiamin]

Hmmmmmmm! Bearded algae? Curling leaves. Sounds like a water quality issue to me. What's your water quality coming out of your water source? I'm probably wrong but those are good placed to start checking.

thePlantMan cometh..............

 

[djlen]

phanmc seems to have the plant type and habit right on.
From your description, it sounds like your plants are hungry and have stopped growing at optimum rate. This has aided algae growth.
You don't mention CO2, but you can pick up some Seachem Excel along with some Flourish for an emergency carbon source and traces. Then you will need a good all-purpose nutrient source of N,P and K. Dose everything as directed on the bottles and you should see an improvement in plants color immediately and growth over time.
I have 2 55's and the Excel will work for you in the short term, but over the long haul will be costly to use so you really should look into supplementing your carbon in a more cost effective way. Assuming that your wattage is 1.5 wpg NO (normal fluorescent) you should be able to get control over these issues in short order if you're persistent with the above suggestions.
Are you performing water changes on a weekly basis? This will help with the algae issues as well. The beard algae will fade with regular use of Excel.
Get the plants growing well and you won't have to worry about shortening your photo period. That has little to do with algae issues.
Get yourself a phosphate test kit. You need this to test your tap water for P and also test it for N to see what it's giving you with your water changes.
With 1.5 wpg the suggested light dosing should work well for you with your slow growing (but very nice ) plants.

Len

 

[midiamin]

All bases covered!

thePlantMan goeth away.............

 

[jeep8rus]

You can also break up the lighting intervals to 5 on, 2 off, 5 on to help the plants outcompete. Algae takes longer to get up to speed while plants are almost instant.

-Russ

 

[lemonlime]

Thank you very much for your quick replies, and helpful advice..

Are your lights power compact fluorescent or the regular fluorescents in shoplights? Putting the lights on a timer is good, how did you usually leave the light on before?

I used to leave the lighting on for almost 16 hours per day until I got the timer. I took a look at the bulbs, and here are the specifics: (I have 3 of these btw). The balast is the non-flickering type, and they power on immediatly every time.

General Electric Aqua Rays
Fresh and Salt Water
32 watts
F32WT8-AR-FS

So I guess that works out to 1.75w/g roughly.

Are you performing water changes on a weekly basis? This will help with the algae issues as well. The beard algae will fade with regular use of Excel.

I do a water change every weekend, and my nitrates are usually low. I will definitely look around for some Excel and Flourish to get some carbon into the tank. I have been contemplating a DIY CO2 reactor, perhaps that would be a good long-term solution.

Yeah, looks like alot of java ferns with an Anubias barteri in the middle. Nice tank BTW

Thanks! .. I will check around for some faster growing plants to help as suggested as well.

Get yourself a phosphate test kit. You need this to test your tap water for P and also test it for N to see what it's giving you with your water changes.

I'll try to pick one up soon.


Thanks again everyone

 

[lemonlime]

A new update on my situation..

Hi Everyone,

I've followed some of the advice given, and I have been dosing Flourish Excel and some liquid Traces, and I have already noticed some changes after only a week.

My algae growth appears to have greatly slowed down! I used to have to pull huge tuff's of beard algae out at least twice per week. It has been about a week, and I have had to remove very little algae.

My plants do not appear much greener yet, however they are not getting worse either. Which I believe is a good thing There is a small improvement in color.

I was pleased to see some of my java moss actually start to 'take off' and grow rather rapidly on some of my drift wood, which was once covered in algae. There was only very small patches of it previously, and within a week, I have some rather rapid growth occuring.

I understand that flourish excel is a good short-term carbon source, but I'm wondering what I should begin looking into for more of a long-term solution? Is a DIY CO2 reactor my best bet? I can see why flourish excel is expensive, as I've already used a good amount after only a week.

Anyone have any further suggestions?

Also, I was wondering if someone could provide some oppinions on the lighting I mentioned in my previous post? These bulbs came with the package deal, so I'm not sure if they are suitable for my tank.

Thanks again for the helpful advice!

 

[djlen]

You don't mention an 'all purpose' fertilizer for your macro elements(N-P-K).
Are you using one?
Other than the Excel you are not going to have to dose a lot of extra nutrients, but you do want a balance of all of them for optimum results.
Pressurized CO2 would be the ideal way to go for a carbon source, but I used DIY CO2 for a couple of years before switching over to pressurized with nice results.

Len

 

[phanmc]

For a 55g tank, a pressurized CO2 tank setup would be the best choice but the setup cost is pricey. Your plants are low light plants so a DIY yeast setup should be sufficient, here's a nice guide .

Your lights are fine for the current setup. They're T8 NO fluorescents, which are a little better than the traditional T12 shoplights that the wpg rule is based on. The kelvin rating (color temperature) is 5000k, meaning it's considered a full spectrum light that is whiter than incandescents and cool white bulbs. The Kelvin rating isn't really important for plant growth but if the light appears a little too yellow for your tastes you can switch to ones with a higher kelvin rating.