Black Algae Problem

Redid Tank

Well, I finally broke down and reworked the whole tank on the weekend. I've got a flourite bottom with a layer of gravel on top. I've got probably 30 plants in it. Does this look like enough plants or should I have more? When should I start using fertilizer for the plants? I bought a bottle of Seachem Flourish. Is this all I need or are there other nutrients that I should be using as well?

Thanks
Tim
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You have a little problem. Some of those plants are not true aquatic plants, and they will never grow, just rot and ruin everything for you. Get rid of them. I'm talking about the longish-leaved plants, with the silver edges. Also the spiky silver plant in the back. I'm not sure what you have in the foreground on the left side of the picture. Hopefully it's a crypyt (Crytocoryne species), but you may want to make sure it's aquatic. A good place to start is www.tropica.com for plant ID. Other sites also useful, so a search on google or post close-ups and we'll ID them for you.

So, once you take those out, get more of the Hygrophila. It's the lacey-looking one, third one from the right in the pic. It'll grow really fast and help you out with algae. The other Hygros you had before were good too, minus the algae of course. Also get more of the fluffly-looking stem plants. The one in the back left looks like Cabomba. Needs a fair bit of light but grows fast. The other fluffy stem plants could be Limnophila or Myriophyllum, can't really tell.

Use Flourish ASAP. Hope you're adding CO2 as well. Sorry I didn't really go back in all your previous posts. Adding potassium will help a lot, it's usually lacking in tap water. It's easiest to get a bottle of Flurish Potassium for now, and dose about 10 times what the bottle says. You'll want around 20ppm. (A cheaper alternative is salt substitute, NoSalt or NuSalt, potassium chloride. I always forget what the other one is, K2SO4 I think, check in the sticky at the top of the forum).

Good luck! Get rid of the fake plants and get lots more real ones.

Edit. Oh, thank god you got rid of that blue gravel. Flourite will be good for you!
 
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10X better.
Yes, get rid of that **** corn plant and the mondo grass.

You are on the road to growing plants.
Keep it up.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
The silver plants you are talking about are the 3 in the front right? And the 2 long leafed ones are the silver ones in the back? Those are all real plants. Hopefully Super Pet didn't sell me plants that aren't aquatic. Here are some more closeup pics. Should I be overdosing the Seachem Flourish or just the potassium?

Thanks again,
Tim
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They're not aquatic for sure. Sorry, I called them fake meaning they're not aquatic. I see them around here too, and it's really sad. Get rid of them (the silvery ones - both kinds). And if you're that kind of person, give the LFS people a piece of your mind.

Don't overdose the Flourish. You can overdose traces to a certain extent, but too much can be toxic (trace metals are called trace for a reason), and you don't need a lot anyway. Don't overdose at all for now.

As for the potassium, you need a lot. It will get expensive, so you'll have to look into another source. There's a thread going right now, it should be near the top. For now, if you have Flourish K, they give a little equation to calculate how much to dose to get a specific concentration. The concentration you want is 20ppm (=20 mg/L). Just plug in your tank size, and calculate.
 
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Remove those plants, add about 5x as many plants as you have now.

Folks often make the mistake of not adding enough plants from the very start.

More plants=> less algae.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
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