Help, yellowing plants

[texyank]

I am not new to fish keeping, but I am new to planted tanks. My 55 gallon tank has been up and running for about two months. I was not seeing significant growth and the plants were starting to turn yellow so I added a CO2 system. It has been operating for about 9 days. It took a little tweaking, but my drop checker now indicates a CO2 level of 26-30 ppm. I have seen no change in the plants so did some research on fertilization, both macro and micro. There is a lot of conflicting information so I'm not entirely sure what my problem is or how to correct it. I have also developed some green algae in the last 10 days or so on the glass and wood (one large manzanita stump, two medium mopani rootwood). I do 30% water changes weekly. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Specs are listed below.

Plants:
Substrate is 2-3.5" of Eco-complete
16-18 Sagittaria Subulata - Growing well, good color, spreading but not particularly quickly
12-14 Micro swords - Spread well at first now turning yellow and not spreading
11 Narrow leaf chain swords - Planted 10 originally, also turning yellow
Approx 18 sq inches of dwarf baby tears - have not spread nor died off, slightly yellow
8 sq inches dwarf hairgrass - just starting to spread but not as bright green as it was at first

Water specs:
pH 6.6
gKH 5
GH 150
KH 140
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

Lighting:
Coralife Aqualight with 4 65w, 6700k compact fluorescents
Light is 1.5" above tank
Light operates from 8 am - 6 pm
CO2 operates from 7 am - 5 pm

Livestock:
10 Cardinal tetras
5 Lemon tetras
6 Otos
2 Pitbull Plecos
2 Siamese algae eaters

Equipment:
Pressurized CO2 system
Fluval 305 canister filter
In-line ETH heater

 

[The Zigman]

Are you using any ferts?

Most swords are root feeders so you could try some root tabs for them.

Chcek out MG's website for affordable ferts
http://www.bobstropicalplants.com/shop/en/

 

[jpappy789]

With CO2 and good lighting I would also think maybe some nutrients are lacking. I would suggest getting dry ferts and reading into the EI dosing method, myself. I found it to be an easy way to make sure you are covering all the bases but it also allows for tweaking if you feel like you are over or under dosing anything.

From the looks of it you really only have some typical carpeting or more foreground plants. Getting some quick growing stem plants established early will help keep algae at bay as well.

 

[texyank]

Part of the issue is that I'm unsure of what I should be doing.

I was under the impression that the Eco-complete had everything I needed. It's only been in the last week or so that I realized this isn't the case. The problem for me is the conflicting information I'm finding.

I've been told I have high light; I've been told I have moderate light. I've been told all swords are heavy root feeders; I've been told that micro swords and chain swords are NOT heavy root feeders.

I've been told I need high light for the dwarf baby tears; I've been told that moderate light is enough.

I was even told that all my plants are carpet plants, yet my Sagittaria subulata is 12-15" tall. I'm not frustrated yet, but I am confused about all the differing opinions.

There doesn't seem to be a consensus on light and ferts.

In light of all that here's what I have done in the last couple days.

Friday morning I purchased Aqueon Aquarium plant food which contains both macro and micro nutrients. It was on sale and I figured I didn't have anything to lose. I dosed the tank with it at the prescribed level. I also added Flourish nitrogen and phosphorus. Saturday I turned off half the lights.

This morning I have new hairgrass coming up through the substrate and significant new bright green growth on the baby tears! Micro swords and chain swords appear to be sending out new runners. The sagittaria was never affected so its about the same.

For now, I'm going to leave the light level where it is and continue dosing per bottle instructions while I watch the results. I am very encouraged today.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll keep you updated.

 

[bradlgt21]

Eco complete is nice but I dont' believe it comes with nutrients in it. It just absorbs them well and releases them to the plants. I would suggest root tabs until you have had the tank setup for a long enough period of time for stuff to start building up in the substrate to give off nutrients.

 

[Riiz]

Sounds like nutrient deficiencies, when I get plants that lose color, I up the potassium and magnesium dosing.

Plus that is alot of light for that volume of water, which is also compounded by the fact that you do not dose nutrients. Look into the Sticky at the top of this forum for EI dosing, before your aqaurium turns into an algae farm.