I am a plant moron

[kjr928]

A little help please?

I have a planted 46g with 2 good sized swords, a bunch of sparse vals (which used to be super healthy 6ft. long vals until I got them), some kind of plant that's tied to the driftwood and some other little doodads & I have no idea what they are.

I have all these bottles of stuff (nitrogen, phosphorus, trace, comprehensive supplement, iron, potassium & also root tabs). I use them all according to the directions, but probably not as often as I'm supposed to.

I have a 150w Halide & it's usually on for about 10hrs a day, give or take. I never set up my CO2 system, but I'm going to.

I also have an out of control brown/black hair algae problem all over the plants.

So, as per someone's suggestion, on Saturday I uprooted all my plants and took all the decor out of my tank and breifly soaked everything with Prime, rinsed with tank water, and replanted.

This was very upsetting to my fish. Two commited suicide, one by wedging itself in a rock and one has mysteriously disappeared.

The algae is looking somewhat different now, hopefully those fish have not died in vain.

It's quite obvious that I'm going about this wrong. My plants are kind of looking crappy and haven't grown at all and with the algae and everything I'm surprised there's anything left!

Any help to improve my situation would be greatly appreciated. I admit I'm a total ignoramus about this subject. Wow, this post is too long already. Thanks!

 

[phanmc]

First order of business is to set up that CO2 system, with that much lighting CO2 is a requirement. I hope your CO2 system is a pressurized system, the DIY yeast method will not be enough for your tank.

Second, it doesn't sound like you have a lot of plants. If you stock heavily with plants, you'll have a much easier time fighting algae.

Thirdly, the recommendations on the fertilizer bottles are mostly for low light setups. You have a high light setup and will need to dose much more. This can get expensive in a 46g tank so I highly recommend learning to use dry fertilizers. Check out www.rexgrigg.com to learn and buy.

 

[kjr928]

Thanks Phanmc, yes it is a pressurized CO2 system, I will try to get that up and going this week (better figure out how first!!!)

I definitely want to add more plants - but first I want to make sure that my hair algae has been killed or it might start growing on the new stuff. I guess I will find out this week - it is already starting to look different.

I will read up on dry fertilizers!