need help with plants

BadRoma1

BadRoma1

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Nov 29, 2005
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please, i need your help again. i upgraded my lights as you recomended up to 104W over my 55 gallons tank. but brown algae and also black algae is back on leaves of my plants. i add potassium, flourish, and just started adding excel to give growth boost. i had black algae on leaves before and i thoght that it was because of not enogh light. why is it back? my plants are growing well, but not all of them. for some reason few can't take off at all. the bulbs are two T8 and one T12. i also have lots of fish. parameters are good, but nitrates are to the roof.
 
1st of all, how many water changes per week are you doing? You have Discus, right? You have a big bio load. You are probably overfeeding as well. High No3 indicates this, which means that you should do frequent water changes. How high is the No3, by the way?

Have you tested for Po4, gh, and such? If you haven't, please do so. Test your tap and tank.

You have roughly 1.89 wpg on your tank. That's considered low light IMO. On top of that, your tank is about 20 inches high. You need good light penetration. You might want to consider getting compact fluorescent (CF) bulbs instead of the ones you currently have.

Unless you have a balance in your tank, your plants won't be able to take care of the No3. Diatoms are another matter. Otos can help a great deal, but you already have too many fish in your tank so that's out of the question. Diatoms can last for many months until your water stabilizes. Don't expect your plants to take care of this, it will go away on it's own. In the meantime, just wipe it off correct the other problems that you have and be patient.

I'd like to see this black algae that you say you have. Can you post a picture of the plants? This would really help.
 
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Roma - the brown algae you are referring to is probably diatoms. If I remember correctly your tank has not been set up long and new tanks are subject to this soft, brown algae. It goes away as the tank matures. Otocinclas cats are also good at removing it from glass and plant leaves along with you physically cleaning it off.
Here is an article that can help you identify what the 'black' algae is that you're currently experiencing:
http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9
Check it out and see if you see yours there. When you ask for help it would help us if you could include as much information as possible.
Information like types of plants, plant mass (how many plants), water parameters (pH, gH etc. Nitrates "through the roof" is of no help at all. Have you measured them and if so how many ppm? Have you measured anything else, such as phosphates?
If you have test kits, test for N and P and pH and anything else you can and post the results of the testing so we can help you. Test both tank and tap so we can see what your getting when you do your water changes.
Algae is caused mostly by an imbalance of one of the major areas......fish,light,nutrients,plants. Once you find the balance of these elements for your tank it will start to clear for you. I'm not there to see it, so you need to fill us in on the tank.
BTW, if you can take a picture it would be of great help.

Len
 
o.k. i'll work on the pictures today. the balance is what i'm looking for. i do have light fixture, but it had no bulbs in it when i got it and i lost the reciept, i just didn't open the box for some time because i needed to ajust few things before i could put lights over my tank. but anyway, i don't test for some things, but my nitrates are 40ppm. i see that i have spot algae, diatoms, but that black one even though looks like that does come off if i do lite brushing with the tooth brush, and they said that you can't get it off leaves without removing the leaf. also i don't know the names of my plants, but two are different types of anubias and few other from the class of crypts(like 3 types)
 
IMO 40 ppm of nitrates sounds too high for a planted aquarium. What sort of water change schedule are you on and does the water your adding to the aquarium have nitrates in it? Anubias are pretty slow growers under pretty much all conditions and crypt species also tend to be on the slow growing side. Do you have any stem type plants? Yes if you don't know the names of all your plants pictures will generally tell the tale.
 
i can't download the pictures. o.k. i guess i'll never have a balanced tank. i don't even know what else i need to add to the tank and what other test kits i need. also i have no more room for anymore light. i do water changes and i use ro/di water that tests 5ppm in nitrates. here is the fish that i have: 9 cardinals tetras, one other kind tetra, 6 rosy barbs, 2 discus, 1 eel 3" long, 1 cherry barb, 1 glow fish, 4 corries, 2 yellow rams, 3 3" sharks, 2 guppies. soon i will need to find a better and bigger home for two of the sharks, when they get bigger. maybe i will get tired of the whole thing and get rid of all my plants, i'm thinking about it. i also add potassium, trace, nourish, and i started adding excel, but i guess without more light the plants can't do anything with it anyway.
 
it looks like oner of my anubias is congensis and one of the other plants is wendtii. i'm still looking for the names of other.
 
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