Algae blues revisited... Yikes!

[zima]

Okay, I gave it the best I could on my own, and failed miserably. Here's the rundown of the issue:

It all started from the usual algae issues new tanks get, nothing fancy or too troublesome. Then started EI, the plants/algae struggle got underway; plants seemed to be winning at one point, but I felt something was out of balance (algae was visible and seemed to begetting stronger in some places). I left the tank unattended for 4 days and came back to a whole aglae farm (beautiful colours, never seen before in algae).

A 5-day shutout followed suit, 80% water change. This got rid of some algae, but not all. Black and brown beard algae remained, which was to be expected. Not worried about that. I manually cleaned the remainder of the other algae (green spot, green and brown hair) and started the EI full-on, which was probably a mistake (I read that dosing should be gradual
after a shutout)... The algae - green and brown hair, green spot, black and brown brush - is out of control right now, which is quite literally strangling some plants. So, I'm taking it to you guys  . Help!!!

Current measures:
75 gallon, 2 canister filters (Rena XP3 and Eheim 2213)
Temperature is ~78 degrees.
Lights are at 3.7 watts per gallon (5 x 55 watts T5HO)
CO2    33.2ppm
KH      3.5
PH      6.5
PO4    2.0ppm
NO3   15.0ppm

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[charlie]

I`m intrigued by the parmeters you posted, how & what did you use to measure your phosphate , Nitrate.?
How did you measure your CO2 level ? the point i`m trying to make  is don`t trust hobby test kits , i very very rarely use test kits on my planted tanks, i cannot tell you any parameter on my planted tanks except for PH ( & that`s because i have  continuous digital PH monitor),

I would guess that your CO2 levels are low & probably the root cause of your troubles,i would suggest that you do a good cleaning of your filters, remove as much algae as possible,water change & black out the tank, followed by another manual cleaning & water change.
Then proceed to get you co2 level up to par, followed by slowly bumping up your fert. dosing as the plants start to regroup.
Also keep in mind the more lights you have , the higer the demand for CO2, so you might benefit by losing 1 of the T5 strips, until things settle down.
These are only some  suggestions that may or may not help.
Regards

http://www.rexgrigg.com/Algae1.html

[OttawaFolkFestivum]

you might benefit by losing 1 of the T5 strips

Definitely agree. I'm no expert, but in my tank I have 2.4 wpg and I noticed an improvement when going from 12h to 8h of lighting. Go way down on the lighting - more light = more maintenance (co2, ferts, water changes). Less light, less problems and your plants will be fine. When you have everything dialed in and want to try some demanding plants than turn everything up and keep an eye on it!

Peace out -
Steve.

[zima]

I`m intrigued by the parmeters you posted, how & what did you use to measure your phosphate , Nitrate.?
How did you measure your CO2 level ? the point i`m trying to make  is don`t trust hobby test kits , i very very rarely use test kits on my planted tanks, i cannot tell you any parameter on my planted tanks except for PH ( & that`s because i have  continuous digital PH monitor),

I am using AP testing kits, and I agree that they may not be precise. But this is my only resort in trying to figure out what went wrong. The CO2 was measured using the PH/KH relationship; I should have mentioned that I'm dissolving the CO2 using an inline reactor, achieving a 100% dissolution rate.

The lights - I was thinking of losing one of the T5's for a while. Now I understand this is a necessity! The lights are on for 8.5 hours - should I reduce the time below 8?

As per blackouts - is it healthy to do another one just after I've gone through one already? Would it not completely kill the plants? I lost my glosso and a couple of other plants from the first blackout, so I'm wondering whether it'll be lethal to do another one right away...

Thanks for the replies!

[OttawaFolkFestivum]

Hi Zima -

According to your measurements, you do have lot of CO2 - so you should be able to support higher lighting. You can add more light in the future if you want to try carpet plants...

Less than 8 hours - I don't know...probably not necessary. I think 8h is on the low end.

But I wanted to mention something else...do you have some fast growing plants (hygro? wisteria? duckweed?). Letting them grow will help remove the excess nutrients that are allowing the algae to grow.

[charlie]

Here is the problem with the PH/KH chart, it relies heavily on the only source of buffering being carbonate, if any other buffering agents is present ( such as Phosphate) your reading are can be off.
I personally prefer the 1 PH drop system as a reference point , once i achieve that , i tweak the bubble rate until i see some sort of stress in the fish , at which point i back it off( this is my practice & not telling anyone to do it, I`m not responsible for any damage or loss  )

Something else to keep in mind , when CO 2 levels are not up to par ,plants slow down ,- when plants slow down - excess nutrients build up = algae feast.
Hence the reason a lot of folks blame the fertilizer & cut it back , the trick is getting the plants growing fast enough to uptake what you are adding & the 2 factors to get plants growing are Light & Carbon( more light =more carbon demand) hence the reason low light tanks are not heavily demanding on carbon supplement( CO2).

[cemantic]

I feel for you zima.

My two cents worth is cut the ferts by half, don't stop them totally, scrub everything possible, catch 22 since dust algae will not disappear that way, use a toothbrush or something to wind up the long stuff, clean the filter, I was doing 50% water changes.  The big thing that seemed to work for me was cutting the light by an hour but I had mine on for 11 hours so back to 10, upped the CO2 but I have no fish right now and I think I am now only at about 30 ppm CO2 now anyways though I did have it higher when I started to notice any change.  I did run a UV filter for a day or so with no lights on and the CO2 off.

I also added Aquarium-Pharmaceuticals: Pond Care Stress Coat to neutralize the chlorine and chloramines.  Something in that stuff seems to kill off algae, I used it in the pond and I stopped using it when ALL the algae in the waterfall was totally gone then thought if it did that what about the pond environment and the waterplants were showing up with some yellowing that was not there before.  I just use their water conditioner for the chlorine and chloramines now.

[charlie]

Here is another issue with the KH/PH chart that keeps me away from it, if for example your KH is 3.5 ( assuming that is accurate because if it`s off either way your readings will shift) & the PH is 6.4 , the chart says you have 42PPM of CO2, now if you misread your Ph by 0.2 & the PH is actually 6.6 you now have 26 PPM, what i`m trying to point out is any slight inaccuracy of PH or KH readings & you can easily be mislead as to your actual CO2 levels, not to mention how hard it is to read PH levels by the colour charts in the hobby test kits.

[dan2x38]

For sure it points to CO2 levels. I'd also look at plant concentration EI is for heavily planted tanks. Your pictures show low plant growth in my opinion. I also think those plants were just recently added? It can take weeks for plants to establish after transplanting. During this time up take will be slow.

I think you need to do what Charlie (read under Charlie's avatar) says take 2 steps back... be patient gradually work into the Hi-Tech set-up - careful with lighting until you get plants responding, then start to increase ferts but make sure you have good CO2 dissolution... If I recall you are running DIY diffusion? You are using just the spraybar to return the water with diffused CO2? I think this is an issue.

[zima]

Thanks for all the replies guys! First day into the blackout, will take things very slow once the blackout is over. Will try to keep the thred updated...

[dan2x38]

If you need some clippings PM me.