cycling planted tank question..

[Marx]

im cycling the 125g and was wondering why im getting algae on wood and glass already?

i have plants in the tank dwarf sag, anubias, hygro.. and their all growing towards the light source lol..

some of the anubias are getting fine hair algae on them..

i haven't added any chemicals to tank..

the intake tube for the filter have brown algae on them... almost like a diatom algae..

and i just rubbed off a brown powder algae of a spot in the glass..

the driftwood now has light green spots and rusty coloured spots on it..

i have 2 fiters running.. rena xp3 and fluval 304. lots of flow in he tank..

lighting is 260w PC..  11 hour cycle..  9 with 260watts and 2 with 130 watts.. daylight type setup..

any suggestions?

oh yeahi have 10 Z.Danios swimming with the plants..  :wink:

[BigDaddy]

The brown algae is common in a newly planted tank.  Some otos or a bushynose will clear that up quickly.

Typically, you don't add ferts to a new tank until the plants get established.  If you have.. stop for now.

Have you started the CO2 on that tank yet Marx?

[Marx]

nope haven't started co2 yet picking it up tonight..

any help would be appreciated lol..

[BigDaddy]

Get the CO2 up and running ASAP.  Target around 25ppm of CO2 during lights on.

With the lighting and CO2 out of the way... half the battle is done!  Everyone screws up lighting (not enough).  Your fine.  The next big screw up is CO2.  Get your CO2 at 25ppm and you'll be surprised how quickly things will happen.

Then you have to focus on nitrate.  You want to always have 5 to 10ppm of nitrate in the tank.  If the tank is still cycling, no problems... plants preferred nitrogen source is ammonia.

Get the CO2 going... and then we will go from there.

[Marx]

Thank you.