Brown Algae

[crupp29]

My suggestions back in post #16 still apply. The sword in the right rear corner will greatly improve with a Flourish Tab inserted near the crown once every 3 months. The Java Fern is in direct light and being a low-light slow growing plant, this can cause problems. Floating plants will help here.

Do I still need to use a liquid fertilizer in addition to the Flourish Tab and floating plants? If so, are there any specific ones you would recommend?

 

[Byron]

Do I still need to use a liquid fertilizer in addition to the Flourish Tab and floating plants? If so, are there any specific ones you would recommend?

At the moment, only the stem plant in the rear left might benefit, but this is a very tiny plant and the danger is that liquid fertilizer which disperses throughout the water will feed algae. I would wait until things are cleaned up, and you have some floating plants if you can find any (Water Sprite, Water Lettuce, Frogbit are all good floaters). If a supplement is then needed (nutrients come from the organics produced by fish feeding) the Flourish Comprehensive Supplement for the Planted Aquarium would be one, but too much of this can increase algae. The Flourish Tab for the sword is a different issue; first, it does not release nutrients into the water column so algae is not encouraged, and the sword plants are heavy root feeders so they greatly benefit from a tab.