Correction: Staghorn Not Bba

[r.w.girard]

So far, my first planted tank [first tank ever], has been algae free [link to my journal]. When I first set it up, it had some, but my otocinclus and ghost shrimp have cleared that up. In the past few weeks, however, I've had some slow growing green dot algae and have been trying to figure out how to get rid of it. I have not been scraping it because it is so slow growing and because I figure that if I do, it will just grow back anyway. But, today, I noticed that I have some black beard algae growing on some of my dwarf sagittaria. I checked out the pinned posts on algae and found that it is a question of CO2 fluctuation [bba] or deficiency [gsa] and phosphate deficiency [gsa]. Makes me a little nervous and so I feel like I need to do something and soon.

So here is the setup:

10 gallon planted tank
15W florescent bulb [in a room with southern exposure but the tank does not get direct light]
Marina S15 filter [with the output an inch about water level]
30% weekly water changes with Seachem Flourish ever other water change

Using API test strips, the water reads at:

pH: 6.5
GH: 120 mg/L
KH: 80 mg/L
NO2: 0 mg/L
NO3: 20 mg/L

As you can see, I am currently not dosing any CO2. What should I do? And not just as a short term plan, but thinking long term, what needs to happen? Any advice would be great!

If they are any help, here are some pictures:

Green Spot Algae:

Black Beard Algae:

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Doesn't need direct light for it to cause problems, if the room gets quite bright natural lighting it will affect your tank, sometime quite drastically. The two tanks in my kitchen are getting some gsa now due to the brightening weather.
I usually do 2 x 25% weekly in the summer in my kitchen tanks and it clears it up quickly.

 

[r.w.girard]

I usually do 2 x 25% weekly in the summer in my kitchen tanks and it clears it up quickly.

Am I to understand that if I scrape the algae off and do more regular water changes, it should not come back? That wouldn't be hard. And the black beard algae? Would more regular water changes help to keep the CO2 constant [fluctuation being a problem]?

 

[r.w.girard]

It seems as I was wrong and was not BBA but Staghorn algae. I bought an airstone to help circulate water to the area in question [which I only plan to use at night], I increased the water level to allow for the filter to be turned up higher, and I bought API liquid carbon to dose. Should that work?