Desperate Help Needed

[YOYO]

Hi everyone i posted about this topic at the start of the week but iam still banging my head against the wall . I have set up my tank aprox. 2 weeks ago fully planted it and iam running the EI method and my tank is running at

ph 6.4
kh 3.5
no3 20ppm
po4 1ppm

co2 is 60 bubbles per minute which seems about right and my lights are on for 10 hours straight , but the problem is is a brown form of hair algae which is starting to coat the plants and bog wood . What shall i do to get rid of it as i have no idea and iam worried of loosing £100 of plants . I think that maybe the plants are not growing quick enough to compete with the algae for nutrients , so how do i get around this . I have just had a hernia operation and have enough problems recovering with this so if any of you could help with any ideas to sort out this problem then please let me know asap ) . thanks .

 

[Bloo]

What is your tap pH & kH ? I am no algae expert, but perhaps you want to break the light period for 2 hours inbetween and see if that has any effect ?

 

[YOYO]

Hi bloozoo My tap ph is 7.5 and my kh is 3.5 if thats any help mate . I will change the photo period for tomorrow and its due for a water change as well so i will see if that does any good . Any other ideas feel free to let me know ok mate .

 

[Nim]

What plants do you have in there? ANy Fast growers?

Since its a 2 week old tank only, if your plants are not growing fast enough to out compete algae then you need to first allow some time to stabalize and plants settle in before continuing with EI. It could however also be lighting as you have not mentioned how much light you have on there and what bulbs are these. According to the chart you should have 42ppm of CO2 which is good enough for plants but its possible that this is not the limiting nutrient in this case. You really want your plants to kick in and be established before providing excess of nutrients.

Nim

 

[danski]

maybe cut back on the dosing for now..do you have any fast growing stem plants in there?

 

[YOYO]

I have 2 t5's and 3 t8's giving 2.5 wpg ............ the plants at the moment are : hygrphila polysperma "rosaverg" , eusterallis stellata , limnophilla aromatica , HC , java moss , xmas moss and 2 anubius . SO do you think that i should cut down on my lighting and my ferts for the time being ? ? ? I will be doing a 50 % water change today so this will lower the nutrients , but what about the co2 should i keep this as it is or lower it ? ? ?
Thanks for the help so far guys

 

[danski]

you might be able to keep the co2 running just dont dose for a while anything..maybe your adding too much nutrients and the plants arent using it up so the algae is feeding off the rest of the nutrients(maybe)..i seen some of that in my tank..when i cut back the algae slowed and died but you still need to figure out what is causing this and correct it..
do the water change then dont add anything for a while and see if this helps..it could take a week or two to see any change..so if you can rub off or remove what algae is there keep up on it till things look to change..

 

[simonbrown403]

All young tanks experience algae blooms at the beginning.

I found that stopping ferts for a week and letting the plants use up the nutrients then starting start dosing at a lower level until the plants where established, worked for me, then as the plants get going up the dose again.

 

[YOYO]

Thanks for the advise guys . I will do what you suggest and see if it clears up . I have been removing the algae manually with a tweezers to stop it choaking the plants which can take for ages but i will continue the hard work and see how it goes .
Regards

Darren .

 

[YOYO]

Just done a 50% water change with the missus . Cleaned up all the hair algae , cleaned and replaced the filter wool , so its pretty spic and span right now . Shall keep an eye on the situation for the next week and not add any fert . Hopefully the new plants will settle down in the process . Thanks again for your surgestions guys .

 

[Nim]

Good Luck there

Dont forget to keep the CO2 running as at this stage the last thing you want is CO2 deficiency Reduce the remaining nutrients

Nim