Ei Provokes Algal Bloom

[Million]

Hi all,

I'm running a 75l tank that started it's life low-tech and has evolved to now be a hi-tech tank. The stocking however has not changed to reflect this. Plants are crypt carpet, Anubias nana, Anubias nana var. 'petite', narrow Java fern, Hydrocotyle leucocephalia, Nymphaea rubra, Christmas moss. Tank has pressurized CO2 relatively newly introduced (a few weeks), high lighting, and was well stable before I added LED lighting and EI. I used the Fluidsensoronline blog calculator:
http/blog.fluidsensoronline.com/calculators/estimative-index/
And mixed up dosing solutions. Followed the instructions of 40ml doses and water changes weekly (or maybe after 10 days - naughty) and after three weeks there was BBA sprouting up everywhere, green thread algae covering the Christmas moss. I've now stopped doing the EI for the moment, reduced the CO2 a bit, and shortened the light cycle. I think I've decided to only use the LEDs for photography as they're just too much altogether. Since these changes the tank has stabilized, no new BBA sprouting, and the filamentous algae seems to have stopped growing - I tore out as much as I could.

Basically I'm desperate to uproot this scape and start from the ground up again as it's driving me a bit mad, but at the moment I'm saving for my wedding (in April) so spending is virtually a no-no. Would you suggest I dose at half what's recommended for EI and see how I get on? Or as my plants are not demanding, should I just leave off the EI altogether?

Any advice would be gratefully received, thanks for reading,
Max

 

[SO19Firearms]

EI was born out of a method of dosing a hi-tech tank to prevent algae - so we can rule out EI as the problem
We know from The Planted Tank that BBA is due to low CO2 or low flow, if your drop checker is reading Lime we can rule that out and go for Flow - We can probably attribute the Hair algae to the same.

While it always seems easy to say lowering nutrients has fixed/calmed the problem we'd have to do that independently from lowering the light - As light is the engine to all this I'd say making the light the limiting factor allows for the lack of CO2 (probably due to flow)

IMO

EDIT: Did I even answer the question then?
Solve flow problem - power head etc -
Resume dosing, resume CO2, slowly bring light back to how you want it making sure you have enough CO2 and nutrient - Manage Algae as show in The planted tank

 

[Million]

I did wonder about installing a powerhead - I know Koralia is a reputable brand, what sort of size would you suggest? The tank does have decent flow as it is overfiltered, but there may still be dead spots in the opposite end to the filter output

 

[SO19Firearms]

I couldn't say a size, you just have try and make sure you've no dead spots or conflicting flows....

 

[lljdma06]

Two koralia 425s placed at opposite ends is what I'm using for my ADA 60cm. Since you're only dealing with a couple of dead spots, I'd try one first, or even a smaller 240. The Koralia 425 claims 425 gph, but it's really more like around 200 or so. That being said, it still gives me about 26x turnover in my planted tank. I converted to a filterless system a week ago. Can't stand filters anymore.