I Am This Close To Giving Up Now

[houndour]

algae algae algae


arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

And I want to cry cos I just saw Georges glosso. I've had mine for ages and his looks 100 times better. What am I doing wrong?

At the moment I have 2 types of algae...

Brown algae that main grows on the glass, so I dont mind that cos I just clean the glass.

But, over the past week I've noticed a fast growth of what looks like the staghorn algae.

I've been very good since the bga died. I do 50% weekly water changes.

Dosing:
Sun - water change, 10ml NO3, 1ml PO4
Monday - micros (kent grow and kent fe)
Tues - 5ml NO3, 1ml PO4
Wed - micros
Thursday - 5ml NO3, 1ml PO4
Fri micros
Sat nothing

I feed fish once every other day.

Lighting: 55 W interpet daylight. 10 hours straight.
CO2: over 30ppm, pretty much runs while lights are on.

 

[RYO]

Don't give up i have glosso in both my tanks and the growth difference is staggering.
My 60L has enriched substrate with gravel and 72w of lighting and the glosso covered the tank in a few weeks, after a month I'm pulling shed loads out (that's where George and jimbooo got theirs from)
The 120L has sand and root tabs,90W of lights. The growth is pretty slow and tends to grow high rather than spread.
I noticed you have sand and laterite maybe this is a factor. Your lighting should be enough.

 

[Bloo]

If you're going to give up, let me know before Monday before I post out the Potassium !






(only kidding ! )


You are so not giving up. You've come such a long way and this can definitely be solved. Alas I'm not the one to help you do so (wish I could), but I'm sure between the planty experts it can and will be done

 

[oldwhitewood]

Don't give up. Hey I have come close to giving up and actually gave up a while ago to keep marines, where I learnt to grow ALL forms of algae and I think even discovered some new ones. Imagine spending a fortune on live rock only to have it covered in thick brown hair alage within a couple of weeks, pearling happily! Don't let algae beat you like it did me, it's our enemy and we must eradicate it!!!!

I'm back to keeping planted tanks again now as that is where my passion lies and what I want to have in my home above any other kind of setup. I do feel like giving up now and again whenever my tank fails or I look at some of Amano's tanks, but even Amano says he has had more problems with alage and killed more plants than anyone else.

A few weeks ago most of my fish and shrimp suddenly died due to a bacterial collapse of the filter, I still dont know why it happened; I've been keeping fish for about 15 years and never had a problem like that before. It was really upsetting to see these fish and shimp dying in front of my eyes. I felt like giving up completely then but I've kept going and now the tank is thriving again.

There are loads of really knowledgable people on here that can help you and you will crack the problem eventually and have a lovely thick lawn of glosso. :yes:

Glosso likes a light small grain size of substrate, plenty of light and macros. I suspect your substrate is at fault, how did you plant the glosso?

 

[zig]

I just planted glosso today so i was looking at gfs tank with some envy as well, i will find out in the next couple of weeks whether i will be joining you in the not being able to grow glosso club............anyway ive been doing some reading up on glosso (keeping you in mind as well because of the patchy yellowing) this is what i have found out about glosso deficiencies and what they look like..........

This plant will respond to low nitrate by yellowing and prematurely losing its older leaves. Phosphate limited situations will result in slow growth and a dark green color. When it is not getting enough iron and traces, transparent patches will appear on the leaves.

Now you are dosing enough KNO3 and KH2PO4 with 20ppm and 3ppm respectively, so it only leaves the last part which is the iron and trace or the sand substrate as RYO has already mentioned, i think you need to dose more trace anyway i mentioned that allready last week or sometime, if you are not doing so i would dose 5ml 3x per week and see if this makes a difference.

The staghorn algae is usually an indication that you are not dosing enough macro nutrients or co2, and once you correct this the algae usually disappears, so i would try upping the co2 level and see if this makes a difference, it is usually easy to remove the algae anyway by hand, i wouldnt get to upset about this algae if i had it, it usually just requires more nutrients for it to go away (trace limitation could be a factor here as well)

The brown algae is usually diatoms caused by excess silicate very common in new setups, in more established setups some say it is caused by excess light and others say by to little light and then others blame old tubes or bulbs (not in your case with the T5s) so basically there are loads of different versions as to why you get diatoms, usually the best thing to do is wait the until the diatoms have peaked and they will gradually disappear helped along by scraping and manual removal and water changes, also ottos are excellent diatom busters, but again its an algae i wouldnt really worry about more of an unsightly nusience than anything else.

Thinks thats all i can think of right now my brain is numbed from planting glosso and ive more to do tomorrow............ow well i just hope it grows like Georges thats all i can say.

I wouldnt dismiss the sand being a factor also, but i dont know i couldnt be sure about this, but if it was me i would consider this to be a factor until i have excluded other possibilities as to why it wont grow properly, id keep it in the frame until i excluded everything else.

Anyway hope some of the above helps............and chin up these ones are relatively easy to cure, its just a process of elimination and regular dosing thats required.

 

[littleimp]

What are your phosphate levels like?

Have you tried running rowaphos in a bag in your filter yet?? This can kill algae extremely quickly!!

 

[zig]

What are your phosphate levels like?

Have you tried running rowaphos in a bag in your filter yet?? This can kill algae extremely quickly!!

You will more than likely be adding phosphate on a regular basis to a highlight tank not removing it, plants need phosphate its one of the main macro nutrients that plants will use in relatively high quantities, if you zero out in phosphates you will eventually get algae not avoid it.

 

[houndour]

Thanks for the support guys I really needed it. Plant keeping can be so frustrating.

After I wrote the message I had a good look at my tank and noticed that I have actually got some glosso carpeting rather nicely and looking green. I was really pleased and its been a long time coming. I have upped my micros this week when Zig told me last week that I prob wasn't adding enough. So maybe that has helped after all.

The algae is so ugly though but I know if I can beat bga I can beat anything! (some fighting talk for ya!)

I'm going to test my CO2 tonight, make sure it's still above 30ppm and maybe up the bubble rate slightly.

I think I will up my micros more, to the 5ml suggested by Zig.

My phosphates are generally between 1 and 2ppm. Its hard to tell cos the kit is so crap.

Glosso likes a light small grain size of substrate, plenty of light and macros. I suspect your substrate is at fault, how did you plant the glosso?

I painfully cut it all up and planted with tweezers! It took forever and I didn't have anywhere near as much as George has!! I just can't figure glosso out. Its very temperamental.

Hey I have come close to giving up and actually gave up a while ago to keep marines

I'm actually currently doing my research on marines (although it'll be a couple of years before I can afford it). Yay new algaes to explore

 

[lljdma06]

You'll be fine houndour. Algae sucks, I know. I've my share of it too.

Why is everybody so into marines all of a sudden? Don't mind me, but I see marines everywhere I go in S. FL, and you jump in the ocean anywhere down there and boom! Tropical reef system, so I guess I've had my fill of it. Sorry, I will stop my mini rant, and give houndour the proper sympathy for her algae situation.

See, sympathy...

 

[oldwhitewood]

Glosso likes a light small grain size of substrate, plenty of light and macros. I suspect your substrate is at fault, how did you plant the glosso?

I painfully cut it all up and planted with tweezers! It took forever and I didn't have anywhere near as much as George has!! I just can't figure glosso out. Its very temperamental.

Well you have done the right thing with it, I normally grab the root with tweezers and push it into the substrate, so only the leaves are showing.