I'm At My Wit's End... I'm Ready To Give Up On This Tank

[Channti]

Tank:
46 Gallon Bowfront
Lighting: 0.65 watt/gallon (whatever the long tube is.. T5?), approx 6-8 hours/day
Heated with a Ehiem(?) Jager Heater (150 Watt)
Filtered with:
-Aquaclear 70
-Aquaclear 20
-AquaTech 10-20

Tank Maintenance:
15% waterchange weekly
Filters alternated cleaned every other week. AC70 on week 1, AC20 and AqT10-20 on week 2, etc.

Inhabitants:
3 Yoyo loach
10 Serpae Tetra
1 African Butterflyfish
1 Angelfish

Plants:
-Cryptocoryne Spiralis (the only plant that is surviving...)
-Cryptocoryne Wendtii (covered in a brown slimy algae)
-Amazon Sword (Dying, slowly)
-Hygrophila Polysperma (rotted from middle of stalk in both directions... 2 stalks of 30 remain 1 month after planting)

Algae Growth:
-Black Brush
-little bit of Cyano
-white-ish stuff idk what it is, on the heater.
-slimy brown-algae that I can't identify on the glass, heater, and plants. Wipes off with a cloth.

Dosing:
-1 capful (5ml) Flourish, weekly.
-1 capful (5ml) Flourish Excel, Daily.
-Fourish Root-Tabs are burried in sand.

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I'm at my wits end with this tank. I've been successful with my planted 5 gallon and 15 gallon (beyond successful actually). The tanks are cared for much in the same way; the only real difference in the planted tanks being that the 46 gallon has pool-filter sand and a proper flourescent light, whereas my 5 and 15 gallon have playsand and CFLs.

The Hygrophila mentioned in the 46 gallon was grown in my 15 gallon. After about a week in the 46 gallon, the stalks began to rot in the middle, and snapped in half, continuing to rot right down the stalk and chunks of half-rotted plant to float to the surface.

The Amazon sword plants are barely alive and are being ripped out in an attempt to salvage them (I'm moving them to my 15 gallon).

The algae, despite limited lighting hours, zero sunlight on the tank, and regular dosing of Flourish Excel, has gotten out of hand, completely covering my Crypt. Wentii.

Obviously, somewhere, I'm doing something wrong. What am I doing, and what can I do to fix it?. I'm ready to tear the tank down and sell it... which is a shame, because the tank has the potential to be gorgeous... I need help... I'm hoping that someone here will be able to help, or can point me in the direction of someone who can help me.

 

[lljdma06]

I'm going to eat dinner, but I'll be back in a bit.

Liz

 

[lljdma06]

OK, back...

Can I have a picture of the tank to determine plant mass?

I'll also let you know, my little 17g ADA has 2 Aquaclear 50's and 2 powerheads. My 36g bowfront had 2 Aquaclear 70s, so you may not have as much circulation as you think.

 

[Channti]

Here's some tank shots, I'll post some tank water stats in a few minutes. The entire back left corner was 30+ stalks of Hygrophila cuttings I took from my fifteen gallon tank (the first image posted), to show that I am successful with my smaller planted tanks. I also forgot to mention that there is some dwarf sag stumps left from when the leaves all died off. I'm trying to salvage what was left of them, so I'll likely be taking them to the 15 gallon this week.

The algae in this tank has ALWAYS been a problem, even before the addition of the Hygrophila that rotted.

15 gallon Planted Betta Sorority tank (one of my successful planted tanks)

&& The Problem Tank::

Algae on Heater/Glass

Tried to show the BBA on the Driftwood, but it didn't turn out so good.

Amazon Sword Leaf with algae

The Hygro. Polysperma (showing the rotted stalks). The two that I thought were growing well were actually rotten in the midddle, hidden by the driftwood.

Full Tank Shot: Grassy stuff by left driftwood is Plastic, and there's some Plastic "Corkscrew Vals" looking stuff in the front right corner, as well as some fake plastics suctioncupped to the top of the tank to give the African Butterflyfish some cover (Can't get live floating plants til the warmer weather). The angel is much too aggressive for this tank, but I don't want to set up a new tank for her until I know what I'm doing wrong in this one.

...I had to post one. Bonus of the Cockatiel sat next to the tank. The second the camera comes out, he has to have his picture taken too.

Tank Water Stats, Taken using an API Liquid Freshwater Master Test Kit:
I expect that the thrown-off water stats are from the two smaller filters being dirty from the additional waste of rotting hygrophila stalks. I plan to clean those two filters tomorrow and then I'll post updated water stats.

Nitrate: 5.0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
pH: somewhere between 7.8 and 8.0; it's always the same colour, but I can never get a clear reading on which exactly it is... it appears to be somewhere between the two colours on the card.

Picture:

 

[RadaR]

Well, you are dosing Excel which is a carbon product...but you're not dosing any macro nutrients (NPK). This is probably why you are seeing all those diatoms and dieing amazon swords. Carbon increases plant growth which increases the demand for nutrients. Plants need macro nutrients more than micro nutrients, so if you're not dosing any macro, then the plants will begin to starve. Unhealthy plants = algae.
So either stop your excel dosing OR keep it going but also add macro nutrients.
Also, when you dose liquid carbon or inject CO2, you must also do large weekly water changes. More plant growth means more plant organic waste, which you need to get rid of.
I'd also increase the plant biomass a lot.

 

[Channti]

The tank used to have a lot more plants in it. The problem is that they all died off. I didn't want to add more plants until I knew what I was doing wrong. What product(s) would i use to dose macronutrients?

 

[RadaR]

Tropica Plant Nutrition+ is a popular one. It contains both micro and macro nutrients.

 

[Channti]

Is that the only reason I'm having all this algae and plant junk?. I need larger water changes, and macronutrients?

 

[RadaR]

Is that the only reason I'm having all this algae and plant junk?. I need larger water changes, and macronutrients?

Should be.
Also make sure that the flow is evenly distributed. A good guide is to observe if all the plants leaves are "swaying".
Get lots of healthy growing plants and keep them healthy and algae shouldnt be a problem.

 

[Channti]

I found a retailer that i visit that sells TPN. How often does it need to be dosed? How long would this last me on a 46 gallon tank?

EDIT: Just want to be certain that this is actually the product...
LINK

 

[JoshuaA]

I found a retailer that i visit that sells TPN. How often does it need to be dosed? How long would this last me on a 46 gallon tank?

EDIT: Just want to be certain that this is actually the product...
LINK

Nope, that is TPN there is TPN+ which contains Phosphorus and Nitrogen and is what you want.

Edit: The liquid is green. The only difference between TPN and TPN+ is that in TPN+ you get a bit more Potassium as well as a dose of Nitrogen and Phosphorus. I have found this product very useful when I have low fish stock in relation to plant mass.

 

[Channti]

The tank has about 1/2 the stocking that i want it to. I've got 3 more yoyo loaches ordered, but my LFS is taking forever to get them in (their supplier keeps substituting Clown loaches for the yoyos). I'm also planning to add a group of 10 emperor tetra, remove the angel, and add another ceterpiece of some description.

Would TPN work?. Is there an online retailer where I can order TPN+ and won't be killed by international shipping (I'm in Ontario, Canada). I checked eBay, but couldn't find any.

 

[JoshuaA]

No idea about shipping to Canada, though the main thing is you want to be looking to dose macro nutrients. TPN would help with the Micro but not the Macro.

There are others available, Dinosaur Pee as i recently found out though that might be Australia only. You can possibly buy Seachem Nitrogen and Phosphorus and dose that individually along with TPN or another Micro Nutrient product.

Interesting I have never been able to find TPN+ on eBay and when I have, it's has been under a completely different name.

 

[Channti]

I'm already using Seachem Flourish.

So basically the macro nutrients I'm missing is just Nitrogen and Phosphorus? Or are there others I need? I know that Big Als (the website I linked) stocks most, if not all, of the seachem products.

 

[JoshuaA]

I'm already using Seachem Flourish.

So basically the macro nutrients I'm missing is just Nitrogen and Phosphorus? Or are there others I need? I know that Big Als (the website I linked) stocks most, if not all, of the seachem products.

Well AFAIK there is NPK for the major macro nutrients though you could in theory believe Calcium, Iron and some other elements fall into the category of Macro due to their uptake in comparison to the Micro nutrients.

As far as I am aware though Seachem Flourish does have Potassium in, so you are looking at Nitrogen and Phosphorus if you wanted to buy the individual bottles. However the Potassium isn't as generous in the Seachem Flourish as it is in the TPN... you may want to look into a potassium bottle too.

I'm sure another member will clear this up, I might be making this look more complicated.

Edit:

Not sure if the slight blip in Ammonia is related to the Seachem Flourish but I've not really noticed that or you are actually having a blip in Ammonia, that can also be a cause of some form of algaes. If it really is ammonia I imagine most of it is being given off by the dying leaves and contributing to the algae. It could well be a false positive though conflicting with the Flourish, though like I said I've not had that problem and you are dosing exactly what I use to do on my 10G a year ago.