Too Many Fast Growing Plants

[mattbeau]

well it seemsI've definately got the hang of getting the plants grow well, I've trippled my plant population over the last few weeks with new growths. lots of pearling, especially with the moneywart.

I've also got a little bit of a hair algae problem, not too serious as I've let the snails repopulate a bit (its a love-hate relationship)

all of the plants are growing phenominally fast, the moneywart and anacharis is growing about 4in per week. the mystery anubias has added about 4 new leaf growths, I've added some luddwiggia and banna plants(trying them out)

the nitrates have been essentially nothing with the fish being fed very well.

could having too many plants be giving me trouble with algae

I assume the plants are consuming so many nutrients that there growth gets stalled occasionally and the algae gets he upper hand

here are my readings and what not
plants now cover approximately 75% of the surface spaced between .5 and 1 inch

amonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate- around 5ppm
kh-0-4 dh
ph-6.4
co2- approximately 30 bubbles a minute with DIY dosing with nutrafin setup

dosing half dosage of flourish evey other day
lighting- cattalina light 10,000k 2.75 WPG timed 8on\4off\4on\8off

the really neet thing that happened this weekend though is when I was removing some of the hair algae from the filter external surfaces(it was carpeted) I used scolding hot water and it turned pinkish red(very nifty)

 

[George Farmer]

It sounds like your low NO3 may be contributing to your algae. Try dosing KNO3.

Your light will have a high blue content too - a well known algae trigger.

Have you read the pinned articles?

 

[Dubby]

Hair/Thread algae can be caused by low nitrate and excess iron.

 

[Jen]

You guys took the words right out of my mouth. The nitrate is too low. We in the planted tank community try to keep it higher... I am for 15ppm, and I havent seen hair algae in months now.

 

[mattbeau]

yep read the pinned articles, very usefull btw

I figured that I may be a bit short on the nitrate, so I take it plants dont consume an excptional amount of iron? or just certain plants.

I have been concidering purchasing some good fertz, I believe there was a website listed in the pinned articles.

I just feal a bit nervouse dosing with nitrate, may require hand holding when the time comes.

as far as the lighting, I concidered this, but I have a tall 20 (18in deep) so I presumed that the water penetration would be better (maybe I'm wrong)


I would however like to keep nitrate relitively low, as blue rams can be a bit finicky of water condition

 

[George Farmer]

I would however like to keep nitrate relitively low, as blue rams can be a bit finicky of water condition

I would say dosing up to 20ppm NO3 is fine for even sensitive fish. Because the NO3 is synthetic in KNO3, as opposed to organic from the production if fish waste etc., the higher than perhaps ideal levels are acceptable.

In a high growth tank dosing KNO3 is pretty much necessary (unless you have a high bio-load).