Plant ID, Fert and Algae help.

[Twigflinger]

Photo 1:  Sword is weak colored.  Some of the leaves are translucent and break off.  They are very crisp/crunchy when broken.  Also dark green algae on older leaves.  What kind of algae is this?  Does this look like nitrogen deficiency?

Photos 2 and 3.  What are the tall reddish plants.  They seem to struggle and drop lower leaves.  Also some of the dark green algae in leaves.  
 

Photo 4.  Reddish/maroon algae in wood.  Algae on the wood doesn’t bother me.  Just curious what it is and if it gives a clue about water quality.

 

I dose Flourish comprehensive 1x week at recommended rate.  I have dosed phosphate hoping that would help get rid of algae on plants.  Also have dosed iron a few times which seems to disappear very quickly when tested.  Irregularly dose excel.  I have reduced lighting several weeks ago by putting a piece of screen under the light.  This seems to help cut down on algae. Several weeks ago I did a complete rescape.  Replacing all black gravel with pool filter sand and placing 1 nilocg fert tab under the swords and stem plants.  I have been reluctant to dose more Flourish Comprehensive as it only has a little nitrogen and I worry about minerals building up since I don’t do water changes. I have been looking at the Nilocg potassium nitrate salts and dosing light.  This is a 30g display with 20g sump containing porret foam and fluorite black gavel.  I am pretty committed to the no water change concept but it would seem the sump may be working too well and the frogbit I added for asthetics only suck up more nutrients.  I am open to setting an auto dose system for ferts/excel.  Co2 is off the table at the moment.  I appreciate everyone’s input.

[Patrick_G]

Nice looking tank! I’m a bit of a newbie myself but the first thing that comes to mind is a Nitrogen deficiency since you’re not dosing a high N fertilizer.  What is your Nitrate level? 

The tall reddish plants looks like Ludwigia to me. I’m surprised it has that much algae since you’re dosing Excel.  Are you also using a clean up crew? I have Otocinclus and Amano Shrimp. They’re a huge help with algae. 

[Twigflinger]

Hey patrick.  Nitrates always 0  😬.  I have 1 small otto.  I had 2-3 others die while out of town and have not replaced them as they hid all day and didnt seem to keep up with algae.  also have 1 nerite zebra and 2 SAE.  Those 2 cleaned up my hair algae problem in about 2 days.  also have 2 amano shrimp.  they hide in hollowed out driftwood because the big angel hunts them.  Just picked up a bamboo shrimp and the angel goes after him as well 😐  The stuff that looks like ludwigia has done poorly since day one.  a lot of it would rot at the stems and drift away.  also lots of leaf dropping from bottom up.  Sounds like I need to get some nitrogen.

[Twigflinger]

Posting again about this algae.  It’s a burgundy/maroon color.  Excel is not killing it.  Is it considered brown algae?  If anyone can identify it, what does it indicate about water parameters.  Phosphates look to be around .25 ppm.  I got the Salifert nitrate test and it has been showing 25 ppm for the last couple weeks without change.  I stopped feeding for about 3 days to see if it would drop but it did not.  Kind of wondering if it is not accurate..  I was briefly dosing potassium nitrate but stopped after I tested with Salifert and found nitrates were not reducing naturally.

[Mmiller2001]

Does it wipe off easily with your fingers?

[Twigflinger]

Kind of.  I rubbed between my fingers with little effect.  Then I used my thumbnail gently and it came off the anubias.  The sword is too delicate to rub off without damaging leaf.

[Mmiller2001]

Those Salifert test kits are pretty good. I would start dosing 1 to 2ppm PO4 and 15 to 25ppm K. I would find a good micro mix and start dosing that as well. .2 to .9ppm Fe as proxy. Start low though.

I would test KH and GH as well. 

Fish load and feeding could be all that's needed to keep those nitrate numbers, which is not a problem, but the tank needs PO4 and K for sure.

[Twigflinger]

Thanks for the help.  Can I dose Fe, K and PO4 same day or should I alternate?  

[Mmiller2001]

Some people say alternate macros and micros, but for our application, it's probably fine to dose all at once. I've read enough from some pretty good under water gardeners that say, "it's no problem". That said, I alternate Macros and Micros.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Mmiller2001

[Twigflinger]

So I have seachem comprehensive but probably  need to dose more.  I was just looking at seachem trace and it looks like it has most of the same stuff with the exception of nickel and vanadium.  Should I go with both or stick with comprehensive?  If both, how should I go about dosing as there will be a lot of overlap.  

[Mmiller2001]

Comprehensive is probably fine, but it will not cover the Macros. 

[Streetwise]

@Twigflinger, with the colors you mention, I think of Cyanobacteria, but I am not sure that is what I see in your photos.

[Patrick_G]

How old is the tank? I’m beginning to think you might be going through new tank growing pains. In my first planted tank I spent a lot of time manually scrubbing this type of algae off my plants. I cut and replanted the leggy plants and removed leaves on the Epiphytes as necessary. Eventually the tank balanced and the algae went away. 

[CharlieTuna]

The red algae to me looks like GSA or young Blackbeard that has been attacked by the excel. It will turn red like that after a spot treatment with H peroxide or Excel. Just a guess though.

[Twigflinger]

It’s been up for a year.  I have had a few spots of BBA which was more tufts of blacking blue but those have cleared up.  It looks nothing like the BBA I have had but the closest picture I could find was on an article about BBA.  So far I have not done any scrubbing.  I want to figure out the root cause and hopefully it’s something I can manage.  The 2 SAE nibble on it but doesn’t come off.  Going to work on fine tuning my fertilizer schedule as Mmiller2001 has suggested.  I think it’s time to invest in an auto doser 🙂. Also working on Raising KH which is 0 or close to it.  Tank is slowly improving and I am loving it.  Thanks everyone for chiming in.

[Twigflinger]

Hey guys I know its been quiet a while but wanted to give an update.  The previous tank cracked so I ended up getting an acrylic which I love .  The front and sides are molded from one sheet so there are no seams in the corners.  very clean looking.  I have increased P and K fertilizing and picked up more Ottos which seems to be helping with the algae problems.  Also started injecting CO2.  Both tanks now have Current USA Serene lights with backlighting which I really love.  Being able to adjust the colors to my liking and the morning evening ramp adds so much to the aesthetic.  I still only do very minimal WC of about 5 gallons every 3-4 weeks and top off 1-2 weeks.  I came to the conclusion that I was way under fertilizing using seachems basic instructions.  Now I am using nilocg phosphate mixed in a dosing bottle and Nilocg potassium sulfate dry.  I still have some work to do to dial in dosing on both of those.  I figure I have 50 gallons of water, temp raised a week ago from 77 to 80, also dose seachem iron and comprehensive and nitrate stays around 40 from feeding.  My dwarf aquarium lily and what I think is rotalla look to be defficient in potassium?  What do you guys think?