What a world of difference CO2 makes. Still battling algae though

[mgudyka]

I am over the moon with the progress my tank has made in the last month. I am still battling black beard algae, though. I stopped dosing liquid ferts for the last three weeks and that has seemed to help but I am worried it will start to effect my plants. I also feel like I am getting a dusting of diatoms on my plants but I thought they thrived on phosphates and CO2 would help reduce those. And the reduced phosphates are why I am starting to get green spot algae on my tank walls. 

 

It seems like the planted tank is constantly being between a rock and a hard place, huh.

 

Anyway here are pictures of my tank last night and then from March 6th. 

[Mmiller2001]

You should never stop dosing fertilizer and based on your drop checker in the second picture, you are low on CO². That's probably the largest contributing factor causing the BBA you have.

I've found this resource to be incredibly helpful.

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/choosing-co2-why

Also, I would research Estimative Index dosing and how to use it. Fertilizers do not cause algae!

 

[mgudyka]

Tha

On 4/6/2022 at 11:24 AM, Mmiller2001 said:

You should never stop dosing fertilizer and based on your drop checker in the second picture, you are low on CO². That's probably the largest contributing factor causing the BBA you have.

I've found this resource to be incredibly helpful.

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/choosing-co2-why

Also, I would research Estimative Index dosing and how to use it. Fertilizers do not cause algae!

 

The second image is from a month ago. I was slowly bumping up the co2 so as to avoid shocking anyone by going straight to 40ppm immediately. If you look at the first image, it's lime green.

The ferts may not cause algae but they do not discriminate between what creatures in the tank absorb their nutrients, be it plant to algae.

[nabokovfan87]

Are you dosing CO2 when the lights are off (about an hour before) and then turning the lighting on or how are you handling that schedule?

What type of things are in the tank to help combat brush algae? Amanos? SAEs?

[mgudyka]

Yup the co

On 4/6/2022 at 7:04 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Are you dosing CO2 when the lights are off (about an hour before) and then turning the lighting on or how are you handling that schedule?

What type of things are in the tank to help combat brush algae? Amanos? SAEs?

Yup the co2 is on an hour before the lights come on and shut off an hour before the lights come on. I have the solenoid and the lights on timers.

 

I can't have any fish or shrimp help in the way of battling this algae. I don't necessarily want SAE because they will grow out of their algae eating phase before I know it and will just compete with my ropefish for food when they are already kind of slow to eat.

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/6/2022 at 9:59 AM, mgudyka said:

The ferts may not cause algae but they do not discriminate between what creatures in the tank absorb their nutrients, be it plant to algae.

This is definitely true, but I would think from what we can see in the tank going on, you might have reduction of growth based on one of two factors.

1. Lighting window, meaning, how long is the light at full power, what % is that at?
2. Dosing schedule, what fertilizers and how often? Just an attempt to make sure the plants have their nutrients.

 

On 4/6/2022 at 5:06 PM, mgudyka said:

I can't have any fish or shrimp help in the way of battling this algae. I don't necessarily want SAE because they will grow out of their algae eating phase before I know it and will just compete with my ropefish for food when they are already kind of slow to eat.

I think SAEs definitely can focus on other food pretty heavily but they will graze on algae if you don't give them the option. I don't know how much you can target the current stocking for feeding with ease. Definitely a difficult situation. I have some staghorn algae I am working on solving, plants lost a bit of their green, so I feel what you're going through.

Based on the situation, temporarily using easy carbon might be the solution besides adjusting the parameters above.  Internally my Bentley Pascoe voice is just telling me to pass the advice of "be patient" and give it time. Hopefully a small tweak gets things going in the right direction for you.