Easy green causing algae outbreak

[Griffinbbb]

Got a 30 gallon tank about 5 months ago. First 2 months it was algae free and great water parameters. Then I decided to get easy green and after a few weeks of dosing my tank is covered in green hair algae and when I stopped it's now growing black beard algae. I don't care about it too much but the algae has completely covered my plants! I can't take them out cause there deeply rooted.

Idk what to do or how to get the algae off my plants. Everyone loves to use easy green but when I use it algae outbreak very fast and even though I've stopped for months I'm still dealing with it. 

My water parameters are good. Always under 40 ppm of nitrates. How do I determine the problem? Lights are on for 9 hours per day

[Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics]

Hello,

Dialing in Plants, Ferts, and Lights can be complicated sometimes. 
 

What kind of plants do you have? How many? How much Easy Green were you dosing and were you dosing anything else?

[Griffinbbb]

2 Anubias, 2 java fern, 2 monte carlo, and 2 Amazon swords.3 "squirts" as directed for a 30 gallon tank. Dosing nothing else

 

 

[Griffinbbb]

3 squirts per week

[KBOzzie59]

How many hours of light (I missed that you posted that)?  Any blue?  If yes to blue start by shutting that off.  What kind of light is it?  What intensity?

Edited November 3, 2020 by KBOzzie59

[Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics]

The Amazon Sword is going to prefer root tabs because it feeds mostly through the substrate. You don’t have to put them throughout the substrate just close to the swords. 
 

In my experience hair algae can be common early on, and BBA could be from stopping the ferts. Now your plants are getting less food and they are using less, leaving more for algae which uses what is in the water more easily.
 

If I were you I would do a large water change (30%?) to clear the water. I would get some root tabs for the swords and go back to dosing easy green (maybe two pumps instead of three initially).. If you can remove the hair algae with a toothbrush (unused of course) that will help. For the bba, I’ve seen a lot of people have success with multiple methods. I would try to balance things first and see if it dies. 
 

I just realized, what animals are in this tank?

[ChefConfit]

The anubias and Java Fern are extremely slow growers which also means they pull nutrients from the water very slowly and don't even really need ferts, the swords are primarily root feeding so they aren't taking much of the easy green, that leaves you with the Monte Carlo to use up all that nutrients you're putting in with the easy green. You're most likely over dosing the easy green. The dosing on the bottle is just a general starting point for moderately planted tanks. I'm pretty sure @Irene did a video on how to find the proper dosing for your tank recently but I can't find it.

Basically after a water change test your water. Record your Nitrate level. Add easy green to increase your nitrate by 20 (1 squirt per 10 gallons). Test every day recording the nitrate level until it returns to the original number. You now know how long it takes your tank to consume a dose of easy green. 

I also like to keep my nutrient levels even so once I figured out how long my tank takes to consume a dose. I spread that dose out over that amount of time. For example rather than 3 pumps every 6 days I'd do 1 pump every other day. I feel like that also helps prevent algae by eliminating extra nutrients in the water but I have nothing scientific to back it up with.