I need help balancing out my fertilizer, nutrients, and light.

[Whitecloud09]

Hello everyone. Got another topic today for you.

So my planted 10g WCMM tank was thriving (fully cycled, it took 2 months doing the fishless cycle method but has been running and cycled for months now) . Until the algae showed up. Now my plants are dying/or rotting. I can’t figure out what to do to balance out nutrients. 
 

Some details for this tank. 10g planted tank include, a Red flame sword. Anubias nana. Micro sword. Dwarf sag. And Pearl weed. I used to have a Monte Carlo but it is dead now. My fertilizer schedule, one pump per week of ACs easy green all in one fertilizer, and ACs root tabs every month. 4-5 tabs. My light is on one of the lower settings and is a nicrew light that is made for plants and is very good. But I have soooooo much algae. (Note: I lowered my light today actually since the algae is so bad, maybe the higher light was a problem).

So I need help bottom line 😄. I have lots of kinds of algae. Hair algae. BBA, a greenish blue algae. (Cyanobacteria?) diatoms, very common in any tank though. Just green spot looking algae. And maybe even more than that. I think since I had sooo much light used too that that could be a problem. 
Paremeters. Ammonia 0. Nitrite 0 ppm, and my nitrates are usually 5 to 10. Very odd as it used to be in higher 20’s.  Ph is 7.5. Gravel, normal rock gravel from petsmart. Kh and gh are measured in ppm for me, as that is what I can find. Gh is 60 ppm, and kh 40 ppm. Pics of paremeters and algae, plus plants below. So any thoughts? I am confused, i am thinking of restarting, as in changing decor and moving plants around, any thoughts on that idea as well? TIA!!!!
Sorry for long post, but I have a lot of info I needed to include. 
I use the API test kit for ammonia nitrite and nitrate. And ph. And the API test strips for gh/kh.

Oh forgot to mention I have 1 nerite snail.  

 

Above is what the ligh was, yes very bright. And below is the light now. 

Edited June 19 by Whitecloud09

[DaveO]

I think you should start by cleaning up. Take out all dead and dying plant material. Scrape the glass and siphon the debris out as best you can. Next, treat the cyanobacteria with Fritz Maracyn. Just follow the label instructions on the box. It will kill off all that green slimy stuff. 

After it's cleaned up well go back to the basics of good light, clean water, good fertilizer.  I think you started good, but after the plants started to grow you didn't increase the ferts. After the plants started to struggle from lack of ferts the algae took over. With too much dead organics in the water the cyanobacteria took hold. 

I would try medium (not low) light for 8 hours a day along with enough EasyGreen to keep the nitrates around 25 to 40. Also, make sure to replace all the dead plants you had to remove. The more plants the merrier. 

Also, you might consider adding ramshorn snails and Amano shrimp to help keep it clean.

[JoeQ]

This tank needs much more than balancing light & nutrients. To put it bluntly you need a complete over haul! I would start with flow, with your hardscape in front of the HOB the front of your tank is flowless. This is a huge contributer to BGA. Next glaring issue is your cleanup crew. One nerite snail wont do much, (IMO they do best with green algae) I would go with a variety of cleaners. The 1 nerite snail, 1 ramshorn snail, an oto and a I also like guppy(s) as part of a cleanup crew.

For now my focus would be on water quality, add an airstone, then maybe add a fast growing stem plant / floater.

 

 

[Whitecloud09]

On 6/19/2024 at 8:45 PM, DaveO said:

I think you should start by cleaning up. Take out all dead and dying plant material. Scrape the glass and siphon the debris out as best you can. Next, treat the cyanobacteria with Fritz Maracyn. Just follow the label instructions on the box. It will kill off all that green slimy stuff. 

After it's cleaned up well go back to the basics of good light, clean water, good fertilizer.  I think you started good, but after the plants started to grow you didn't increase the ferts. After the plants started to struggle from lack of ferts the algae took over. With too much dead organics in the water the cyanobacteria took hold. 

I would try medium (not low) light for 8 hours a day along with enough EasyGreen to keep the nitrates around 25 to 40. Also, make sure to replace all the dead plants you had to remove. The more plants the merrier. 

Also, you might consider adding ramshorn snails and Amano shrimp to help keep it clean.

Thanks a lot. Ok i will get maracyn, and then clean the tank a lot. A full clean, getting most of the algae, not really any one the glass, as I still want to feed my snail with algae. 

 

On 6/19/2024 at 8:53 PM, JoeQ said:

This tank needs much more than balancing light & nutrients. To put it bluntly you need a complete over haul! I would start with flow, with your hardscape in front of the HOB the front of your tank is flowless. This is a huge contributer to BGA. Next glaring issue is your cleanup crew. One nerite snail wont do much, (IMO they do best with green algae) I would go with a variety of cleaners. The 1 nerite snail, 1 ramshorn snail, an oto and a I also like guppy(s) as part of a cleanup crew.

For now my focus would be on water quality, add an airstone, then maybe add a fast growing stem plant / floater.

 

 

Thanks. I have a airstone, and the filter is turned up to second highest flow. I will maybe add some hornwort. A oto huh? Ok, just one? Idk anything about them. Thanks! 

[Whitecloud09]

I have read that you should have 6 or more, in a 10g. The otos. One would be fine? thx @JoeQ

[JoeQ]

On 6/19/2024 at 9:00 PM, Whitecloud09 said:

Thanks a lot. Ok i will get maracyn, and then clean the tank a lot. A full clean, getting most of the algae, not really any one the glass, as I still want to feed my snail with algae. 

 

Thanks. I have a airstone, and the filter is turned up to second highest flow. I will maybe add some hornwort. A oto huh? Ok, just one? Idk anything about them. Thanks! 

I would only do one in a 10gallon, its more because they are ravenous feeders and often out- compete each other. If memory serves they do best with diatoms/brown algae. As for adding hornwort thats up to you, but imo you should focus on water quality only. Many times if you juggle too many aspects of your tank (fussing with water quality & lighting & adding nutrients) you end up spinning your wheels and dont improve on any of them. 

[Jeff]

Adding some floating plants can help as well. I was in a situation very similiar.  
 

Frogbit is a good one. It doesn't care if the tops of it are wet. It'll help with sucking up the nutrients that algae like. 
 

You would have to ramp up your light again, if you were to do this, to have enough light for the plants in the substrate. 

Edited June 20 by Jeff

[EricksonAquatics]

On 6/19/2024 at 7:00 PM, Whitecloud09 said:

Ok i will get maracyn

Or Fritz Slime Out works as well. It's basically the same as Maracyn except it doesn't release as many phosphates and it's intended purpose is to kill Cyano 🙂

I used it just barely and it worked like a charm!

[johnnyxxl]

I dose fertilizer 2 times every week for macro like easy green, and once per week with a micro fertilizer.  Because I noticed as soon as my plants grew they used up all the nitrate