Algae issues, plants not doing well, don’t know where to start

[Mmiller2001]

5 minutes ago, Rhonda said:

I was going to do that, but it will remove nitrates.  I feel like I’m adding fertilizer just to remove it.  I suppose it’s better to just use it to remove the nitrites. 

It just binds them temporarily. You'll be okay.

[Koi]

Got a little vertigo trying to orientate those pictures but otherwise thats a really nice looking tank. And thats 55 gallons?? I like that way better than the dimensions of the standard 55.

So to start off it just sounds like you are having a mini cycle probably due to lack of beneficial bacteria within your new tank which then had a cascading effect leading to your algae issues.  There could be other things going on but the time would be better spent tackling your other issues rather than trying to figure out what happened. In general your tank/plants have gone through quite a few changes and it looks like a little bit of new tank syndrome. At least algae wise, what you're experiencing isn't out of the normal and pretty much expected to happen.

Nitrites

If you can help it, reduce the feeding until your cycle finishes. Try to keep it down to at least once every two days. If that makes you uneasy you can try giving your fish like 2-3 bites of food a day but we need to try to reduce fish waste as much as possible until the beneficial bacteria can catch up. 

If your nitrites are still at 2ppm I would try do at least another 50% water change unless you did a substantial one recently. At this point smaller water changes do little as far as diluting the nitrites and I wouldn't be concerned about it possibility of disturbing the fish. The benefit of cleaner water outweighs the potential stress you could cause your fish with a larger water change. In all honesty I've never experienced a fish get stressed from water changes but there could be some specific cases.

As @Mmiller2001 said adding a dose or two of prime every day will help the fish along too.

You could get bottled bacteria as well but I feel at this point in, the cycling is almost finished.

Algae

You can actually tackle this multiple ways and I'll try to lay out a few options and you can decide which way you want to go.

It mostly looks like diatoms which you can just rub off the plants.

For your stag horn you could dose the whole tank with excel if you want but it looks like you have valisneria and that plant could take a hit from treating the tank. I also think saving the excel for spot treating would give you better value from that bottle.

I only see stag horn on what I think is crypt parva. You spot treat with excel but I think it would be much easier to cut/pluck the infested leaves. But only if you are seeing new growth. I lean towards this method because usually once a leaf is covered in algae, its has pretty much given up on trying to sustain that leaf. By removing the leaf you are allowing the plant to use all its energy in creating a new leaf than trying to keep the old one alive. 

If it were me and I know all the plants are growing I would just start removing old ugly leaves especially the watersprite/wistera (I can never tell the difference) and what I think is pogostemon stellatus. This is a rather aggressive approach but when I move plants between different tanks all the leaves grown in my old tank will eventually die over time. The dying plant matter not only is a good host for algae but it does introduce ammonia back into your tank as it decays. So I would keep note of which parts of your plants have grown in your new setup and remove the older leaves as soon as you see signs of the leaves falling apart.

I'll just add that hydrogen peroxide is a nice cheap way to remove algae. Just like the excel I would either spot treat or spray plants with peroxide. When using either I try to treat what I can outside of the tank, let it sit for 10 seconds and rinse before putting back in. I usually use this for staghorn and blackbeard algae though most of the others usually can be removed by hand. 

As for your water flow, now that I see the tank you probably don't need the powerhead. So if you'd prefer not to have it you can take it out. I'm pretty sure the internal filter has good flow.

If it makes you feel any better your tank is definitely way better than my first planted tank! Everybody gets hit with algae at least once when starting a new tank and most get it again multiple times. Yours is definitely not that bad, I actually had trouble seeing where the problems were in your tank. Hopefully something in here works for you and just try to up you fertilizers a little. You don't have to overcompensate but increase it incrementally over time as you see your plants starting to grow. As your plants start to perk up, the algae will start going away on its own. Good Luck!

[Rhonda]

9 hours ago, Koi said:

Got a little vertigo trying to orientate those pictures but otherwise thats a really nice looking tank. And thats 55 gallons?? I like that way better than the dimensions of the standard 55.

So to start off it just sounds like you are having a mini cycle probably due to lack of beneficial bacteria within your new tank which then had a cascading effect leading to your algae issues.  There could be other things going on but the time would be better spent tackling your other issues rather than trying to figure out what happened. In general your tank/plants have gone through quite a few changes and it looks like a little bit of new tank syndrome. At least algae wise, what you're experiencing isn't out of the normal and pretty much expected to happen.

Nitrites

If you can help it, reduce the feeding until your cycle finishes. Try to keep it down to at least once every two days. If that makes you uneasy you can try giving your fish like 2-3 bites of food a day but we need to try to reduce fish waste as much as possible until the beneficial bacteria can catch up. 

If your nitrites are still at 2ppm I would try do at least another 50% water change unless you did a substantial one recently. At this point smaller water changes do little as far as diluting the nitrites and I wouldn't be concerned about it possibility of disturbing the fish. The benefit of cleaner water outweighs the potential stress you could cause your fish with a larger water change. In all honesty I've never experienced a fish get stressed from water changes but there could be some specific cases.

As @Mmiller2001 said adding a dose or two of prime every day will help the fish along too.

You could get bottled bacteria as well but I feel at this point in, the cycling is almost finished.

Algae

You can actually tackle this multiple ways and I'll try to lay out a few options and you can decide which way you want to go.

It mostly looks like diatoms which you can just rub off the plants.

For your stag horn you could dose the whole tank with excel if you want but it looks like you have valisneria and that plant could take a hit from treating the tank. I also think saving the excel for spot treating would give you better value from that bottle.

I only see stag horn on what I think is crypt parva. You spot treat with excel but I think it would be much easier to cut/pluck the infested leaves. But only if you are seeing new growth. I lean towards this method because usually once a leaf is covered in algae, its has pretty much given up on trying to sustain that leaf. By removing the leaf you are allowing the plant to use all its energy in creating a new leaf than trying to keep the old one alive. 

If it were me and I know all the plants are growing I would just start removing old ugly leaves especially the watersprite/wistera (I can never tell the difference) and what I think is pogostemon stellatus. This is a rather aggressive approach but when I move plants between different tanks all the leaves grown in my old tank will eventually die over time. The dying plant matter not only is a good host for algae but it does introduce ammonia back into your tank as it decays. So I would keep note of which parts of your plants have grown in your new setup and remove the older leaves as soon as you see signs of the leaves falling apart.

I'll just add that hydrogen peroxide is a nice cheap way to remove algae. Just like the excel I would either spot treat or spray plants with peroxide. When using either I try to treat what I can outside of the tank, let it sit for 10 seconds and rinse before putting back in. I usually use this for staghorn and blackbeard algae though most of the others usually can be removed by hand. 

As for your water flow, now that I see the tank you probably don't need the powerhead. So if you'd prefer not to have it you can take it out. I'm pretty sure the internal filter has good flow.

If it makes you feel any better your tank is definitely way better than my first planted tank! Everybody gets hit with algae at least once when starting a new tank and most get it again multiple times. Yours is definitely not that bad, I actually had trouble seeing where the problems were in your tank. Hopefully something in here works for you and just try to up you fertilizers a little. You don't have to overcompensate but increase it incrementally over time as you see your plants starting to grow. As your plants start to perk up, the algae will start going away on its own. Good Luck!

Wow! Thanks for so much info!  Sorry about the pictures, I can’t figure out why they flip when I post them or how to orient them correctly.

I have some work cut out for me today.  My old tank was always crystal clear and I didn’t realize how much my pleco cleaned it.  I’m trying to be proactive so I don’t loose anything. I’m amazed at how much I’ve learned in the last 3months alone.  I had no idea how much I didn’t know!
 

[ChefConfit]

I'm a little late to the party as I've been very busy lately and haven't been on the forums in a few weeks. 

I had some issues a few months ago after rescaping my tank that were similar to yours. 

I've found success in managing similar issues in a new tank using a method I learned listening to George Farmer's podcast. It's essentially a simplified version of ei dosing. 

I use easy green (George Farmer uses tropica all in one) at the recommended dosage but rather than adding it all at once I dose it throughout the week. I have a 29g so I do one pump Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Then on Sundays I do a 50% water change to reset nutrient levels.

This method along with manual removal of algae and proper lighting intensity will help control algae by giving you more control over the nutrient levels in your tank and keeping those nutrient levels stable. Nutrient levels not being stable can be just as bad for algae as them being to high because algae is able to adapt and use whatever nutrients is available much more easily than plants. 

Eventually as plants grow in fully I will reduce the size of my water changes because as there is more plant mass the chances of algae out competing the plants is less and less.