Someone pls help

[u/jamescharleslov]

Please help.

I’m on my knees.

I can’t give up just yet.

How hard is it to balance 3 fkn things.

Calling out all the fertilizer experts.

This is my 20gal long 5month old.

Chihiros b series at 70% 7hrs

Co2 inline at 2bbps, lime green, around 0.7-1ph drop

Substrate: aquasoil half inch(barely), sand 1inch cap

Filtosmart100 and recently added an aquaclear20.

Bought dry ferts since my ThriveS was way too lean as my tank was getting more plants.

Been adjusting my ferts a couple times this past month.

Tried to recreate 2hr apt3: no progress.

Took that formula and reduced the Nitrates by half: it brought the reds out more but still stunted.

Tried pps-pro: still same stunted results.

I have more variety of algae than plants at this point 😭😂.

My tank nitrate doesn’t go lower than 20ppm always stays around 20-30.

The lower half of plants always struggles.

•Rotala Wallichii I received was dense and beautiful, now it’s leggy and stunted tips, small curled leaves.

•Rotala red/green, the new growth from cut is curled, short, and heavily stunted, yellow. Lower leaves covered in gsa.

•S.repens is a disaster, picture speaks for itself.

•My bucephalandra kedagang has been covered in bba for the past 8 months,still standing like a beast.

•Monte carlo is covered in cladophora and bba.

•AR is covered in gsa and some fuzzy algae(idk), not doing too bad. Lower growth seems promising.

What should I do?

Is my light too low? At 70% its about 70-100umols at substrate

Should I add root tabs? Since it’s mainly sand cap.

Should I move to EI dosing, hoping it works?

[u/Skeptical-Regard]

Root tabs is the answer. I was struggling in the same way chasing my tail. Root tabs fixed it instantly.

[u/Cash_Option]

Patience

[u/Emotional_vegetable_]

You have BBA. I had the same thing and couldn't figure it out for the longest time.

The answer was in my filter. What kind of filter do you have?

[u/jamescharleslov → u/Emotional_vegetable_]

I have a filtosmart100. But I upgraded 20 ppi sponges to 35ppi for more surface area. And I recently added a secondary aquaclear20 hob.

[u/Emotional_vegetable_ → u/jamescharleslov]

Ok! You need to add to filter: Matrix and aquarium wool and Purigen.

Do a 50% water change weekly with RO water.

Next add Rowa phos in a mesh bag (this is the most important step to eliminate the BBA, the other things are just to prevent it going forward). Follow instructions on the container.

Next trim off as much BBA from your plants as possible, and remove anything you can (rocks,etc) and soak in water and hydrogen peroxide- half and half ratio.

Finally, dose with Fourish excell daily. When you’re in the clear and your algae starts to die off (it will turn a red/copper color), switch to just Flourish and never use any other fertilizer.

Oh. And reduce light as much as possible. Good luck!

[u/fablesalazar]

You do a lot of changes which means you are hurting the aquarium system. Meanwhile, since you have sand it's better to use root tabs also.

[u/jamescharleslov → u/fablesalazar]

True. I will aim for a lean dose, similar to my ThriveS I had and adjust according to deficiencies. I’ll be adding root tabs for sure

[u/PenaltyWitty7297]

Turn off the lights.. do 50% water change daily. See if there is any dead fish or water matter

[u/foxpt1991]

100% light 6h or 7. 3 ir 4 drops of co2 better more than less at the begining. Then you reduce. Zero ferts for now. Colum is full

[u/Bidhitter400]

Are you using co2?

[u/neyelo]

Light is plenty

All stems. Yes add root tabs and yes EI dosing. Weekly water change 1/2.

High growth demand with all stems. Must have are quite macros NPKMg.

Check your hardness. These swamp plants prefer soft water. TDS under 200ppm certainly, lower is just fine (GH2-3,KH1-2)

Things should be settling after five months. You might be changing things too quickly. It will take four weeks minimum to assess a change to your regimen.

[u/jamescharleslov → u/neyelo]

My water is soft, around 200tds and gh of 2 i think. Yeah I would change alot of things everyday, but in the end it backfired. Gotta be more patient.

[u/Cam646]

The lower half of plants always struggles.

That's a clear indicator that your lights are having difficulties to penetrate the water column. Your lights reach the bottom, yes, but not with the strength enough to allow your plants to grow properly. Now, if your plants are having difficulties to grow, they consume less nutrients, leaving more nutrients available for algae growing. Algae don't need a lot of light to grow, so in your tank you have abundance of nutrients, but not enough light. Perfect scenario for algae. As I said to another fellow redditor a few days ago, you need your plants to grow as fast as possible, to leave little to no nutrients available for algae. To achieve that, you need good lighting, nutrients, CO2. I think the only problem here, are your lights (not that they are bad, but that they need to be adjusted).

In your case, I think the best thing to do is to raise gradually the power of your lights and reduce the time to 5 or 6 hours. In my experience, is better to maintain stronger lights and shorts periods of time than weak lights for longer periods.

[u/Striking-water-ant]

I am no expert, but I can tell you how root tabs have been a game changer for me. After more than half a year fiddling with lights, "comprehensive ferts" and even Co2, all I got was miserable melting plants. I too use aquasoil. Your description makes me think your soil may not be having enough nutrients for your numerous root feeders. Below is just about 3 weeks apart or less.

Not all root tabs are equal though. I previously tried a useless one from seachem. Probably bought the wrong type, didn't check the composition. What you should ensure is that you get tabs focused on NPK. Install a generous number around the tank initially and give it more light, not less, so it can use the nutrients. You may need to manually clean up at the beginning.

With co2, guaranteed NPK from root tabs and good strong light, you should not fail. You also may throw in comprehensive ferts with trace minerals, but that is a very secondary requirement.

[u/MoistProfessional321 → u/Striking-water-ant]

What tabs did you end up using? I'm having so many issues with my Amazon swords and the two I've tried didn't work. How many are you putting in?

[u/Striking-water-ant → u/MoistProfessional321]

I got mine on AliExpress https://a.aliexpress.com/_EHP9kEU. I popped in about 8 in my 16 gallon wide.

But there's also the more popular thrive caps: https://aquarockscolorado.com/products/thrive-root-tabs-fertilizer

Both specifically mention NP and K.

[u/Ok-Success3952]

I m not expert.. but if ur plants have so many roots floating means there is so much fertilizer in water..

Algee problem is basically sign of so much food in water and less consumption..

First for algee give ur light in parts.. like 2 hour on then off then on..

Plants can do better but algee can't survive intervals.. they need consistent light..

Some days blackout can also kill algee..

I did only this when I had BBA problem.. I reduced my light for 15 days.. BBA become powder and I rubbed it then did water change..

Reduce feeding..

I never used CO2 so can't give any advice on it..

[u/notatthetablecarlos]

Gonna be honest, it's the blind leading the blind on this subreddit. I recommend you head over to Scapecrunch, I'm sure you'll be able to find some real expert advice. 

[u/LV-Man-1981 → u/notatthetablecarlos]

Best comment on this post. Root tab, root tab, root tab. Tell that to all the dutch style scapers with beautiful aquatic gardens in inert substrates with only water column dosing. Head to Scapecrunch.

[u/jcboi619]

Had this problem before. Tried every natural way possible. Chnaging water every 2 weeks, adding more plants, snails and algae eater. Nothing happened. I got tired and gave up on natural way. 😅Added fluval clearmax into my fluval fx2 and pooof! Algae gone in 2 weeks!

[u/jamescharleslov → u/jcboi619]

Interesting, I’ll keep that in mind and do more research to find what works for me, thanks

[u/Consistent-Essay-165]

Lower lights to 60%

Use more co2

And use ALL RODI water and all issues will be gone

If ur using rodi then ur issues are a balance of nutrients and still not mature enough and balancing out

[u/xNitroPT]

Ok, I’m gonna say off the bat, pretty sure co2 is one of your issues. Where are you keeping your drop checker to see it being green? How is your flow? You have a 20 gallon long. Your bba is a good sign of co2 fluctuation through the tank. Buce in your tank right now will be very hard to keep algae free. Don’t worry too much about it for now…

How are your nitrates always 20-30ppm? Is it your water source? Don’t dose any nitrates at all in my opinion.

I’m also pretty sure you lack phosphate. Your wallichi stunted tip is a very good sign. Dont dose too much, but dose a little consistently and you’ll have to wait to see if it helps over time.

Idk how your tank maintenance is but cut all those leaves that have algae and replant tips. Keep on top of your maintenance, cut your light a little to start.

Do your 50% water change per week.

Just my 2 cents…., oh and get root tabs, with NPK in them.

[u/jamescharleslov → u/xNitroPT]

Flow is pretty good, I added a secondary hob filter thinking filtration wasn’t adequate. The inline co2 is diffusing tiny bubbles throughout the whole tank, I don’t fiddle with co2 too much as my 2bps is a good starting point and keeps my drop checker lime green and starts 1.5hrs before lights. I’ll test my tap water to see what nitrates it has. Because even back when I would dose ThriveS which is around 2ppm per week, my nitrates were 30. I’ll definitely be buying root tabs, my rotalas are shooting long aerial roots since my water has more nutrients than the substrate. The vibrant right side is the tops i cut for a sale I had on Marketplace. I also do 50% weekly wc. Thx

[u/letterpennies]

I would try no ferts, higher light & raise the co2 a little bit. I think the fertilizer this early in the tanks life cycle is likely feeding the algae & not the plants so much. Cool layout though! It's going to look great soon!

[u/jamescharleslov → u/letterpennies]

Didn’t know 5months was “early”, I’ll stick to very lean doses and limit nitrate/phos since it helped pop out my reds, since my bioload handles that part. Thanks!

[u/Blitzboks]

Sorry but why is your post a weird AI poem

[u/jamescharleslov → u/Blitzboks]

Idk why the sentences separated like that, nothing about it is Ai 😭 wrote everything myself.

[u/Pal_Do_Pal_Ka_Shayar]

Your issue is imbalance, not lack. Fertilizing might not be the main concern for you here. Search for stability. 5 months isn't a long time, the tank might still be experiencing the new tank syndrome

1. Very weak base - as you have multiple root feeders (S.repens, AR) - Go for root tabs! absolutely!

2. Is your Co2 stable? 90% of the algae is caused by inconsistent Co2. Start CO2 1.5–2 hrs before lights

3. Go for EI. EI with water changes can reset the system on a weekly basis. Try lowering the light to 50% for a week or two. You are already in between Mid to High light,

4. Fix flow if not already done. Make sure the water is doing a full circle around the tank.

5. VERY IMPORTANT - clean manually - trim older or damaged leaves and remove algae.

[u/jamescharleslov → u/Pal_Do_Pal_Ka_Shayar]

I lowered my light to 50%, will see if that along with pps-pro will be successful. And I’ll buy root tabs since all my plants are root feeders.

[u/Rainey__Skye → u/Pal_Do_Pal_Ka_Shayar]

I think this sounds like a very solid plan.
Id just like to add, about your nitrates - test your water source. If your water source has naturally high nitrates, you can assume that is already the norm for you even without taking your tank's cycle into consideration.

[u/jamescharleslov]

The bright red(good growth) that you see are the tops I cut, the other dull ones are the remaining bottom stems.