# Algae has halted my HC Growth



## DanMullan (May 16, 2010)

Hi Guys,

Just looking for some advice on this issue, no sign of algae for the first 2 weeks, and the HC was growing fairly rapidly, but was then hit with a small amount of Green Spot Algae by the looks of it and as a result the growth has slowed way down/stopped completely and all the new leaves are very small and generally look unhealthy.

There are also a few patches of very fine hai algae on the moss but not so bothered about this as the moss is still growing well and the algae can be cut off / sucked out during water changes.

The tank (pic attached) has strong water movement, CO2 injection and 2 HOT5's and a photoperiod of around 6 and a half hours a day. I also dose around 2.5-3.5ml of Tropica plant nutrition a day.

I have reduced lighting period and incresed CO2 slightly but was wondering if I should stop using the plant fertiliser and possibly try a bit of flourish excel (just read the Sticky on it)
Any help would be great.

I will try to post pics of the HC and hair algae this week on this post.

Cheers
Dan


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## barmby (Feb 19, 2009)

The tank is quite sparse. Try adding more plants. Also, give the plants the essential such as N P K


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

You are better off trying to make the plants grow than to fight the algae and forget about the plants.

From that picture it looks like your tank is just about sterile. The last thing you want to add to it is barnicle poison (Excel).

HC is a fast track plant - it will grow fast and it will halt its growth fast too. 1 day makes a difference, it's really a fast growing plant. For that reason do know that when you make it grow you will get tired of maintaining the beautiful fast growing lawn.

Your substrate looks like it's contributing one single thing to the plants - keep them in place. No nutrients. HC loves to have its roots in acidic environment. Do not assume that if you pump a ton of CO2 HC will love you. It's a plant that does not really like to grow under water, but prefers to be emersed. So you are forcing it, remember that. Meaning you need to really, really cater to it.

First thing I'd do is to start changing 10% of the water every other day against the algae. But with that I'd definitely start adding a little N, P, and K. The point is to make sure no organics are accumulating in the water + the plants have food to eat.

--Nikolay


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