# unhealthy plants and load of algae but what to do?



## schmuttis (Dec 11, 2006)

I have a 120 gallon tall planted tank that was cycled in December 2006. The only plants that are doing well in my tank are vals and thread algae. I have been supplementing with Flourish Excel every other day. Today for the first time in a while I added regular Flourish since our iron test said we had no "good" iron. About a month ago I added API root tabs to to gravel. I read that algae can often be controlled by adding more plants so I've let the vals get out of control. I still manually pull out globs of thread algae almost every day. The plant leaves are also covered with a short algae. I do about a 15-20% water change weekly. I have 4 Siamese algae eaters, 6 otto cats and 1 false Siamese algae eater as well as other fish.

So I thought I'd come to the experts and find out if I should be testing for other elements or supplementing with other elements.

substrate: eco-complete
lighting: high - aquarium hood with 2 halides (11 AM - 4 PM) and power compact (10 AM - 10 PM) lighting
CO2: 3 DIY soda bottles that bubble into an overturned bowl in the sump
temperature: 78 - 80
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 10
ph: 7.6
kh: 4
gh: 5
PO3: .25
free FE: 0
good FE: 0
filtration: in sump first stage is a filter pad that removes debris before water flows over bio-balls. The second stage has the C02 bowl and the phosgard bag above a sponge before the water enters the third stage where the water is pumped back into the tank. I do have a sump picture if my description isn't clear. Let me know if you'd like to see that.

other: using a phosgard, fish are doing very well - infact too many babies

tank pictures:




























I didn't really take these pictures to display the sick looking plants - I was just taking tank pictures last night. If you would like any closeups of anything in particular, let me know and I'll post it.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Using Phosguard in a planted tank is counterindicative to what the plants need. You'll actually see better results by dosing PO4 to levels of about 1 ppm. 

How deep did you put the root tabs and how many did you use?


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## schmuttis (Dec 11, 2006)

Thanks for the info about the phosguard. I'll remove it right now.

I pushed the plant tabs in as far as they would go. Our gravel is about 1 1/2 - 2" deep.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

The plant tabs should be okay then. Just remember not to uproot the plants near them for a couple of months or some of the fertilizer will be released into the water column all at once.


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## furballi (Feb 2, 2007)

Reduce lighting (4 to 5 hours per day). Raise phosphate (up to 2 ppm max). Do 50% water change each week. Add N-P-K plant stuffs at the store (osmocote or equivalent) to the substrate to feed the plants. Also add other micronutrients to the water column on a weekly basis.

I would also investigate CO2 injection. It can be difficult to dose CO2 using soda bottles.


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