# 3 types of algae now bga, staghorn, green hair



## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

What was wrong with this thread? 

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/23-algae/1275033-what-am-i-doing-wrong-ugh-4.html

A lot of people gave you a lot of sound advice there. Why not update your progress, or lack thereof, in that thread, so that it's easy to follow??


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

MCFC said:


> What was wrong with this thread?
> 
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/23-algae/1275033-what-am-i-doing-wrong-ugh-4.html
> 
> A lot of people gave you a lot of sound advice there. Why not update your progress, or lack thereof, in that thread, so that it's easy to follow??


Because I've done everything in that tread and it went Dormant , and now I have different issues, I went back to that thread before I posted this one as I was going to post this there, but I didn't want to confuse people by adding to a thread that's a month old. 

I've increased my ferts but not the lights, I haven't gotten more plants because I don't want to throw a hundred bucks in the garbage, I want to exhaust every option so I was curious if I should get a power head/upp my light while keeping my ferts where they are as I think I'm over fertilizing with not enough light, I was thinking maybe having to little of light with high blue output could be the cause? 

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## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

p0tluck said:


> I went back to that thread before I posted this one as I was going to post this there, but I didn't want to confuse people by adding to a thread that's a month old.



But now if people look at just this thread they are missing a ton of information. Very basic stuff too, like size of tank...




p0tluck said:


> Because I've done everything in that tread


Really? Everything?



brothermichigan said:


> The chemiclean will likely take care of the BGA with no issues... a couple of Amano shrimp would have that tank cleaned up in no time at all.





Quagulator said:


> I would grab 4-6 oto cats, a bunch of amano shrimp for the diatoms and do 2 doses of chemiclean for the BGA.
> 
> If you are doing 50% weekly water changes I would go ahead and dose 4 x 4mL of thrive, this will get you 10ppm NO3 total. BGA loves low NO3 environments.
> 
> 3mL of excel in a 55 won't do much.





Quagulator said:


> Go ahead and buy the oto cats, they will do great in your water parameters.





Quagulator said:


> Try multiple large water changes in a day, check to see if that brings it down.
> 
> Clean out filters in old tank water regularly, vacuum substrate where you can and remove any old plant matter regularly too.





Surf said:


> add a GH booster to your water to increase calcium and magnesium levels in the water. Increasing your GH 2 degrees above the tap GH should be enough.





Greggz said:


> First decide what is it you want the tank to be? Then make decisions based on that. Your lighting and fert needs will be completely different depending on what you want to grow. And honestly without CO2, I doubt you will be very successful with the stems long term, so I would focus on making the low light plants happy for now.





Deanna said:


> Try hitting some of the “BGA” with H2O2 from a syringe/pipette. If the place where you hit it dramatically changes (may disappear) in a couple hours then it is likely BGA and Chemiclean does a great job for that. If not, it’s algae.
> 
> I think I also see some BBA and I notice that your PO4 is on the very low side. Getting PO4 up to 3-4ppm (I run it at 10 – in a high-tech setup) may help a lot in controlling that type of algae. Root tabs are unnecessary – all nutrients can be supplied in the water column.
> 
> ...





Greggz said:


> if you decide to concentrate more on stems, then I would highly recommend CO2, or you might be banging your head against the wall for some time. Just being honest.



It was mentioned multiple times that 4ml of Thrive is next to nothing. So you bumped it up to 6ml, which is still next to nothing in a 55gal... 




You had some very experienced members give you very sound advice in the last thread. I highly recommend focusing on what they said. 

Nobody mentioned your lighting spectrum, nobody said to increase your photoperiod, nobody said you were dosing too much...


I'm sorry but our styles just don't mesh, so I'm going to have to check myself out on your tank's progression. I really do hope you get the balance figured out. Don't give up hope!


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

MCFC said:


> But now if people look at just this thread they are missing a ton of information. Very basic stuff too, like size of tank...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you, and that's okay, can't please everyone 
But I can check off every box in that category that I've done except shrimp as I can't get them by me and I don't have the tds for them my water parameters are not correct for shrimp, I have no idea why you think I didn't try what people recommended cause I tried everything to the point I can't remember what I changed. 

6 ml is a lot if I'm not pushing the lights which are the driving force for plant growth, which means plants aren't consuming the nutrients im feeding them even though algae don't consume much nutrients, without healthy plants I will always have algae. 

Edit, didn't do chemiclean because its Hella expensive and the bga will just come back if I don't balance the tank so I have healthy thriving plants. 

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## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

You just had to quote me eh? Haha. OK, one last kick at the can...



p0tluck said:


> I have no idea why you think I didn't try what people recommended


It's because you said: 



p0tluck said:


> I've increased my ferts but not the lights, I haven't gotten more plants


Very much sounds like you might have missed a few suggestions. 




p0tluck said:


> But I can check off every box in that category that I've done except shrimp...


You added Chemiclean?
You added more plants?
You added oto cats?
You did multiple large water changes per day?
You cleaned your filters out and vacuumed the substrate of any dust/debris/plant matter?
You added GH booster?
You decided if you were going to keep it low light vs high light?
You picked the appropriate plants, lights, ferts (including CO2) to go with your overall lighting choice?
You hit the BGA with H2O2? 
You used excel/glut?
You upped your PO4 to 3-4ppm? 
You added Purigen?
You shortened your photoperiod?
(all rhetorical, I won't be checking the answers, even if you quote me again haha  ) 

Those were just the suggestions I got from the first half of that thread...




p0tluck said:


> 6 ml is a lot


Nope. It just isn't. 6ml of Thrive into 55gal is a drop in the bucket, no matter how you look at it. 



Quagulator said:


> If you are doing 50% weekly water changes I would go ahead and dose 4 x 4mL of thrive, this will get you 10ppm NO3 total. BGA loves low NO3 environments.
> 
> 3mL of excel in a 55 won't do much. I do 3.5mL in a 30 gal of Met 14 and it does nothing for the algae.





Greggz said:


> And really excess ferts is your least concern......4ml of Thrive in your tank provides...................NO3 2.54, Po4	0.47, and K 1.88................which is almost nothing. You are pretty close now to not dosing at all. And you don't want the nutrients to ever be totally consumed. In that case, trust me your plants will be starving.



Lastly, when looking for help, it really discourages people when all you seemingly do is come back with reasons why their suggestions won't work (see the amanos, otos, excel, more plants, etc...). I could be wrong, but I think it's a big reason why you had plenty of responses in the last thread but this one is drawing crickets. 

Just my 2 nickels 

...and I'm out! :grin2:


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## Maryland Guppy (Dec 6, 2014)

Just dose enough Thrive to bring the entire tank up to 20ppm of NO3.>


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

In general, my experience has been too little ferts is worse than too many.

But that assumes you have light and CO2 right.

It's a three legged stool (CO2/lights/ferts). Get one wrong and it gets wobbly.

And tank maintenance is as important as all three.

Decide what you want to be, then tailor everything to that thought.


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

Maryland Guppy said:


> Just dose enough Thrive to bring the entire tank up to 20ppm of NO3.>


My no3 is 35, which is why I was suggested to go to dry ferts so I can cut no3 and up P04 

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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

[quote =MCFC;11088413]Lastly, when looking for help, it really discourages people when all you seemingly do is come back with reasons why their suggestions won't work (see the amanos, otos, excel, more plants, etc...). I could be wrong, but I think it's a big reason why you had plenty of responses in the last thread but this one is drawing crickets. 

Just my 2 nickels 

...and I'm out! :grin2:[/quote]

I didn't say they "wouldn't work" I said they "didn't work" because now I have 3 different types of algae instead of one.



MCFC said:


> You added Chemiclean?
> Already answered this as I said no because if the cost and it will come back if I don't figure out why I'm getting bga in the first place.
> 
> You added more plants?


Yes I sure have not many but a few. 



MCFC said:


> You added oto cats?


Yes 3



MCFC said:


> You did multiple large water changes per day?


Yes 3 30% over the course of 7 hours which brought my nitrates down to 5


MCFC said:


> You cleaned your filters out and vacuumed the substrate of any dust/debris/plant matter?


Yes even removed my syphon tube to get more suction while disturbing substrate to remove as much "dust" as i could, vacuumed all the plants, rocks, driftwood, cleaned both filters added fine canister filter floss to trap more fine dust particles 



MCFC said:


> You added GH booster?


My gh is already 6, nilcog told me I do not need to add it.



MCFC said:


> You decided if you were going to keep it low light vs high light?


This was my question on this post as I was running my light at 45% with very odd spectrums, I don't have a par meter or a lux meter to check it so I can't really answer it on if it was "high or low." 




MCFC said:


> You picked the appropriate plants, lights, ferts (including CO2) to go with your overall lighting choice?


Yes I have all plants that do not require co2 injection, I will not be adding co2 as I'm new to plants and my livestock is more important than my plants it's something you just don't "dive into" and I don't have the money for it. 



MCFC said:


> You hit the BGA with H2O2?


Nope I hit it with excel , turned off filters fogged plants let sit 30 min turned filters on did 50% water change the following day. 



MCFC said:


> You used excel/glut?


Yes as I mentioned above



MCFC said:


> You upped your PO4 to 3-4ppm?


Phosphate is 2.8



MCFC said:


> You added Purigen?


I added bio Chem sorb 



MCFC said:


> You shortened your photoperiod?


Yes to 4.5 hours which IS WHEN EVERYTHING STARTED TO GET WORSE. 

Phosphate, I'm not trying to argue as it may seem but I'm not I've simply done everything besides a few things like chemiclean and stocking the tank with more plants which is what I'm in the process of doing (wisteria, pearl weed (even though when I go to order it on Hans it comes up as dwarf baby tears) and that's not what I want, mosses, more rotala rotundifolia and dwarf sag 



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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

Greggz said:


> In general, my experience has been too little ferts is worse than too many.
> 
> But that assumes you have light and CO2 right.
> 
> ...


I totally agree that co2 makes things easier but with co2 comes a new set of issues if not balanced correctly, I honestly do not have the money for co2, I am inexperienced with it, I know 2 people who just went high tech and gassed their fish because they jumped into it, I want to be low tech, I look at Dave O'Bryant tanks and they are amazing, he doesn't dose ferts, no co2 nothing and his tanks are insane, I'm not trying to argue with people even though it may come across that way, the day after I fogged my plants with excel I lost an Irian red, the following day I lost a sentani, I can't say it was the excel as I think it was Hikari freeze dried tubifex, but I can't rule it out either. 

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## TheLordOfTheFish (Mar 11, 2017)

I balanced all my low tech tanks by adding frogbit floating plants. They grow like crazy and outcompete the algae. Worked for me.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

p0tluck said:


> I totally agree that co2 makes things easier but with co2 comes a new set of issues if not balanced correctly, I honestly do not have the money for co2, I am inexperienced with it, I know 2 people who just went high tech and gassed their fish because they jumped into it, I want to be low tech, I look at Dave O'Bryant tanks and they are amazing, he doesn't dose ferts, no co2 nothing and his tanks are insane, I'm not trying to argue with people even though it may come across that way, the day after I fogged my plants with excel I lost an Irian red, the following day I lost a sentani, I can't say it was the excel as I think it was Hikari freeze dried tubifex, but I can't rule it out either.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk


There's no reason to be gassing your fish using co2. There is a ton of information here and elsewhere to avoid that. Every tank regardless of its light levels is deficient in co2. There's just not enough in the water. Once added every system benefits. 

To me co2 should be looked upon in the same way as light and filtration. Most issues develop whether they be plant or algae related because co2 is not part of the plan.


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

houseofcards said:


> There's no reason to be gassing your fish using co2. There is a ton of information here and elsewhere to avoid that. Every tank regardless of its light levels is deficient in co2. There's just not enough in the water. Once added every system benefits.
> 
> To me co2 should be looked upon in the same way as light and filtration. Most issues develop whether they be plant or algae related because co2 is not part of the plan.


I can show you links of no co2 tanks that will probably blow your mind, im not saying it won't help, I'm disabled and cannot afford it 

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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

p0tluck said:


> I can show you links of no co2 tanks that will probably blow your mind, im not saying it won't help, I'm disabled and cannot afford it
> 
> Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk


There are many variables that aren't always shown in pictures. How much effort it took to get there, how much they dealt with, how limited the plant selection is, etc. Not saying it's not possible there are plenty of tanks without co2, just saying co2 eliminates alot of issues. Sorry to hear about your disability, but co2 isn't any more expensive then adding a light or filter in many cases.

I could put together a tank right now full of low light, ferns, anubias, buce, etc. and it would look pretty good from the getgo. But co2-less tanks will be limited to some degree where co2 tanks are not.


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

houseofcards said:


> There are many variables that aren't always shown in pictures. How much effort it took to get there, how much they dealt with, how limited the plant selection is, etc. Not saying it's not possible there are plenty of tanks without co2, just saying co2 eliminates alot of issues. Sorry to hear about your disability, but co2 isn't any more expensive then adding a light or filter in many cases.
> 
> I could put together a tank right now full of low light, ferns, anubias, buce, etc. and it would look pretty good from the getgo. But co2-less tanks will be limited to some degree where co2 tanks are not.


Thanks on the disability thing, I just have to many bills, it took me 3 months of saving to upgrade my light, dyi co2 is very unreliable as well and with it comes a whole slew of issues if not done correctly. Here's an example of a no co2 tank by Dave O'Bryant









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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

But I'm not Dave O'Bryant 🤣🤣🤣, I've only been into plants 7 months, but his work is phenomenal 

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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

The no dosing is no big deal, he's using a product similar to ADA aquasoil, so especially with low light plants you can go a year without dosing. Where's the hairgrass that he listed? The use of moss as a foreground is a dead giveaway that the tank is limited and he can't grow a thick foreground with stem plants in that setup. The pic is too small, but it doesn't look like the monte carlo is growing that well. 

Just making a point that these type of setups are always limited compared to co2 as he is only running his lights at 25% power.


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

houseofcards said:


> The no dosing is no big deal, he's using a product similar to ADA aquasoil, so especially with low light plants you can go a year without dosing. Where's the hairgrass that he listed? The use of moss as a foreground is a dead giveaway that the tank is limited and he can't grow a thick foreground with stem plants in that setup. The pic is too small, but it doesn't look like the monte carlo is growing that well.
> 
> Just making a point that these type of setups are always limited compared to co2 as he is only running his lights at 25% power.


Right as if he ran the twinstar at 100 % he would exhaust the co2 levels in the tank, hense why I'm trying to adjust my Light, the Pic is small because I didn't want to save the Pic and post it as it's not my tank/picture , everything in the tank is growing excellent just can't see it cause it's a screenshot. 

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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

Here's Dave
https://aquascapingpodcast.podbean.com/e/adu-aquascaping-david-obryant/

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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

Note on thrive it doesn't have any calcium. So if you have a calcium deficiency you could dump the entire bottle of fertilizer in the tank and the plants will still not grow. But the algae would be very happy.

Also a GH of 6 doesn't tell you how much calcium and magnesium you actually have. It just tells you that some calcium / magnesium is present. I GH of 6 is no guarantee that you do not have enough.

Get a sulfate GH booster (sachem equilibrium) and boost your water hardness by 2 degrees. That step along would eliminate Calcium, magnesium, sulfur and potassium deficiencies. from the list of possibilities.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

p0tluck said:


> Here's Dave
> https://aquascapingpodcast.podbean.com/e/adu-aquascaping-david-obryant/
> 
> Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk


Nothing against Dave, but I listened to the first 4 minutes of the podcast you attached and he says the best thing for a beginner is using AS and dosing EI. That is what the majority of the members do here. This has been discussed ad nauseam here for at least 10 years. At 4 minutes in he' asked about good plants for beginners he mentions Anubias (no kidding) and the interviewer asks about carpeting plants in low-tech. And he replys Monte Carlo, Micro Sword. Nothing wrong with his answers, but it shows the limitation of low-tech.

That's the point I'm making you could do low tech, but your limited by plant selection without co2 especially for carpeting plants. Dwarf Hairgrass, HC is very difficult to grow and he doesn't mention using them. There's growth and then there's GROWTH. Weak carpets are nothing beautiful to look at and IMO defeat the purpose of growing them. 

There are few absolutes in this hobby, but co2 makes growing everything easier and because of that there are less algae issues.


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

houseofcards said:


> Nothing against Dave, but I listened to the first 4 minutes of the podcast you attached and he says the best thing for a beginner is using AS and dosing EI. That is what the majority of the members do here. This has been discussed ad nauseam here for at least 10 years. At 4 minutes in he' asked about good plants for beginners he mentions Anubias (no kidding) and the interviewer asks about carpeting plants in low-tech. And he replys Monte Carlo, Micro Sword. Nothing wrong with his answers, but it shows the limitation of low-tech.
> 
> That's the point I'm making you could do low tech, but your limited by plant selection without co2 especially for carpeting plants. Dwarf Hairgrass, HC is very difficult to grow and he doesn't mention using them. There's growth and then there's GROWTH. Weak carpets are nothing beautiful to look at and IMO defeat the purpose of growing them.
> 
> There are few absolutes in this hobby, but co2 makes growing everything easier and because of that there are less algae issues.


Oh I'm not trying to grow carpet, I linked you that thinking it had pictures of his scapes, I will do ground cover of dwarf sag or pearl weed, he works for Adu, also dennis wong has a link of how to grow Monte Carlo in a low tech tank without co2, but dennis says the same thing to me about going co2 and I tell him the same thing, it's not happening I have to many bills, not enough money, there are many many low tech tanks that I would be happy with, I'm not trying to build a show tank that literally only looks good for a few months, I'm. Also not trying to make something i have to work on everyday, maybe if I win the lottery one day or actually be able to go back to work I will, but as of right now it's off the discussion 

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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

Surf said:


> Note on thrive it doesn't have any calcium. So if you have a calcium deficiency you could dump the entire bottle of fertilizer in the tank and the plants will still not grow. But the algae would be very happy.
> 
> Also a GH of 6 doesn't tell you how much calcium and magnesium you actually have. It just tells you that some calcium / magnesium is present. I GH of 6 is no guarantee that you do not have enough.
> 
> Get a sulfate GH booster (sachem equilibrium) and boost your water hardness by 2 degrees. That step along would eliminate Calcium, magnesium, sulfur and potassium deficiencies. from the list of possibilities.


I have read that (increase gh by 2 ppm from source) I will add equilibrium, I have no plant deficiencies that I can tell but it won't hurt, I also have nilcog root tabs that have potassium/magnesium as so does thrive, would I be better to just get a gh booster that doesn't have all that in it or will over dosing potassium/magnesium etc etc be okay? 

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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

p0tluck said:


> Oh I'm not trying to grow carpet, I linked you that thinking it had pictures of his scapes, I will do ground cover of dwarf sag or pearl weed, he works for Adu, also dennis wong has a link of how to grow Monte Carlo in a low tech tank without co2, but dennis says the same thing to me about going co2 and I tell him the same thing, it's not happening I have to many bills, not enough money, there are many many low tech tanks that I would be happy with, I'm not trying to build a show tank that literally only looks good for a few months, I'm. Also not trying to make something i have to work on everyday, maybe if I win the lottery one day or actually be able to go back to work I will, but as of right now it's off the discussion
> 
> Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk


This is what im aiming for, there's lots of pics of no co2 tanks, there's a few things I'm missing, soil substrate which would cost a fortune to switch too if I didn't go with raw soil and went with a rich substrate like Ada, canister filter for flow and flow pattern, abd a very heavily planted tank. And my tanks a 55 gallon not a 20, it simply could be improper gaseous exchange due to I have hob's that have a terrible flow pattern which is why I asked about adding a powerhead in earlier posts, and not having soil substrate. 
 https://www.advancedplantedtank.com/101-lowtech.html

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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

The thing I don't understand is your referencing Dave O'Bryant. You attached a podcast interview with him. In the interview he describes how he uses aquasoil and recommends that over regular soil, but you don't want to spend the money (or don't have it) on the aquasoil. Don't you think that's a key part of his low-tech approach?

Actually regular soil which he does not recommend for beginners, because of the mess and difficulty of working with it, which I agree actually would enable you to grow more plants without co2 injection because the soil is generating co2. The downside is the mess and the likelihood of algae if the lights are too bright due to the organic content in it. 

So your not even in a position to follow Dave O'Bryant's advise either.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Since you are not able to add CO2, I would gear everything you are doing to low light/low tech plants.

You can have a beautiful tank with low tech plants. Not much color, but can get a nice blend of plants.

Think Anubias, crypts, swords, etc.

Personally given what you have said, I doubt you will have much luck with stems at all.

For a low tech tank,I was always most successful with VERY low lighting. Low dosage of ferts, and expect slow but healthy growth.

Notwithstanding your reference to some successful no CO2 tanks, in my experience stems or colorful plants generally don't do well. Concentrate on plants that will like what you provide. 

The other benefit is that there is less maintenance required. You still want to stay on top of filter cleanings, substrate vacs, water changes, etc.......but you won't require the extremely hands on pruning/trimming etc. that comes with fast growing stems.

Just my opinion based on personal experience, but whatever you do I wish you well with it.


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

houseofcards said:


> The thing I don't understand is your referencing Dave O'Bryant. You attached a podcast interview with him. In the interview he describes how he uses aquasoil and recommends that over regular soil, but you don't want to spend the money (or don't have it) on the aquasoil. Don't you think that's a key part of his low-tech approach?
> 
> Actually regular soil which he does not recommend for beginners, because of the mess and difficulty of working with it, which I agree actually would enable you to grow more plants without co2 injection because the soil is generating co2. The downside is the mess and the likelihood of algae if the lights are too bright due to the organic content in it.
> 
> So your not even in a position to follow Dave O'Bryant's advise either.


My tanks been set up for 8 years, it's a 55 gallon not a 9 gallon,aquasoil is Hella expensive especially for a 55 gallon, my tank was fish only for almost 8 years , 7 months ago I went to plants,

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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

Sorry I was half asleep and frustrated earlier as I spent all night ordering plants and come to find out before I checked out the prices of the plants were literally a fortune, example $1.50 per stem which I thought were bundles, so I had to start all over in in the process of of switching over to more hardy plants and bushier nutrient consuming faster growing plants until I get my new tank as I've taken out a loan from my buddy to do so that will be dirted, won't be co2 until I research it more, I was ordering wisteria, pearl weed, ferns, water sprite, s repens Buceps, dwarf sag, when I looked at the quantity I was only getting 1 stem of each I need like 5-10 stems of each.


As far as taking Dave's advice, if my tank was empty and new I would go with soil capped but it's a nightmare to do with an already established tank/filters etc etc that's why I have not converted to dirt, I was told i could just mix in soil balls I think they were called but it wouldn't be as good as dirt so right now I'm stuck with the super fine gravel substrate in using, it's not big pebble substrate which helps, but it's not dirt, sorry if I seemed snappy. 

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## Deanna (Feb 15, 2017)

Ready to go with regular dosing of glut yet?


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

Deanna said:


> Ready to go with regular dosing of glut yet?


Nope ready to stock the tank with plants and stop fighting mother nature 

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## Quagulator (May 4, 2015)

I really didn't want to get involved because you have been given some good advice from good members, 

But do you have any pictures of this "horrible" onset of algae strains? Last time I saw a picture of your "problematic" tank it looks great and healthy, many members would agree with that I think. 

I don't think going with dirt is the best thing to do at the moment btw. It only adds to the mess.


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

Quagulator said:


> I really didn't want to get involved because you have been given some good advice from good members,
> 
> But do you have any pictures of this "horrible" onset of algae strains? Last time I saw a picture of your "problematic" tank it looks great and healthy, many members would agree with that I think.
> 
> I don't think going with dirt is the best thing to do at the moment btw. It only adds to the mess.


Yes I have pics but they aren't very good as I can't zoom In on the algae without it blurring out, it's not terrible terrible but if I don't add more plants to combat it then it will Be. I went to order more plants abd ohhh muah gurd I have to find a cheaper place lol.






























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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

Let me upload them to imgur so they aren't blurry, can see it on the leaves of the rotala bacopa, rocks, glass, and Ludwigia 
Yes the tall stem of rotala is pearling in the pic..I think [emoji848] 

Algae https://imgur.com/a/py1GR4k
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## Quagulator (May 4, 2015)

p0tluck said:


> Let me upload them to imgur so they aren't blurry, can see it on the leaves of the rotala bacopa, rocks, glass, and Ludwigia
> Yes the tall stem of rotala is pearling in the pic..I think [emoji848]
> 
> Algae https://imgur.com/a/py1GR4k
> Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk


I am really not seeing anything that is out of the "acceptable" range for a lower tech tank. All that I see is a little bit of MANAGEABLE algae growing on some older leaves. 

Regular (albeit slower in a lower tech tank) trimming of stems and removal of stumps should remove the algae covered lower/older portions.

Your plants look very healthy to me, more healthy than my low tech tank. Crypts look great, Ludwigia, money wart all look good, sag/dwarf sword is nice and bright green. I'm really having a hard time believing this is a bad case of algae. 

Manual removal, spot treatments and trimmings are a very important part of low tech. Keep these up and you'll be way ahead of an algae outburst. 

You're already fertilizing, limiting light and doing large regular water changes with organics being removed, so yes, a little more plant mass and you should have a very good grasp on any algae. 

Best of luck, again, your tank / plants are looking good to me, above average for a low tech tank in my opinion.


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

Quagulator said:


> I am really not seeing anything that is out of the "acceptable" range for a lower tech tank. All that I see is a little bit of MANAGEABLE algae growing on some older leaves.
> 
> Regular (albeit slower in a lower tech tank) trimming of stems and removal of stumps should remove the algae covered lower/older portions.
> 
> ...


Can't really see it in pictures, if I could take better pics I could show I have bga and green hair on every plant in my tank. I will try to get my cousin to come over with her professions l camera 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk


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