# What's Wrong With My Tank



## foster (Sep 23, 2012)

The first thing that seems a bit high is the length of the photoperiod. Maybe cut back to about 7 hrs. per day to start with. The second thing is to little fertilizer for a tank that size. Try dosing a bit more everyday instead of odd dosing schedules. Seems counterintuitive to add more ferts, when having an algae problem, but you state your plants are stunted. It could be from a shortage of ferts.I think you will see some improvements if you change these two things.


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

Also, try to alternate macros and micros on different days. Po4 reacts with Iron so that both lose effectiveness.

Finally, adding more plant mass to your tank would help a big deal. Your tank is pretty big, you need more plant mass. 

Looking at your fert mix quantities, I think you need more. I would double if not quadruple what you are currently giving. Use a calculator to find the correct dosing for your tank. I'd start using the EI method:

http://yanc.rotalabutterfly.com


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

I can work out the CM to inches if need be, but what are the dimensions of this tank ?
I would rather not speculate without info.
The leaves of anubias turn yellow just before they die and that is normal, but yellow
seems to always be there when you need iron.
It may be difficult to see just where it is on the leaves of this plant. Actually it's on the
underside of each leaf. Both the yellow and the curling stopped when I added extra
iron to the tank that this plant is in.








But you probably don't want to add iron(more than is already there in your micros)
unless you actually see deficiencies. Any more than you already are that is.
I will go/w foster on low nutrients. Your solution has close to the same of KNO3/K2SO4
KH2PO4 as mine(I don't add MGSO4)but I add that to 500ml and dose 5 ml for a 40L tank. That sounds like a close match to the percents you use...5ml/20ml = 1/4 and
500ml/2000ml = 1/4 also...but that is what I use for a 40L tank.
Check the amounts on this thread.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=647697
The one marked 5ml/10g. I use a modified version of that. For 10g or 40L tank.
Without the measurements of your tank...just saying that with high light and CO2
your plants will need more nutrients to grow properly.


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## keymastr (May 25, 2015)

I agree. Too little fertilizer and lights should be cut back to no more than 8 hours. Your plants are simply burning through the available nutrients and the algae is able to grow on what is left.

You should manually remove what you can without disrupting the plant root systems, cut off leaves that cannot be wiped clean etc. and it would not hurt the plants to do a blackout for 3 days. Wrap the tank in black garbage bags a couple layers thick so that no light gets to the tank at all and no peeking. You will want co2 off and you may need an airstone. The sump will need blacked out as well. and until the algae is under control you can run the UV 24/7.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Unless you have those T5HO bulbs separated by several inches, so they are spread out over the front to back depth of the tank, or unless you have no reflectors for the bulbs, you have much too much light. I suggest you go to Ebay or another online store and get a very cheap lux meter. Then set the light across a couple of chairs and measure the light intensity in lux at the distance you have the lights from the substrate. Divide the lux by 70 and you will have a crude estimate of how much PAR you are getting at the substrate. That should be less than 80 or you have very high light. If it is about 40-50, you can grow all of your plants, using CO2 as you are, and probably avoid having bad algae problems.


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## doctorp (Jan 27, 2010)

Thanks for everyone's comments. I have ordered a lux meter, reduced the photo period. Its not on from 10am -2pm, and 4pm to 8pm. Should i increase this by an hour if things correct over coming weeks.
C02 changed to come on 30mins before the lights and goes off 1 hour before the lights do. I have doubled the macros and micros dosing. I will check the mix using the online calc tonight.

I might also do a blackout for 4 days to see what algae that can remove, buy some plecs, and manually remove the rest in a week. Need some cherry and glass shrimp too. 

Thanks again for the insights. I dream of an algae free tank.

So the sand substrate is not an issue?


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Sand is commonly used to cap dirt subs.
The amount of light is way over what the nutrients being feed to the plants are good enough for IMO. Plants will grow faster in higher light...but...IF the nutrient and CO2
amounts match the light level. Less of either the nutrients or CO2 will slow the plant growth. 8 hrs is actually enough for even fast growth if the other factors are there.
But after you get better plant growth you likely can make it a bit longer.
I've only done a blackout once in an extreme case. I'd rather do it slowly and not have
any large amount of algae to die off all at once in the tank. But most compensate for
that by doing a large water change a day or so after the blackout.


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## doctorp (Jan 27, 2010)

I have to say I'm totally confused by the fert calculators. Some of them are saying I need to dose 1.5kg of some elements into 2 litres of water which is just crazy. Can someone help me out?

Dose volume 50ml daily
Container 2000l (2L)

I am dosing:
KN03
KH2PO4
MgSO4
K2SO4

How many grams of each should I mix into my 2L container if I am doing 50ml daily doses?

I did a quick search and some MS excel calculations and came up with the following for the above metrics.
KN03 23.2 gm
KH2PO4 26.4 gm
MgSO4 2.4 gm
K2SO4 16.0 gm

Look about right?


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Is there some reason you don't wish to use the numbers suggested on this link ?
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=647697
Using it mixed in 500ml bottle as stated will give you 2 months of dosing from one mixing of it if used three times a week. If you wanted to use the 2000ml bottles you just add 4x the amount shown. I likely would use that shown for the 90g tank.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Easy one

8x T5HO for 12hrs is RIDICULOUS amounts of light
Not nearly enough plants... Java fern and anubias don't need but 5% of the light you are hitting your tank with

Ignore everyone that says that changing your fert regime will make a difference. It's not your filtration, it's not your ferts, it's not your CO2, it's not your photoperiod (but kind of - 12hrs is too long). You are simply blasting your tank with way too much light on far too few plants. To properly run a high tech setup with high light you need a LOT of very healthy, very fast growing, demanding plants. IMO 8xT5HO is far too much for any setup unless it's like 2 feet above your tank anyways.

Your struggling low-tech undemanding plants are not able to use any nutrients. Rip out any plants that are beyond the point of return and replace with plants like rotala, blyxa, cabomba, hygrophila, etc that grow very quickly and love high light/CO2. Even if your plants were healthy the amount of light/nutrients your plants will utilize is not even close to being able to run that much light. I would only use 2 of your 8 bulbs at 8hr max photoperiod. You also don't need to dose full EI because your plants won't use it all. Keep the CO2 up there though - that always helps. Once things fill in and your plants are healthy and growing well then you can ramp your light up. 4x T5Ho is the max I would go - that is still a ton of light.


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## whitepapagold (Aug 19, 2010)

klibs said:


> Easy one
> 
> 8x T5HO for 12hrs is RIDICULOUS amounts of light
> Not nearly enough plants... Java fern and anubias don't need but 5% of the light you are hitting your tank with
> ...


+1

I have a 125 gallon (473L), same plants and run 4 T5HO (2 in hood and 2 in fixture)- the one in the hood has a home made reflector and the fixture is a coralife and scores very poor on the par chart relatively. I run OLD bulbs in the hood as in I rotate the used bulbs from the fixture to the hood when I get new bulbs for the fixture.

My point is Im running half the lights as you and my bulbs are mostly old (so even less light)... Klibs is right.

Once you balance things, then you can slowly up the light again. When you do, save your old bulbs and use those- more gentle transition without dimming.


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## doctorp (Jan 27, 2010)

I have upped my daily macro dose to 2.5x what it was and nitrate levels are still about 10ppm so not crazy. I have switched of 4 of the bulbs too so just running 4 T5HO now for 8 hours a day. Ive also ordered a bunch of new plants. Have done the blackout method before with great success. Will do so again on Monday for 4 days.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Good luck but 4xT5HO is still a ton of light until things are established if you ask me


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## doctorp (Jan 27, 2010)

What i dont really get is that i used to run this exact setup a few years ago except on a smaller scale. Used the same co2 method, same dosing calculator, 4 x T5H0 on a 160L tank. Thw plants in that tank went bananas from day 1. The only different between the tanks is that i had ecocomplete as the substrate and a canister filter rather than a sump. My java fern used to double in size every 3 months and grew all the way to the surface of a 2 foot high tank. Now my java barely grows at all.


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## doctorp (Jan 27, 2010)

I wanted to provide an update to everyone who commented and gave me advice. Below are some photos of my tank a few weeks on with reduced photo period, reduced lights, increased plants and increased ferts plus some additional white filter media.


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## doctorp (Jan 27, 2010)

More pics


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## doctorp (Jan 27, 2010)

Another pic


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