10 gallon redo

Blaxicanlatino

i have a 10 gallon tank with 23 watts total over it. much java moss, pennywort, banana plant, moneywort, anubias nana, creeping charlie.
however, the anubias nana is covered in green blotches and the pennywort is covered in it too! i clean 3 gallons out of the tank once every week. I asked about this tank before and i was advised to turn the tank on for 4 hours then off for 4 then on again for 4. It succeeded to a degree (i used to get these green blotches all over the side of the tank to where i couldnt see in the tank. but not anymore) but i still get it on the pennywort and anubias nana and moneywort. The penny wort was left floating but i weighed it down to the bottom of the tank and now the new leaves arent getting the green blotches. Heck i thought these plants liked alot of light but it seems like less light helps them out more. so im going to reduce the lights from 23 watts to 15. i have 1 female betta, 3 neon tetras, 3 dwarf platys.

Any suggestions? i use this blue gravel stuff but im thinking of taking that out and using a white sand, or brown sand.

Blaxicanlatino

heres some pics of it. sorry for the bad quality. yeah that pennywort looks awful. I rememebr the first time i got it, it grew a new leaf everyday! now i get one once a week -_-

i use ferts too! 8 drops of flourish excel a week. and 10 drops of excel everyday

Attached Images

	!0 gallon Kronos March 14.jpg (84.5 KB, 23 views)
	10 gallon Aquarium Kronos #2.jpg (87.5 KB, 23 views)
	dirty anubias nana.jpg (81.0 KB, 22 views)

Angel079

Can really not tell from the pic's but I'm guessing you have green spot algae going?!

Was this my tank I'd cut that light at LEAST in half assuming its florescent tube 25W over a 10g is a LOT. I'd aim more for something like 12-15w max (dep on how small wattage bulb you have/ able to find).

Also carefully evaluate just how much you're feeding there.

Blaxicanlatino

i forgot to also mention i have an amano shrimp in the tank.
the watts is 2 bulbs, one bulb being 13 watts while the other is 12 watts. im aobut to reduce it down to 15 watts.

redchigh

Hmm.
Lowering the light is probably a good idea-

I have 20W over my ten, just because that's the minimum I can fit in the hood for even lighting...
Yes, I do have a huge algae problem (the common green algae grows on literally everything, but the plants grow faster than it does, and the guppies and snails eat it a lot. I only feed that tank every other day to every two days, and the guppies are FAT off algae.)
If you have a good number of fish, I'd cut out or at least reduce the ferts...

The ferts are probably causing the algae growth since you reduced the light already... If you can go to 15W do it. Try cutting out the ferts as an experiment-
give it a couple weeks and see how the plants and algae respond.

You also don't mention the spectrum of your lighting...
cool white? actinic blue? warm white? Full spectrum?

You could probably do with just the 1 12W bulb in cool white 6500k

Angel079

What's the kelvin rating on the 2 bulbs do you know?

What ferts are you exactly using and how often do you use them?

Blaxicanlatino

im not sure about kelvins but its daytime lights. i put 8 drops after every water change which is once a week

Angel079

If they're both daylights then i'd use the 12w one only there.

8 drops of what? API? Flourish? Jungle?

Byron

You have algae problems because the light is too intense to balance the nutrients for what the plants can use, in a nutshell.

Now to specifics. Reducing the light intensity will help a lot, so that is the first step which you've already decided.

There is also a problem with your additives; you do not need Excel, what it is doing is throwing the nutrients/light out of balance even more. Plus, when you use it sporadically it harms the plants. Excel is a carbon supplement, and plants need a steady supply of carbon every day or they cannot photosynthesize. As Tom Barr has expertly pointed out elsewhere, variations in CO2/carbon impedes the plant's ability to photosynthesize. Just as you can grow healthy plants without CO2 diffusion, so you can do it without Excel which is the same basic thing, carbon, only in a different form. Stop adding Excel and it will also help the algae problem.

As for the other nutrients, in Flourish, once a week should be sufficient to balance your light (when it is reduced) and fish load (nitrogen and CO2 come from the fish and biological processes). But dose it the day after a water change; chances are you are using a water conditioner that detoxifies heavy metals, and some heavy metals are required plant micro-nutrients: iron, copper, zinc, manganese and nickel. I contacted Seachem on this, and was advised that Prime (and other conditioners that detoxify metals) would make the nutrients in Flourish ineffective. But using Flourish 24 hours later is fine, since Prime only detoxifies for about 24 hours.

Follow this and your balance will be established between light and nutrients, and algae will not be a problem.

Byron.

Blaxicanlatino

sorry, i meant to put seachem flourish (8 drops) in the tank.