Little algae assistance needed

Started up a 30gal about 3 months ago, here are the specs:

Sand with root tabs, T8 4ft shop light 6500k bulbs, 5lb Co2 tank at about 3bps, red ludwigia, wisteria and stargrass (thanks ron/poke!)

-I dose excel just over the recommended on the bottle, other than that I don't put anything else in. 10gal water change every sunday, religiously!

The only algae I am somewhat fighting is what I believe to be brown diatoms. While they certainly don't grow too quickly, they have managed to cover most of the plants save for the newest 2 inches of growth.

I know something is off here but I'm scratching my head as to what! Any ideas you planted gurus?!

Thanks!

Most normal sands leach phosphates for quite a while which makes brown diatoms explode. Also I'd be water column fertilizing as well.

Here is an interesting thread on water column vs root tabs etc. With Tom Barr weighing in.

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I have experienced what Cory is talking about, and agree that it may just be growing pains for your setup. Although I actually have gotten outbreaks of diatoms even after having a tank set up for over a year, and I don't know what the cause of those outbreaks has been. The bummer about it is what you mentioned with older leaves browning; I guess the diatoms coat the leaves and impede nutrient absorption? I am not sure that this theory is right, but it is always what I have guessed.

My other suggestion would be to watch ambient light levels getting to the tank; again I don't know if this is true, but people say that sunlight from windows and other light can help diatoms out-compete plants and take over. I doubt that this would be the main reason, though.

Here's the site I like the best for algae info

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I had brown algae obliterate a planted tank on setup and that tank didn't have sand or anything. I'm not sure what went wrong with it but it was terrible. Once I got it cleared up it never came back.

Just curious, is there a reason you are using excell and pressurized co2 both?

cichlid-gal wrote:I had brown algae obliterate a planted tank on setup and that tank didn't have sand or anything.  I'm not sure what went wrong with it but it was terrible.  Once I got it cleared up it never came back.

I wonder if this could possibly be elements in the tap, then, that are allowing diatoms to grow? I really have never looked into my tap water's parameters and whether it has anything like silicates that might help them take over

If phosphate is one of the cause. Phosphate guard by seachem I think would help.

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:Most normal sands leach phosphates for quite a while which makes brown diatoms explode. Also I'd be water column fertilizing as well.

Here is an interesting thread on water column vs root tabs etc. With Tom Barr weighing in.

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Right on, thanks guys!

Forgot about the silica and sand thing, and that makes sense especially since I'm not using aquarium specific sand. That follows right along with it being a fairly new tank.

I did test my water and it seems to be fairly normal: 130ppm TDS, no measurable phosphates, ph of about 7.5 after it settles and little nitrates. Seems to be standard issue water. I do know it is high in carbonates as it takes a bit of ph down to drop it for hydroponics. Don't believe that is a bad thing for a planted tank though.

No specific reason I'm using excel with the co2, just another experiment to see if it benefits the tank in any additional way. I do have some dry ferts from aquariumfertilizer.com so maybe it's time to dive into that!

Yeah, I think you should be fine in a while, it's probably just growing pains in a new-ish tank... I feel for you though, because I do the same thing, whenever there is a little problem I worry about whether it's something I am doing. I think in reality sometimes it's just a natural 'cycle' of algae, and it should clear up soon enough I think

That's what I believe too. Still going to get back into dosing the dry ferts as the tank should be at the point of needing that. I've beat back a few of the different types of algae these tanks generally get but this one sure is resilient!
Thanks for the help