If anyone could offer me some advice on how to combat the two types of algae present then that would be great before it gets to out of control.
Hi
@Louis287
Diatoms are very common in new / immature tanks. They will fade and go away over time as the tank matures. The BBA is bit more more tricky.
My advice is to do the following:
Take out the woodscape and clean off the algae. From the pictures it looks like that might still be feasible.
Give the tank a thorough clean up (filter, vacuum, front/back/side glass surfaces, tubes etc. etc.) get rid of as much of it as you can.
Add a bunch of fast growing plants - (you can always prune them down when the tank establish).
Add some floating plants (Frogbit, pennyworth etc.)
Leaves that are already very badly infected with BBA (the brown hairy algea - that cant be gently rubbed off between two fingers) should be removed.
Lower your light intensity (again, down to say 25-30%).
Make sure you have good circulation throughout the tank (make sure your filter is providing good turnover -- that it is not clogged up!).
Your weekly WC
should suffice, but you may want to consider upping it to twice a week for a bit. Make sure the water you put in is not
too far off - parameter wise - from what you have in the tank. I would let the WC water dose off the CO2 before putting it in to avoid CO2 fluctuations.
You can safely increase the Tropica dosing a bit say 2-3 pumps/day or use another and cheaper fertilizer such Complete fertilizer such as TNC Complete.
Have patience - a month in on a new low tech tank is still very immature.
All the above will help!
What water are you using for WC ?
Cheers,
Michael