Deficiencies or Algae?

[sh4d0w]

Hi Guys.

I posted not long back and the general feedback was increase my ferts, plant dont seem to have benefited and algae appears to be increasing.

330Ltr Tank
Lights - WRGB Pro on preset ALL setting, 6hr 15 mins duration with 30 minute sunrise/sunset.
CO2 - LifeAqua dual stage pro Reg, CO2 art inline diffuser - Drop checker nice and green before lights kick in.
Filters - BioMaster 600 with Lily pipe, Skimmer and CO2 & Eheim Pro4 with Matrix and Carbon also TMC Vectron 600 UV.
Twinstar Nano M2 Reactor.
Ferts - APT3 9ML on Mon, Wed, Fri and Sun with 10ML Tropica Premium on Tues, Thurs and Sat. I began to also dose Seachem Iron and Potassium as per bottle for one week but saw no change and stopped.

PRE CUT 28th Oct


Semi decent trim and 80% waterchange
06th November





09th November




13th November


15th November



19th November



TODAY



So we can see that the grass is picking up a lot of Algae and other plant health has not really improved, i am looking for some support on this folks.

Tank has been running since June and all plants have been in since day 1 with nothing new.

 

[Zeus.]

Think it may be the lack of a clean up crew as there doesn't seem to be any except SAE.
I had RCS hundreds ( probably 1K+ in my 500l and 50+ Amanos plus lots of snails.
I had to relocate my SAE as my RCS never took off well until they was moved as the SAE do get a taste for RCS when they get as big as yours, plus SAE can get a bit lazy with algae eating as they get bigger esp if their getting their food from another source.

 

[sh4d0w]

I have 2 SAE, 1 Otto (was 2), 1 Amano Shrimp (was 10) maybe more but cant find. 4 Snails.

Ill get a shed load more in there.

cant seem to keep RCS alive, something kinda likes them. Not the SAE as they wasnt arround back then.

 

[Andy Pierce]

The rummys can be surprisingly non-peaceful for a 'peaceful community fish' so they could certainly be considered a potential shrimp-eating culprit. I had rummys eat my chili rasboras as well (I have photographic evidence).

 

[sh4d0w]

Rummys are old faithfulls but if they are munching on my stuff ill put em' in the pan!

 

[Andy Pierce]

I actually think it was my 5 banded barbs that were the main shrimp-eating culprits...

 

[Mat H]

I don't think it's deficiencies, but rather the growth has probably impacted flow in what is really a high energy tank where the distribution of nutrients and CO2 is key.

I would just keep on top of maintaince, remove what you can, and be patient.

Having been in a similar predicament a handful or two of Ramshorn Snails, as well as other clean up crew additions, can also be incredibly helpful as others have mentioned.

As for predation I feel it's always better to start a tank with the snails, then shrimp and then fish once the shrimp are already established. Of course some fish will still just do what they do, though it does seem to help even when I've kept Pea Puffers.