Trying to ID root cause of Algae in Shallow. Potentially the light intensity?

[Andy Pierce]

Some pieces come to mind. First about flow, your tank is long and it's hard to tell from the full-tank shot, but do you have the water intake on the opposite side of the tank from the outflow lily pipe? That would ensure you get water movement across the length of the tank. With the green algae you seem to be having you can increase the number of amano shrimp to try to eat it by adding 5 more shrimp. I don't know that you need to do full EI dosing absent any fast growing stems or floating plants. That said, at least for me I found green algae reduced after increasing EI phosphate from 3 ppm to 7 ppm. It has already been mentioned to try liquid carbon (e.g. Easy Carbo) - you can go double-strength with that at 1 ml / 25 litres although in my experience that's best as a spot treatment; it's very effective as a spot treatment but I'm less convinced it's useful in the water column. Lately I'm concerned with a build up of soluble organics (these won't show on a TDS meter). For those it's helpful to have a really aggressive go with the turkey baster technique before a 50% (or more) water change.

 

[Framed Nature]

Some pieces come to mind. First about flow, your tank is long and it's hard to tell from the full-tank shot, but do you have the water intake on the opposite side of the tank from the outflow lily pipe? That would ensure you get water movement across the length of the tank. With the green algae you seem to be having you can increase the number of amano shrimp to try to eat it by adding 5 more shrimp. I don't know that you need to do full EI dosing absent any fast growing stems or floating plants. That said, at least for me I found green algae reduced after increasing EI phosphate from 3 ppm to 7 ppm. It has already been mentioned to try liquid carbon (e.g. Easy Carbo) - you can go double-strength with that at 1 ml / 25 litres although in my experience that's best as a spot treatment; it's very effective as a spot treatment but I'm less convinced it's useful in the water column. Lately I'm concerned with a build up of soluble organics (these won't show on a TDS meter). For those it's helpful to have a really aggressive go with the turkey baster technique before a 50% (or more) water change.

Thanks for the insight!

So i do have the intake in the back while the outflow is in the front.

I am running RO water explicitly, so im not sure if soluable organics are gonna be a concern (could be wrong of course!). I also have been doing spot dosing here and there, but i know that is more of a removal method rather than preventing it from coming back. My fears (which have been validated), is that even when i get rid of almost all visible algae, it returns. Noticing already that my DHG carpet leaves are accumulating algae again. This is even after doing a full deep clean of the tank.

So as of now:

Water parameters are 0/0/5 (ammonia->nitrate)
CO2 drop checker showing perfect across the tank
Light brought down to 30% of power
EI dosing
Consistent maintenance and water changes.

Never had an aquarium have this many problems even when nearly optimizing everything I can.