# Algae and random die off



## Niku (Feb 11, 2014)

hey guys so i have had my planted tank up for about a month and a half now and all was going good until this week when i noticed my dry started staurogyne repens are fading.

i am dosing Aquavitro 6 days a week and doing trimming and a 50% water change once a week.

i just got dry chemicals to do EI dosing so im going to switch at the start of my cycle this sunday.

but my question is, are my repens dieing because of lack of ferts or something else









that patch was 40% more filled last week

also i have this gray what i thought was diatom algae forming on my sand/rock/wood/some plants









thanks for any help

cheers


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## greenfin (Nov 4, 2013)

I'm learning that staurogyne repens is a plant that will suffer first if there's an imbalance in your tank. It could be a few things. Mine was inadequate ferts. I increased that and they perked up. Now they are fading again and I suspect not enough CO2 or, more precisely, not enough flow of CO2-rich water going past them. I have changed both these things (CO2 level and flow pattern) and will see if the plant improves. Mine went all scraggly and small-leaves. The algae outbreak probably didn't help them. You don't look like you have an algae problem but perhaps your new fert regime will help the plant. Bet it's the macros... 

However, you don't mention what/if your CO2 addition is. Or your lighting. Those could be factors too.


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## TheBigCheese (Oct 1, 2012)

+1 on more CO2 needed.


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## Niku (Feb 11, 2014)

Lighting is 4 t5 48" 52watt bulbs, 2 red band and 2 mid day white. Co2 injected thru a daz diffusor around 3 bps timed with the lights. I have a fluval 3 power head blowing across the back wall carrying the co2 bubbles to the right then I have a massive aqua nova 1800 l/h power head shooting the bubbles to the front and swirling them around and across the front. I had 2 drop checkers one on each side of the tank both go from blue to green across the span of the day. Yesterday I added a third from my other tank down low beside the repens ... Co2 seems to be at the same level down there ... My filter has really good flow as well. I think this melting is due to my dry start ... I will watch it for the next few days and switch to ei tomorrow to make sure. I'm more worried about that random algae which continues to creep.


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