Brown hair algae problem-can't get rid of it!!

[cichlidfish]

It is killing my hygro and swords. I never has this problem until I started adding Florin-FE, which I used only one week and followed the dirrections. It has been months and I have been doing a lot of water changes and manually removing it on plants and everywhere else. The algae in this tank has been out completeing my plants. In fact I never had algae problems until I added plants.
At first I thought my water params were the cause, but after testing my water I don't think that is the problem. I have been getting a consistent ph of 7, 0 amonia, 0 nitrite, and 20 nitrate.
The algae grows on the plant leaves so quickly, it deprives them of light. I have to constantly remove dead floating leaves and dead leaves from the plants.
I also have a huge green algae problem where I cannot remove it from the glass.
Here are the details of the tank:
55g with a 4' double florecent lighting.
Filtration is a rena XP3 and emperor 400.
Stock:
1 female HRP-2.5''
1 a. robertsoni-6''
1 t. elliotti-3''
1 black con-6''
5 swordtails
I do at least 1 50% water change a week since my water params aren't bad. Here is the best pic I have. I wish I could take a better one, but my damn camera isn't working.
What am I doing wrong and what can I do to get rid of this algae?

 

[zotek]

what are the watts on lights you use? maybe try doing on spot CO2 treatments with excel or something but that might take a while if is all over your tank... i find that turning off the lights and leaving lights off for a while works well.

 

[cichlidfish]

what are the watts on lights you use? maybe try doing on spot CO2 treatments with excel or something but that might take a while if is all over your tank... i find that turning off the lights and leaving lights off for a while works well.

I'm not sure what kind of wattage or kind of florecent it is. I will take a look. I do have the lights on 10 hours...maybe cut it down to 8?
Thanks!

 

[zotek]

ya try cutting down light time or jsut not turn your lights on for a couple days and the algae should be gone. your plants should be fine for a couple days and by then the algae should be gone. after the algae is gone for sure u should lower your light time to 6~8 hours if your not running CO2

 

[Schneagle]

I think Flourish Excel would help you longterm. Emperor and bio-wheel filters are notorius for removing CO2. I think that's your main problem, is that you have a shortage of CO2.

In my experience, canister filters provide much better results for a planted aquarium.

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

If you want fast results then you could add some liquid algae killer.

I would take the plants out and place them in a bucket with some tank water for a few days. And treat the tank for algae for 1 week. Following directions on the bottle.

After this week treatment i would then do a major cleaning of the tank and remove all or most of the algae that you can see. During this process do a large 75% water change.

I would then remove as much of the dead leaves and stuff from the plants. And do a bleach dip on them for 15-20 seconds each. Mix regular old cleaning bleach 1 part bleach to 15parts water. And dip them for that amount of time. After the dip, place them in another bucket that has a triple dose of dechlorinator and let them soak for a few minutes or longer to deactivate the bleach.

Then replace all the plants back to the tank and decorate the way you want. Things will get better with in a week or so after treatment.

After you get the algae taken care of i would reccommend never adding another fertilizer to your tank. With low light levels there is no need to dose any fertilizer. Because there is enough plant food in the new water at each change. And adding any plant food (fertilizers) only feeds the algae. Basically if you have more food for plants in your tank than they can consume then the algae moves in and takes over.

I have had to do this method several times myself messing around with fertilizers. But have now learned the hard way.

Hope this helps

 

[cichlidfish]

I think Flourish Excel would help you longterm. Emperor and bio-wheel filters are notorius for removing CO2. I think that's your main problem, is that you have a shortage of CO2.

In my experience, canister filters provide much better results for a planted aquarium.

I didn't know that the emperor would remove CO2. What is it that removes CO2? Should remove the emperor altogether?

I am deffinately getting the excel, and cutting down the photoperiod for starts.