# Dont know what happened...



## Pareeeee (Jan 22, 2005)

Well...I dunno what's happened to my tank. It used to flourish, was the most beautiful planted tank...now everything is covered in algae and dying.

I have new full-spectrum bulbs, so it can't be that the bulbs are getting old. I have about 80 watts on the 33 gallon.

I'm wondering if it's because I changed ferts? I used to use Plant Gro Iron Enriched, now I use Flourish - don't really like it.


PS: I have a lot of iron in my tap water - there's nothing I can do about that - but can that cause any algae prollems?


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

new bulbs more watts then old?


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## SouthernBelle23 (Mar 24, 2009)

I'm wondering the same ^. 

Looks like the Plant Gro has a bit more of each nutrient than the Flourish does, but I don't see it causing your plants to go downhill and algae to increase. 

How long had it been when you replaced the bulbs? Sometimes plants need to adjust to new bulbs and maybe the algae took that as an opportunity to overgrow.

Lately people have said excess iron isn't the cause of alot of algaes that it was said to have caused in the past. I don't really know either way. But, if you've been using your tap water all along, it shouldn't just now cause algae. And there is less iron in the Flourish than in the Plant gro.

Try to get all the algae out that you can. It won't help the plants survive. Can you take pics or ID the algae? Maybe we can figure out what is causing the types of algae you have and save your plants.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Pareeeee said:


> Well...I dunno what's happened to my tank. It used to flourish, was the most beautiful planted tank...now everything is covered in algae and dying.
> 
> I'm wondering if it's because I changed ferts? I used to use Plant Gro Iron Enriched, now I use Flourish - don't really like it.


Pe: The *Hagen Freshwater Plant Gro (Iron Enriched, NPK) Fertilizer's* literature indicates that the product contains micronutrients as well as macronutrients.

Flourish is basically micronutrients only.

Your tank must be very heavily planted?

TR


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## SouthernBelle23 (Mar 24, 2009)

NPK is a separate product. She only mentioned the Plant Gro Enriched.  So it doesn't contain macronutrients either....but the micronutrients it does contain are slightly less than Flourish. 

Maybe after ID'ing the algae, you may need some macro nutrients. You have about 2.5 wpg which is a good bit of light. What type of plants do you have?


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