I have a lot of issues with tank. Advice will be much obliged

[greenpointer]

Hey all,

I have the tank running now since august. It is an 18" cube tank, 25 gallon, with three CFL bulbs - 23w,23w, and 26w - all are 6500k.

The substrate is Eco complete, my filtration is eheim 2213, pressurized co2, my temp ranges from 77-80, and I do 50% water change once a week.

I have a betta, 2 tetras, 3 sparkling gourami, 2 young altums, and 2 cory.

The lights are on from about 3pm to 9pm and the co2 from 2pm to 9pm.

I dose EI with dry ferts. Dose regime:
3x a week: N - 0.53 grams (I use measuring spoons so this one is the tad 1/4 tsp)
3x a week: (but I do two drops one day of that week): Phosphate - 0.033 grams (drop 1/64 tsp)
3x a week: potassium - 0.264 grams (dash 1/8 tsp

I also add flourish three times a week about half cup full and iron (flourish) two times a week.

Issues:

I have a lot of algae and the plants seem to die off or barely grow. Snails die in 24 hours from when I add them... When I started the tank I got a lot of snails with the plants and they were multiplying. Then they ALL died off and now when I add a few - they die very quickly.

Also, I got some floaters on Friday and now their roots, that were white and healthy, are now getting brown and short...

The photos were taken right after a water change which is the reason for that crazy pearling. I do not have any pearling in general.

I am obviously doing something really wrong. Please help me fix this.

 

[puopg]

Looks like you got a bit of everything in this tank. I see diatoms on the glass, did those recently come back? The root cause is going to be CO2, but from the look of your tank you might think about getting some excel, doing a 50% WC, excel dose, 3 day blackout, then another 50% WC. Get some more fast growing plants like anacharis or water wisteria and just float em to help bring the tank back. Addressing the underlying issues is the hardest part since gettings CO2 right is something i am also struggling with. Just yesterday put my CO2 on a separate timer from my lights and arranged the power head to distribute CO2 evenly. Good luck!

*edit* Might want to cut back on lighting as well.