On that whole (
potentially) combined problem set, with the poorly plants, green algae and filamentous algae etc... plus the zero nitrates but loadsa phosphates etc... Here is the update, just in case anybody is bored enough to have followed this story, lol...
Water parameters today: Zero ammonia and nitrites, with the barest touch of nitrates - half way, roughly, between zero and 5ppm, which is definitely better than the zero ppm I was getting...!!! Phosphates now around the 1ppm point, which I am delighted about when considering I get 2ppm from the tap and this would appear to indicate that the advice to overdose slightly with the nitrogen and phosphorus including TNC Complete appears to be working and kick started what may have been a stalled growth in many of the plants due to malnutrition...
No difference in algae on the front glass, beneath the substrate where it meets the sand, but I guess that will take time... Also hard to be objective about the filamentous algae because I have trimmed the worst affected leaves off completely now, so I can't really comment on whether or not the theory that boosting plant growth will out-compete the hair algae for nutrients or not, but things are looking better - just hard to be sure why exactly... Next Tuesday will be two weeks of overdosing with the TNC Complete, at which point I'll drop it from 3ml per day down to the correct dose of 2ml per day...
Edit: the only sad thing is that one of the two Ludwigia repens Rubin hasn't survived and has now been removed... However, some of the taller stalks were cut off several days ago and just left floating, and one or two of these look to be colouring up nicely - so I may yet be able to salvage something from that plant... Fingers crossed