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Massive Problem

2K views 18 replies 4 participants last post by  awesometim1 
#1 ·
Hello. I'm hoping somebody can help me get out of this mess. So my shrimp tank (20g) has been setup for around 2 months now. I just came out of a green water problem. Right now I'm having: staghorn, green hair, diatom, green spot, BBa algae. And I have: snail, planaria infestation. I am very discouraged now and about to nuke the tank. Obviously I have shrimp in the tank so copper or chemicals is not an option.

The algae is crazy. I stopped doing fertilizer and it goes crazy. 6 hours photoperiod. 0 ammonia and nitrite ~5-10 nitrate. Blasting co2 right now ;(

Please help


FTS:


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#4 ·
If you have a dhl you are at 80+ par at sub. I would dim that down a bit to like 60. You would be fine even at 50 par. My thoughts is you have too much light for not much plant mass. I would get the exact dimmer I got and cut it back. Your light time is good. I cut the same exact light back 50% on my 20L and the plants still grow like crazy.


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#5 ·
Also can you share your water parameters. I'm really interested in your ph/kh at lights on and your gh level.

Also I noticed your drop checker color is blue. Is this way after co2 is off? Do you know your accurate co2 level at lights on and at peak?


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#6 ·
Ph: ~6.7
Kh: ~30,40
Gh: 75

Idk about the dimmer... I don't want to spend more money on this tank but I'll consider it. What dimmer did you get? I'm gonna try to balance fertilizers first and start doing massive water xhanges


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#7 ·
Super cheap the dimmer is. $12. Also your gh is about 4GH right? Do you know your specific ca and mg levels?

So you are at about 10-15ppm co2 with those levels. With those levels I can tell you for sure it's too strong light. I also run 10-15ppm co2 in my shrimp tank and HAD to get the dimmer with the same exact light you have. It's too much light for that little co2. I started getting stag algae with running the light for just 6 hours a day like you. Dimming the light 50% I now run it 8 hours a day and no issues.


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#9 ·
Snails are a nightmare to get rid of. I ripped my whole tank apart. I drained the tank and nuked the substrate with bleach. I wiped the entire tank down with bleach there were dead snails everywhere. I let all of my equipment dry out. I slipped up on the bio media. Since bio media is porous it wasn't completely dry. I think some of the snails survived in the Biomedia. They were back within two weeks. In order to get rid of snails you need to sterilize everything.

I put 6 assassin snails in my 75 gallon that was infested with MTS snails. There were so many MTS that the substrate looked like it was alive. The entire substrate would come to life at certain times. 6 assassin snails wiped out almost every mts (thousands) within a couple months. Assassins are a great alternative. Most snails can reproduce on their own without a mate. Assassins need a mate to reproduce and their numbers stay small.
 
#10 ·
Snails are a nightmare to get rid of. I ripped my whole tank apart. I drained the tank and nuked the substrate with bleach. I wiped the entire tank down with bleach there were dead snails everywhere. I let all of my equipment dry out. I slipped up on the bio media. Since bio media is porous it wasn't completely dry. I think some of the snails survived in the Biomedia. They were back within two weeks. In order to get rid of snails you need to sterilize everything.



I put 6 assassin snails in my 75 gallon that was infested with MTS snails. There were so many MTS that the substrate looked like it was alive. The entire substrate would come to life at certain times. 6 assassin snails wiped out almost every mts (thousands) within a couple months. Assassins are a great alternative. Most snails can reproduce on their own without a mate. Assassins need a mate to reproduce and their numbers stay small.


Only problem is it'll eat the shrimp or so I've heard.


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#11 ·
Totally agree with clown on the lighting. I had staghorn and its horrible but i have lifhts on for about 6 or 7hrs a day and not every day. I put a clean up crew in and its not been bad since. I took out the infected rocks and sprayed hydrogen peroxide....left for 30mins, scrubbed it with a nail brush and it came straight off. I used a medicine syringe to dose the plants with N P. I had black mollys & SAE's and even 2 nerite snails. Been clear for a few months now. With ref to your snail issue....zebra loach will sort them in a few days.

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#13 ·
Mine have been fine. Got 5 shrimp that happily swim around him and he seems to just ignore them. He may be fussy but no issues in 4 months. One option may be to net the shrimp into a birthing net for a few days. If he has a local fish supplier that could lend him a loach for a week. One of my local stores does it...may be worth asking

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#17 ·
Sounds like you have 2 issues...snails and algae. Clown is right too. Just plan your attack before you start. Staghorn is horrible but i found hydrogen peroxide helps a lot (3%). Reduce your lighting period, tegular water changes....all helps.

If you want the snails out first then try a loach by all means but if you are worried about your shrimp, take them out for a few days if you can. I have a few tanks so i can swap and change them over if need be. Keep us posted we are all here to help 😊



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#18 ·
if you had 30ppm co2 your light intensity would be fine. But by having about 15ppm in the water your light is just too strong. You want to shoot for about half what its putting out to be honest. You want about 40-50 at sub as you are about 80-90 currently with full intensity with the DHL as I measured the PAR. Trust me my dimmer came just in time as I just started getting stag algae before being dimmed. Since I turned it down half to 40 par no new algae. That level is still plenty for good carpet and plant growth. Many of those ADA setups with awesome carpets run just that level of PAR. You have near identical setup as my 20L CRS tank is why I can relate. Even if you spot treat and such it will just keep coming back unless you cut the light intensity a bit.
 
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