Need Help for my first planted tank

[small_ranchu]

Hi,
I just started my 10 planted tank.
Tank: 10 g
Light: 45 watts
duration: about 10 hours
CO2: DIY 2 liter bottle w/ wooden air stone
Substrate: Eco-Complete
Dosing: Seachem Flourish and Potassium according to the instruction.



Beside from plants I have

5 cardinal tetras


3 otos



After 1 week I start seeing algae


What should I do to get rid of those algae?
Can I called it low tech plant?
Please direct me if I am not doing the right thing. Thank you.
Fred

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[small_ranchu]

You can see additional pic here
http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l6...Tank/05092008/

[Ozymandias]

you might try dosing Excel also (spot treating the algae works really well). by the way what filter are you using

[small_ranchu]

For filter I am using marieland (Biowheel 100) but I take out biowheel and put additional media in.

Excel and other Seachem's liquid bottles are on their way.

[josh1604]

well you light is too high to be doing DIY CO2. high light and an imporper balance of ferts is prolly the culprit of the algae. With the light that high to avoid algae you would probably have to switch to a pressurized system and get your ferts in order and that willpretty much stop algae. In the mean time you should prune the leaves that have the algae, reduce the light until you get ferts inorder, and reduce the photo period to 8 hours instead of 10 once you get the ferts in order along with the co2 you can move it back up to 10 hours. Thats just what i would do. Hope this helps

[josh1604]

also the biowheel is outgassing your Co2 i can see the surface turbulance in your picture you are canceling out the co2 with this disturbance you need to switch to a canister filter this will stop that

[lauraleellbp]

I personally wouldn't even consider dropping $200+ for a pressurized CO2 system on a 10gal tank!

I think you should be able to manage OK once you have your CO2 mixture up and running well and as long as you switch your bottles out regularly. That plus ferts and Excel should go a long way.

That being said, personally IMHO I still wouldn't run anything close to that wattage on a 10gal. The tank is so shallow that once you include substrate the plants are VERY close to the light- I think even just half that wattage would still be a high tech tank and you should be able to grow just about whatever you'd like...

[Ozymandias]

second on the switching out filters. you might look into an aquaclear if you want to stay with HOB filters this should help alot with loss of CO2 and help with algae. i think even though that is alot of light people have had good luck with DIY CO2 under high light

[small_ranchu]

For filter, why is it lossing CO2? Since I already took out bio wheel, is it ok just to raise the water level?

What kind of algae is it? Please see pic in post one.

Next, I will reduce my photo period.

[Ozymandias]

raise the water level to the lick of the filter should help alot. it's mainly the way the filter is designed so the water hit the flat surface on the lip and is projected out words crating more surface agitation. you could also cut this part of the lip off and that would help also.

[emrextreme]

Originally Posted by small_ranchu

What kind of algae is it? Please see pic in post one.

It looks like hair algae. It mostly grows due to the overdose of iron and adding ferts frequently. Shrimps and SAE would be a good treat compare to the chemical ones. Also stop feeding ottos with food. Their main diet is algae and that's why you add them in your tank. Hope you recover your tank from algae soon.

[small_ranchu]

I have 5 cardinal tetras and 3 oto alreaday in the tank. Can I add one more SAE or shrimp?

[emrextreme]

Sure, amano shrimp is the best choice if you can find.

[@marko@]

my advice:
-dose excel
-get the airstone out of there and use a proper diffuser (like the hagen bubble ladder), actually you could just use the hagen CO2 package and get a bottle and more importantly, CO2 resistant tubing.
-get a canister filter, they dont outgas CO2 like HOB and other wet-dry filters do.


thats really your only problem, too little CO2 for so much light. you dont need pressurized, just more CO2 getting diffused and less outgas. i had the hagen system on my 10 gallon, and it pumped so much CO2 my riccia pearled higher then in my pressurized 20L where i didnt dare turn the CO2 so high up (of course i the added some surface agitation to outgas the extra and got it to good levels).

[Homer_Simpson]

Your light is your main culprit, plain and simple. Why mess with monkeying around with c02 levels and ferts when these things become more manageable by simply reducing lighting. Monkeying around wiht c02 levels and hitting on proper ferts(E.I) is your only other option, but given that most of your plants would not be harmed by 2 watts per gallon why bother doing things the hardway. When you reduce lighting IME and based on my testing, algae has a much more difficult time getting a foothold, you don't have to be as dead on with c02, worry about increasing them to levels that could harm your fish. The same applies for ferts as lower light will automatically slow down plant growth and nutrient uptake by plants will automatically be reduced giving you more wiggle room to get away with dosing less ferts. It doesn't need to be more complicated than it really is. I know what you are going through as I am on the tail end of trying to rectify similar issues in a 10 gallon, DIY c02, 30 watt tank after 6 months of no algae, no problems with water parameters. You can read about this here: http://azdhan.googlepages.com/thelostworld


After throwing everything at the tank but the kithchen sink, the solution(s) turned out to be quite simple and it is something I should have done a lot sooner to keep things from becoming as imbalanced as they did.

(1) "Immediately" reduced lighting to 20 watts from 30 watts and manually removed as much algae as possible. I suggest you do the same. Don't make the mistake I did of waiting before things spin too out of control to do this.

(2) Dosed 20 CC Seachem Excel daily and 20 CC excel with every water change. I used a syringe and you can get a pack of syringes without a prescription from your pharmacy.

(3) Do at least 50% weekly water changes and only rinse your filter media in tank water, do not replace any media for at least a month.

(4) get yourself 5 amano shrimp. They are industrious algae cleaners IME and will keep the tank free of dead plant debris that siphoning may miss that could contribute to algae growth.

(5) get yourself a mini hagen submersible filter and modify it as per directions in this thread to ensure Maxium C02 diffusion efficiency with the DIY.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...2-reactor.html


For the record, I am not suggesting that you cannot set up a 10 gallon algae free tank with 3 watts or more per gallon of lighting. It can be done and has been, but your chances of success are more likely using ADA Aquasoil as a substrate. I have tried with lesser substrates(fluorite, and schultz aquatic soil) with no success. As evidence, here is Wood's 10 gallon tank with DIY c02, 46+ watts lighting, minimum water column fertilization. Try replicating his results without ADA Aquasoil and tell me what happens?
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/ph...t-rebirth.html 3 months of neglect is what finally did that tank in. Further proof that you really have to be on top of things if you choose the high light route