55 gallon Tank
Substrate: Eco-Complete Planted
Most of the plants are low or moderate light plants, they include:
Swords, Undulata Cryptocoryne, Java Fern, Banana Plants, Wisteria, Water Sprite, Pennywart, hydrilla & Marimo balls. I'm giving a test run to Dwarf hairgrass, Dwarf sag, & Chainsword to see which spreads the best in the tank.
I have about 2 wpg of T5 HO, here is the light I have click
I have 3 yeast co2 containers going & they keep the Co2 indicator at medium green(normal) to yellowish green(sufficient).
I have a 525gph canister filter, this one click
The filtration order is:
top: Purigen
second: Matrix
third: pot scrubbers
bottom: 2x 30ppi'ish pads
UV light stays on
I have flourish tabs in the gravel around the swords, java fern, and crypt.
I add Flourish, Phosphorous, & Potassium liquids once a week.
I was also adding Iron, but recently realized Flourish has Iron in it so I stopped dosing Iron.
I do a 25% water change weekly which keeps the nitrate around 20ppm
PH stays between 6.7-7.1 depending on time of day.
Ammonia stays at around .25% (yes its fully cycyled) and I think that is because my tank is over populated with fish.
Nitrite stays at 0
I run a air stone at night
I have 2 pleco's (one is 4"), 3 cory cats, 3 siamese algae eaters, lots of guppies (they keep having babies), lots of platy's (they keep having babies), lots of swordtail's (they keep having babies), 5 tetras, 2 loach, 10'ish ghost shrimp, lots of trumpet snails (they keep having babies). Fish only totals around 50'ish with about 20'ish of those being babies.
I have Cuttlebone in the tank and have been trying to keep the calcium level around 80 for the trumpet snails.
I have been cycling the lights on 4 off 3 on 4. I recently upped it to 5 on 3 off 4 on to try to get better plant growth. Putting in the 3 hours off mid day to try to keep the BBA from growing (I don't know if it is helping)
I dose 3x dose excel daily with varying results (it seems to kill bba that grows on the floating Pennywart, but does nothing to the BBA growing on the Crypt
Here are my problems:
* I can't stop BBA from growing. I cut off the leaves with it growing on them, but it keeps coming back.
*Plants keep getting holes in them...holes with brown around the hole, leaves becoming see through (worst on swords).
All the plants and all the leaves do not have these problems, just some of them will gets holes or becoming see through. I leave the leaves that have holes in them, but trim the see through leaves.
Questions:
* The bulbs that came with the light, are they optimal for my setup? or could I make changes to improve my tank?
* Do I need less Co2 or more Co2 for my setup and plants?
* Should I be adding those ferts more than once a week or should I be adding them at all?
* Should I start using Seachems Nitrogen? Its the only one I have never used
* Should I start using Seachems Trace?
* What seems like it would be the root of my continual BBA problem?
* Is there any problems with my setup that I can improve upon? (don't say injected Co2)
Please help
Thanks,
Kyle
Substrate: Eco-Complete Planted
Most of the plants are low or moderate light plants, they include:
Swords, Undulata Cryptocoryne, Java Fern, Banana Plants, Wisteria, Water Sprite, Pennywart, hydrilla & Marimo balls. I'm giving a test run to Dwarf hairgrass, Dwarf sag, & Chainsword to see which spreads the best in the tank.
I have about 2 wpg of T5 HO, here is the light I have click
I have 3 yeast co2 containers going & they keep the Co2 indicator at medium green(normal) to yellowish green(sufficient).
I have a 525gph canister filter, this one click
The filtration order is:
top: Purigen
second: Matrix
third: pot scrubbers
bottom: 2x 30ppi'ish pads
UV light stays on
I have flourish tabs in the gravel around the swords, java fern, and crypt.
I add Flourish, Phosphorous, & Potassium liquids once a week.
I was also adding Iron, but recently realized Flourish has Iron in it so I stopped dosing Iron.
I do a 25% water change weekly which keeps the nitrate around 20ppm
PH stays between 6.7-7.1 depending on time of day.
Ammonia stays at around .25% (yes its fully cycyled) and I think that is because my tank is over populated with fish.
Nitrite stays at 0
I run a air stone at night
I have 2 pleco's (one is 4"), 3 cory cats, 3 siamese algae eaters, lots of guppies (they keep having babies), lots of platy's (they keep having babies), lots of swordtail's (they keep having babies), 5 tetras, 2 loach, 10'ish ghost shrimp, lots of trumpet snails (they keep having babies). Fish only totals around 50'ish with about 20'ish of those being babies.
I have Cuttlebone in the tank and have been trying to keep the calcium level around 80 for the trumpet snails.
I have been cycling the lights on 4 off 3 on 4. I recently upped it to 5 on 3 off 4 on to try to get better plant growth. Putting in the 3 hours off mid day to try to keep the BBA from growing (I don't know if it is helping)
I dose 3x dose excel daily with varying results (it seems to kill bba that grows on the floating Pennywart, but does nothing to the BBA growing on the Crypt
Here are my problems:
* I can't stop BBA from growing. I cut off the leaves with it growing on them, but it keeps coming back.
*Plants keep getting holes in them...holes with brown around the hole, leaves becoming see through (worst on swords).
All the plants and all the leaves do not have these problems, just some of them will gets holes or becoming see through. I leave the leaves that have holes in them, but trim the see through leaves.
Questions:
* The bulbs that came with the light, are they optimal for my setup? or could I make changes to improve my tank?
* Do I need less Co2 or more Co2 for my setup and plants?
* Should I be adding those ferts more than once a week or should I be adding them at all?
* Should I start using Seachems Nitrogen? Its the only one I have never used
* Should I start using Seachems Trace?
* What seems like it would be the root of my continual BBA problem?
* Is there any problems with my setup that I can improve upon? (don't say injected Co2)
Please help
Thanks,
Kyle