My First Planted Tank - Weekly update 4/13/13

[iter]

Did a bit of research, the film are diatoms. The 10 aquarium that I keep my fish from the previous fish-only project was sitting by the window. The same stuff grew all over the glass and I validated what is was.

Heh, thought it was aquasoil dust :P.


How do you get rid of diatoms?

[iter]

Nothing much to say, but rotalas are growing and pearling and the HM is getting greener growth.

The algae on the crypt leaves are still a bit annoying, I have to wipe it off the leaves daily to prevent it getting choked; but it is not a major concern. Had to replant the crypts in the right side because I didn't plant it well the first time and everything was floating. The crypts are also melting, not too much of a concern for me.

I also found a way to get glosso to grow low: cut the long, tall runners and replant them. This is working BEAUTIFULLY!!

Other than the plants, I lowered the light and increased CO2. I am now dosing full EI. One thing I learned this week is that I hate floating plants more than dying plants.


I'll get some pictures once the water clears up from the Equilibrium.

[iter]

Okay, pics!




Where the tank stands inside the house:







I actually found out that the tank having a small width is a good thing in my situation. Since it is in a junction between the kitchen+dining area and the living room, it provides good walking space.

Comments anyone? Suggestions?

[iter]

Ok, so I have some questions regarding algae.

First, when is it possible to add otos? Since I am getting some diatoms and other types of algae that to them would look like a feast, when is it possible to add them? When ammonia is 0? Nitrite and nitrate?

Second, the algae I am getting are so far only affecting the crypts. Even though they are doing their melting thing, I am seeing young and new leaves getting a thin layer of some sort of brownish algae. Its thankfully not BBA, or other types of filamentous algae. Its kinda like GDA except that it is brown and when you move your finger for example on the rocks, it creates a residue on the fingers.

There is also a root thing with the rotalas which you can see from the pics.


Here are the pics of the algae (sorry, close-ups are difficult). A thing to note is in the first picture, the leaf where you can see the brighter green is the leaf that had been wiped in only the middle for comparison. The algae was fairly easy to wipe. Hope someone can ID this and tell me how to solve these problems!!

[iter]

Tested the water today, got these results:

Ammonia- 0 ppm
Nitrite- 1 ppm
Nitrate- 8 ppm

pH- 7.0
Gh- 6 dkh (107.4 ppm)
Kh- 3 dkh (53.7 ppm)


Can anyone tell me when to add otos? All those algae need to be eaten!!

[iter]

Update:

The tank can be described in one word: pea

Luckily I know why it happened: ammonia spike because of adding fish. It just needs a good'ole water change .


All the plants are growing fine. The rotalas and the hemianthus needed to be replanted because I didn't do a good job of planting them in the first place (hey, I'm a n00b ). The older leaves of the crypts are still melting, but the young leaves are doing great. Glosso is being stupid and taking over everything .

Gonna stock about 6 otos today and some amano shrimps if I can find them.


The algae conditions:
Light green water (not much of a deal to me, just water change).
GDA, some present.
Brown stuff on ornaments and some leaves (I'll see what happens).
Had Spirogyra , but it went away for no apparent reason .
Had some hair algae but after manual removal it never came back .
No 'tough' algae (BBA) since my CO2 is pretty good.

The conclusion: You might call me crazy but I am actually very delighted to see the diversity of algae species and their habits!!! My motto: To understand algae, you must experience it!!! So far my plan for taking care of the things above is nothing (well, except for otos). I am just going to let everything settle down and stabilize because the tank just went through a major replanting, change of light intensity (I raised the light fixture), and being stocked with fish. I am just going to wait everything out.

Going to do a HUGE water change on Saturday and clean everything, this would reset nutrient imbalance and other stuff due to my negligence .

To those who are curious about my fish, they are just transfers from by 10 gallon which kept my fish temporarily from my last fish-only projects. Yeah, not very exciting. But since they were with me for soooo long, letting them live in a tank with plants is my Christmas gift to them . But I do have a trained tiger barb which is at least 5 years old (yeah, its family now). All its buddies died though, so now he/she is the most gentle tiger barb in the world (never attacks other fish, even plays with them at times).



Pics coming soon!!!!! It's going to be a bit blurry due to the green water


P.S. I have a side project, TRYING TO GET MY ANUBIAS TO SEED!!!!!! Pictures of that too is coming .

[iter]

Ah, pics . I will say I rushed them so some stuff are out of focus . Enjoy my algae tank!!!!


FTS



Green water and dirty tubes



My lovely tiger barb , but is out of focus



Rotala propagation . I am actually confident that they would one day make a beautiful background !!!



Crypt Tropica



Crypt Green has finally come back!!!!



Nothing to say but patience



Viral glosso.....



Glosso on day 1



Need to clean.....



Everything after a HUGE water change on Saturday will be better!!!!

Anubias barteri nana flower pics coming up!!!!


PLEASE LEAVE SOME ADVICE, COMMENTS, CRITICISM, etc.

[iter]

Okay, new type of algae to battle: staghorn

[iter]

I had no idea why I got all the algae, so I decided to clean the filter. The filter media turned the water pitch black and I almost puked . I took out half the carbon and added in one whole bag of Ehfisubstrate or whatever you want call it. Hopefully this would solve a big part of the problem *fingers crossed*.

I also think I found another for the algae: CO2. When I added the fish I forgot to turn the CO2 back up after they got acclimated .

Meanwhile here are some pics of the anubias flower which I hope gets to seed.
I was a bit late on the emersed flower picture, it dried up . I used Q-tips to attempt to pollinate, will think of a method to capture the seeds if there is any.

[karce87]

I want my anubias to flower too! About the algae, I think you should try blackout before anything else. I'd take an unused toothbrush to brush all the algae off the rocks and DW. A few things I'd do.

[iter]

Good luck with your anubias!!! Well, mine is 2-3 years old and this is the first time I was able to record flowering. I read somewhere that they flower when more you add more PO4, you could try that .

As for the algae, I am waiting for things to stabilize since I changed over 70% of the filter media a few days ago. The green water probably was caused by an ammonia spike from the lack of nitrifying bacteria since I accidentally used tap water on the filter media . I would try the blackout method if everything else doesn't work since it does kill plants too and my plants are in a vulnerable state.

Well, what can I do but to wait; would try to get some otos as cleanup crew when ammonia goes down.

[iter]

LOL the blackout worked BEAUTIFULLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything is like crystal clear. Thank you karce87 for the tip!!!!!!

[iter]

Here is the tank now after a 90% water change. If you compare this to previous FTS's, you can see how much clearer this is because of the 3-day blackout.

[iter]

Look who is here





On the crypts. They actually have very long poop strands :


On the crypt green:



I originally wanted 7 otos, but since the Petsmart has 9, I took all of them since the others left would be lonely . 9 otos should be more effective in algae cleaning anyways .

They were actually really unhealthy in Petsmart, they are safe now in algae heaven .

[iter]

I present you the snail :P

It was crawling under the surface of the water.


Meanwhile the tank is going okay; almost all the rotalas died; the hemianthus recovered; crypts just slowly growing; and glosso being ever so invasive. This Saturday the glosso and the HM is going to get a good haircut. The water is crystal clear and the tank still follows EI dosing.

I need some advice on trimming so PLEASE GIVE ME TIPS!!!!!