[JasterMake]

Then
4 weeks ago, moments after I began cleaning out the algae some nice guy on Reddit is giving out shrimp culls. Can’t turn down culls. and can’t do a tear down because that would totally destabilize this now quite stable system. One small 20% water change and all parameters good enough for shrimp but nitrate at zero. the massive green algae bloom tells me there is nitrogen in there somewhere. So I pull out all the green slimy hair algae I can manually, start trimming the totally green(should be redish brown) and full of holes crypts, and add the culls. The holes were probably caused by deficiency. So I lean dosed a bit of NPK and Fe.

edit: turned down the lights to about 25% and started dosing glut 1ml, 3 times a day.

 

[JasterMake]

I left it alone for 1 week. Then started daily 7% water changes. I also lowered the light amount significantly when I started this battle. My RO mix is new and I wanted to adjust the tank slowly. The shrimp seem to be doing well and the lone surviving female endler got a male partner. I’ve never seen a female guppy so happy to get a male. I continued to slowly trim the holy and algae plagued crypts a little each day before water changes. I was trimming about 5-20 leaves a day. I also added a small HOB because this hair algae somehow defies logic and just “swims” in the current, rarely making it to the canister. Also the canister is filthy and not doing a very good job at filtering. It needs a clean out but the crypts are coming back with their dark color and some rotala found its way out of the mess. Basically it’s going great so I don’t want to clean it yet. It seems stable enough to add more plants to help defeat the green subsiding army.

 

[JasterMake]

Just keep thinning..,, just keep cleaning…. Just a little bit each day…..

And ten days later we get the awesome stem package from herns on the For Sale/Trade forum.

The stems look a bit rough from shipping but they all started growing. all 40+ stems “randomly” placed in this water salad.

5ish days later….. about 3 weeks from the beginning of the cleanup and about a week ago.

Increased flow from thinning has been moving lots of mulm around. New stems growing well. But..
Loss of red color in the stems and noticeable morphology change in some stems likely due to low light intensity, low light intervals only 6 hour total per day, possibly lots of nitrogen/NH4 (canister filter need cleaning and lots of mulm/detritus in tank) not much of a concern at this time as I let this run another week with just a little more thinning each day. I’m mostly removing crypt leaves that are losing color or old leaves that are now within reach.

 

[somewhatshocked]

If you decide to use this more as a Tank Journal, let me know and I"ll move the thread into that section for you.

 

[mooner]

Wowzer !!

 

[JasterMake]

fast forward another about a week, now 4 weeks from the beginning of this cleanup.

Algae is in Check. Most of it is on the side and back glass. Leaving most of the new leaves and stems alone and only surviving in the oldest crypt leaves. It is left on the glass because there is one more important task that I must do before I can turn up the lights a little more. The growth rate of the tank is impressive for no CO2 and <20watts (edit it’s just about 9W) of low end led light.

If you decide to use this more as a Tank Journal, let me know and I"ll move the thread into that section for you.

That would be ok. Either that or the algae forum.
Thanks,

Wowzer !!

Is that a good Wowzer or bad Wowzer? 🙃

 

[jclee]

That's quite the turnaround! Congratulations.

 

[JasterMake]

That's quite the turnaround! Congratulations.

thank you,
This has been one of the more enjoyable restarts I’ve had.

 

[jake21]

I’m still at it.
It’s been a while but such is life.

I ran into a small issue. Too much light and no more co2. Which lead to the following back in the fall.

View attachment 1050456
I kept the lights going on “low” (I found out later that low wasn’t as low as I thought) and fertilized lightly to keep the algae and crypts alive, but the damage had been done and I lost most of my fish and snails. I think it was the sudden plant die off that started this. One female endler fry survived. Disheartened I left the tank like this for a few months. [emoji22]

To be continued.. because I don’t know if I remember how to post so I’m gonna do it now before I do something wrong. Which I instantly did by posting in the wrong thread.

Not too much light; but turning off co2 will cause massive melt - tried this once and learn my lesson. Made me very unhappy. Actually I really don't know if there is a safe way to transition an aquarium off of co2.

 

[JasterMake]

You are correct. This mess was at least and probably totally related to running out of co2. That happened about 6-12 months ago. Lots of things melted including Anubis, trident and Java ferns, crypts(but they came back fast). Anubis has also started to pop back out from the substrate.

I won’t buy more co2 because the Airgas is crazy charging $35 for a 5lb refill.

 

[jake21]

You are correct. This mess was at least and probably totally related to running out of co2. That happened about 6-12 months ago. Lots of things melted including Anubis, trident and Java ferns, crypts(but they came back fast). Anubis has also started to pop back out from the substrate.

I won’t buy more co2 because the Airgas is crazy charging $35 for a 5lb refill.

Yea - i thought my place was expensive at $20 for 10lb; i'm told it is cheaper in other locations but $35 for 5lb is crazy.

 

[JasterMake]

Canister filter has finally been cleaned. Bottom tray had at least 5lb of solid waste and was being mostly bypassed. Removal of old crypt leaves
continues and algae is on full retreat. Lights turned up to 12 watts for 7 hours a day. Plants growing at a steady rate and bladder snail population exploding. Added female guppy and two black racers nerite snails. Glut dosing reduced to 1ml twice a day. Plan is to stop dosing entirely over the next few weeks. 7% water changes about every other day. No gravel vacuuming was ever performed. Shrimp are berried and endler female about to drop her fry.

I think that wraps up this algae cleanup.

 

[A&A]

Yea - i thought my place was expensive at $20 for 10lb; i'm told it is cheaper in other locations but $35 for 5lb is crazy.

$20 for a 10 pounder is a fair rate in the northeast. Some places charge $25. Never seen it any cheaper.