[bretski]

Hello all-
I recently invested in a serious planted tank set up and now am facing serious issues. Here we go:
Tank Specs:
ADA 60P
Nova Extreme 4x24 t5 ([email protected]/ [email protected]) 4.5hrs 2X Daily
Ehiem 2213
Pressurized CO2/Ceramic diffuser
ADA Aquasoil

Experienced major ammonia spike and leeching during the first two weeks from the Aquasoil, which led to green water outbreak. I then installed a UV sterilizer which cleared the GW in a few days. Now I have hair algae, BBA and am finding cyanobacteria along the front where substrate meets glass. This concerns me as the substrate is new and clean, and the circulation is good. I have Amano shrimp and an Ancistrus who don't make a dent, and I spend an hour every day removing what I can. My CO2 concentration is moderate to high with the drop checker yellowish green at the end of the light cycle and a good amount of pearling.
Water Parameters:
GH <50
KH 50
Ph 6.8- 7
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrate 10-20 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Tap water Phosphate < 10ppm
Thanks for reading this long post. Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[Philosophos]

Your lighting is far too high; reduce to 48 watts. There's no way you'll hit non-limiting CO2 at 96w over a tank that size without killing the fish. Until CO2 is non-limiting, algae will be a problem.

-Philosophos

 

[dthb4438]

Your lighting is far too high; reduce to 48 watts. There's no way you'll hit non-limiting CO2 at 96w over a tank that size without killing the fish. Until CO2 is non-limiting, algae will be a problem.

-Philosophos

Agreed! lights are very high. Also, is the 2213 strong enough to push the water across that tank? If you use an external C02 reactor, you will need a larger, sronger filter.

 

[bretski]

I have reduced my lighting by half, but I'm wondering how this will affect the HC and glosso that I have. I have also decided to upgrade the filter- the circulation is not too bad but I feel it could be better, especially with the addition of the uv sterilizer as well as an inline heater, I feel as though I have lost a little flow. How can I seed the new filter so as to avoid re-cycling the tank? Thank you for your input.

 

[topfrog007]

If you put the biological media from the old filter into the new filter you won't have to do any re-cycling.

 

[Philosophos]

It's a very common myth that HC requires high light. It grows at as low as 40mmol PAR; hardly anything. The issue is that HC has CO2 demands, and it melts easily when adapting to new parameters. If anything, HC takes on a nicer growth form under low light; most of Amano's work with it is not under high values of light. You won't find any other big names in the hobby telling you high light is mandatory for HC either; all of them have done it under low light at one time or other.

-Philosophos

 

[skiboarder72]

I'll repeat what is above, my plants are pearling like crazy with lots of Co2 and only 78w over a 40g breeder!

 

[bretski]

So I have upgraded my filter to a 2215 and the flow seems a lot better. I am concerned that it may be to late with the BGA. I've battled this stuff before and not had much luck. Also this may be a dumb question, but what exactly is "non-limiting co2"?

 

[NJAquaBarren]

Bretski,

philosphos means that you have excess light. To utilize that much light you'd have to use so much co2 that it would kill your fish. So co2 is the limiting factor that you can't fix. So you can reduce your lighting to acheive balance and hopefully get your algae under control.

Ab

 

[Philosophos]

Yes, far too much light. You could probably run that tank on 1x24, with a 2x24 burst around noon if you need it.

Even after that, there's no promising that you have your CO2 levels high enough. The easiest way to do this is to adjust the light to appropriate ranges first. At the same time, remove the algae through trimming, scrubbing and excel spot treatments, frequent water changes (50% every couple days) and a blackout if necessary. After that, see what regrows; if algae comes back, then your CO2 isn't high enough.

Oh, and one other important bit; what are you doing for fertilization? If this isn't being done right, the rest will be useless.

-Philosophos

 

[plantbrain]

Hello all-
I recently invested in a serious planted tank set up and now am facing serious issues. Here we go:
Tank Specs:
ADA 60P
Nova Extreme 4x24 t5 ([email protected]/ [email protected]) 4.5hrs 2X Daily
Ehiem 2213
Pressurized CO2/Ceramic diffuser
ADA Aquasoil

Experienced major ammonia spike and leeching during the first two weeks from the Aquasoil, which led to green water outbreak. I then installed a UV sterilizer which cleared the GW in a few days. Now I have hair algae, BBA and am finding cyanobacteria along the front where substrate meets glass. This concerns me as the substrate is new and clean, and the circulation is good. I have Amano shrimp and an Ancistrus who don't make a dent, and I spend an hour every day removing what I can. My CO2 concentration is moderate to high with the drop checker yellowish green at the end of the light cycle and a good amount of pearling.
Water Parameters:
GH <50
KH 50
Ph 6.8- 7
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrate 10-20 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Tap water Phosphate < 10ppm
Thanks for reading this long post. Any input is greatly appreciated.

I thought it was impossible to get algae issues in an ADA tank:icon_cool
Least that's the way they talk............

I'd suggest doing 2x a week water changes/50% until things settle down.
Less light as suggested works wonders.

I'd suggest doing a 3 day blackout, then another, 3 days of lights on, then again 3day black out.

Gloss will get leggy with blackouts.
It'll grow back later after trimming it and it grows like a weed anyway.

HC is not affected much by a blackout.

That will kill off and beat back most of the algae you have right now.
Maybe make algae tastier to the shrimp........

I'd dose GH/KNO3/KH2PO4/Traces.

I do not see any info other some test kits(who knows if the reading are accurate or not......) and some tap water stuff, again, who knows.
Looks like decent tap at KH/GH of 3 degrees.

Trim, clean and tweak the CO2 good, use less light, 2x 24W T5 is more than you'll ever need to achieve any aquascape you will ever see.

Make sure CO2 comes on a bit before lights and is going good when the lights come on.

A delay of 1/2 hour is not good and most disc take a little time to get cranking and pressurized.
Do water changes in the early part of the day when th elights come, not at night when they are close to going off.

Also, you can do daily water changes like that(early in the day).
Or pass on the BO's and use EM antibiotics for the BGA, BO will kill all 3 species however, and then if you get the root issue, you got that licked too.

Then it's easy to correct the issue.
Adding Excel at 10mls daily will also help until you get things settled.

General question for all: if it's all nutrients, why does ADA tank set ups also get algae?:thumbsup:

If it's all locked in sediment, how is it still available for algae?

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Philosophos]

General question for all: if it's all nutrients, why does ADA tank set ups also get algae?:thumbsup:

If it's all locked in sediment, how is it still available for algae?

Well "all" didn't exclude me, and I'm hoping the question wasn't rhetorical so...

(possible spoiler, highlight for answer):

Submerged aquatic macrophytes don't uptake everything through their roots, and if the column is limiting then the plants will likely be limited. Unless the soil is nutrient loaded through column dosing, even sufficient substrate nutrients will dwindle with time; Amano rescapes his tanks yearly because of this.

Once nutrients are limiting, naturally it's an environment advantageous for algae.

-Philosophos

 

[bretski]

Thank you all for your advice. Just when I thought I knew what I was doing, obviously I have a lot to learn. Before I commit to the blackout idea here are some more tank specs:
Flora:
Riccia fluitans
Ludwigia Arcuata
Ludwigia repens
Java moss
Hygrophilia polysperma
Dwarf hairgrass
Glosso & HC
Fauna:
7 Lampeye Killifish
1 Kuhli loach
2 Amano shrimp
1 Ancistrus
Which of these plant species should I expect to survive the blackout? At this point I haven't done any fertilizing because I haven't wanted to throw another possible algae encourager into the mix. I have the Pfertz liquid kit that I plan on EI dosing when things get balanced. Is it wise to run co2 during a blackout as there will be little ventilation for gas exchange? And finally, what is the best method for blacking out a tank completely?