Lets play a game.....

1802 Views 21 Replies 9 Participants Last post by Catf1sh, Apr 21, 2014

scream-aim-fire

Discussion Starter · Apr 19, 2014

4

This is the deal im going to post pictures alone of my tank and plants, by these pictures alone i want anyone to provide input. Im not providing any water parameters, type of lighting, fert doseing, type of substrate, or anything else. I want everyone to look at pics alone and guess at the issues, after some guesses at this i will later then start providing more info on my tank, one bit of info i actually will provide is that i have been keeping planted tanks and fish only tanks for around 8 years, with that provided my gh, kh, and ph are all fine, as i have never had problems keeping plants or fish before. Anyway here are some pics.

This picture you notice there is alot of gsa covering the back and side glass, waters not normally green or cloudy, only this way in the pic because i scraped the side glass a little and stirred up the tank a little.

This is my s. Repens all was well next thing i know theres a big patch melting and to the right of the pic the same s. Repens not in nearly as bad of shape.

Same as my s. Repens, s. Porto velho melting in patches the same way.

Curled older leaves and lots of gsa.

And for the record no none of the algae in my tank is cyanobacteria, and yes i can tell the difference. All is gsa, and i do also have bba on some random plants.

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scream-aim-fire

Discussion Starter · #2 · Apr 19, 2014

Come on no one wants to take a stab? Lol

Catf1sh

· #3 · Apr 19, 2014

You've stopped injecting CO2?? Seems too obvious though...

scream-aim-fire

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 19, 2014

Nope, was running a diy reactor inline with my canister filter, but couldnt tell how may bps i was running so just before this pic i disconnected my reactor and ran the co2 line to a power head and it was almost a steady stream of bubbles. Been running co2 sense the tank was first set up.

Charlest

· #5 · Apr 19, 2014

No filtration.

Sent from my LG-D500 using Tapatalk

Catf1sh

· #6 · Apr 19, 2014

^^

houbanna

· #7 · Apr 19, 2014

Zombie virus!?

HybridHerp

· #8 · Apr 19, 2014

stopped dosing?

scream-aim-fire

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 20, 2014

Lol this thread is fun, makes me feel a little better about how crappy my tank is. To answer above, i do have filteration fluval 305, i dose pot nitrate, and pot phosephate, at 1/2 teaspoon like 2-3 days a week, plantex at 1/4 teaspoon between days. No body get on to me about this but i am not 100% consistant with my dosing as im away from home for work for 24 hours at a time so i do what i can.

Lol i think hounanna nailed it, zombie virus. Never had issues like this. Lol

HybridHerp

· #10 · Apr 20, 2014

Actually, I have an idea, as I get similar issues at times.

Dissolved organics...as in having a lot of dead leafs in the tank and all, causing nutrients to exist that aren't available to the plants but that algae can make use of.

ChadRamsey

· #11 · Apr 20, 2014

what is your tank cleaning regime like? Water changes? Vacuuming substrate? Filter cleaning? All that.

jrman83

· #12 · Apr 20, 2014

The problem is DIY CO2. Get consistent levels, impossible with DIY, and things will change. It will likely force other issues to show once you do. You can change your bottle every 5 days and your levels still won't remain consistent, it doesn't matter how good the mixture or how good you are at it.

scream-aim-fire

Discussion Starter · #13 · Apr 20, 2014

jrman83 said:
The problem is DIY CO2. Get consistent levels, impossible with DIY, and things will change. It will likely force other issues to show once you do. You can change your bottle every 5 days and your levels still won't remain consistent, it doesn't matter how good the mixture or how good you are at it.

I dont run diy co2, i said i had a diy inline co2 reactor. I run pressurized co2 have been sense the tank was set up over a year.

JMN16150

· #14 · Apr 21, 2014

Did you leave the lights on for a really long time?

jrman83

· #15 · Apr 21, 2014

Looks like more than one problem.

houbanna

· #16 · Apr 21, 2014

Did u add fish to the tank and upset the balance? Problems from fish waste

scream-aim-fire

Discussion Starter · #17 · Apr 21, 2014

ChadRamsey said:
what is your tank cleaning regime like? Water changes? Vacuuming substrate? Filter cleaning? All that.

Water change 1-2 a week, i am not able to do much substrate vacuuming as almost all the substrate is covered with plants, clean filter maybe every 2 weeks.

Did you leave the lights on for a really long time?

Nope lights stay on for i think around 8 hours a day.

Looks like more than one problem.

Im sure this is a true statement.

Ok going to add some more info on the tank, we already covered that i run a canister filter, pressurized co2, and ferts and how much. So heres more info, for substrate i have top soil capped with florite, 1.5 inches of dirt 1.5 of cap.( the reason i went to dirt was because i was running straight florite for a while and tank was almost acting the same way so i broke the tank down and dirted it.) ph fluctuates due to co2 day and night is usually around 6.8. Gh and kh are usually always around 4. I dont test these very often. Ammonia and nitrites usually read low to none, dont have a kit to test nitrates, or phosphates, figured i would watch the plants and try to adjust accordingly, well no adjustments in ferts changed plant growth. Now for lighting im running 4 of the highest wattage spiral bulbs you can buy in 5500k. Dont hate if you have never tryed the compact spiral bulbs they put out alot of light, i have grown plants nicely years back under the same lighting. No i dont have a par meter to test readings.

I feel that light isnt the issue, as for having a dirted tank i should be able to run less lighting and no co2 and grow plants still, adding a little co2 should only help the plants to grow.

Well i think what the main issue is, is that my dirt is still breaking down, tanks been dirted for a while now like 6 months. And the substrate does have anaerobic patches or more like the entire substrate, no matter how much i poke it, it bubbles all the time and smells bad, i dont think there is a way to have a dirted tank and it not be anaerobic. This is what i have done now, i have reduced lighting, reduced co2, and also reduced my fert dose, and i think i will up my water changes to more like 2-3 or more water changes per week. I though by now that my dirt would be done breaking down by now. So we will see if this changes anything.

Input?

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HybridHerp

· #18 · Apr 21, 2014

Get MTS snails to help out with aerating the substrate?

creekbottom

· #19 · Apr 21, 2014

If you change multiple things at the same time you have no idea what might be causing the problem. Change one thing, observe the result. I know it's a waiting game but otherwise you're stumbling in the dark.

scream-aim-fire

Discussion Starter · #20 · Apr 21, 2014

houbanna said:
Did u add fish to the tank and upset the balance? Problems from fish waste

Nope have had the same 7-8 glow lights, 3 congos, and 1 ram for a while.

Get MTS snails to help out with aerating the substrate?

I have more MTS than i know what to do with, they do absolutely nothing for the soil and more of a pain than anything as they seem to up root my glosso and some other stuff.

If you change multiple things at the same time you have no idea what might be causing the problem. Change one thing, observe the result. I know it's a waiting game but otherwise you're stumbling in the dark.

While i do agree with you, at the same time i pretty much have done this in the past year that i have been fighting with this tank, ive up ferts, decreased ferts, up co2, replaced bulbs, only thing that i can say has changed was that when i upped my ferts my glosso took off everything else didnt really do much. So my thought right now is to decrease light to try and get algae to slow, increase water changes to try and get rid of extra nutrients from the water column also to try and control the algae. And with the the decreased light i wouldnt need as much ferts or co2. Anyway maybe this will get things under control.

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