[xJaypex]

So after dosing medication to get rid of BGA i noticed a lot of plants died from the bottom up. I noticed it a few days after i was done dosing medication because i was busy throughout the whole time. So today i just trimmed out a whole lot of plants and was wondering what people usually do after they do a huge trim. Do you lay off ferts? Or dose more of a certain one? Raise Co2?

Right now Im dosing EI w/ and have co2. Never really done a trim this big before. Also do dead plants cause algae? I noticed some algae coming back and want to make sure what exactly caused it.

 

[JRMott]

I would decrease your lighting period for a bit.

You've got a lot less plants, so more co2 and ferts isn't going to help much. The idea is to dose non-limiting ferts and co2 (more than what plants need, so that nothing runs out). I've never heard of non-limiting lighting, because if there is too much light there will be algae.

Basically, excess ferts and co2 do no harm to a tank. Excess lighting will cause algae.

If 2 tanks received the exact same dosing of co2 and ferts (non-limiting) but one tank had 1 plant and the other was chock full of plants, the first tank is going to have algae problems. Not because of the excess ferts or co2, but because of all the excess lighting which isn't being used by plants.

That was poorly written, but I hope I got the point across.

 

[Noahma]

I just stay the course, I do heavy trimmings quite often, and have little to no problems. I would remove the dead plant materials, they can rot and cause water quality problems.

 

[gordonrichards]

Bump that. Remove all dead materials. Don't continue ferts at the same levels since plants need to regrow. Ferts will help increase growth so don't back off fully!

Kick lighting back on the algae infested tank. Let the other plants over grow.
4 hours on, 2 hours off, 4 hours on. Best way I've kept algae back in my tanks.

-Gordon

-Gordon

 

[plantbrain]

Clean it good after a big trim, then do a large water change, maybe 2x a week for the week or two after.

Net out every floating leaf etc, clean filters a week later.

Then patience.

 

[johnny313]

Clean it good after a big trim, then do a large water change, maybe 2x a week for the week or two after.

Net out every floating leaf etc, clean filters a week later.

Then patience.

Tom,
can you please define big trim?

 

[xJaypex]

Thanks guys, will do some more cleaning tomorrow and a 50 water change tomorrow.
Dosing schedule stays the same I presume?

 

[plantbrain]

Tom,
can you please define big trim?

Remove at or more than 50% of plant biomass tank total.
I tend to shoot for 1/4-1/3 of an **area** each time, but the tank's scaping goals might warrant a 100% of the area to be trimmed to grow back at a nice even rate. This can be less or more than 50% total biomass removal though.