# New Setup Algae problems 3 s



## Barbara Turner (10 Mar 2018)

Hi All

I'm having a few problems with my planted tank.
I have a180L fluval Rio tank and i'm having a few problems with brown and more recently hair Algae, I'm not convinced  my tank is fully cycled  as NO2  is currently at 0.67 NO3 at 38 roughy 3 weeks in.

Most of the plants are doing well, 12 Neon tetras are fine but the 3 Neorite snails died within a few days and most of my cherry shrimps have now died ( I have a couple left).  (probably a bad idea adding the snails and shrimps after 2 weeks)

 I started injecting Co2 a week ago I've also bought a RO water filter
Currently adding
Co2 - Roughly 30ppm
5ml Fluval Cycle Biological Enhancer 
10ml Flourish Excel
5ml Evolution Aqua - compete liquid food

Lighting
Homemade LED  - 100w Full spectrum LED's (Pink/Purple), 100W Cool White, 50W green ]
Currently set at 30W full spectrum, 30W white, 15W green

Pump
Ehiem 3 external pro

After reading online i'm planning on reducing my lighting cycle from 12 hours  down to 8

How often should I change the water? I was changing roughly 25L every other day but wonder if this slowing the bacteria growth down. Its a slow process with a RO filter and then getting it to the right temperature.

Will this change help reduce the Algae? Do I need to start washing the worst affected plants in a 20:1 bleach solution?

I'm not very keen on uprooting plants as the substrate is organic miracle grow with a capping of black volcanic sand and it makes a mess.

Many thanks in advance for any advice, greatly appreciated

Barbara


----------



## Edvet (10 Mar 2018)

I would go down to 6 hours even, we don't know how strong the light is ( watts don't mean that much) maybe even increase the distance to the surface a bit if possible (lowers the lightstrenght too)
I see diatoms ( the brown slimy stuff) which are common in new tanks. You don't mention your waterchange schedule. I would start doing some big ones ( 50%) twice  week, while removing the hair algae and the brown stuff (wipe it off with your fingers while sucking it of with the waterchange).
Remove all dead and bad leaves ( pinch them of or cut them of with scissors). I wouldn't take them out and treat with bleach, chances are you do more harm.


Barbara Turner said:


> organic miracle grow with a capping of black volcanic sand


I don't know what this does to water parameters, but doing big waterchanges and add the ferts after that should get better water quality till it's more stabilized.
It also looks like you have a terrestrial plant in there, as far as i can see (the big one right of center, red leafedges). Shops keep selling those, because well they sell good, but it will die.

Sooo..........less light, big water changes, and clean remove as much dead leaves, algae and muck as you can for now.


----------



## Barbara Turner (10 Mar 2018)

What would you recommend as a big a big water change 50% daily?

I'm not impressed with Viscum aquatics in doncaster  for selling me a terrestrial plants.

Instead of dropping to 6 hours  would it be better to drop to 30%?

 I can also vary each color independently so wondered about doing 6 hours just full spectrum then adding the white for the last 2 hours when I'm home and leaving the green off as i'm not sure it's helping anything

Does anyone know if Neons or cory habrosus mind being in pink light?

I can help on the lights

Pure Green 525nm-      2250 Lumens at 100%
Daylight White 6500k-8000k  10,000 Lumens at 100%
Full Spectrum - Luminus Flux 10,000Lumens at 100%
*

 *


----------



## Barbara Turner (11 Mar 2018)

I took the terrestrial plant out of my tank, it's grown a reasonable set of roots. 

Now sat on my widow sill.


----------



## Angus (11 Mar 2018)

My go to for algae issues, like edvet says, is lots of heavy manual removal, and water changes, can be accompanied by liquid carbon dosing, but you are already dosing it, so just up the manual removal and change more water. 

Make sure you are cleaning thoroughly and removing detritus with the water change too, substrate detritus build up is a real killer.


----------



## Barbara Turner (11 Mar 2018)

Thank's fozzie, I rubbed off as much as I could then changed another 25 liters of water this morning, I also gave up on the Vallisneria Spiralis and throw it away. 
 I blasted the worst spots of Algae with 15ml of Seachem flourish excel, Always slightly disappointed that it doesn't go brown / white afterwards.  

After reading the thread on Glutaralhyde,   I've ordered a litre of concentrate, Hopefully should slow the Algae down. 
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/glutaraldehyde.22296/

Will the large water changes slow the cycling time down? In my simple mind the higher levels of NO3 should cause the bacteria to multiply faster?


----------



## GHNelson (11 Mar 2018)

Hi Barbara
Vallisneria does not react well to Liquid Carbon....


----------



## Angus (11 Mar 2018)

i would be careful using large amounts of excel, make sure you change water tomorrow and bring the dosing back down. Regards, Gus.


----------



## Edvet (11 Mar 2018)

I would do 1 50% twice a week ( combined with a good a clean as possible, rubbing leaves, brushing rocks, siphonin debris etc) and then add the ferts back after that



Barbara Turner said:


> Pure Green 525nm- 2250 Lumens at 100%
> Daylight White 6500k-8000k 10,000 Lumens at 100%
> Full Spectrum - Luminus Flux 10,000Lumens at 100%


hard to say anything about that because lumens is a "human sensitivity" value, not a plant value. In the old days we knew what T8's and T5's put out so there was a correlation, with LED's that much tougher because there are wildly varying values. 
In general people tend to blast with to much light, so , again in general, reducing the amount is helpfull in case of problems, again in general we like to start with about 6 hours.


----------



## Edvet (11 Mar 2018)

*The Aquascaper Complete Liquid Plant Food *Dosage Guidelines Low - 1ml per day per 50 litres Med - 2ml per day per 50 litres High - 5ml per day per 50 litres *Dosage assumes high plant biomass.
I would add some more of this, 10 ml after each waterchange.


----------



## Barbara Turner (12 Mar 2018)

Thanks Edvet, 
The hair algae does seem to be reducing, I'll switch to 2 water changes a week of 80 litres !!! I suspect I have 20 litres of substrate)  after a good scrub. 
The tank is 180 litres, as I'm only really using the excel to reduce algae growth I'm guessing a low dosage will have minimal impact on the algae. 
Possibly drop to 10ml a day and 15ml after water changes. 

Does anyone if hair grass is okay with high doses of excel?


----------



## Konsa (12 Mar 2018)

Hi
LC dosing will have little impact on the green algae unless spot treated or severely overdosed.Try to focus on balancing the tank by adding enough nutrients and adjusting your light intensity alongside with removing as much algae and debris as possible. U mention nothing about your filter model and flow in your post and it is a major part of an CO2 tank success
It's a new tank and I assume the plants are still adjusting to life underwater.Trim the old and damaged leaves to stimulate new healthy growth 
Dont flap about killing the algae focus on improving your plants health and the algae will disappear on its own.
Regards Konsa


----------



## Barbara Turner (12 Mar 2018)

I've dropped my lighting period right down to 6 hours and going to do my first 50% water change tonight, Most of the plants are growing far faster than I would expect, In 3 weeks they have grown at least 10cm  and reached the surface
I'm going to have to start trimming some of them back to make sure they don't take over. 

Nitrite and Nitrate levels are also still dropping, the only slight concern is that my Iron levels are low, I just wish i knew what was in the  Evolution Aqua - complete liquid food. 
I suspect at some point I will swap to EI.

My external filter is a  Eheim Model: 2224 Professional   Flow rate: 700 LPH 
Pick up is on the left, with the spray bar and CO2 being injected on the right, even with the spray bar spraying in above the surface I'm still easily holding 30ppm CO2

I started looking at a Hydor Koralia circulation pump but I'm not a big fan of having anything in the tank (I have an external heater, filter, pump and shortly swapping to external co2 injection)

Found an interesting guide here by Tropica,  
http://tropica.com/en/guide/care/tropica-app/

Only thing I disagree with is adding snails and shrimps on day 3, from what I gather as soon as you add any fish you will always get a nitrate / nitrite spike mine peaked at  2 weeks in killed off my cherry shrimps and nerite snails. (apart from 2 lucky cherry shrimps)

I thought this was interesting 
*Day 1  6 hours lighting 0.5watts per Litre (no fertilizer)
Day 21 increase the light period to 8 hours per day + It is also time for fertilization
Day 42 - 8 to 10 hours per day also give more than 0,5 Watt per litre*


----------



## Edvet (12 Mar 2018)

Big plants will hinder flow, so some trimming will help the CO2 distribution.
Next stop would be doing a pH profile, ( take hourly measurements from before CO2 goes on till CO2 goes off (preferably with an electronic pH device)) this will help in deciding whether there is enough CO2.
BTW if you get the CO2 right, there is no need foe excel.


----------

