# ADA 60P Second attempt.. Update: on the road to recovery



## JamieB (24 Oct 2015)

Hi all

After making a plan with the girlfriend to repurpose my 40CM cube tank into a proper planted, high tech tank, we ventured to The Green Machine to buy some ADA Aqua Soil during their 20% off sale. I saw a 60P and thought... Well.. 20% off... So I bought it, a 250T filter, 2 bags of aqua soil, the rocks, and a new plant... That was unexpected... And so here we are!

Aquarium: ADA 60P (60x30x36cm)
Filter: Eheim eXperience 250T with Eheim Substrat Pro and 3 foam pads
Light: Aquatlantis Easy LED 43CM, 8 hours
Substrate: ADA Amazonia AquaSoil topped with the powder
Stone: TGM Fossilised wood
Fertiliser: EI standard dosing

Flora:
Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini'
Cryptocoryne beckettii
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Fissidens fontanus
Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini'
Alternanthera reineckii 'Rosanervig'
Rotala rotundifolia
Ludwigia sp 'Mini Super Red'
Hydrocotyle tripartita

Fauna:
Bloodfin Tetra
Neon Tetra
Glowlight Tetra
Ember Tetra
Otocinclus
Red Cherry Shrimp
Amano Shrimp

Hopefully my pictures get better with practice.. Reflections and over exposure near the light is not something I know how to cope with..

The hardscape and most of the plant locations are entirely my girlfriends, she has an amazing eye for it and I'm really really happy with how it came out.

Initial layout:





Eleoocharis planted.. Adding in water and the rest:




I didn't get a picture once completed but here is 7 days later, growing in nicely:




Looking from the right:




Looking from the left:




Close up of the Reineckii Rosanervig.. Beautiful plant, love the details it has:




You can see some of the ADA soil has mixed with the powder, this was because my girlfriend was changing the water in the tank whilst I was away with work and whilst filling it up, let the water flow into the soil mixing it all up! She's been extremely helpful to change the water whilst I was away so I can't grumble and I should be able tidy it up a bit.

The next plan is to get some lily pipes to clear up the tank and make it neater and add Purigen into the filter to aid with keeping the water nice and clear and also an inline diffuser to get rid of the CO2 bubbles in the tank.

Any comments appreciated


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## Jamin_R (24 Oct 2015)

Looks great


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## JamieB (24 Oct 2015)

OK, properly update the first post, would love to hear some feedback on it!

I'm also thinking of adding in some more fish, perhaps a pair of rams or some corydoras. Not really sure on what's best.. I am worried the rams may eat the shrimp!


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## Alexander Belchenko (25 Oct 2015)

Nice tank. I just think you want to put too much fish in there. 2-3 different species should be enough. It's better to have big shoal of one or two different species than have a fish soup, IMO.

About overexposure: try expocorrection down to -0.7 -1.0 it will make your photo darker but save you from over exposure.


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## JamieB (25 Oct 2015)

Regarding the fish... They have been consolidated from other tanks including my first ever tank so although there is a few different types this is only temporary. 

Number wise I only have 1 Glowlight and 3 Neon's, the rest of the school has died from age and these are the remaining ones I intend on keeping the Bloodfin and Oto numbers up at the moment.


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## JamieB (30 Oct 2015)

I have noticed that a few plants, mainly the Reineckii mini have started to have a few holes appear in leaves. I guess this is a trace elements deficiency? I'm changing 50% of the water every day after dosing EI about 10 hours earlier so I guess I'm removing some of the ferts from the water column. Do you guys think I should overdose for now or just keep as I am? I will be reverting to a weekly water change in the next week-ish.


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## rebel (30 Oct 2015)

Sounds like a K deficiency.


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## JamieB (30 Oct 2015)

Rebel, would you think this is due to changing the water so frequently therefore lowering the amount in the tank or would you recommend upping the potassium now?


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## rebel (31 Oct 2015)

JamieB said:


> Rebel, would you think this is due to changing the water so frequently therefore lowering the amount in the tank or would you recommend upping the potassium now?



There is no harm in upping the K if you are using K2SO4 or K2PO4 to supply the K. Unfortunately your holes will not get better but new ones will stop appearing.

I suggest photographing one plant; adding the ferts; watching for 2 weeks.


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## JamieB (1 Nov 2015)

Day 14


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## rebel (1 Nov 2015)

Sorry forgot to answer your question on changing k level. I am unsure whether that may contribute. 

Generally k is low even at the start so even ADA systems add it from the early days.


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## Alexander Belchenko (1 Nov 2015)

Nice tank, but I'd think about crypt at the left back corner. I'd change it to smaller species, to keep convex shape.


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## JamieB (1 Nov 2015)

Rebel thanks for that I'll look into it as I need to make up a new mix of EI macro anyway. 

Alex, I looked into these crypts when I had my 20l tank and they seemed about the smallest that I liked the look of. These are as high as they got in the old tank and they list as 15-20cm so I think it should be ok. Though I may be wrong? It is wendtii and beckettii back there.


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## JamieB (4 Nov 2015)

Alex, I think I misunderstood, do you mean by convex to keep everything sort of in the middle so all the height is as far as.. say the rocks? It's an interesting idea and may well round off the layout but I'm not sure where I could move the crypts.. Am I understanding correctly?


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## alto (4 Nov 2015)

Once the crypts are settled - good root growth - you might begin trimming the older/taller leafs, this may encourage new, shorter growth under the new tank conditions, depending on cultivars, both crypts can range from ~10cm to ...
If you feel comfortable with drastic, just cut back all the older leafs 

Tanks is looking very nice.

(what did you do with the 40cm?)


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## JamieB (5 Nov 2015)

Fantastic. Thanks for that.

The 40cm has a betta in with some random plants for now.. just a low tech thing whilst I have the betta


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## Alexander Belchenko (5 Nov 2015)

JamieB said:


> Alex, I think I misunderstood, do you mean by convex to keep everything sort of in the middle so all the height is as far as.. say the rocks? It's an interesting idea and may well round off the layout but I'm not sure where I could move the crypts.. Am I understanding correctly?



JamieB, yes, I mean your initial hardscape is strongly suggested convex layout with tall plants behind/around center stones, and plants go down by height at the sides. That's why your crypt seems to break this initial impression. If you draw 2 diagonal lines from the top of the biggest rock down to sides (to the point where substrate lines are) you can see what I mean. 
@alto is right about trimming though, but as far as I can see your crypt from big species, so maybe you have or can find around smaller sp. Usually strong light encourage crypts to lay their leaves on the substrate, so they looks not so big. But at the corners that would be problematic I guess.
Anyway, that's your tank, maybe you'll find other ways to make it nice and cool. There are many ways to achieve cool result. Don't take my words as strong criticism, please.


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## JamieB (5 Nov 2015)

Alex I appreciate the information, definitely something to think about as now I understand what you mean I can have a think and see what can be done to keep that convex look to the tank without disturbing much. Thanks a lot for the advice.

I have been looking at a few photos today and comparing back and forth the last 3 weeks up to today and I truly cannot believe quite how the Eleocharis has taken to the tank.. It's amazing.. There are runners everywhere.. I'll update the picture on Saturday but there are so many runners right at the front of the tank... I've never had a carpet grow so well and so quickly.. I think I'll need to invest in some wave scissors and get it trimmed before long!

Really excited for the future of the tank.

One question I have is should my lily pipe be causing some movement at the water surface? I've played with it a bit and I can get it to form a vortex which seems to help keep the water clean of biofilm so perhaps this is how it should be set up? I had it lower and was getting a biofilm but of course this is a new tank so I do expect some to appear


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## Alexander Belchenko (5 Nov 2015)

Afaik, vortex with lily pipe - is the right thing. If you can find video from ada you can learn their idea to move every night the lily pipe outlet higher, half way above water surface in order to create air bubbles for night aeration. But this trick is noisy though.

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## JamieB (6 Nov 2015)

Latest picture.. Day 20.. Needs a trim!





Thanks Alex, I'll try and position it to create a vortex each time


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## Alexander Belchenko (6 Nov 2015)

Looks good and very healthy!


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## Ryan Thang To (7 Nov 2015)

nice tank i like it alot. i also have a 60p great tank. 

cheers
ryan


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## JamieB (8 Nov 2015)

Few more pics.. Added a male and female pair of blue rams.. Beautiful fish.. Already gone for a few RCS but the bloodfins are attacking them anyway so I'm not sure they will last either way.. Amano's look safe luckily as they don't reproduce as much. Rams are starting to colour up more and more in just the 24 hours I've had them but here's a pic from yesterday just an hour or so after putting them in..





Did a small trim and moved the outflow lily pipe to the front of the tank so it doesn't hit against anything... Hoping it gives even better flow around the tank but we'll see.. You can also see I've added in 2 plants in the back right corner these are Hygrophila 'Siamensis 53B' and Staurogyne repens.. I only have 1 of each that I intended to put into my 40cm cube with my betta but I am concerned that they may die as it's a low tech tank so I'm going to grow them here and put some new stems/rhizomes into the other tank. They were in a bucket for 2 weeks with no light but still surviving somehow...




Picture of 2 of the Amano's... Added 5 more yesterday as I only had 4/5 anyway.. You can also see some algae in the moss starting to come through as well. Not sure what type yet but will investigate.. Therefore not sure of the best way to get rid of it!


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## JamieB (16 Nov 2015)

Day 34... Given the plants at the back a good trip so they can grow back with new stems at a lower height




Also I really need to get a tripod as all my pictures are at different angles etc


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## JamieB (6 Dec 2015)

Week 8... I think..
Lots of trimming of the Rotala.. Half tempted to replace it as it's not that pretty and grows like mad... What do you think? I'm getting a lot of what I think is BBA, several pictures below.. I've upped the CO2 to try and help as I was nowhere near yellow on the drop checker so I'm now at about 3BPS on my counter. Hopefully this helps. I also upped the macro ferts as I think I wasn't dosing enough potassium due to holes in lower leaves of the reineckkii.

The tank looks darker now it's grown in. I'm not sure if that is just the plants growing in more or something else.. It looks dull compared to the last posts pictures.





















What do you reckon guys?


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## Hobbes1911 (7 Dec 2015)

Spot treat where you can, black out and up CO2 once appropriate!


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## Hobbes1911 (8 Dec 2015)

Also, I meant spot treat with liquid carbon like excel. You might also get away with treating the tank with H2O2, I don't know how hair grass or ff will respond to those so research both methods first. I usually spot treat where I can with liquid carbon and then up the CO2. Most importantly, it's keeping an appropriate and stable level of CO2. Fluctuations in CO2 levels can also lead to algae.

Your light might have to be replaced with one that is more evenly distributed. As it sits right now, you have too much light for the available plant mass/nutrient levels and the algae are able to take advantage of this imbalance more readily than the plants. So your plan (if spot treating of H2O2 - also research each method) should include a blackout of some sort, with frequent but small water changes to try and limit nutrients. Then for the time being, I'd limit the light (window screen works well, or raising it) and slowly up the CO2 until you hit the ~30mg/l mark (I think that's light green in most drop checker systems) and then dose again slowly. The reason you have to go slowly up is you don't want to gas your fish, so you can't go high to low. See if that helps!


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## JamieB (8 Dec 2015)

I'm a little hesitant to dose with H2O2 but I can definitely spot dose with LC.

Regarding the light I was actually thinking of getting another as I was sure it wasn't enough light at first. I can definitely raise it about another 15cm so will try that out as well.

Also the drop checker is lime green but perhaps not enough.. I can definitely push it a bit more. I have posted a thread about my diffuser over in the CO2 section as I'm not sure if this could be causing some issues with how small it is.

Thanks Hobbes


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## alto (8 Dec 2015)

That's a lot of algae  (possibly the reason your tank looks "darker")



JamieB said:


> Filter: Eheim eXperience 250T with Eheim Substrat Pro and 3 foam pads


You might start with a thorough filter "clean" - check your tubing & filter pads, rinse any debris from media using conditioned tap water (maybe consider adding in a fine filter pad - not sure what your foam pads are like, but mine are quite coarse)


You don't mention a water change schedule (or I just missed it), but increase frequency while sorting algae issues

You might look at *fablau*'s photos in post # 343, then scroll back to understand what he changed in his tank (I think lean dosing combined with purigen & carbon to reduce DOC's etc in the tank) - there are many theories about what encourages/discourages various algaes ... mostly it seems to be about finding the balance for *your* tank (nowhere near as helpful as a point by point program )

You _seem_ to have good flow, good CO2 etc but you also have loads of algae, so something needs to change.
If you've a spray bar, you might consider going back to that for awhile - definitely test flow patterns in your tank, as the plants have grown in these will change, also your rocks do impose a significant barrier effect

Try (gently) combing through your moss to see what you can remove manually, also note whether there is significant amounts of trapped debris - give your mosses syphon attention during every water change - though you may need to warn resident shrimp first 

Once you've done a "clean up", you might do a 3day blackout (do some searches on ukaps for various examples) - this should affect algae more than plants, & you should be able to remove a good bit of debris afterwards. (again give tank & filters a good clean - you can skip the pre-blackout clean if you like & just do it at this stage)

At this point, decide how aggressively you want to trim/remove algae damaged leafs - basically wherever you see algae, there tends to be some degree of leaf damage ... as plants grow, gradually remove these older leafs.

If you can "borrow" some juvenile SAE from your local fish shop, these are great algae cleaners (they just get too large for a 60P, especially as they are quite social fish that are best kept in groups) - note they will be a test of your mad fish capture skillz at removal time 

Adding in extra shrimp should also help, tiger shrimp are excellent algae crew (& don't get as large as Amano's), red nose shrimp (there seem to be number of species sold under this general term) etc but first note your fish reactions, shrimp may be limiting their algae grazing due to fish interest

If you decide to increase CO2, do it while you're at home to monitor fish.

Adding "improved" aeration (oxygen) at night can also help limit algae - again you may already be doing this - just raise the lily slightly for greater surface agitation

Reduce light period - try 5-6 hours rather than the current 8, once algae is sorted you can likely slowly increase this time period again

Daily dosing of liquid carbon may also help reduce/discourage algae


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## alto (9 Dec 2015)

A thought about plant recovery - you might move some trimmings to a dry start type environment with v high humidity until you see new emerse growth, then use this to replant back into tank.


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## Martin in Holland (9 Dec 2015)

Too much light (not just in hours), bad or not enough flow, not enough surface agitation.
Cover your lights, empty your filter and clean it, raise the outflow, but also check if you really have a 10x turnover from your filter.
Maybe start with a blackout first.


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## JamieB (9 Dec 2015)

Thanks Martin and Alto just for critique I have done the following..

Huge plant trim.. I probably need to do more so will do that tonight. and raised the light a good 15-20cm. I have kept the rest the same... for now

My filter is an Eheim 250T eXperience which should be shoving out 750l/h so this should be adequate. I also raise the lily pipes overnight to aerate the water etc.


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## ian_m (9 Dec 2015)

BBA can also be caused by too much food. My fish feeder dumper a load of food into the tank and was a while before I noticed, as it all was washed behind a piece of wood to rot. Anyway removed as much food detritus as I could once found, picking out with tweezers but BBA started appearing shortly afterwards. Large water change didn't stop it growing over next couple of weeks....

So at water change, plants dipped in diluted liquid carbon and with in 24hours BBA changes colour and it started dying off and was scoffed by the fish.

After that careful control of CO2 and lighting period and BBA hasn't come back (too much !!).


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## Hobbes1911 (9 Dec 2015)

I found that window screen (to keep out mozzies) will reduce the lighting strength by a good amount. Of course you can always start with one "sheet" and then increase as you need. But as already said the light is too strong for the plants you have with the nutrients that are around. I'd manually remove for now and spot treat where you can, do a wc and then black out. While black out do more small wcs. You don't want to impact the water parameters too drastically, but you want to reduce your tds load which small frequent wcs tend to do. It'll be tedious, but the algae can be controlled, just stay on it.


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## alto (9 Dec 2015)

Add in a floater such as L laevigatum or S natans (Tropica offers both as 1-2-Grow)  - much nicer to look at than screens/covers & will help consume extra nutrients as well 

(I suspect that Darrel *dw1305 *might have some to send out if you ask  )

I think your filter is just fine - though it's good to look at flow within the tank as hardscape can easily create low flow zones.

Increase your CO2  re that unchanging drop checker color - you can always just leave CO2 going 24/7 until you're able to stay at home to monitor fish response to increased bubble rate 

Reduce your photo period from 8 hours to 7 hours (if you don't want to change this too much) - for viewing, you can always just drop the light to ground level behind the tank ... add an orange towel in the vicinity & you'll get a nice sunset effect  - at least this is what happens on the "Mist" tank I have (you can simulate this frosted glass background with "peel & stick" window film or even a bin lid)  

Water change routine???


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## JamieB (10 Dec 2015)

Hi Alto

To answer the questions firstly or add some insight..
I do have Natans in the tank, it's just started growing well finally, it's split into 2 and another split coming soon...
The lily pipe I have is positioned so there is nothing "directly" in front of the flow but as these work as a cone I guess it could be hitting the tall rock in the hardscape but it is quite far from this. My lily pipe also never really makes any surface agitation when submerged... Perhaps I should take some stuff out of the filter to improve flow? it currently has 3 coarse foam pads in the bottom basket then substrat in the top one with a bag of purigen and above that a floss style pad.
I will increase CO2 again tonight... The drop checker does change by morning time but only to green whereas it's lime green during the day.
I can reduce the photo period. It is currently 7 hours if I remember correctly!
Water change routine is 25l a week which should be around 50%. This is with tap water which is dechlorinated with Seachem Prime.


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## JamieB (6 Jan 2016)

Tank is still not doing great.. I went away for Christmas and put it into a low maintenance mode. low light hours etc. 

It helped get rid of some algae but not massively. I think my issue is with flow more than anything.. My filter should be sufficient but it doesn't blow the bubbles at the opposite side of the tank coming from the diffuser... I've taken out the filter floss pad and 2 of the 3 foam pads and it did improve flow but it still feels not enough. I am using the eXperience 250T and it's quoted at 750l/h which is sufficient and with so little filter media I'd have thought it'd be close to that output.. But perhaps not.. I don't know if it's the lily pipes causing it but again I'm not sure.

I have been contemplating swapping the diffuser to an inline but I am concerned about the cleaning and how fragile the Co2 connection is reported to be. Plants are growing well and the drop checker shows that Co2 is being distributed well I'm not convinced.. A LOT of bubbles get to the surface and the bubbles appear to come from the edges of the diffuser rather than in the middle of the ceramic and this appears to be making the bubbles bigger, as though they are not actually going through the ceramic. I can get a pic if anyone wants one to see if this is abnormal


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## JamieB (25 Jun 2016)

Hi all. Long overdue update due to me still suffering constant algae woes.

As you can see it looks awful. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong.... Co2 always seems spot on and I dose EI 6 days a week... It needs a good clean at the moment but I never miss a weekly change, just don't clean the lily pipes every week

Help!


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## Chris Jackson (26 Jun 2016)

Well that's a bummer Jamie! 

There are many threads here about BBA that you can browse for answers but no guarantees. In my tank it has just gradually gone away as the months pass.

The key thing, in my opinion, with any algae issue is to focus on growing the plants rather than killing algae. A good starting point would be to make many water changes to 'reset' the tank and then start EI afresh and then let the plants grow into a jungle before gradually trimming back to how you desire. Also start night time aeration (by raising the lilly pipe) and add some filter bacteria booster.


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## rebel (26 Jun 2016)

Time to do a one two punch treatment with big water changes. Gravel vac also. Reduce light slightly.


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## Robert H. Tavera (26 Jun 2016)

I had  BBA a few years ago... I used Seachem fluorite, but the generic name is glutarandehyde (I discovered this too late lol). Always at the recommended dose but turning off the filter 30 minutes before the water change and applying it directly over the algae with a syringe. Usually I applied it in small spots so it can work better. Then did the water changes, after that half a dose again in spot areas and finally  turn on the filter. The algae turns red, sometimes after the spot treatment, other times the next day, but once it turns red it'll dye and go away in one day or two. You can do this everyday or as much as you can... Treating some spots each time. 

In some forums I read that you can go really high in the Seachem dosage, even 5X. The only time I did that I killed a lot of my plants, specially ferns, mosses and anubias, so I'll not recommend to do that, but maybe I did it wrong and someone else can tell you how to do it properly. 

Good luck!! 


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## JamieB (26 Jun 2016)

Thanks guys. I've done the first water change today and will do a trim tomorrow. I can't dim the light but I can reduce the hours it's on if that's as good?

I'll also dose with EasyCarbo whilst doing further water changes this week. 

I'll update how I get on.


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## Daveslaney (27 Jun 2016)

Hope you manage to get this sorted.Your tank looked fantastic before.


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## JamieB (29 Jun 2016)

Trimmed all the plants yesterday, got a lot of shaping to do but not sure where to start... 

Keeping up the water changes.

Should I avoid dosing EI until I've done a full week or changes?


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## JamieB (29 Jun 2016)

Ok here's an updated pic... Light just coming up and taken from my phone so not the best ..


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## ian_m (29 Jun 2016)

Robert H. Tavera said:


> I used Seachem fluorite, but the generic name is glutarandehyde (I discovered this too late lol).


Seachem Flourish Excel is what you mean.
http://www.seachem.com/flourish-excel.php


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## Alexander Belchenko (29 Jun 2016)

I'd recommend you to clean the external filter as well. Not sure how often do you clean it, but for me cleaning canister has helped every time new BBA starting to appear.


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## ian_m (29 Jun 2016)

Robert H. Tavera said:


> I had BBA a few years ago... I used Seachem fluorite, but the generic name is glutarandehyde (I discovered this too late lol).


you mean gluteraldhyde.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutaraldehyde

Excel isn't exactly gluteraldehyde but a similar compound.


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## JamieB (29 Jun 2016)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> I'd recommend you to clean the external filter as well. Not sure how often do you clean it, but for me cleaning canister has helped every time new BBA starting to appear.


Did that this morning along with the lily pipes etc

Hopefully all this work together sorts it out


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## Alexander Belchenko (29 Jun 2016)

You probably need some work with water changes during 1-2 weeks. I've re-read your journal. And I hope you can return your tank to the right track.

So far, you can do 50% water changes 2-3 times per week, and remove as much as possible affected leaves covered by algae. Doing so you'll remove not only algae but their spores as well. Add more cheap fast growing plants.

Spot treatment of hardscaspe with liquid carbon if you can do it.

Try to feed your fish less.


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## JamieB (22 Oct 2016)

Ok, an updated pic. Looking better. Not sure how to trim the plants on the right to make them look "right"


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## AquamaniacUK (22 Oct 2016)

I like the look of this. It really does not look like a failure to me. The right and left hand side feel a bit chaotic though, maybe atleast the right side needs some shapping. But the middle looks flawless to me, nice mix of colour between the red plants and the moss, the fossilized wood looks like real wood. All in all nice scape mate.


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## Manisha (22 Oct 2016)

Has a nice jungle look as but if you wanted to make the right more shaped -you could either trim the tops or uproot the stems, discard the bottoms & replant the tops?


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## Eduard18 (22 Oct 2016)

Hi there ! The plants on the right are stems so you should trim them harshly, cut as low as possible and replant, to create a bush ; on the left regarding the crypts remove the longest leaves, cutting at the base of the plant ; if I may, I would make another suggestion : if possible to switch places between the red plants and the mosses because there is more light in the center ; regarding the filter I don't think it's enough to cope with your tank; you should bear in mind that the flow value it's for the PUMP ONLY ! without the media and the hoses ! So it's safe to say that the real flow rate it's half of that value ; and with a bush of stems, the water flow inside your tank will take a plunge 

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## parotet (22 Oct 2016)

JamieB said:


> Should I avoid dosing EI until I've done a full week or changes?


I am surprised no one told you that using ADA aquasoil you have plenty of nutrients for your plants, both in the soil and in the water column. EI works of course but you're living on the edge unless the tank is well established (sorry, this is just my opinion). Your filter, your light, your flow seem ok to me. I cannot tell about the CO2 because it is very difficult to judge but it looks you know what to do... so what about trying a low nutrient approach until you see stable and steady growth? That's what I do in my tanks. Once the biomass is high, push the accelerator however you want. I only use the EI approach when I want fast growth, the rest of the time (initial growth and busy times at work) I use the lean dosing approach (some squirts of EI once a week or every other week... of course with enriched soils). Personally I would try it.

Jordi


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## parotet (22 Oct 2016)

I've read once again your specs and I would personally reduce the light period to just 6 hours until everything is under control. Only my mature tanks have photoperiods of 8 hours or more. I actually run them during the 6 first months with just 6 hours.

Jordi


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## JamieB (23 Oct 2016)

Eduard18 said:


> if possible to switch places between the red plants and the mosses because there is more light in the center


Thanks for the comments but this isn't possible as the moss is attached to a large piece of wood that's in the middle 



parotet said:


> so what about trying a low nutrient approach until you see stable and steady growth? That's what I do in my tanks. Once the biomass is high, push the accelerator however you want. I only use the EI approach when I want fast growth, the rest of the time (initial growth and busy times at work) I use the lean dosing approach (some squirts of EI once a week or every other week... of course with enriched soils). Personally I would try it.


I'm definitely going this route currently and just dosing now and then so will see how it goes



parotet said:


> 've read once again your specs and I would personally reduce the light period to just 6 hours until everything is under control. Only my mature tanks have photoperiods of 8 hours or more. I actually run them during the 6 first months with just 6 hours.


I forgot to mention that I have reduced my photoperiod to 6 hours and this is what has solved the algae issue.

Does anyone know what type of moss has appear at the top of the wood in the centre? It doesn't seem to be fissidens but it's something... I never added it and it just started to grow out of the wood a month or 2 ago... I'll take a pic soon as the above doesn't show it very well


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## Greenfinger2 (24 Oct 2016)

Hi Jamie, Looking good Lush healthy plants too congrats


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## JamieB (26 Oct 2016)

Greenfinger2 said:


> Hi Jamie, Looking good Lush healthy plants too congrats


Thanks buddy, plants are not as healthy as they appear methinks, I'll try to take a few closeups soon as I've always had issues with leafs getting holes in but no matter how much EI I give them it doesn't help!

To be honest, I am moving house in a week and I fear the hardscape may not survive the move


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## Greenfinger2 (26 Oct 2016)

Hi Jamie, Hope all go's well with the move


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