# Low tech, low flow, sunlight... can I make it look better?



## kadoxu (19 Jun 2018)

Hi,

Not really expecting a miracle here... I'm just wondering if I can do something different to improve the look of this tank. 

I have a low tech heavily planted Fluval Edge 12g in a conservatory (journal links in signature), during the warmer months it gets sunlight throughout all the afternoon, and, as expected, algae takes over the plants. Too much light, low flow and CO2, higher temperatures... this tank has it all, so the question is, is there something I can do?

Injecting CO2 is something I don't want to go back to (been there, done that, killed fish, etc).
Covering the tank to avoid some sunlight kinda defeats the purpose of having it.

So, what would you try to do?


----------



## mort (19 Jun 2018)

I have a tmc 600 that gets direct sun from the back during the afternoon and run it low tech. Touch wood I don't have any algae issues other than some slight bba old anubias leaves and some annoying blue green cyano right at the back on the substrate. I think I'm lucky because I have some real thugs, guppy grass and salvinia, which outstrip everything else. I do have the extra room and think my pair of ancistris are probably the biggest help though.

So I can only say try and out compete it or grow some thick plants against the direct light side to try and shade the rest of the tank, sacrificing part of the tank to keep the rest looking good (assuming it doesn't directly hit the front pain in which case I have no ideas).


----------



## zozo (19 Jun 2018)

kadoxu said:


> is there something I can do?



Yes make sure you plant easy fast growing true aqautic plants..  And even beter mature the tank well enough before you blast it with light. So maybe a drystart for the non aquatics to get a well developed rootsystem definitively helps a lot..

Look at this, outdoor, full blast unshaded from first light till 4 oclock afternoon, after that it receives filtered daylight from overhnging canopy vegitation. Find the algae.
There is relatively non.. 














Not even on the cobles..








Plants are

Potamogeton natans and potamogeton Gayi
Nymphoides ?, lilaeopsis brasiliensis carpet with hair gras in it and several mosses. There are 2 other sp. in there not worth mentioning they get outcompeted.

This is the second season, must say it was different last year, the first season i definitively suffered algae, this year non.. That's why i say make it fully matured with well developed rootsystem and plants rock the boat.. And the true aqautics, these are ofcourse used to low co2 invironments don't need it and grow fast anyway, use that feature to your advantage and you have a win win. 

Oh and it has partialy Velda Lelite soil covered with a sand layer caped with gravel.. Absolutely going to use that dirt again.. It rocks..


----------



## zozo (19 Jun 2018)

next thing i must say and olmost forgot.. This little tank is part of a +/- 350 litre system running over a emersed planted sumpfilter.. In case this contributes with preventing algae growth in this tank. Than it means i sufficiently get rid of waste products. Than it might be a valid assumprion that if it were a stand alone tank having such a high light and high metabolism and waste production.. Than water changes to the resque.. If the tank can't cope with the waste production on it's own you need extra water changes..


----------



## zozo (19 Jun 2018)

Here is another example.. Not realy full blast sunlight, but quite a blast filtered day light from above.. low tech, low flow 3 x, but a ton of light for the intire natural periode 18 hours at the time.

Same story when it comes to filtering, planted sump..  Get rid of waste production.. And still do a weekly 50% water change and dry dose the whole package..




Algae? relatively little..  Only on the Anubias planted at the front getting blasted with light.. For the rest very little fast growing true aqautics only a valis and a yet not fully matured Nymphoides and Nymphaea not doing much..




My secret for this one and i can't get around it, it seems, at least not yet.. The keep the anubias clean i dose Easy carbo during the highest summer months.. If i don't the anubias suffer from BBA and GSA. If i didn't have Anubias i wouldn't need it, this plant forces me against my will to use it...





So it definitively is possible to run a low tech tank propperly in a very high light condition without suffering to much algae.


----------



## PARAGUAY (20 Jun 2018)

Sometime ago my sister in law described algae problems and generally tank problem looks.looking at the siting of it  I suggested net curtains to filter out the sun,from early morning to early evening next to the front window, with a few water changes as well. It improved and looked really well.


----------



## kadoxu (30 Jul 2018)

I managed to block some sunlight using a parasol, so things are getting better. Also using Easy Life AlgExit and Blue Exit, and it seems to help a lot.


----------

