# Oh No!! Not Bertie Again!!



## Bertie (30 Oct 2013)

*I know, and I am sorry, but I am determined to solve my Algae Problem*. Which I think is either a form of GSA or brown Diatom, although I am leaning more and more to Diatom, as I can wipe it from the couple of rocks affected with my thumb/fingers. The leaves however do rub off but not easily, and me being a clumsy bugger, I easily damage the leaves, so it is easier to trim them in the first place. Incidentally, I get very little algae on the glass.

This is all the information that I can remember and sorry if it ends up being a long post.

I have a Rio 180L tank with 2 x  45w T5 tubes.

I had a major change in July of this year starting with a clean out and adding 4 Bags of Eco Complete.

I have 3 NuWave circ pumps and a full length spraybar along the back wall and initially an Eheim Pro 3 250 Filter and the pumps were running nearly full blast. I was adding a standard recipe EI dose to which I doubled the PO4, which according to the calculator on James Planted Tank equates to 4.09 ppm of phosphate. I also added 3ml daily of Liquid Carbon.

I changed the Filter for an APS 2000 on the 10th October (to which I added the media from my Eheim) and I had to change from a UP Inline Atomizer, as the hose size on the APS was too large (although I did try,and failed to make a bypass). So I changed to two 65mm Bazooka diffusers  (which do emit really small bubbles).

I was able to turn the three Circualtion pumps down to 800lph each. The flow and distribution does look really good and every single plant has good movement and the bubbles do go down the front glass and towards the back and up and around again.

At this time I re-blocked one of my T5 tubes by the reversing of a reflector and lights on for 6 hrs per day.

I then did a 3 day tank blackout, ending on the 24th October, which did not appear to do very much. 

After the tank blackout I started dosing 9ml of liquid carbon daily.

I have high alkalinity in our mains water and with the addition of CO2 from an FE my ph is dropping by .6 to .7 by lights on and stays stable at that. The CO2 comes on 2 1/2 hrs before lights on and goes off 1 hr before lights off.

Now since the tank blackout the algae/diatoms have got worse again.

If this IS Diatoms am I just best to leave it takes its course or is there something else that I can do.

I seem to have spent a large amount of money and a great amount of time trying to solve this problem and as my wife points out, the idea of getting an Aquarium(and the reason she allowed me to have one) was to take some stress out of my life, and have a relaxing hobby  But, as she has pointed out to me, that in the year I have had the tank I have been more stressed than ever and I am certainly not relaxed.

I fervently hope that I can solve this but if not, this is possibly my last word on the subject.


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## foxfish (30 Oct 2013)

There are different types of stress Bert


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## Tim Harrison (30 Oct 2013)

Try increasing the density of the planting, a lot...


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## Bertie (30 Oct 2013)

Troi said:


> Try increasing the density of the planting, a lot...


 
I do have what I consider quite a lot of plants but thinking of just putting loads of pond type weed such as elodea all over the place and even just floating around to try and see if that helps?

I have just counted up my plant tags and I have at one time or another planted 31 different pots of plants and that is not counting bunches that I initially started with!!


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## kirk (30 Oct 2013)

Oh bertie your tittle for this thread made me laugh alot.


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## Bertie (7 Nov 2013)

Well just an update!!! The algae has finally almost gone  just a little bit here and there on a couple of rocks and an odd bit on a leaf or two but no new growth for a little time now!
Of course I will keep a close eye. Thanks for the help and comments


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## James D (7 Nov 2013)

Can I ask what you did to get rid of it in the end?

Thanks.


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## Bertie (7 Nov 2013)

Well it was a process of putting a diy spraybar along the back wall of the tank, I changed the filter to a 2000lph one, I placed three circ pumps along the back wall, increased my Liquid Carbon to 3 x normal dose and the most important of all of course, I altered my CO2 injection. I also did a 3 day blackout but in truth I think it was a combination of all of these things.


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## Tim Harrison (7 Nov 2013)

Oh thank God for that...




Halle...bloomin...lujah...


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## kirk (7 Nov 2013)

Well done Bertie pop over and sort mine out will ya.


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## tim (7 Nov 2013)

Glad your getting on top of the issues Bertie


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## kirk (20 Nov 2013)

Are you still onto Of it all Bertie.?  I've decided to go for full blackout too.


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## Bertie (21 Nov 2013)

Hi Kirk, Yes still on top of it all...still have a tiny,tiny piece but it is all going away and does not seem to be coming back!


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