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Aquascaper 900 - 1 Year Update . Thinking of a rescape soon.

When you spot dose lc onto affected areas in the tank. Do you do it out of the water or whilst it's under water.

Thanks lee
 
You can do both mate. As long as the LC comes into contact with Algae it will do its job, it's a lot better algaecide than it is carbon source. Just be aware some plants don't get along with it and if you put it on out of water it could burn the leaves although you will get better results with it than under water as obviously the second it comes out the syringe it is more diluted.
Best time to spot dose is before lights on so you get the benefit of it also being in the tank through the growth period when you get a slight elevation of available carbon for the plants.

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk
 
This weekend I decided to add a frosted white background and install some Philips Hue light strips behind the tank. I'm really pleased with the background as it reflects the white light and makes the whole tank look much brighter and cleaner rather than being able to see the sand colour wall through the glass. I also installed some ambient lighting to add a splash of colour and make the tank look a little more interesting when the lights are off. I've only had them running 3 hours before and after lights on as I don't know what effect they could have on algae? Presumably they will have little effect if I stick to colours that are not in the spectrum for plant growth?

Excuse the floating moss at the top of the wood. I've re-glued than down since!
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2.jpg 1.jpg 3.jpg 6.jpg 5.jpg 4.jpg
 
Nice mod, how much is the philips kit? Thanks

Ah, nice hifi btw

It's just a standard Hue Light-strip which are about £65. You could use a cheap one which are usually brighter but I like to have them controlled along with all the other lights in the house.
 
Where did you get your flame red apistos from? I have been searching for them for a while since I lost this guy and now have a female that needs a friend...

I really like the backlighting effect btw
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Where did you get your flame red apistos from? I have been searching for them for a while since I lost this guy and now have a female that needs a friend...

I really like the backlighting effect btw
24e043ed622384be7283582c0d42b112.jpg

Hi Matt,

I got them from Brookfields Garden Centre which is in Mapperley, Nottingham. They have a decent selection of fish there. Not many Chiclids but I did see a few of these Apistos left yesterday when I went to pickup some Aquascaper plant food.
 
Lovely hardscape and the plants have filled in really well with it. The Hue background looks great and its something Ive been wanting to try but I was considering going with frosted perspex like the ADA ones. I hadn't thought of just doing a film with the Hue. The blue night glow you've got going around the edges looks awesome!

Thats a great floating wall too! I did mine a few years back starting with rope lights which eventually burnt out then replacing with Hue LED's

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Floating Wall Build by Stu Worrall, on Flickr
 
Getting very disheartened with BBA now. It started out as a small tuft on a piece of the bog wood but after some co2 instability it slowly spread around the majority of my plants. I believe my co2 and flow has been quite stable now but things are not improving.

I dosed 2.5x dose of TNC Liquid Carbon daily but that hasn't made any difference apart from melting a couple of crypts and my pinnatifida which was very healthy before I began dosing that. I can't sport treat as there is a gentle covering on almost everything now.

It's such a shame as this seems to be the algae that is feared the most and there is the least remedy for. A complete rescape is about all I can think of but I was ideally hoping to keep this scape closer to 12 months, rather than 5.
 
I pluck it... if you pinch a tuft an pull it usually comes away. You could try tweezers, but I just use my nails. Rocks can be scrubbed with a toothbrush or plucked, same with equipment. Or anything removable, take out and spray with liquid carbon. Substrate - scoop the surface off or push individually effected gravel/pieces down underneath. Plants - trim off the worst and pluck anything with just the odd piece. Spot treat anything left. It's time consuming but you can split it over a few sessions.
 
I pluck it... if you pinch a tuft an pull it usually comes away. You could try tweezers, but I just use my nails. Rocks can be scrubbed with a toothbrush or plucked, same with equipment. Or anything removable, take out and spray with liquid carbon. Substrate - scoop the surface off or push individually effected gravel/pieces down underneath. Plants - trim off the worst and pluck anything with just the odd piece. Spot treat anything left. It's time consuming but you can split it over a few sessions.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to try a huge trim this week and cut back all the worst affected plants. There is just a small amount on virtually every plant in the tank so it's very difficult to spot dose. My trident ferns are removable though so will try and give them a blast out of the water.
 
Just read through your thread.
Few other things you could try before a re-scape..

I love your hue back lighting, but does the timing of this addition, link in with the BBA, just wondering how much light leaks into the tank, is the algae managing to photosynthesis for 14 - 15 hours a day?

Can you increase the flow? Do you still have the powehead? This will all help to win the battle against BBA. Have you tried moving the drop checker to next to the worst affected plants.

Plant mass..
Can you increase the plant mass and therefore o2 levels in the water. Can you add any fast growing plants? This will help combat BBA. And /Or add floating plants. Once your winning the battle you can always rip them out.

Have you tried a 3 day blackout? The plants and fish will survive, but it will give the algae a really hard time.

Can you cut your lighting period down to 4 hours and intensity right down, are you still at 8 hours?

Snails..
Probably harder to get rid of than BBA algae, I can send you 20 rams horn snails and they will breed like rabbits but will eat algae. But once you add them I doubt you will ever get rid.

Watch out with liquid glut, I tried dipping some algae covered plants in a 3:1 solution, it killed the algae but turned everything I dipped into mush. I'm sure there is a sweet spot over what is recommended where it will reduce Algae does but use with care. I don't believe low levels do anything to algae.
 
Hi, thanks for the reply. I've added my comments below.

Just read through your thread.
Few other things you could try before a re-scape..

I love your hue back lighting, but does the timing of this addition, link in with the BBA, just wondering how much light leaks into the tank, is the algae managing to photosynthesis for 14 - 15 hours a day?

I don't think it does. The BBA was present sometime before the addition of the lighting and I've now set the hue lights to be a deep purple before and after the tank lights come on which is a more of a low moonlight effect.

Can you increase the flow? Do you still have the powehead? This will all help to win the battle against BBA. Have you tried moving the drop checker to next to the worst affected plants.

I do still have the power-head but struggled to find a good position for it where it didn't either look unsightly or batter the stem plants at the rear. I've drilled some extra holes in my pre-filter inlet which has increased the flow of the filter quite a bit over the last few weeks.

The drop checker used to live near the worst affected plants and was arguably a bit more yellow when positioned there.

Plant mass..
Can you increase the plant mass and therefore o2 levels in the water. Can you add any fast growing plants? This will help combat BBA. And /Or add floating plants. Once your winning the battle you can always rip them out.

I could, but I feel a have quite significant plant mass in my tanlk compared to most. There really isn't any areas in my tank that don't have any plants. Something I was to reduce on my next scape.

Have you tried a 3 day blackout? The plants and fish will survive, but it will give the algae a really hard time.

I haven't tried this. To be honest I hadn't considered it as from my limited research it seemed that the only way to remove BBA was manually or by killing it. Is this not true? Do you think a blackout will help? I remember seeing the first tuft of BBA on a small piece of bog wood about 3-4 months ago. I didn't know what it was but it didn't seem to grow or spread so I left it. I think I had a few weeks of poor co2 distribution before I changed to an inline diffuser which caused this to spread.

Can you cut your lighting period down to 4 hours and intensity right down, are you still at 8 hours?

I am still at 8 hours. I ramp from 0-100 over 30 minutes, from 100-70 over 7 hours and then from 70-0 over 30 minutes. I certainly could reduce this, but again, do you think it will help? I haven't seen much evidence of people winning the battle by reducing lighting periods.

Snails..
Probably harder to get rid of than BBA algae, I can send you 20 rams horn snails and they will breed like rabbits but will eat algae. But once you add them I doubt you will ever get rid.

I don't know much about them. Are they a nuisance? Do they like BBA?

Watch out with liquid glut, I tried dipping some algae covered plants in a 3:1 solution, it killed the algae but turned everything I dipped into mush. I'm sure there is a sweet spot over what is recommended where it will reduce Algae does but use with care. I don't believe low levels do anything to algae.
 
Just watched the video (previous page) ...

What’s your present maintenance schedule?

I wonder if you just have more organic waste that’s contributing to the algae presence ... those are some pretty chunky fish (possibly the fattest cardinal I’ve ever seen :wideyed: :oops: :sorry: )
What are you feeding? How much? How often?

If you aren’t including a “fast” day, try introducing this weekly - I tend to do this the day before maintenance

Increase water change frequency - this is always one of the most effective “algaecides”
Clean filter and tubing (I’m always putting this off for some excellent reasono_O ;))
Trim and tidy tank, syphon areas that maybe you’ve not been cleaning all that well - carpets and moss can trap/build up surprising amounts of detritus
Make sure there’s no surface film that is limiting gas exchange (the Eheim skim 350 is brilliant at this)

Treat with an aquarium safe glutaraldehyde based liquid carbon - I use Seachem Excel (it’s also the product that FO used in his algae VLOG - he includes instructions) after a large water change
Recently I noticed some lovely BBA tufts on wood (and small amount on a few plants) - of course once I really started looking I found a surprising amount on the wood (hidden beneath an aggressive Bolbitis)

Seachem Excel Instructions

On initial use or after a major (> 40%) water change, use 1 capful (5 mL) for every 40 L (10 US gallons). Thereafter use 1 capful for every 200 L (50 US gallons) daily or every other day. For smaller dosing please note that each cap thread is approximately 1 mL.

Mostly this just sits in the cupboard - I feel guilty subjecting shrimp and fish to daily doses - so I decided to try FO’s method ... well sort of :p

I did a large water change, cleaned filter etc, then syringed the Excel into areas where I saw the BBA - following the 5ml/37litre dosage level - I’d already refilled the tank and filter was back on albeit at a reduced flow rate (I just decrease filter flow rate during water changes ... back when I had altums, they seemed much more stressed during tank maintenance with filters completely off)
I meant to repeat water change + Excel the next day, but actually ended up doing the 3 treatments, every other day (or so :oops: )
Despite my lackadaisical approach, BBA mostly turned pinkish and reduced greatly
Week 2, I again dosed the 5ml/37litres just adding this to the water as not much left in BBA patches
Week 3, again dosed as above
Note, weeks 2 & 3, I only dosed Excel once per week as very little BBA visible

Excel has once again taken up its post in the cupboard
 
I only ever seem to see BBA in the one tank - it lives in an alcove and receives very little sunlight
It actually has the best flow of my tanks
CO2 is likely also “better” and since the Rotala ‘Vietnam H’ra’ forced me into a more regular scheduled photoperiod, the plants have responded by growing too much, too fast

And as I’m basically a lazy person ... or I just hate to hurt a plant’s delicate feelings by cutting it and tossing the unwanted bits into a bin, this tank tends to cycle from
Overtrimmed
Growing back
Looking Good
Perfect
Hmmmm needs some scissor work
REALLY needs some scissor play
Wow I can’t see any fish or wood (or the back of the tank)
Overtrimmed

and so it goes :)

I recently completly rescaped this - including new substrate - and am presently enthralled with my prodigious scaping talent :wideyed:
- or at least I was, until I watched Green Aqua’s video from Adam Paszczela ADA Idea Studio Poland

I’ve been listening to Jurijs mit JS and Green Aqua (& Filipe Oliveira) discuss the effects of replacing substrate, so thought “why not” - it’s been very interesting watching the tank regrow
I mostly reused plants so not all that different from my Overtrimmed episodes (I banished the world dominating Bolbitis)
- the Rotala H’ra has been growing predominantly lateral
- the MC has almost completely carpeted in 2 weeks

hmmmmm how did I get from BBA to this :confused:
Sorry
 
Just watched the video (previous page) ...

What’s your present maintenance schedule?

I wonder if you just have more organic waste that’s contributing to the algae presence ... those are some pretty chunky fish (possibly the fattest cardinal I’ve ever seen :wideyed: :oops: :sorry: )
What are you feeding? How much? How often?

If you aren’t including a “fast” day, try introducing this weekly - I tend to do this the day before maintenance

Increase water change frequency - this is always one of the most effective “algaecides”
Clean filter and tubing (I’m always putting this off for some excellent reasono_O ;))
Trim and tidy tank, syphon areas that maybe you’ve not been cleaning all that well - carpets and moss can trap/build up surprising amounts of detritus
Make sure there’s no surface film that is limiting gas exchange (the Eheim skim 350 is brilliant at this)

Treat with an aquarium safe glutaraldehyde based liquid carbon - I use Seachem Excel (it’s also the product that FO used in his algae VLOG - he includes instructions) after a large water change
Recently I noticed some lovely BBA tufts on wood (and small amount on a few plants) - of course once I really started looking I found a surprising amount on the wood (hidden beneath an aggressive Bolbitis)

Seachem Excel Instructions



Mostly this just sits in the cupboard - I feel guilty subjecting shrimp and fish to daily doses - so I decided to try FO’s method ... well sort of :p

I did a large water change, cleaned filter etc, then syringed the Excel into areas where I saw the BBA - following the 5ml/37litre dosage level - I’d already refilled the tank and filter was back on albeit at a reduced flow rate (I just decrease filter flow rate during water changes ... back when I had altums, they seemed much more stressed during tank maintenance with filters completely off)
I meant to repeat water change + Excel the next day, but actually ended up doing the 3 treatments, every other day (or so :oops: )
Despite my lackadaisical approach, BBA mostly turned pinkish and reduced greatly
Week 2, I again dosed the 5ml/37litres just adding this to the water as not much left in BBA patches
Week 3, again dosed as above
Note, weeks 2 & 3, I only dosed Excel once per week as very little BBA visible

Excel has once again taken up its post in the cupboard

Thanks Alto,

I feel I maintain the tank fairly well. I work at home on a Wednesday which I call 'Water Change Wednesdays'. I typically use the Phython to siphon out around 70% of the water, including vacuuming the substrate and carpet as well as removing the filter, cleaning the pre-filter, glassware and changing the Purigen in the main filter. I will often do another 50-60% water change at the weekend without cleaning anything else but I've started to leave this some weeks as most online videos only talk about water changed once per week. Pipework has been removed and cleaned 3 times since setup.
There are obviously a few places in this tank that are virtually impossible to clean, such as directly behind the large piece of bog wood and in some of the gaps. I do use a turkey baster to blast out some of the detritus from some of the areas but the bog wood breaks down so much it's a never ending job.

I don't know why the cardinals are so fat. They were very large when I first got them. The entire tank gets fed two pinches of flake food each day and occasional some blood worm instead. Most of it is gone very quickly and I have no idea if its too little or too much. I don't think much of it finds its way to the floor. I occasionally don't bother feeding them but I'll perhaps make it a routine to not feed them on a Tuesday.

I shall go back to two weekly water changes. It's not a great deal of hassle but sometimes feels as though it could upset the balance if I don't get it complete before the co2 usually comes on. Perhaps adding the liquid carbon dose directly after would be a good idea.

I'm going to give it a huge trim tomorrow. The worse affected plant appears to be the Alternanthera Reineckii. The Anubius was quite bad originally but this cleared up after I spot treated it. From 1m away you can barely tell I have BBA. It's on close inspection you can see tufts on almost every plant and after a water change the microbubbles stick to it which make it look obvious. Such an obnoxious algae!
 
It would be a shame to have to break the scape down. It looks fantastic.
Judging by yours and post from others on here. I would suspect it is the organics from the wood breaking down in the water that is causing your BBA problems. Very frustrating and hard to get rid of, I know from past experience.
All I can suggest is you keep up with your water changes and maintenance and hope it subsides.
Good luck.
 
It's been a while since my last update. BBA really got on my nerves and I was getting ready for starting again with a new scape. However, I didn't want to be too hasty as I feel that there is still things to learn from this scape which will help me with the next one.

BBA appears to have stopped growing. It's still visible on some of the older leaves but new anubius leaves don't show any signs of BBA. I corrected my co2 levels and also dosed liquid carbon. One downside was that my hygrophila pinnatifida completely melted away. Before the liquid carbon it was one of the fastest and healthiest plants in my tank that I had to trim every few days. It also seemed to have an effect on the alternanthera reineckii. Do some plants not respond well with liquid carbon? They haven't really recovered to this day.

It's strange how the plant growth has adapted. After 4 months I hadn't noticed much growth in the buce, anubius or crypts. H.pinnatifida, lobelia and a.reineckii all grew really fast. Now it's reversed. My crypts have started to grow really fast and the buces have almost doubled in size. All in a few weeks! Perhaps it's time to remove the a.reineckii, the small cryp next to it with BBA and the remaining bba covered leaves. My anubisus petit also has some yellowing, holes and some renaming bba. Any idea what is causing this?

Both of my pearl gouramis committed suicide! I think they were a little big and fast for an open top aquarium this size. The female apisto has also disappeared. She never really settled into the tank and I never saw her eat anything. The male is now the king of the tank.

Here's some pictures from last night. I think I'm going to keep this going for another few months and try to get it looking it's best before dismantling it.

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You're right that some plants done like liquid carbon. How did the vallis do? It is one that classiclt doesn't like liquid carbon... that said I've never had any problem with it in a liquid carbon dose tank!
 
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