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Recycling plants - Eliminating algae

AndyMcD

Member
Joined
7 Mar 2015
Messages
362
Location
South Manchester
I’m considering rescaping my tank and making it lower tech and easier to maintain. Over the past two years, I’ve managed to grow a lot of small leafed Anubias and bucephelandras. However, I’m also doing a fabulous job of growing hair algae.

To keep costs to a minimum, I’d like to recycle the plants. However, I’d ideally like to kill off as much of the algae before adding to the new aquarium.

I’ve had some success in the past of doing a three day blackout, which significantly turned the tide against the hair algae.

If I was to buy new plants via the Internet, they’d be wrapped and in the post for several days. These plants are exposed to the air and seem to do OK.

I was thinking, if I took the plants from my old aquarium, could I do something similar to kill off the algae?

Could I:

- Thiroughly wash them in tap water or a dilution of glutaraldehyde.

- Place them in a container to exclude all light with a small amount of water, to keep humidity high.

- Take the lid off briefly to spray with water and to change the air (access to CO2)

- Approx 3 days later, thoroughly wash in tap water.

Would growing the plants emersed for a period help them to become healthier or would it be better to get them back into the water?
 
Try putting them in a container and adding 1.5% glutaraldehyde, about 1ml to a litre. You should see the algae whiten and die while you watch, drinking a nice cup of tea (about 30 mins). Start with the Anubias as they are as tough as old boots. Rinse with warm water. Repeat if necessary in a few days time. The dead algae may need to be gently rubbed off with your fingers under the tap. There may be small holes in the odd leaf due to the leaf dying from a heavy algae growth blocking light. I am currently doing this, with the same types of plants as you, from a small tank that has gone t1ts up. The clean plants are now in containers waiting to be re-used.
 
Thank you very much for the reply. That sounds to be very sound advice. I realise nothing is going to be 100% successful (can’t get rid of all spores), but definitely worth a try.

I have some glutaraldehyde, so all prepared for this approach.

I guess with anubias, I can tie to wood and keep separate from fish in a slightly higher concentration of glut in advance of putting into recycled tank. This will help to soak wood and get rid of tannins too.

Keeping plants in containers sounds a good idea. Providing some water in container for humidity, will give plant very much higher exposure to CO2.

In my existing tank, I have implemented the advice I have read 100 times before and lowered the light level dramatically (from level 6/32 to 2/32). The hair algae appears to have diminished and more new leaves have appeared, particularly on the crypts. Some of the highest and worst affected anubias leaves have turned yellow.

When it comes to changing tanks, I’ll discard the highest anubias and buces and may cut all leaves off crypts with strongest roots (most stored energy).

Thank you again.
 
try keeping them, they should re-strike from their bases

You’re correct. The anubias most in shadow seem to have done the best. Even if all the leaves have been removed, I can tie the base with roots lower down and see how they get on.

I’m planning an aquarium that is lower tech than my current set up. I’m just hoping I’ll find it easier to keep the algae in check, although I totally appreciate that algae will always be present.




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To keep costs to a minimum, I’d like to recycle the plants. However, I’d ideally like to kill off as much of the algae before adding to the new aquarium.

I’ve had some success in the past of doing a three day blackout, which significantly turned the tide against the hair algae.
Hello,
It really doesn't matter whether you clean the plants or not, or whether you cut, or trim, or restart or whatever scheme you imagine.
Algal blooms occur in the tank as a direct result of poor health due to nutritional deficiency.

In the case of hair algae, this is a direct result of poor CO2 uptake.

High lighting drives plants to uptake higher levels of nutrients and CO2 in order to grow faster. If they are unable to consume nutrients/CO2 at the rate dictated by the light intensity then they fail to generate new tissue at that rate with the result being loss of health. Instead of focusing on killing algae it would be better to focus on configuring the tank in a way that produces the maximum uptake of nutrients and CO2.

Anubias and Buce are, by their nature, adapted to slower growth and so generally do much better in lower light.

Leaves that have been attacked by algae, generally never recover, even if the algae is removed by chemicals or by mechanical means.
It would have been better to supplement CO2 by dosing a gluteraldehyde product such as Excel into the tank rather than using it to clean the leaves after an attack.

Cheers,
 
Hello ceg4048,

Thank you very much for your reply. I’ve read lots of your posts, appreciate your input and very much respect your opinion.

A little honest history about my aquarium. Although I have an in-line CO2 system, some months ago it developed a small leak and I made the decision to go low tech as the plants were mostly anubias, buce, Java fern and crypts. Where I have gone wrong, as you say, is I have not reduced the light level as much as I should. The result has been a persistent problem with hair algae.

Over the past few weeks, I have dropped the light level to be a third of its previous level and the algae issue has remarkably improved.

In the next few weeks, I am planning to set up the aquarium as a low tech, hill stream set up, using more wood, rock and gravel. I’m still planning to add some ADA Aquasoil that I have from my previous set up, to plant crypts around the rock. I want to avoid stem plants, carpeting plants and probably mosses. I’d consider floating plants.

My hope is to create a set up that will be easier to maintain. Also, I am trying to keep costs to a minimum.

I will keep the light level at the low level it is now. I’d prefer to add fertiliser at a low level to meet the needs of the slow growing plants.

I have lots of plants, so would like to transfer to the new set up. They would cost a lot to replace.

Based on what you have said, I’ll remove the worst affected leaves.

The one question I’d like to ask is, having invested in online CO2, should I add CO2 at a low bubble count per minute to a low tech set up? I guess this would be cheaper than adding glutaraldehyde to a 150 litre tank. Would I make algae issues worse by adding CO2 to a tank containing only slow growing plants at low light levels?

Thank you very much.
 
Over the past few weeks, I have dropped the light level to be a third of its previous level and the algae issue has remarkably improved.
Yes, for certain, light causes algae. Almost all of us have had to discover this fact in a painful manner.

In the next few weeks, I am planning to set up the aquarium as a low tech, hill stream set up, using more wood, rock and gravel. I’m still planning to add some ADA Aquasoil that I have from my previous set up, to plant crypts around the rock. I want to avoid stem plants, carpeting plants and probably mosses. I’d consider floating plants.
Although not impossible, it is very difficult to grow carpet plants without the addition of CO2 or without the alternative using exclusively Excel type products.
Carpet plants are found in nature typically only semi-submersed, such as at a shoreline or in-between rocks in a stream, so they normally have access to atmospheric Oxygen and CO2.
It is for that reason carpet plants are difficult to grow at the bottom of a tank, where they lack access to these resources.

The one question I’d like to ask is, having invested in online CO2, should I add CO2 at a low bubble count per minute to a low tech set up? I guess this would be cheaper than adding glutaraldehyde to a 150 litre tank. Would I make algae issues worse by adding CO2 to a tank containing only slow growing plants at low light levels?
Adding CO2 to a tank, even at low bubble count automatically raises the metabolic levels of the plants and therefore this should be considered a high tech tank.
Folks tend to think that high tech = high light but this is not true. It is the CO2 that determines whether a tank is high tech.

I believe that if you remove plants that are growing in a CO2 injected tank and then toss them into a non-CO2 supplemented tank, they will typically melt.
So yes, I suggest you add CO2 at whatever injection rate matches the lighting level. What those values are, I have no idea. Probably it would be wise to only transfer a small amount first just to determine if the setup meets their needs. If all is well then you can safely add more with greater confidence that you won't have a mass meltdown.

Cheers,
 
I believe that if you remove plants that are growing in a CO2 injected tank and then toss them into a non-CO2 supplemented tank, they will typically melt.
Yep, or at least slow down and look unhappy for ages. I see this even with java fern!
 
Hi Clive and Rebel,

Thank you for your responses.

Just to clarify, for ease of maintenance going forward, I am planning to avoid carpeting and stem plants.

Currently, there is no CO2 in the aquarium (but there was previously). The remaining plants have survived any melting process they would have gone through.

Having invested in in-line CO2 already, it makes sense to fix the leaks.

I’ll keep the light levels low as this does seem best for the plants I’d like to grow.

I’ll then look to introduce a low level of CO2 and try to match this to the plant requirements, probably by trial and error. With low light, it should be easier to provide an excess of CO2.

I appreciate that once I am introducing CO2, I could increase the light levels. However, with slow growing plants only, it may be algae that benefits more from this increase in light / CO2.

Thank you very much. I am much clearer on the path I need to take.

Andy


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