General advice, almost ready to call it a day!

[DaveP]

Hi, I’ve been running my first proper aquascape for 18 months and I’m just finding it too much work to stay on top of the maintenance without constantly getting overwhelmed with algae and poor performance of plants.

I spared no expense with the tank and equipment, from AG, started as an Iwagumi then switched to current after the algae farm I created got too much!!

I spend about 90 mins per week on it. See photos for current results. I enjoy it generally, but feel fed up about the algae and am considering whether I’m just expecting too much for the time I’ve got available (I even struggle to get an hour sometimes).

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

EA Aquascaper 900
CO2 art dual stage regulator
Oase 850 filter
Switched from inline co2 to a reactor a few months ago
Twinstar LED 900S lighting 8hrs per day at 80%

Any comments appreciated.

 

[seedoubleyou]

Everyone goes through these stages mate and it looks as though you’re battling some BBA (black beard algae).
Firstly don’t give in, you’ve invested all this money and this time. You can get round this one way or another and will find great reward when you do.

I’ve never dealt with this algae myself so I’m not best placed to advise on how to battle it.

What can I recommend at this stage?
Keep up big water changes, search the forum on how to deal with BBA, I’m sure a higher knowledge will be along shortly and will help get you back on the right path.

 

[seedoubleyou]

In the interim, perhaps also drop your light schedule down to 6hrs.
I might also advise that if time is a real issue for you, perhaps a lower maintenance setup would be more beneficial to you long term.

 

[Andy Pierce]

I find light intensity matters more than duration for algae growth. You could cut intensity to 40% (from your current 80%) make no other changes and see how you get on with things after 3 or 4 weeks.

 

[Simon Cole]

I would remove the rocks and wood, increase the plant biomass by at least 300% and plant it out, do something to cheer up they grey wall, install some colour adjustable back-drop lighting, cover the stand with photographs and annotations, ornaments on the light bar, mist fogger on a timer with jungle sound effects. That kind of thing. I wonder what your plant fertilisers are like.

 

[Tom72]

I have had similar experiences to you, and still have a set up which has algae issues, but manageable . There will be an imbalance and finding out what that imbalance is can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. The lighting doesn’t sound too excessive but maybe you ramped it up to soon allowing the algae to get a foot hold, before your plants could get established. Does your tank receive direct sunlight or positioned close to a window, any extra light will give the algae a boost. Definitely review your hours and alleviate any other light sources.
Have you been fertilising the plants? And have you dosed enough? Fertiliser will give your plants the best opportunity for growth combined with CO2. But this won’t help much if the plants leaves are damaged as algae proliferates on weakened leaves. Removing as many affected leaves is crucial, and suspect you have done this already.
Do you have a clean up crew? Having an army of shrimp and snails to tackle algae are essential.
Test your ph, Kh, Gh and TDS, if any of these are to high or low that could limit plant growth.
What temperature is your water, often this can be the main problem, 20 to 22 Celsius is best and plants favour these cooler temperatures.
I would reduce the lighting to 4 hours, do 10% water changes daily, deep clean the tank removing hardscape if you can and nuke it with hydrogen peroxide or liquid CO2 scrubbing it really well. Remove all affected plants and salvage the healthiest. Invest in some fast growing plants to get on top of excess nutrients caused by weak plants rotting. Floating plants are also great for soaking up excessive nutrients and help reduce the light. Once you are on top of it you can then start increasing the lighting gradually, reduce the water changes and have a system that’s easy to maintain. As a final note check plants for deficiencies as an extra boost of iron, potassium or phosphorus etc will also keep things healthy.
Good luck

 

[ElleDee]

What are you spending your 90 minutes doing? Hopefully you've done whatever you can to speed up water changes because those are here to stay, but there's a lot you can do to make the tank easier to manage. Right now you are going for a high energy system with lots of light and supplemental CO2 and while this affords you the greatest flexibility with plants, when it's out of balance it can really get away from you. If you slow things down, you can get your algae under control and have less to do every week.

If I were trying to reduce the workload, I would lower the lights; remove any plants that really need the high light or are completely covered in algae and trim out as much algae as possible from the remaining plants; replace some or all of the hardscape with easy, fast growing stem plants; and double check my fertilizer regime and CO2 set up (maybe check the CO2 first, actually); and make sure I'm doing big, weekly water changes. I have found that spot treating with hydrogen peroxide can be very helpful in getting algae under control provided you are also tackling the root causes of the imbalance.

If you are really, really ready to chuck the whole tank out the window, consider starting over with a totally low energy system - low lights, no supplemental CO2, and stick with easier plants. You still have to get the tank balanced, but once you do it'll be rock solid and pretty undemanding. In my oldest display tank, I do a weekly water change and occasionally I do a little trimming and of course I feed the creatures. It doesn't look as fancy as a high energy tank, so maybe that doesn't appeal to you at all, but my fish and shrimp are happy and I don't really have much algae to speak of. It actually didn't give me enough to do, so now I have more tanks.

What temperature is your water, often this can be the main problem, 20 to 22 Celsius is best and plants favour these cooler temperatures.

This is true, but I think I spy a German ram in there, so lowering the temperature might not be an option. Gotta put the livestock first and all that.

 

[xZaiox]

If you have algae then there is an imbalance. That is a strong light, and if you're providing strong levels of light, then your CO2 has to be perfect to match it. High levels of light increase the demands of the plants for other nutrients and CO2, and it's easy for them to become carbon limited. Double, triple and quadruple check your CO2 firstly, are your levels truly high enough? Are you getting at least a 1.0 pH drop from degassed water to lights-on water? And also importantly, is your flow/circulation good? Your filter is rated fine for the job, but are all the plants gently swaying in the flow?

Black beard algae is typically due to insufficient CO2, or possibly excessive dissolved organics. I used to have quite a lot of it in my very first scape, and it was caused by bad circulation, it would appear in certain areas but not around high flow areas. Also, you didn't mention anything about ferts, but are you using them? EI dosing?

In the mean time, lower your lighting intensity until you have things back under control. This will prevent the tank from moving too quickly, and it can later be turned back up when the algae is gone.

 

[DaveP]

Wow! Thanks for all the advice everyone, And the encouragement! I will digest it and work out a plan.
A few answers to questions:
Ferts- I am dosing 5ml of APT Complete daily.
Temperature: 23 deg
Livestock: approx:
1 x Golden Ram male (was a pair but female got sucked into the filter when the skimmer dropped one night )
10 x Cardinals
5 x 5-banded barb
4 x Bentosi tetra
3 x Otocinclus
15 x Amano shrimp
8 x horned nerite snails

CO2 - I don’t use a PH checker, just indicator going green, I think this may be a bit hit and miss, though I do try to keep it steady, I don’t mess about with it much.

The BBA came on really strong about a month ago, before that it was hardly a problem but I always had lots of green dust algae on everything.

 

[DaveP]

What are you spending your 90 minutes doing? Hopefully you've done whatever you can to speed up water changes because those are here to stay

This is my routine: I am doing a 75% water change weekly. I have a reasonably good system for it I think. I also have to disconnect the glass pipes and soak them in bleach solution to get rid of algae. I trim plants, try to get rid of as much algae as possible. Clean glass etc, fan the plants and soil to get the waste organics out into the water while it’s siphoning off. Clean the pre-filter, refill and use Prime to de-chlorinate, then spend ages trying to get the pump going because the reactor is inline and it’s a pain to get the filter primed again! Maybe I need to switch back to inline CO2 but I don’t like the bubbles.

 

[DaveP]

If you are really, really ready to chuck the whole tank out the window, consider starting over with a totally low energy system - low lights, no supplemental CO2, and stick with easier plants. You still have to get the tank balanced, but once you do it'll be rock solid and pretty undemanding.

Sounds very tempting! This will be my preferred option if I don’t crack it this time I think, maybe with a smaller setup.

 

[jaypeecee]

Black beard algae is typically due to insufficient CO2, or possibly excessive dissolved organics.

Hi @DaveP

I have done a good deal of research and experiments to try to understand what makes BBA such an unwelcome visitor (Audouinella in particular). If you use the forum search facility, it should dig up a few recent (and not so recent posts/threads). Referring to the two things listed above, my findings are that dissolved organics is the biggie. CO2 often gets the blame, particularly 'fluctuating CO2 levels'. But, I'm not convinced that CO2 itself is the culprit. I'm of the view that pH, not CO2 per se, may be an important factor. May I ask, what is the pH in your tank at various times of day (and night, if possible)? Dissolved organics are normally produced as a result of food and detritus breakdown. Although water changes and basic maintenance play an important part in eliminating dissolved organics, I suspect this may be insufficient waste removal.

JPC

 

[DaveP]

Do you have a clean up crew? Having an army of shrimp and snails to tackle algae are essential.

15 big Amanos, 8 Nerite snails and a few Otos. Does that sound like enough?

 

[DaveP]

May I ask, what is the pH in your tank at various times of day (and night, if possible)?

I’m afraid I don’t know - I don’t test much, but I’ll do so and let you know. Thanks.

 

[DaveP]

Double, triple and quadruple check your CO2 firstly, are your levels truly high enough? Are you getting at least a 1.0 pH drop from degassed water to lights-on water? And also importantly, is your flow/circulation good?

I don’t check PH, I just use a drop checker, which goes green. Sounds like I need to get this sorted. I have a liquid test kit which I can use for PH, but is it better to use an electronic checker? If so what do you recommend?

 

[jaypeecee]

I’m afraid I don’t know - I don’t test much, but I’ll do so and let you know. Thanks.

Hi again, @DaveP

You don't need a pH meter at the moment. Something like this should do the job nicely:

JBL pH 6.0 - 7.6 Test Kit

Buy JBL pH 6.0 - 7.6 Test Kit from CMC Aquatics a high quality test kit measuring pH in aquarium water in 0.2 increments.

www.cmcaquatics.co.uk

JPC

 

[xZaiox]

my findings are that dissolved organics is the biggie.

Hmm... interesting. I wonder if increased flow may sometimes help because it helps sweep away the organics more?

fan the plants and soil to get the waste organics out into the water while it’s siphoning off

@DaveP am I right in thinking that you're draining the tanks water from one location, and relying on the detritus being suspended in the water column in order to remove it? I don't remove waste in my tank in this manner, so I can't really comment on whether or not that's okay, but it does make me wonder if that might just be kicking up a bunch of organics into the water column and it settling on plants. You aren't doing 100% water changes, so not all of that organic material is being removed. Typically, just siphoning above the substrate to pull up anything light will do the job.

One of the biggest causes of algae in general is ammonia, which obviously comes from decaying organic matter in our tanks.

 

[DaveP]

The lighting doesn’t sound too excessive but maybe you ramped it up to soon allowing the algae to get a foot hold, before your plants could get established. Does your tank receive direct sunlight or positioned close to a window, any extra light will give the algae a boost. Definitely review your hours and alleviate any other light sources.

There is no direct sunlight and I followed AG’s recommendations when originally starting the tank. But maybe I got it wrong from early on. I will review the light period/intensity. But I’ve had it right down to 4-6 hours in the past and found it a bit boring to have a dark tank for so long.

 

[jaypeecee]

Hi @DaveP

What happened in your tank about a month ago?

JPC

 

[DaveP]

am I right in thinking that you're draining the tanks water from one location, and relying on the detritus being suspended in the water column in order to remove it? I don't remove waste in my tank in this manner, so I can't really comment on whether or not that's okay, but it does make me wonder if that might just be kicking up a bunch of organics into the water column and it settling on plants.

Yes, that’s typically what I do, sometimes I use a different siphon to get into the soil and plants directly, but Inonly do that once e t purple of months as it takes ages. Maybe this is another source of my problems…