Search results for query: *

Personally, I find anything that I write that goes against the PFK flow gets censored. Having said that, I only attempt to write on their blogs when they start blabbing on about ocean "acidiification" and the end of corals as we know them.

Hi Garuf. Sorry for the delay, but I missed your post. The two major things I noticed were that the plants just seemed to be in limbo, with no deterioration, but no growth or pearling, either. Once I started adding GH booster the tank was like a lemonade bottle. It surprised me how much...

I have heard that Amano`s like Rhizo. There are Cherry and Blue(?) shrimp in there, but they are not touching the stuff. There is plenty of time to sort things out, but this tank has been up since about February. :lol: It almost looks newly planted to me. The Java fern leaves are half the size...

I could say most of this tank needs a trim, but I am concentrating on plant mass and stability at the moment, but the hairgrass is in for a good kicking soon. I am not entirely sure how you come to this conclusion, Mike. There is no BBA. I did have a lily pipe in here, but I have found...

Well, here is my first fish tank shot since May last year. :oops: It is my usual warts and all type, simply due to laziness, but primarily due to wanting to show exactly how it is right now, in hope of showing a big improvement at a later date. This tank took a monumental amount of time and...

I have never liked the use of balance/imbalance when it comes to fertilising planted tanks. As long as my plants have enough of everything on their plate to eat, the ratio becomes largely irrelevant. They take what they want, and the rest goes to waste. That is why it is good idea to gradually...

Pretty much, in my experience. I would guess this the point where Tom would say the plants are defining the system. Dave.

Well, I wrote a lengthyish reply that disappeared in the ether. That`s a few million electrons that died for nothing. Thanks to everyone for their help, especially Tom and Darryl. I think I`ll give MgSO4 a go sometime, and figure out how much I need to dose to keep my plants happy. Who would...

I use the original trace from AE, before they changed the formula. Cheers, Graeme. I hoiped people would find this interesting. Shame it is at my expense, though. :lol: Me neither. This is probably part of the reason why this took me so long to figure things out. I lived in Mold for two...

Plant health/growth. The algae is still there, and will need manual removal, but I am now fighting a winnable battle. This is the tank that I had three filters leak on the floor when I was setting it up, along with a pressure gauge going on my CO2 regulator. If I get a nice scape out of this...

I never realised that there was potassium sulphate in GH booster. The tank is EI dosed, so a K deficiency wasn`t something that I considered. It was a surprise how differently the plants are behaving now, and the only thing I have done differently is add GH booster. They have gone from being...

Who needs test kits. :lol:

Six months ago I moved house, a distance of approximately 10 minutes by car. The water in my previous house was very soft, and I didn`t expect the new house to be much different. Due to the softness of the water in the previous house I would add a little GH booster to my tanks at water change...

Would phosphate removing resins work in this instance? Dave.

I struggle to understand what people mean by "excess nutrients". Are we talking about nutrients that are above the needs of the plants during lights on? If so, how does dosing a planted tank work? Clive suggests that people are alluding to all the nutrients being depleted by plants at the end of...

Thanks for all the info, and welcome to the forum. First off, it sounds as if other members of the household have spent quite a bit of effort preparing a guest suite for Mr algae. Unfortunately, once algae gets its feet under the table, it can take a bit of effort to shift it. On the other...

Re: Staghorne Algae Challenge Using them both together will not cause any problems. It appears to me that you have plenty of flow around the tank, so I would concentrate on getting the levels of CO2 up. Dave.

Re: Staghorne Algae Challenge This is the part that initially caught my eye. My drop checkers tend to be closer to yellow, especially when the lights first come on. Personally, I would slowly increase the CO2 over the next couple of days, but keep an eye on your fish. In the short term...

It looks like your original thread got side tracked with the tannins issue. From your pics (which are a tad small), I suspect you are experiencing brown diatoms. The only time I get this problem is on a new tank which I haven`t used Zeolite on from the word go. The Zeolite adsorbs ammonia, and...

Obviously, this is not the case, Paul. What I was trying to do with my post was to get you to realise that, ultimately, you are the only true "pro/expert" for the tank that is in front of you. As much as the more knowledgeable members such as Clive can advise you, they are only doing it based on...

I have sometimes found staghorn and BBA like to grow at the point of highest velocity from the filter outlet when using a reactor. My thinking was the relatively high velocity of the water made it difficult for the nearby plants to sequester the nutrients from the water, so I adjusted/pruned the...

This could be a major factor. It sounds as though you have been cycling a planted tank by adding ammonia. Forums are full of people carrying out this practice and ending up with algae. If a tank is going to be cycled it should be done in the dark with no plants IMO, then you won`t be triggering...

I have been growing some C. helferi for the first time in my 60cm for the last two months, without any problems. The tank still has sky high CO2 for growing in all the plants, so this may be a factor. Dave.

I can associate staghorn very closely with CO2 problems in my tanks. Either you don`t have enough CO2, or insufficient circulation of CO2. Maybe up the rate, but monitor your fish, improve circulation, or do both. Definitely forget the KH/pH tables, as it is not only the effect of CO2 that is...

Just to put this point in to perspective davidcmadrid. I work at a power station where we have water and steam systems running at around 180 Bar and 520 degrees C. If you consider how your kettle can fur up with mineral deposits, imagine what would happen in our power station boilers. For this...

Hi Nelson, Your experience is to feed them up from the word go, which is a good idea. What some of us was refuting was the notion that they have to be added to a mature tank, which is incorrect IME, and several others. People like to blame fish deaths on anything other than their own...

The Oto thing is the kind of garbage that is repeated on TFF on a daily basis. Peter, have you been fishless cycling a planted tank? If you want to add ammonia to a tank, you should do it with no lights and no plants. Either plant heavily from the word go, get your plants going and forget the...

I just couldn`t imagine scraping anything across my opti white glass. :o Dave.

Not one to gloat, but I never see GSA, GDA or diatoms on my glass .....where`s the smug icon when you need it? Spirogyra...now that is a different story. :lol: Dave.

You have practically the same water parameters as me. You have nothing to worry about from this aspect. Once again, you are in the same situation as I was with my 120cm. I bought two Koralia 1 powerheads to supplement two EX1200 filters, I never had to adjust the CO2 up, and now I can stay on...

You could try covering the front of the substrate with tape, where it gets sunlight. I am convinced that it originates in the substrate where light hits it. Alternatively, up the nitrates and try to get some flow pointed at where the BGA is. I find sand very susceptible to this stuff, but have...

Whilst there are several people championing the fishless cycle on other forums, they don`t seem to realise that planted tanks and this process do not necessarily go well together. I don`t think they have made the link between ammonia and light and algae. IMO, a fishless cycle should be done in...

If the algae and BGA already had a foot hold, adding more light was asking for trouble. 1.4WPG on a 300l sounds like it should have been enough to me. Is there any particular reason why you increased to 2WPG? Why are you dosing TPN+ at half the amount? I am guessing the ammonia is for a...

I use 114W of T8 over 240l with minimal pearling. I wouldn`t expect too much pearling with the light levels you have. Dave.

I am using a JBL regulator and one from Aquamas in Germany, and never have to adjust either when changing from bottle to bottle. The only thing I do make sure of is that the bottles aren`t allowed to drop to any significant value below 50 Bar, as I have had an occassion when the remnants of...

Then you are going to have to improve the CO2 even more than Clive suggested. :D I guestimate you have around 1.4 WPG. Whether this makes a tank the size you have medium or high light or whatever and do you really need CO2 is immaterial. You have algae telling you your plants need the carbon...

To my mind, if you have BBA, then you have CO2 problems. If the BBA was there before you made any changes it may be that you have cured the problem, but the BBA needs removing and shouldn`t come back. If it has appeared after the increased turn over and CO2, you will need to up the CO2 a little...

Me too. I find my Bolbitis heudolotii attracts a fair amount of detritus. When I add the new water via a hose I also use a bucket and jug to pour over the Bolbitis leaves and flush them through. Dave.

I have always associated Spirogyra with new tanks, and as a result of major rescapes without adequate water changes to follow. This is why I suspect ammonia to be a trigger for this type. Excel is nigh on useless against it. I remove as much of it as I can, using a thin bottle brush to wind it...

One thing this thread highlights for me is how similar circumstances can trigger a different type of algae for someone else. Clive, you associate hair algae with CO2, yet for me it is always BBA and staghorn. If I reduce CO2 today, these two will be booking a room in my tanks by Saturday. The...

I noticed PM and Spaldingaquatics have something against black outs. I was wondering what that is? Dave.

Never!!!!! :lol: The strange thing about this site is that it comes with Tom`s endorsement. I agree with everything you say on this thread, Clive, but never questioned the linked site when Tom first mentioned it. I think I`ll stick to our own James` guide. Dave.

I went through the same thing in my Iwagumi. Rhizoclonium on newly planted HC. Getting it out of HC is nigh on impossible, so I went for a three day black out. It worked amazingly well, but 10% of the Rhizo remained, and showed every sign of growing back and taking over the tank again. What I...

I have cleared it in one tank, but it still keeps coming back in my iwagumi. It`s the tank in which it originated that I have got rid of it, but that was helped by a large plant mass at the time. My Iwagumi had consideably less, and now the spirogyra seems like a permanent resident. Dave.

That is roughly how mine went. Keep going and it should start to clear soon. Dave.

I used this method on a tank a few months ago (it never occurs to me to photograph algae). I had a clearly defined green band a few inches from the top and a few inches up from the substrate. After two weeks it started to clear, and by the end of the third week it had disappeared by about 50%...

Looking at your wizard algae guide, James, it is definitely spirogyra. Perhaps I am just able to grow algae to a higher calibre. :lol: Dave.

It is tough stuff in every sense of the word. Pull a few strands out and twine them together to make shoe laces. :lol: So I am actually taking the covers during the blackout to do water changes. That`s a new one on me. I may have to wait until next week due to work commitments, but I`ll give...

It just erupted overnight, not long after setting up the Rccia aquascape. A three day black out got rid of it like a dream, but it seems to be on its way back again, and is appearing in my two other tanks that have probably been cross infected. I know why it appeared the first time, but I am at...

Dagnab it! I am struggling to get rid of this stuff. It seemed to appear when I did a rescape, and now I seem to have infected all three tanks. It looks like I may have to go for a mass black out. Dave.

Does anyone know if Amano shrimp will eat this type of algae? Dave.

You should be able to kill the staghorn by spot treating it with Excel. Dave.

We measure silicates at work (power station) among lots of other useful things. I could tell you your parts per billion of your tap water if you are interested. Personally, I would have thought your Otos would have got the diatoms. Maybe your gouramis are terrorising them. Dave.