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Yep!

BBA is down to a lack of CO2, or equivalent. I think, as you're dosing EasyCarbo, that it means you might need to up the dose of that product. If you're already dosing at the higher rate on the back of the container (and I think you might be from the amounts you're adding) then I would add...

The water change shouldn't have really caused issues. I don't know that product you mentioned but if it's the same as Excel you can use it to kill off the algae. I still think it's a CO2/circulation issue at the end of the day though!

Being set up only since January means it isn't that old and established yet so a few teething troubles are not totally unepxected, so don't panic. I noticed from another post of yours that you use a pH controller. Is that on this tank? If so this could be the source of your issues. pH...

What about the circulation? Have you tried positioning the DC in different places to check that you're CO2 and ferts are distributed all around the tank?

You are trying to measure ferts with test kits which are not really accurate enough to do this reliably. Just look at the tutorial on EI and then add the amounts of ferts your plants need and don't worry about measuring them. However you don't seem to be measuring your CO2 which is vital! Use...

You really need to be measuring the CO2 in your tank and the best way to do that is to use a drop checker with 4dKH solution in it. They're not expensive to buy and the glass ones even look pretty good in the tank. Without one of those you cannot be sure of the level of CO2 in your tank...

You need to detail your CO2 as this is almost certainly a CO2 or flow issue. More details please! :mrgreen:

You will probably find that until you solve the causes of the algae (which is basically the lack of plant mass and growth IMHO) you will need the UV on permanently. Even though you have other plants (and the flaoters will help IME) what you really want are a load of quick growing stem plants...

You won't need to turn the lights off while the UV's running - it will kill all the planktonic algae regardless. Bear in mind though that this is treating the symptoms, not the cause of your algae. If you kill off the free-floating stuff something else will replace it! My pond usually goes...

Turnover doesn't need to be perfect and it sounds like your flow is good, but a clean filter is more than just that the flow is good enough. If your filter has debris in it then all the tank's water is being dragged through that decaying waste about 16 times an hour! The filter needs to be...

You shouldn't be dosing aquaria with antibiotics unless they were prescribed by a vet for a specific fish with a specific bacterial disease. There is another thread on here where I have talked about the potential problems of mis-use of antibiotics. Anyway you'd be far better sorting out the...

Re: Hair algae That drop checker looks a bit dark to me and it (and the algae) suggests you need a bit more CO2! You could also dose with some EasyCarbo or Excel to help as it has anti-algae properties. The new reflectors have upped the light levels in the tank and the CO2 usage has gone up...

I know it's disappointing but it'll be far better in the long run for the fish, plants and the tank. Now you can ramp up the CO2 and get the plants really shooting up and established long before any fish go in - you'll get a lot less algae that way.

I'd only use two tubes and make sure the CO2 is cranked up to give 30ppm before the lights come on. In fact if you have no fish in there then it can even go higher than that. Is there no way you can ask the supplier to hold off sending them for a few weeks? I'd be really jittery adding large...

As you've effectively just completely reset the bacterial population of your tank I would hold off on the discus. They really need to be going into a stable, well-functioning aquarium rather than one that's just been completely upset. After changing and uprooting plants like that I would get...

If you're using Tropica Plant Nutrition, rather than Plant Nutrition Plus then your plants are starving! Despite what you think, BBA is a clear indication that your CO2 is not up enough! Do you replace the drop checker liquid when doing water changes and do you use 4dKH water in the drop...

That definitely seems to be a CO2 issue. It sounds like the Hydor diffuser isn't doing a very good job; have you thought of getting a cheap glass/ceramic diffuser instead to get good diffusion? I would be tempted to cut the lighting back too until you get the CO2 issue sorted too as that will...

Antibiotic resistance is a serious and spreading threat. The reason MRSA and C.difficile are so hard to treat and devastating is that they are resistant to all but a few, rather severe antibiotics. Strep and C.diff are two common bacteria in your body but it is antiobiotic resistance and a...

If they did then lets hope customs don't catch up with them. Antibiotics are regulated for good reasons that may well save your life so it's best to just use a blackout or up the current, give the tank a really good clean and increase the water changes as this will get rid of BGA too IME.

I have wild angels in a 3ft tank with a 2128 and Apistogramma in a tank with a Juwel filter and a Koralia and they are fine. They come from the same environments as discus. Also the flow from the Koralias isn't as harsh as that from a filter as it is more spread out and diffuse so I think they...

These would be my two suggestions too. Rather than get a new filter you can either add another or a Koralia type powerhead to boost the flow.

Turn your CO2 on a bit earlier if it's not green before the lights come on rather than upping the bubble rate. The bubble rate should be set so that you have sufficient CO2 during the light period. I've always dosed Easycarbo at the higher rate. For my 180l tank I dose 7ml, roughly 1ml per...

When you say the drop checker is blue in the morning do you mean when the lights come on? It should be green when the lights come on. Also where is your drop checker positioned? Have you tried it in different positions to check the CO2 levels all over the tank? Just checker but is your drop...

Unfortunately the juwel tubes are unique sizes so you're a little bit stuck! It's not good!

Once all those fish are fully grown then I'd agree with Garuf; you're going to be overstocked. That's not the end of the world but it means you need to do more maintenance and larger water changes. I'd start by cutting back the food slightly and feed maybe only once a day for a while - don't...

It sounds like you're doing most things right here. Just a few questions. You say you're dosing 'Tropica'. I assume you mean Plant Nutrition, but is it the standard or Plant nutrition plus that contains N and P? 10ml Easy carbo a day is probably a little high - I dose 7ml on the same tank. You...

Your problems have bothing to do with the RO water and remineralising salt. I think your algae is probably down to the changes you've made with insufficient CO2, insufficent nutrients and too much light for the other factors.

Three things spring to mind that I don't think you mentioned: 1. Is there any flow directed down at the problem areas? As this is on the substrate could it be that the circulation is not optimal down there? What I'm thinking if if your external (I assume?) has a lily pipe on then most of the...

Antibiotics are controlled more strictly over here than the states and importing them is not very legal! The only legal way to get them is to find a vet that will prescribe them and AFAIK they are advised not to prescirbe except for individual animals, not tank/pond wide. Basically we can't...

There are some pretty serious restrictions over the use of antibiotics over here and shipping them from the states would not be very legal I believe. To do it legally you'd need to get them from a vet over here and I don't think they'd prescribe them for an in-tank treatment.

They sound a bit like Hydra. Do the tenacles retract when they're touched into little blobs? Or is it green stringy algae that's just happened to grow and tangle in places? I get some of that in my Angelfish's tank on the front glass.

Yeah. I always added the dose just after water changes and cleaning the filter and then would leave it a couple of minutes and then turn it back on when thewater was topped all the way back up.

I just used to take the day's dose in a pipette or syringe, turn off the filter so the water wasn't moving too much and then gently squirt the excel onto the algae under water. A day or so later it'd bleach and then the Otos would eat it. Be careful putting too much Excel straight onto JF...

Are you sure it's BBA and not the start of the roots of adventitious plantlets that form near the tips of JF leaves? If it is BBA then I'd remove those leaves. Have you tried spot treating the BBA too? Take your daily dose of Excel and squirt it onto the algae. This will usually kill off...

There was a spam post in this thread but I deleted it and banned him!

I have to say I'm fairly sceptical of any article where he spells words like proKaryote wrong as he's using it so often! Not a bad article although he could have talked more about water movement or cleanliness of the tank IMHO.

Sorry macros means Marco nutrients which are Potassium Nitrate and Potassium Phosphate. Micro nutrients basically equates to the Trace Elements. Enjoy your reading! :wink: :D

The Trace element dry powder mix is all you need if you don't want to dose macros. On that website you listed it's called CSM+B Plantex. It's trace elements, or micronutrients, plus Boron. Just mix that up with water or simply add small amounts of dry powder directly to the tank. They even...

If you're a little scared of using ferts then you can always use Tropica Plant Nutrition Plus. This contains everything your plants need in an all-in-one solution, including Nitrate and Phosphate. Dosing that daily will give great results. The negative is the price. Fertilising doesn't have...

All you need to do when switching to an external is to set it up in the tank and run it alongside the internal for a few weeks then remove the internal once the new filter has matured. You do also need to address the other issues in the tank such as very low lighting levels and stable CO2. You...

The bubbles that are coming out of your DIY cannister are CO2. The yeast consumes the sugar and respires anaerobically and produces CO2 and ethanol. The CO2 goes out through the top and bubbles onto the ladder. You can tell when it's working well as the bubbles will shrink as they rise up the...

Is the internal all the filtration the tank has? Give the tank and filter a really good clean first syphoning out all the debris, give the substrate a good hoover (syphoning off any debris) and basically get all the organic waste out of the tank you can. I think you may find that the filter...

Excel or Easycarbo should help knock these back coupled with removing as much as you can manually.

Sounds like a good start. I'd avoid the vallis as they can suffer when you're dosing Excel and egt the CO2 back on asap, but apart from that then you should see some rapid improvements soon I think. If at any point the tank doesn't look great I'd do a water change as you can't do too many, but...

If you're dosing Excel or Easycarbo then I think you'll be able to go with water changes every other day or twice a week. Especially if you give the tank and filter a really good clean when you have time and remove every bit of detritus you can. If you take your daily dose of Excel and put it...

Don't stop the CO2, this will only fuel more and more algae problems. Go with your original plan of a major trim and clean and see what progress that will make. The other thing I always do when I see any extra algae in a tank is up the water changes as this always has a positive effect. Don't...

This is the bit that got my attention! Maybe leaving a filter two months is fine when everything is fine but when you've got problems clean it weekly in old tank water getting all the mulm out when you do your large water change. Fresh water is the best way to get rid of almost every tank...

I have BGA in my Apistogramma tank at the moment. When I get it it's always down to two reasons; 1. High organic load in the tank (this is a breeding tank and the fry are getting a lot of food and the tank isn't being disturbed or the mums will freak out) 2. Poor circulation (the plants have...

Well two things that sprang to my attention were that you're dosing once a week meaning you have large amounts of nutrients which will then decline over the week. What you really want is stable conditions so maybe dosing more regularly would help with that. A number of people on here use...

I had this in a breeding tank but a couple of large water changes, syphoning off as much as possible, and making sure there were no still areas on the water's surface got rid of it. I found it grew out from an area of floating plants and took them out and gave them a good rinse too.

By Bio-balls do you mean the black plastic media or a ceramic / sintered glass media? Did you rinse the media thoroughly before adding it? If not then it may simply be some particles coming off the media and everything should settle down in a day or two. To help it clear you can do a couple...

I didn't say don't dose, just sort the CO2 first! :wink: I've had BGA a number of times in tanks and they've always been pretty low turnover breeding tanks where there are too many organics due to heavy feeding and not wanting to disturb the tank too much. When I've cleaned them up and upped...

YES!!! The sooner you can add 30ppm CO2 the better in my opinion. Do this before upping your lights and, in my opinion, before you start dosing too heavily. I've found with BGA that syphoning off every little bit I could every day was the best way to get rid of it rather than just do large...

Personally, before you even worry about dosing anything you want to give the tank a really good clean and syphon out as much BGA as possible, daily if you can, and really get the tank sparkling clean. Clean the substrate by vacuuming it heavily where possible, clean the filter to up the flow...

I think your drop checker gives a big clue to a possible cause of your problems; low, or at least inconsistent, CO2. I have Pressurised CO2 in my living room. What exactly is your concern? If you;re worried about an accident then maybe get a smaller system with dispoable cylinders? These...

Compared to a lot of planted tanks then it probably is 'more highly stocked' and there will be higher amounts of ammonia from your fish and that can be a real algae trigger, even though the amounts will be way too small to worry your fish. Maybe you could slowly switch over to a higher surface...

Personally, as someone who likes to dose as little as possible, I don't think Nitrogen will be a problem looking at the size of your fish (although you are changing a fair bit of water which will be helping remove the fish waste as soon as possible). You could dose some without problem, either...

What kind of filtration and fish load have you got in the tank? Also what substrate is that as I don't recognise it? To start with when you dose the Excel, if you squirt it onto the algae using a pipette it will help kill off the algae.

I got a bag of it from my LFS years ago and as I only use it in Killifish fry tubs and similar I'm only just getting to the end of it! You might be able to pick up the stuff for koi ponds at very cheap prices, but that's usually large pieces. As it's just a natural rock though it would be too...

Zeolite will dump ammonia if there are even small amounts of salt in the water. Koi keepers have used Zeolite for years to help with bursts of ammonia and have then fallen foul of it when adding salt to treat diseases! So it's not that's it's recharged, like a water softening ion exchange...

Or you could class it as dosing explosive! Ammonium Nitrate is very handy in that area too!

I had success getting rid of BGA but it took a fair bit of work! I have only ever had BGA when I have been a bit slacker with the maintenance and the flow has slowed and organic mulm was more than usual. To get rid of it I gave the filter media a couple of really thorough cleans and then upped...

Pretty much any easy stem plant! I grow Cabomba, Rotala and Mayaca in highish light. To be honest I like Cabomba so much and it grows so well for me that I often use that. I think it likes the soft water. I've just found Hygrophilas bomb proof so recommended them first. There are some...

I thought it was effective against a number or different types of algae. I'm not sure whether this Cladophora is one of them, but high Excel can kill 'Moss balls' and they are Cladophora sp. (I'm not sure that algae is Cladophora, but it does look a bit like it to me!) I'd spot treat it too...

Right, sorry that wasn't clear to me. That sounds good then. Taking off the worst affected leaves would be a good idea and adding some fast growing stems too. Hygrophilas will soon mop up any extra nutrients and aren't too fussy about lighting IME. I've never used PP so can't help you...

Here it is Andy, I think. http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... riums.html It's a sticky in the 'Science of Aquatic Lighting' section.

Sorry mate, :oops: I'll have a look, on there now...

First thing I'd do is clean the filters more regularly. Algae is very easily triggered by ammonia and the best way to keep ammonia under control is a nice, clean bacteria filled filter. At every water change I'd clean the top sponges by cleaning them in tank water you've removed to remove this...

But I've got 0-1dKH in all my tanks and still get plagued by it!!! Maybe I'm the exception that proves the rule!!! :wink:

The dosing instructions on my EasyCarbo say "1ml per 50 litres per day with a maximum of 2ml per 50 litres in aquariums with lots of plants. Higher dosage rates are highly inadvisable" I added 8ml to mine as I have been adding 1 ml to my 5 gallon tank without harm and just added 8 times as...

Well I just dosed 8ml of EasyCarbo in my 180l tank, so 4ml doesn't seem a lot to me! I know many people have overdosed Excel to help remove algae, but I'm not sure how much they add. The only other thing I would try is maybe upping the water changes for a while as this will help reduce the...

Hi Johnny, I've got very soft water (I use RO water for all my tanks) and have different CO2 provision in different tanks. In my main tank (2.275wpg) I've got pressurised CO2 and have run it at 30ppm turned off at night and at lower levels. In another tank I've run DIY CO2 and grew luxuriant...

Flourish Excel link I'm dosing EasyLife EasyCarbo which I understand is basically the same thing and getting great results in my 12" cube. I add Yeast CO2 to this tank and then add 1ml daily of EasyCarbo and the BBA has almost totally disappeared and plants are growing better than ever. The...

You may need more than 3 Otos! I have 5 in a 12", 5 gallon cube and they soon dealt with the algae. Get 3-5 more for yours!