Thanks! He will take bites here and there but it hasn't been a big problem. I bought him a long time ago as an impulse purchase not knowing they eat plants so I got lucky with him lol.
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1200L High Tech Planted Tank
- Thread starter RickyV
- Start date
Gorillastomp
Member
Looks fantastic! You are on the right path for sure. How many wavemaker you have ? Flow looks on point.
I just did a big trim on the plants. I felt so guilty cutting away all that pretty growth. But here is the tank now.
I combined the right and left rotala bushes into one super bush. On the left of the center rotala bush will be a big ludwigia super red bush. I also need to find a shorter version of the jungle val to replace the vals I have in the middle. The empty right part of the tank is where the rotala blood red bush will be going. Here are all the emmersed plants.
I combined the right and left rotala bushes into one super bush. On the left of the center rotala bush will be a big ludwigia super red bush. I also need to find a shorter version of the jungle val to replace the vals I have in the middle. The empty right part of the tank is where the rotala blood red bush will be going. Here are all the emmersed plants.
Thanks! I have two wave makers on each back corner of the tank facing the front glass. And in the middle overflow I have a return pipe facing the left and right side of the tank.
The past few days I've been noticing that my tank has been getting cloudy and it wasn't until today that I looked through the side of the tank and noticed it had a green tint. I have green water 
This is my first time with this algae in a fish tank.
I am not entirely sure what triggered it. About a week and a half ago I dosed a blue green slime remover because I was starting to see cyano growing in some places. I've since increased my macro dosing to the entire 500 ml bottle once a week. I maybe killed my beneficial bacteria and this created room for the algae to bloom. Also made worse by the fact that I'm dosing more ferts.
Another factor is I haven't been super consistent with my iron/micro dosing. I plan on adding my iron/micro powders to an auto feeder to auto dose a few times every day. Hopefully this helps the few struggling plants. For the most part plants are doing fine, except for the rotala blood red, amazon sword and the ludwigia super red. I can't imagine CO2 still being an issue since I have so much flow and inject so much but I do need to do another CO2 profile just to be sure.
The pictures aren't great since green water but these are the rotala blood red with lots of stunted tips.
Another possible problem is too much light. I unfortunately don't have a PAR meter to see how much I have. But what do you guys think of these settings? I have 3 chihiros WRGB II 90 pro.
The lights are 5 cm (2 in) above the water. I also have glass lids under the lights. The water depth from top of substrate to the top of the water line is 64 cm (25 in). I also have 2 120 cm nicrew skyled to light the front portion of the tank since my tank is so wide.
I would prefer not to get a UV sterilizer since I don't want to add more heat to the tank since the pumps already add a bit of heat. I also hear a UV sterilizer may make my problems with micros worse. But my main concern is adding more heat.
I hope plant health improves with adding iron/miros consistently and frequently. Perhaps I also need to reduce light to improve plant health. Would reducing nitrates help? I think my current dose is around 15 ppm weekly. But I am sure I have a lot more nitrates coming from the fish. My thinking is that it would reduce CO2 demand? Or am I wrong?
This is my first time with this algae in a fish tank. I am not entirely sure what triggered it. About a week and a half ago I dosed a blue green slime remover because I was starting to see cyano growing in some places. I've since increased my macro dosing to the entire 500 ml bottle once a week. I maybe killed my beneficial bacteria and this created room for the algae to bloom. Also made worse by the fact that I'm dosing more ferts.
Another factor is I haven't been super consistent with my iron/micro dosing. I plan on adding my iron/micro powders to an auto feeder to auto dose a few times every day. Hopefully this helps the few struggling plants. For the most part plants are doing fine, except for the rotala blood red, amazon sword and the ludwigia super red. I can't imagine CO2 still being an issue since I have so much flow and inject so much but I do need to do another CO2 profile just to be sure.
The pictures aren't great since green water but these are the rotala blood red with lots of stunted tips.
Another possible problem is too much light. I unfortunately don't have a PAR meter to see how much I have. But what do you guys think of these settings? I have 3 chihiros WRGB II 90 pro.
The lights are 5 cm (2 in) above the water. I also have glass lids under the lights. The water depth from top of substrate to the top of the water line is 64 cm (25 in). I also have 2 120 cm nicrew skyled to light the front portion of the tank since my tank is so wide.
I would prefer not to get a UV sterilizer since I don't want to add more heat to the tank since the pumps already add a bit of heat. I also hear a UV sterilizer may make my problems with micros worse. But my main concern is adding more heat.
I hope plant health improves with adding iron/miros consistently and frequently. Perhaps I also need to reduce light to improve plant health. Would reducing nitrates help? I think my current dose is around 15 ppm weekly. But I am sure I have a lot more nitrates coming from the fish. My thinking is that it would reduce CO2 demand? Or am I wrong?
MichaelJ
Member
From my vantage point I cant say for sure if this is Phytoplankton (green water) or bloom of some other bacteria - or what could have caused it.
Due to the size of the tank you will probably need a lot of UV firepower to provide enough coverage. With UV I wouldn't be worried about breaking down micros (Fe in particular) if you just dose early in the day and only run the UV over night (say 12 hours per day). The added heat generation from the UV you will probably have to live with for the duration of the deployment, but may not be an issue if you only run it in the night where our room temperature usually drop anyway. That, and increased frequency of water changes should take care of the cloudy water if it is a bacterial or algae related bloom.
I am not familiar with the "slime remover" or what its active ingredients are - is that the UltraLife one? We usually recommend not using chemicals to fight algae in the tank, but rather focus on the root causes. I cant say if the application fo the "slime remover" might have anything to do with the recent green water / bacteria bloom.
I would not change the fertilizer regime, but dialing down the light intensity a smidge for the time being might help on that algae issue. Algae issues are all related to nutrient imbalances; poor nutrient distribution around the tank including CO2/O2/fertilizer, too intense light, unstable water parameters etc.
Cheers,
Michael
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I found this 55W on Amazon Jebao PU-55 Pond and Aquarium Clarifier, 55-watt, Black https://a.co/d/fttVIcg I've really liked their pumps so I may try this UV. They also have a more expensive stainless steel version I may get instead. Looking at the reefing forums it seems 55w is around the minimum for my tank size. Because of that it may not add a significant amount of heat. The reviews seem to have success running it on big ponds so I may give this a try. I'd probably run the CO2 return from the reactors into this and then into my main return pump.
Yes it's the ultra life blue green slime remover. I can't find the ingredients it just says does not contain algaecides or erythromycin. It's a pink powder. I think the cyano showed up when my plant mass was very high and I was only dosing 7.5 ppm nitrates. I remember missing a week of dosing nitrates. That may have started it. I'm hoping the increased macro dosing addresses the root cause.
Thank you!
So I just made a micro/iron mix and added it to an auto feeder. The mix I made has about 0.2 ppm Fe DTPA, 0.3 ppm Fe Gluconate, and the dose from the micro mix packet which has 0.5 ppm Fe EDTA. That is the total dose for the week. The dose is split 14 times to be dosed twice every day. Once at lights on and a second dose 5 hours later. This should fix my inconsistencies with manually adding iron every day and missing several doses as well as dosing at non-ideal times. Dry dosing the iron should be fine right?
The UV sterilizer from the link above should be here tomorrow so ill get it setup as soon as possible and post before and after pictures of the tank to see what difference it makes. I also bought a bunch of 50 micron socks to improve mechanical filtration.
This is my current CO2 profile. It looks like I may have a little too much CO2 which definitely shows on my fish. I am going to try to dial down the needle valve and work to get a max 1.2 pH drop. Other than that the CO2 stays pretty stable after lights on which is at 10:30 am. My flow I think is pretty good as shown in the videos before.
The UV sterilizer worked great! This is the tank right before installing the UV sterilizer.
This is the tank just one day later. Already much clearer. The filter sock clogged fast and was very green.
This is the tank one week later. It is now very crystal clear. It is also about time to trim again.
I have been running the UV 24/7 the last week but I may reduce it now. The temperature increase from the UV was at most 0.5 C (1 F). I would like to run it for as long as possible each day but not sure how significant of an impact it has on reducing the availability of the iron for my plants. Although I no longer have GDA on my plants I am still struggling from iron deficiency. This is very frustrating. I am thinking of doubling or tripling the weekly iron dosage from the gluconate and the DTPA, hopefully that will fix it. The pictures don't show the chlorosis very accurately but it is there.
As you can see in the pictures I am also struggling with a lot of stunting on the rotala blood red, Anyone have any ideas as to why that may be? The ammania senegalensis also struggles with stunting. These are the only two plants with this problem. My CO2 is pretty stable at a 1- 1.1 pH drop by lights on till 2 hours before lights off. I also have plenty of flow. Could it be related to the iron deficiency? Even the moss has some chlorosis.
As you can see in the pictures I am also struggling with a lot of stunting on the rotala blood red, Anyone have any ideas as to why that may be? The ammania senegalensis also struggles with stunting. These are the only two plants with this problem. My CO2 is pretty stable at a 1- 1.1 pH drop by lights on till 2 hours before lights off. I also have plenty of flow. Could it be related to the iron deficiency? Even the moss has some chlorosis.
hydrophyte
Member
- Joined
- 22 Aug 2009
- Messages
- 1,040
Stunner! Amazing!
Thank you!
hypnogogia
Member
I am pretty sure it was phytoplankton since just a day of running the UV caused the filter sock to turn a very solid green.
hypnogogia
Member
Well, glad you got it sorted out. You’ve got a lovely tank there and it was a shame to see it like that.
Not a lot has happened since I have been neglecting the tank a bit this year, but I working on restarting the tank.
This was the tank a few months ago, you can't really see it but plants were suffering a bit from not getting fertilizer or CO2 for a while. During this time I decided I wanted to rescape the tank. I bought some black lava rock and a few weeks later I bought the UNS controsoil and the driftwood in the picture below.
This was the first scape I came up with. I thought it looked nice, but I wasnt competely hapy with It and decided to try rescaping it again. I bought some UNS controsoil and the large driftwood pieces for the 2nd rescape.
This is the in construction new scape. I lost a lot of the plants due neglecting the tank and not dosing ferts/CO2/water changes. But I am ready to spend more time on this tank again. I have a bunch of plants on the way and I will be copleting this scape soon and I am very excited to plant this.
This was the tank a few months ago, you can't really see it but plants were suffering a bit from not getting fertilizer or CO2 for a while. During this time I decided I wanted to rescape the tank. I bought some black lava rock and a few weeks later I bought the UNS controsoil and the driftwood in the picture below.
This was the first scape I came up with. I thought it looked nice, but I wasnt competely hapy with It and decided to try rescaping it again. I bought some UNS controsoil and the large driftwood pieces for the 2nd rescape.
This is the in construction new scape. I lost a lot of the plants due neglecting the tank and not dosing ferts/CO2/water changes. But I am ready to spend more time on this tank again. I have a bunch of plants on the way and I will be copleting this scape soon and I am very excited to plant this.
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