Hi, I am glad to see some pictures from your tank mate. I was wondering what s going on with the actual tank
Every beginning is hard, so be rady for a lot of frustration and dissapointment hand in hand with joy and happiness from the achieved results,until learn the art of growing aquatic garden. I know that you worry a lot about the technical part and what to do and dont do what is good for the plant and fish and what is not. There are not secrets and dark science in this hobby just some urban legends and myths, which you will find out via trial and error. If your tank doesn go well, eliminate all negative elements which you know. If still is not well there is somethig which you may do not know so read not only the forums but some real science articles on the web which might not be true again. In UKAPS particulary there are people with great knowledge both based on science and experience you will know who
I had a great problems with Cyano in the past. I read everything I could find about Cyano in the net , I eliminate all reasons which I know for cyano like hi PO4, dirty filters too much light an s.o. I even change my RO filters thinking the Cyano might live in there
Still there was a cyano in my tank killing my moss and plants. I read about the efects of antibiotic over cyano
and try it together with hydrogen peroxide and blackout for 3 days. No visble cyano so far in the same tank
I blast the lights which was 40w LED for 30l tank...a huge overkill it was like a desert sun
The plants flourish within a week I also kind of overdose PO4 couse I add some red stem plants. The colours was awesome and still no algae. Blast on the CO2 as well according the golden triangle: LIGHT=FERTS=CO2 and yeah I have learned a lot hitting those problems. I think that reskaping will not kill the algae cause the algae can appear even in your new skape. Understanding of the reasons and the results of each of the elements of the golden triangle and how the tiny ecosystem works will help you beat the algae or may be just controll it.
Imagine you tank is a car....
Push the lights and plant growth will accelerate to some limit where will start to appear algae, More ferts are more fuel in your car so if you dont put enough but press the accelerator you plants will show signs of deficiencies and will start to release sugars in the watercolumn and feed the algae. The light is also your brake.....in therms less light but more fuel ( ferts) or CO2 your live stock may struggle or algae may overtake the plants. There are opinions that overdosing ferts do not cause algae, Which I have still to prive my self, Because in every tank you have more than one factor, like too much ferts ...but can be hi-light, no CO2 or slow growing plants which can not uptake excess ferts in your watercolumn. Saying that too much ferts will not cause algae means you eliminate the other factors which is impossible...
CO2 is like clutch so shifting to hi- lighted tank require CO2 but dosed acoording the type of plants their CO2 uptake (photosynthesis) and the live stock ( if no live stock) you can possibly blast it but that can affect your pH if your water if not buffered due the carbonic acid. That is why CO2 controllers based on pH does not give constant flow of CO2 during the photoperiod. Placing you Co2 diffuser ( if you dont use in-line one) is another factor affecting the CO2 distribution in your tank. I think that the best is to place it close to the bottom across ( the opposite side of the tank) the outflow (lilly) pipe. The water current will stirr CO2 better and bring it to the plant leaves possibly all over your tank.
What I have learned so far:
1/ Plan you aquaskape according you tank to be easy managable for cleaning and maintanance hard skape may obsruct your hands when trimming you plants or clean hardskape( if you are lefthanded put your main trimming plant mass on the rigt side of your tank lets say). Think about waterflow not hitting large hardskape causing dead spots. How to place your Lilly pipes and diffuser so the current will bring CO2 to all plant leaves. What plants will grow, Put some fast growing easy plants so will uptake nutritiens quick especially on you dead spots of your tank (behind big rock or something, also some corner) the nutritients can accumulate in there so the plants will "eat" them quick just before the algae
Shallow tanks loose CO2 from the watercolumn but are easy on the light ( not to much water to penetrate) and aeration. They also get cold or hot aesy lets say if you have metal halide over them too close so be carefull. You can always put cover glass to prevent evaporation the shallows has big water surface/ volume proportion but will be not very pleasant for the eye
. On the shallows you can grow nicely helioptic plants and floating plants they evn look more natural in there IMO.
2/ Set you tank: When u got your hardskape idea set your substrate no matter will be ADA full substrate system or just plain gravel Think for the waterflow not to disturbe the substrate in therms ruining you skape especially for shallow tank where outflow pipe is close to the substrate. Also the substrate has to "breathe" some gases are released from it due the organic matter decaing also O2 for plant roots ( think algae hates O2 plant roots and aerobic bacs loved it). So if you build thick substrate mass lets say back corners of you tank I will put some lava rock underneath or large size gravel lets say. In two reasons: The soil will not collapse easily and will Breathe aesier than if is only compact soil. U can use larger powersand which is volcanic rock as well. Lava rock acts as a "house" for the beneficial bacteria as well ( in one of my tanks I used even bio filter media to support the substrate and worked to house bacteria as well) Use support for your substrate or dividers which will help keeping yor skape as it was set not collapsing down ( The green machine has some great article for using support
Building up height in Substrate | The Green Machine )
3/ Planting: Choose you plants according the tank, Light and the aquaskape....and of course your personal preference
Get a healthy good looking free of visible algae plants. I recon in vitro plants as well couse they are abolutelu algae free like 1-2 grow
When planting devide the plants on small individual plantlets that will prevent rotting and give space for the new growth. Do not trimm the green part of the plant prior planting, the plant is already in shock from the root transition to another substrate why to increase the shick even more....just trimm some dead leaves, yellowing parts or every thing which seems unhelthy or impossible to recover after the planting. (some people trimm the hairgrass before even planted which doesnt worked for me ...unfortunately......but I had great results when trimmed just the roots a bit before planting, just to give space for new root growth and is easier for planting) Choose fast growing plans at least one I gave you already the reasons why
. Divide Hemiantus Cuba on the smallest plantlets possible and plant them dense for nice carpet....the same for the hair grass. The carpet plants start rotting when planted in a bunch : 1/ no space for the new growth, 2/ flow is minimal on the bottom of your tank so no enough CO2 reaching the leaves of those plants and fast decaying of the old/ dead leaves. They are really favorable from the algae cause the ammonia possibly leach from the substrate. Plant the stems under angle they will "catch" the substrate better and will not float.
4/ " To Flood, or not to Flood! That is the question." It is you choice, bere in mind you have to do loads waterchanges when you flood an has Diatoms outbreak around second week, and ammonia outbreak but kick start on your bio filter also. When not it is called Dry Start Method and yeah is for lazy guys like me
just a joke! The plants will grow nicely under the plastic film cover sprayed twice minimum daily for at least a week to 1-2 months. Here you can speed the plants development with adding CO2 without diffuser of course directly in the tank and blast the lights as long as you want. I have done a 12-16 hours photoperiod and you can hear the plans growing blast on CO2 also. When flood after the Dry start will have diatoms outbreak as well, but you will have good rooth development as well as good green plant mass. Do not forget to blast CO2 after the flood the plants used to use atmospheric CO2 so far so will "starve" also can fertilise at that time cause no live stock to produce nutritients.....it all depends on the set up. Aquasoil will keep the plants alive without fertilising but they will show dsome deficiencies after week or so.
Now is the moment to choose your fert dosing system and ferts mixes, if you havent done it yet. Read well the aricles about PPS Pro/Classic and EI and try to understand how they work what are the advantages and disadvantages of the both. What is suitable with you life style, Are you ready to spend on expensive premixes of ferts of choose more advanced dry salts. Dry salts will make you learn about how the things working , and what is for what how affect your ecosystem and the life in it.
Just be constant of what you doing. And learn and yeah Enjoy of what you doing or just do Pushups when you are frustrated or wherever works for you. I just wish you luck and hope that will help for your new Manzi skape. Nice Manzi BTW