Algae sanity check

[rockpaper]

Hey all, hoping someone can give me a sanity check about whether I have an algae problem or not.

I know that my situation isn't as bad as it could be, but I like to handle problems before they spiral out of control. I've been seeing a lot of diatoms and what I think is green dust algae popping up on my hardscape and some of my plants. My setup is quite new (flooded 20 April), so some of it is to be expected... but then again, intervention is better early than late!

You can read about my setup here, with the only changes since the last update being that 1) I don't have hydra anymore (treated with fenbendazole), 2) I added 10 celestial pearl danios to the tank, and 3) I started dosing fertilizers using PPS-Pro guidelines (I know EI is very popular but PPS is much more similar to how we've fertilized plants in my botany laboratories and I'm of a tinkering kind-of-mindset in general). The fertilizers are fairly new; only been using them for like... less than a week.

Thank you ahead of time

Here is a picture of the tank from today in-general:


Some of the algae on the hardscape:


And some pictures of plants and their growth (end of the day, after CO2 is gone and before lights-off):

HC Cuba with some diatoms


Echinodorus aflame with lots of bubbles under the leaf (not fenestrations or holes in the leaf)


Barclaya longifolia v. red


Rotala macrandra v. mini butterfly, not looking very red


Helanthium tenellum and Littorella uniflora with some diatoms, mild melt, and lots of pearling

 

[bazz]

Hi,
With all that oxygen being produced makes me think you may have your light too bright at this early stage of development. There's definitely some diatoms in there also which should dissipate with time. For now though I personally think manual removal by way of a toothbrush (or similar) on those rocks immediately followed by a water change and repeating this process on a regular basis for a week or two coupled with just keeping the general environment clean should help. I'm not sure I would turn the light down now as this could stress the plants creating further problems. A temporary (or permanent) addition of some fast growing stems (Limnophila Sessiliflora and/or Hygrophila Siamensis 53b for eg) either planted or left floating will assist in creating the biorhythm while also naturally reducing the light entering the aquarium.

Using stem plants as a filtering aid at Start Up!

The subject of using fast-growing stem plants as part of a filtering aid has cropped up a few times recently. This idea has been around for a long time so not new, it has benefits especially for a new set - up. I try and cover at least 50% of the water surface minimum. 1. Improves water...

www.ukaps.org

As always though there are many different ways to tackle these problems and this is just my take.
Cheers!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Some of the algae on the hardscape:

It is a <"natural feature"> on rocks, basically a <"green patina of periphyton"> will grow on any wet surface where <"light and nutrients are available">.

You can only keep them "pristine" with cleaning, either manually or by <"snail grazing">.

cheers Darrel

 

[Wookii]

What @bazz says ☝️ - what settings do you have your light on? PPS Pro is very lean I believe, so with a decent light level you are running the knife edge of deficiency too. Nothing wrong with the lean dosing, its just much harder to get a good balance with lighting and plant growth, and any miss step gives algae the opening.

That said, your algae and diatoms are typical new tank stuff - I suspect with the buffering in the soil, just turning your lights down a bit will help. Also as @dw1305 mentions, I'd also invest in more clean up crew to help you - a batch of Ramshorn snails and some Neocaridina shrimp will have it sorted in short order.

Also trim the Cuba back hard and it'll throw runners our laterally instead if putting energy into vertical growth.

Finally in that top pic, is your filter switched off? If not, you've not got nearly enough surface agitation - good gas exchange is essential, particularly in a CO2 injected tank.

Helanthium tenellum and Littorella uniflora with some diatoms, mild melt, and lots of pearling

With that much localised pearling on the tenellum, either it has algae on it that is pearling, or you've not got enough water movement past it - are the stems moving slightly in the flow around the tank?

Rotala macrandra v. mini butterfly, not looking very red

Nothing will look very red (or very green) with the Fluval Plant I'm afraid - its a very 'yellow' biased light, and tends to wash out reds and greens. You can reduce the effect a little by just turning down the Warm White LED's if you do adjust the intensity downwards.

 

[rockpaper]

Thank you everyone for the feedback!

Today was water change day (trying to get it to Sunday) so I implemented some changes as per the feedback ya'll offered:

• Scrubbed the rocks,
• Removed the glass dome over my air stone... such a bummer, it was so aesthetically pleasing!
• Changed the direction of the surface skimmer pump to increase flow (rather than baffle flow)
• Raised the spin lily pipe to increase surface agitation
• Trimmed the HC Cuba and removed some dead leaves from the L. uniflora and H. tenellum
• Raised the height of the light slightly (~2 cm?) and lowered the intensity of the "warm-white" channel by ~20%

Additionally, I plan on adding my nerite snail back to the tank in a day or two, and I'd like to get more nerites eventually. I also (coincidentally) have 12 red rili neocaridinas coming in the mail any day now... Hopefully that will bolster the ranks of the clean-up crew.

A temporary (or permanent) addition of some fast growing stems (Limnophila Sessiliflora and/or Hygrophila Siamensis 53b for eg) either planted or left floating will assist in creating the biorhythm while also naturally reducing the light entering the aquarium.

Great idea! I like L. sessiliflora but they're considered very invasive in my area. In fact, California has rather strict guidelines on aquatic plant species in general... I might be able to get some, but it'll be tricky, and I'll have to do my due diligence in keeping it out of the water systems, too. Exploring options now!

Hi all,

It is a <"natural feature"> on rocks, basically a <"green patina of periphyton"> will grow on any wet surface where <"light and nutrients are available">.

You can only keep them "pristine" with cleaning, either manually or by <"snail grazing">.

cheers Darrel

My nerite looks longingly at the display tank, thinking to itself: any day now... 😉

Nothing will look very red (or very green) with the Fluval Plant I'm afraid - its a very 'yellow' biased light, and tends to wash out reds and greens. You can reduce the effect a little by just turning down the Warm White LED's if you do adjust the intensity downwards.

Can I ask-- is this because of a visual or biochemical effect? Like does it prevent red pigmentation in the leaves, or does it look unsaturated like a poorly lit photograph? Either way, I did lower the warm white intensity. Thanks for the suggestion!


Pictures:

Whole tank:


New flow setup with uncovered air stone, re-angled skimmer, and new lily pipe assistant:


Lastly, a short video-- is this enough flow?: