All the algae & no flow…

[Runner]

Hi All,

I’ve got a planted Aquamanta 60 (90 litre) tank, which is probably a bit overstocked with 2 pairs of dwarf gourami, 6 neons, 4 cardinals, 6 sparkling gourami and 4 false julli corydoras (and one rogue ember tetra that should have moved to my 40l tank with the others but refuses to be caught). I’ve also got 2 zebra snails and 3 bamboo shrimp. The tank has been running since January 2019 but recently had a major algae problem when someone else was looking after it for me for a few months. When I moved it home I broke it down and cleaned it up then rescaped it with new substrate, sand and plants: cryptocorynes, echinodorus, java fern, moss and floating limnobium.

That was four months ago and I’m now dealing with green spot algae, BBA and some green algae. My lights are the stock LEDs that came with the tank and I’ve pretty much kept them off trying to deal with the algae. I run them for about 3hrs in the evening. The tank is in a bright room but no direct sunlight.

I do 30-50% water change weekly, using tap water conditioner and dosing about 2ml liquid carbon and 10ml TNC complete after the water change. Ammonia and nitrite always 0 and nitrate about 40. PH is somewhere between 7-8 (it’s hard to tell with my test strips).

Until today I always had the nozzle of the return pump outlet pointing directly up at the surface of the water to agitate it but now I realise this meant there was next to zero flow in the tank. I’ve now pointed it downwards and there is some movement in the plants. I’ve also ordered a spray bar.

I guess my questions are - am I doing anything else wrong that I should change?! I figured consistency was important so had stuck to the lighting schedule and dosing but is it worth switching anything else up? Also will a spray bar be sufficient for good flow? The tank is 60x40x47cm but don’t know if worth getting a small wavemaker or similar?

Whilst I don’t want to change too many things at once, I haven’t seen any improvement from just keeping the lights low and regular dosing for a month so ready to try something! Am trying to keep it low tech and avoid CO2 injection if I can.

Thank you!

 

[John q]

Hi runner, welcome to ukaps.

I guess my questions are - am I doing anything else wrong that I should change?

So hard to tell, even with the beautiful word picture you painted.

The difficulty with low tech, or at least what I've found is the balance between flow direction around the tank, and surface agitation clashes, you kinda want both. If the addition of a spray bar will assist both of these then yes, a spray bar " guessing internal pump driven" will help.
Fertiliser wise 10ml at water change should be ok, dependant on plant density. If in doubt and its what I'd do to rule out this being an issue "double the ferts dose."

I'm not familiar with that light fixture that comes with this tank but your symptoms strongly suggest the intensity is to strong, is there any way to raise this fixture, even by a couple of inches?

Final comment is increase the duration of light to at least 6hrs, 3hrs of light is no good to man or beast, or aquatic plants 😀.

A full tank shot of tank would be helpful.

 

[MichaelJ]

@Runner Everything that @John q said plus I would definitely add a separate NPK fertilizer in addition to the trace you get from TNC complete. 10 ml of TNC complete for a 90 L tank will not give you a whole lot of NPK - GSA thrives in a low phosphate environment in my experience. I had GSA until I started to pummel my two low-tech tanks with phosphate and very low levels of Nitrate appears to encourage BBA. But as the experts will tell you, algae is a CO2 deficiency problem, so the only lever you really have in a low-tech tank is to reduce light intensity (not hours), perhaps dial down the water temperature all to slow down plant metabolism and marginally increase uptake of CO2 from the air. And of course keep up the weekly 50% water changes to get rid of waste, algae spores etc.

Am trying to keep it low tech and avoid CO2 injection if I can.

Without CO2 injection you will definitely experience much slower growth and need to be a little more careful about which plants you choose, but its totally possibly to keep a lush thriving planted tanks without CO2 injection... and CO2 comes with its own set of problems that can take a lot of time and effort to master (not to mention all the money you have to front to implement CO2).

Welcome to UKAPS!

Cheers,
Michael

 

[Runner]

Thanks both - that is really helpful! I can raise the light fixture a bit so I will do that and have it on for longer. I'll also turn the water temp down a bit and add the NPK fertilizer.
I can't figure out how to take a photo on my iphone that doesn't reflect on the glass and end up with a photo of my living room! I've managed to take a couple that hopefully help.

I've added one that shows the valve from the return pump (tank has a concealed sump at the rear). I'm wondering if I add a spray bar to that to agitate the surface of the water and hopefully still add flow. If it doesn't then I could keep the spray bar and add a cheap wavemaker for the flow. Failing that I might give in and try the Co2!

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[MichaelJ]

Hi @Runner,

I can't figure out how to take a photo on my iphone that doesn't reflect on the glass and end up with a photo of my living room! I've managed to take a couple that hopefully help.

There are many ways to deal with that. The easiest being to shoot the picture in the evening with the living room lights off - shoot from a slight angle if you still get reflections.

Ok, looking at your pictures and assuming you already dialed the lights WAY down, I'd say you need to clean up all those internal glass and equipment surfaces and siphon all the waste you can get away with without stirring up the substrate too much. Also, all leaves that are struggling badly or seems to be doomed by algae already should be trimmed off - decaying and dying leaves are algae magnets. And keep up those big water changes ... looking at your tank I would up it to 2 x 50% per week for a while and fertilize with NPK and the TNC trace right after the WCs - this, in combination with the much lower light intensity, better circulation etc. will help.

If it doesn't then I could keep the spray bar and add a cheap wavemaker for the flow.

I would just go ahead and add a small internal circulation pump / power head - they are cheap.

Failing that I might give in and try the Co2!

As the CO2 experts will tell you, flow and circulation is King in the CO2 injected tank, so you will need to get that sorted out regardless. Implementing CO2 is not a "fix" for the situation in your tank. What has been suggested is however, but it takes patience. I totally understand the frustration as I have been through this myself over the years.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[Runner]

This is hugely helpful - thank you very much, I will give it a go!

 

[MichaelJ]

This is hugely helpful - thank you very much, I will give it a go!

@Runner Another thing that might be helpful is to dose Seachem Excel until the tank recovers. From many accounts, it is possibly an effective algaecide and may speed up recovery of your tank - just make sure you stick to the dosing recommendations. There is a recent discussion on the topic here.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[Runner]

Oh great - I will take a look. At this point I am willing to try anything!