Hi all,
it has been way too long since my last post. It has been a crazy period in my work/private life and was hardly able to keep up with it all. In short, the tank is set-up, the fish seem to be quite happy, but I cannot get algae under control.
The final set-up is as follows:
- Computer control: GHL Profilux 4
- Sensors / probes: pH, Temperature, Conductivity and Redox
- Pump: Red Dragon 3 Speedy 100W
- Lights: 4x GHL Mitras LX7004
- Sump with simple horizontal flow; lots of mechanical and bio-filtration media and peat
- Innovitech X-filter as a pre-filter
- CO2 electronics by CO2Art
- CO2 diffusion in a large Cerges-style reactor
- UV filter by VIQUA model VH410
- Eheim e400 heater and Eheim Pro 400 air pump
- AWC with reverse osmosis (5-stage with an active pump etc.)
- remineralization of the RO water using Seachem equilibrium
***I also do have a GHL pump with 4x pump heads for automatic fertilization and 2x GHL floater sensors for AWC, but these are not activated yet... no time
Water parameters (using JBL Pro Aquatest kit):
NO2 (0.15 ppm), NO3 (5 ppm), NH4 (<0.05 ppm), PO4 (0.05 ppm), Fe (0), KH (4.5), pH (6.4), T (28), Conductivity (351uS), Redox (205mV); if tables are correct, the calculation of CO2 from KH and pH, the CO2 should be at ~50ppm - is this correct?
Fertilizers, minerals etc.:
Because I used huge amounts of nutrient rich Tropica soil, I figured for some time I would not need to add significant fertilization, so I only add several caps of the Seachem Flourish to the water and remineralize with Seachem Equilibrium to reach ~300us conductivity.
The lights are up for 10h, of which 2h are very dark morning/evening light and only 4h at max light and the rest is ramp up and ramp down.
In short, the summary so far:
- as you know, the aquarium build was being delayed, the wild discus were waiting to be shipped in Portugal (Santarem); to speed up the cycling process I added a few bottles of Tetra Safestart bacteria and the filter media from my old tank to the sump. Cycling went incredibly fast and within ~5 days or so the entire cycle completed and stabilised. However, adding old filter media was a BIG mistake! Although I took great care there were no snails, there must have been eggs in the filter media - I now have a major snail infestation. In the old tank the snails were kept in check by clown loaches, but in this discus tank I decided NOT to have clown loaches - they are just a bit too hectic for the peaceful scenery... what should I do to get rid of them?
- I kept cycling the tank for another ~2 weeks, slowly adding the small fish and then the 12 wild discus from Santarem Discus.
- the tank also has a support crew of many Ottos, various Neritina and Corona snails and I also bought ~50 XXL Amano Shrimp
- strangely, contrary to what most people said, the Neritina and Corona snails happily stay in the tank (open top) and never venture out...
- however, I lost at least half of the Amano Shrimp by them choosing to jump out and I was finding them all over the place - even 10m away from the tank 🙁
- I saw once that a group of Discus attached a shrimp alive and chewed him up... but other than that, the shrimp do not seem to be a major target for Discus and are left alone
Problems:
- soon after cycling completed, algae started appearing. My worst nightmare are the "hair algae" - they completely fill up the tank within 7 to 10 days; I need to continuously remove them. They killed many plants already - most moss was destroyed by these algae, as well as many of the nice Buce plants and H'ra is continuously under attack. It seems whenever the hair algae overgrow, all the Discus get darker colour - they really are not liking something in the water... as soon as I clean up the aquarium from the algae, the Discus regain their full colour, even without a major water change... so strange.
- I also have some BBA algae, but these are not such a major issue
- occasionally a small patch of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) appear, but again, these are not a major issue and can be removed quickly
...it is really the hair algae that are a huge menace and I have no idea what to do about them. Clearly the small group of remaining Amanos are no match for them and I do think the Amanos stick to the hidden areas in the roots so that they are protected from Discus... they do not venture out much.
Below are some photos to give you some idea of the tank and the fish at the moment. I did not have time to make really good ones, but will make some more effort in the future. If you can help with some suggestions on how to better establish the right ecosystem and balance of nutrients, ferts, CO2 etc. to reach the more suitable environment for plants and less suitable for the algae, that would be greatly appreciated.
The layout:
A detail on the left:
The magnificent wilds:
Some individual photos:
And now the uglies... these are the algae that are getting worse and worse... literally they overgrow the ENTIRE tank within 7 to 10 days and the fish can somehow feel something that the algae are producing as they become dark and less active when the algae overgrow... WHAT TO DO??? I do not have an "overgrowth" picture at the moment, but you know how it is... I'll try to take one next time before I am cleaning.
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