Adam Dunkley
Member
Hi there,
I'm new to this forum so hello everyone.
I've been suffering some diatom algae problem for a while now, so without making the longest post in history I'll explain a bit of the story...
Tank (Juwel 180 Vision) was originally set up back in August 2015 ish (somewhere around there) everything was fine, no problems apart from plants didn't ever last long but I never had algae problems or fish dying, admittingly didn't always keep up with water changes but it seemed fine all with standard internal filter, pump and media. Anyway, I decided to take it over the top with the tank as it was my first tank, so I went all out and wanted to go at it 100% professionally so purchased a 3d background with filter cover, 3d rock decor, change the substrate to sand, researched and planted some plants (amazon swords) dosed a lite fertiliser, liquid carbon and at first everything was fine, plants were growing faster than anything I've seen, fish were swimming, healthy, etc. Then all of a sudden I had a bit diatom algae issue, that slowly turned into BBA but that only lasted around a week before it disappeared and the diatom algae came back.
I've been very unsure on what the issue is but figured one thing was that I had bad circulation, so I made a few modifications to the background, with cut outs/mesh grilles etc. It kind of got better then got worse, so I started dosing an algae chemical by API which made a bit of a difference, but then it just wasn't changing, so I added a 1000 L/H pump, all the plants had slowly died/on the verge so I removed them and gave the tank a 3 day black out with no plants, carried on dosing the fertiliser and liquid carbon, no algae in sight, last thursday (13th October) I added new fresh plants, purchased a complete fertiliser and carried on with the liquid carbon, removed the charcoal media from the internal filter added an extra coarse sponge and phorax media unit, changed the lighting tubes on saturday 15th (as they were over a year old) so instead of x2 day lite tubes, I've put x1 day lite and x1 colour tube in, both brand new. Since last Thursday the diatom algae has made an appearance back on the decor and background almost just like before.
I'm looking at adding a CO2 system from CO2art.co.uk once they get the refillable 1KG bottles back into stock.
Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong, or not doing? as it seems with plants or lighting on/in the tank the algae comes back?
My water parameters are:
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 40ppm
Ammonia - 0ppm
ph - 7.6
High range PH - 7.4
KH - 50-100ppm
GH - 200-400ppm
Phosphate - 2ppm
Temp sits between 23.5 / 24.5 degrees c, depending on fluctuations over night/through the day etc.
I'm new to this forum so hello everyone.
I've been suffering some diatom algae problem for a while now, so without making the longest post in history I'll explain a bit of the story...
Tank (Juwel 180 Vision) was originally set up back in August 2015 ish (somewhere around there) everything was fine, no problems apart from plants didn't ever last long but I never had algae problems or fish dying, admittingly didn't always keep up with water changes but it seemed fine all with standard internal filter, pump and media. Anyway, I decided to take it over the top with the tank as it was my first tank, so I went all out and wanted to go at it 100% professionally so purchased a 3d background with filter cover, 3d rock decor, change the substrate to sand, researched and planted some plants (amazon swords) dosed a lite fertiliser, liquid carbon and at first everything was fine, plants were growing faster than anything I've seen, fish were swimming, healthy, etc. Then all of a sudden I had a bit diatom algae issue, that slowly turned into BBA but that only lasted around a week before it disappeared and the diatom algae came back.
I've been very unsure on what the issue is but figured one thing was that I had bad circulation, so I made a few modifications to the background, with cut outs/mesh grilles etc. It kind of got better then got worse, so I started dosing an algae chemical by API which made a bit of a difference, but then it just wasn't changing, so I added a 1000 L/H pump, all the plants had slowly died/on the verge so I removed them and gave the tank a 3 day black out with no plants, carried on dosing the fertiliser and liquid carbon, no algae in sight, last thursday (13th October) I added new fresh plants, purchased a complete fertiliser and carried on with the liquid carbon, removed the charcoal media from the internal filter added an extra coarse sponge and phorax media unit, changed the lighting tubes on saturday 15th (as they were over a year old) so instead of x2 day lite tubes, I've put x1 day lite and x1 colour tube in, both brand new. Since last Thursday the diatom algae has made an appearance back on the decor and background almost just like before.
I'm looking at adding a CO2 system from CO2art.co.uk once they get the refillable 1KG bottles back into stock.
Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong, or not doing? as it seems with plants or lighting on/in the tank the algae comes back?
My water parameters are:
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 40ppm
Ammonia - 0ppm
ph - 7.6
High range PH - 7.4
KH - 50-100ppm
GH - 200-400ppm
Phosphate - 2ppm
Temp sits between 23.5 / 24.5 degrees c, depending on fluctuations over night/through the day etc.
