Hello (& help please !!!)

[adutnall]

Another newbie looking for some help / guidance and reassurance I’m afraid !!

First of all I’d like to thank and congratulate all for the site content – it’s been an education (and a subsequent expense !) and a source of inspiration in what can be achieved and in the help available !

My story starts about a year ago when a revamped lounge project provided a good reason to buy a new and larger tank – the main aim for the tank was to provide a healthy place for some tropical fish to live and create a ‘living ornament’ in the lounge. Having kept fish before, I was aware it involves some effort to maintain, but I hoped to keep the maintenance level to a manageable level – I already have far too many hobbies (you know how it goes !!)
So a year, much reading and head scratching later, I have the following set up
•60x30x15 ~90 gal / 400l tank
•An inch of JBL Manado substrate covered in another inch or 2 of gravel and sand
•Crystalprofi 1500l external filter
•Hydor external 300w heater set to maintain 26.5 C
•3x 54w T5s (& reflectors) on for 7hrs a day
•A Koralia 4500l circulation pump
•External Luna Pet CO2 reactor (<30ppm) with FE for 7hrs a day
•Stocked with 1 Angel, 4 Torpedo Barbs, 1 ruby shark, 5 smallish clown Loach, 3 Kuhli Loach (somewhere !) a couple of Ruby Tetras and a few Danios and some Malaysian Trumpet Snails
•Planted with Hygro’ Poly’, Vallis, Elodea Densa, a few small swords, Pygmy Chain Swords
•Fertilising with TPN at recc’d doseage bi weekly and some API root tabs each month(ish)
•Bi weekly 10 – 15% water change
•Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate ~10ppm (test kit)

I started without CO2, without the circulation pump and with 2 lights, hoping that my lightly planted choice would be fine, but the plants did not seem to grow that well and I have since been on a bit of a journey including an on-going battle with a minor outbreak of blue green algae.
In recent months I’ve upped my number of plants, added the CO2 and use TPN to try to promote plant growth and outpace the algae, I’ve added the circulation pump (which has the best affect so far on reducing the BGA) and added the 3rd light. Plants seem to be responding and growing better, but BGA is still evident and my aim for relatively low maintenance is not looking realistic! As for CO2, when I first set up my system, I used a drop checker to get to an estimated 30ppm, but a 6kg bottle would only last a month, so I’ve backed it off to about half the bps rate.

So a few Qu’s and requests for help / advice please !
•Am I being hopelessly optimistic in thinking I can provide reasonably good conditions for plants and fish to grow without spending a fortune on CO2, fertilisers and changing 50gals of water every week ?
•Is it not possible to use a relatively low CO2 boost with balanced rate of fertilisers (considering using the recipe for ‘home-made TPN+ (3)’ from James’ Planted Tank site (very useful !) with my 10 – 15% bi-weekly rate of water changes to get to a healthy planted aquarium ? I recognise I will not be creating a masterpiece as many of you have managed !
•I’m assuming that my 3x 54w T5’s and timing constitute ‘Low – Mid’ lighting ?
•BGA arrrrrgggghhhh ! Any recommendations ?
•Any thoughts on my set up so far ?
•Any recommendations on larger scale water changes ? Presently takes me a few hours every other week to balance various buckets of water, syphon gravel and chase BGA around the tank, followed by me smelling particularly ‘green’ for a while !!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or contributions – sure I’ll get there eventually, maybe should have started this journey with a smaller tank !

 

[hinch]

on a tank that size you're always going to use co2 like nuts + the changing of 45 gals of water a week will be pretty much required in a heavily planted tank both with and without co2 if you limit the ferts you can get away with less and with low stocking less will be ok too but you'll still have to do a fair turn over potentially adding more filtration as a single external filter on a tank that size is lacking a little bit even if the bulk of your filtration comes from the actual substrate its self

you can lower your co2 levels but remember to lower your lighting duration and power and ferts too! (though fert lowering is questionable)

i'd consider 3x54w t5's to be high lighting not low lighting!

bga - spot dose with liquid carbon or get a couple of ottos 🙂

to make your water changes easier get a hose pipe out into the garden (through the window) siphon out straight into garden and then refil straight from hosepipe though you may want to invest in a 2nd inline heater to put inline with the hose pipe to ensure the water going in isn't pure cold. just remember to add dechlorinator directly to the tnak before refilling

 

[sWozzAres]

Turn the lights down to 4-5 hours

Your probably doing this but CO2 only needs to be on 1-2 hours before the lights come on and can be switched off 1-2 hours before the end of the lighting period. Minimize surface movement to keep as much co2 in the water column as possible.

Use Purigen 🙂

Use dry ferts instead of TPN to keep cost down

Can you siphon water from an upstairs bath? An 80% water change on my 350l takes me 4 minutes of work and 42 minutes of waiting around, drinking coffee, reading a book etc

 

[adutnall]

Quick update for anyone interested !

More reading and helpful advice has led to a few minor changes and since adding another circ' pump the BGA has definitely reduced significantly and continues to do so.

I've managed to get a better set up for water changes, so I can now manage larger volume changes without too muh stress and I'm about to slowly increase ferts so I'll hope this will see things improve further.

Thasnk again for your direct and indirect help !!

 

[Viv]

Good to hear things are improving for you 🙂

Viv

 

[ceg4048]

Hello,
Please post any further updates or questions in a specifically related sub-forum and not in the New Member Introduction sub-forum, whcih is meant only for introductions, not help or journal type entries.

Cheers,