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Help for a newbie please
- Thread starter magunn
- Start date
Dan Crawford
Founder
No it's not :0) EasyCarbo is not the answer to good plant growth though, do you dose any ferts, what lighting do you have, filter, tank size?
AverageWhiteBloke
Member
Does carbon pads not filter out easycarbo? I would have thought it did. :?
How long are the lights on for? Looking at your lighting that is a fair amount of light over the tank, I may be wrong but the substrate fertiliser is slower at releasing the nutrients on a tank that looks like your putting high demand on nutrients.
The carbon in the filter won't cure your algae problems either I don't think and in fact may be making the situation worse. If you are intending keeping them light levels you need to read the different stickys posted in this board relating to light, Co2 and fertilisers. Once you have read them through it will give you more understanding on the advice you will get in here and why it is been given even though at times it may be the exact opposite of what your thinking, already you have been advised to turn down lights and possibly add more ferts to get rid of algae and I bet you weren't expecting that
Put basically your tank looks like the high light is forcing fast growth in the plants, the plants needs are not being met for fertiliser and co2 (starting with easycarbo is a step in the right direction) the plants are then failing and the algae is living off what nutrients are in there. Algae will feed at whatever levels there is there where as the plants like a well balanced meal another thing which is a big mistake I made and paid the price for is don't be afraid of turning down the light by knocking off optional tubes. More light=more problems for the unknowing, plants will still grow healthy under lower light just slower.
Neil
How long are the lights on for? Looking at your lighting that is a fair amount of light over the tank, I may be wrong but the substrate fertiliser is slower at releasing the nutrients on a tank that looks like your putting high demand on nutrients.
The carbon in the filter won't cure your algae problems either I don't think and in fact may be making the situation worse. If you are intending keeping them light levels you need to read the different stickys posted in this board relating to light, Co2 and fertilisers. Once you have read them through it will give you more understanding on the advice you will get in here and why it is been given even though at times it may be the exact opposite of what your thinking, already you have been advised to turn down lights and possibly add more ferts to get rid of algae and I bet you weren't expecting that
Put basically your tank looks like the high light is forcing fast growth in the plants, the plants needs are not being met for fertiliser and co2 (starting with easycarbo is a step in the right direction) the plants are then failing and the algae is living off what nutrients are in there. Algae will feed at whatever levels there is there where as the plants like a well balanced meal
another thing which is a big mistake I made and paid the price for is don't be afraid of turning down the light by knocking off optional tubes. More light=more problems for the unknowing, plants will still grow healthy under lower light just slower.Neil
Thanks for the advice. I have removed the carbon filter and one that was removing the brown tannin colouration leeching from my bog wood. I add Easycarbo daily and have some plant ferts (johnnys ferts) but although I know how much to add I don't know how often. Since I have brown hair algae on leaves and stone substrate I have been worried about the ferts making the algae worse. The ferts are standard NPK material. I realise you need to know the conc of the fert to advise dosage but how often would plant ferts normally be added?
AverageWhiteBloke
Member
Depending on the type of fertilising you are doing some people add daily or certain days of the week. I'm not familiar with Johnnys ferts. Have a read through fertiliser section viewforum.php?f=1 and find out what ferts you will need and why then find out what's in the ferts you already have then we can take the how and when to dose from there.
Dan Crawford
Founder
Adding ferts will NOT add to algae issues if you have good flow, good CO2 distribution and good tank maintenance. In my experience algae tends to effect those who are using too much lighting and not enough CO2, ferts and or flow. If you have algae issues then lower the lighting, sort out some good CO2 and do loads of waterchanges.
If you are driving the tank with a shed load of light but adding no food for the plants in the form of fertilisers and CO2 then algae is inevitable, substrate fertiliser is not enough.
Adding EasyCarbo to combat algae is not a good start, it's highly toxic to fish and inverts in large doses, for it to be effective in combating algae in a 100l tank then you'll have to add large doses and this is ultimately going to effect any inhabitants and possibly effect plants negatively.
Fix the symptoms, don't just pop a plaster over it or you'll forever be fighting a losing battle.
If you are driving the tank with a shed load of light but adding no food for the plants in the form of fertilisers and CO2 then algae is inevitable, substrate fertiliser is not enough.
Adding EasyCarbo to combat algae is not a good start, it's highly toxic to fish and inverts in large doses, for it to be effective in combating algae in a 100l tank then you'll have to add large doses and this is ultimately going to effect any inhabitants and possibly effect plants negatively.
Fix the symptoms, don't just pop a plaster over it or you'll forever be fighting a losing battle.
AverageWhiteBloke
Member
It may be a quick fix Dan as a source of carbon for the plants, the OP is still getting to grips with a planted but already has it running and may take time to understand co2 and it's impact never mind purchasing the equipment. What you would probably be best off doing is definitely reducing the lighting either in tubes or duration or better both. This will give you far less problems in the co2 fert department until you have a better understanding of how they work and will also leave some room for error.
If you worried about the EasyCarbo being toxic to your fish then just dose at the stated dose and manually remove as much algae as you can. Later on at some point you can crank up the lighting but only if everything else in the tank is in tune with the higher lights.
I kept planted tanks many moons ago and was brain washed by many local fish stores convincing me you had to have huge lighting to grow plants and no nitrates in the water too prevent algae. After being in this board a while I have used the advice of reducing my lighting and increasing fertilisation to get far better results.
As soon as you get the lighting and nitrate myth's out of your head the easier it will get, it is hard it took me ages
very addictive.A lot of people in here Dan included are experts, they create great show tanks that feature in publications and shows. If your like me and just want a nice tank with some healthy plants in and some fish for the long term then some of the methods in here may not apply to what you want or your lifestyle. Find out what's best for you and what you want with your particular tank.
Never be under the illusion that you have to have massive lighting and £100's pounds worth of equipment just to grow plants. They will do ok with the minimum of expense and effort as long as you don't put extremely bright light over the top of the plants.
Have a look in the board for Low tech tanks which are run on minimum lighting needing, less co2 if at all and little ferts.
High tech tanks are high lighting requiring a supply of ferts where the plants are never left without for any time and good levels co2 well distributed through the tank which cost more to run as well as needing some fairly expensive equipment depends on you budget.
So what you have there is a the lighting for a high tech tank over the top of low tech set up which induces algae, just pick which path you want to go down and the rest of the info is in here somewhere.
Happy Reading
