Help with Algae and Lack of Plant Growth

[Gorillastomp]

I have made a few changes since I last posted, hopefully most of them for the better! First I have a new filter, an Aquael Ultramax 2000. I feel this is much better suited to the tank size than my old 306. I also purchased an inline diffuser, which appears to be doing a good job.

Interesting pH profile this week. The pH dropped slower and not as far as previous weeks.

Just giving my thoughts on your CO2 Injection. The drop being slower in PH could be due to your filter losing flow from the filter pads being a little bit dirtier overtime. IMO it's better to have injection from another pump and not using the filter for this.

I experienced a bit about CO2 injection in the last few months, you can improve your CO2 injection efficiency by augmenting the turn over rate of the water where the CO2 is injected (Works best for inline injection). I guess with an in tank diffuser, the overall turn over inside the tank should help aswell. (Did not experienced much with in tank diffuser, just a thought).

 

[Katie656]

Hi Gorillastomp! I don’t think there has been much of a change in the time it has taken the CO2 to drop since swopping from an in tank diffuser to the inline diffuser.
I have purposely only half filled the canister bucket with media, so hopefully there will still be plenty of water flow, even when the media gets a little gunky.

 

[chrisjohnson]

The surface scum is caused by the same issue which causes the algae. These are oil, lipids and fats and proteins that are hemorrhaging from the plant tissues as a result of poor CO2 uptake. The irony is that the scum actually helps to keep CO2 from escaping, but this is not a good tradeoff, especially when the lights are off as it also reduces oxygen exchange.

Cheer

I quite often have trouble with surface scum/biofilm!! I usually just get a jug and skim the top layer off. How could I increase co2 uptake within the plants without adding pressurised co2?

 

[ceg4048]

I quite often have trouble with surface scum/biofilm!! I usually just get a jug and skim the top layer off. How could I increase co2 uptake within the plants without adding pressurised co2?

Hi,
By far the easiest and most logical approach is to reduce the demand for CO2 by reducing the light intensity. Low tech tanks had a much easier time of it when they were limited to T8 fluorescent tubes. Another, more expensive option is to use daily liquid carbon product dosing such as daily application of Excel and equivalent, but that is itself a can of worms.

Cheers,

 

[Katie656]

Hi, sorry it’s been so long since my last reply.
Things have been going relatively well and I have been seeing good plant growth. However on Monday (3 days ago) there was an issue with my CO2 and I almost lost all of my fish. Luckily the incident was spotted and the CO2 was turned off before a complete disaster occurred, and all fish have thankful made a full recovery.
The CO2 has been switched off since, I have dimmed the lights to 50% and am only dosing 1/2 the recommended dose of fertiliser.
I don’t think I am going to restart the CO2 on this tank as all of my plants should adapt to low tech conditions, and hopefully the algae will be more controllable.
I have got a 15 gallon Fluval Flex which I am planning to set up as a soiled planted tank for dwarf puffer fish, and I think I am going to move the CO2 system onto there. I have learnt so much in the last few months, hopefully I can get things right from the get go this time!