Help with my tank!

[aquamania]

Hi Julian. Any improvement since increasing intensity? I've recently started upping the intensity on my tmc 600's. I'm currently at 60% as of today having spent months trying in vain to get some growth with very low intensity. I'm hoping you have some positive news to report.

 

[Julian]

Hi Julian. Any improvement since increasing intensity? I've recently started upping the intensity on my tmc 600's. I'm currently at 60% as of today having spent months trying in vain to get some growth with very low intensity. I'm hoping you have some positive news to report.

The plants are alive, they might not be growing very much but they aren't dead! This is definitely the longest I've managed to keep these plants alive for, so I know the extra light is helping.

I switched to a different flow output, it basically pointed at the substrate and uprooted all of the plants . Back to square one, but I've upped the lights to 85% now, no signs of any algae. Got some more coming in a few days as well.



Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Jaap]

Don't focus on algae, focus on growing plants. If the plants aren't growing there is no comforting if there is no algae. So keep the lights up, ensure your plants are growing healthy and unless you don't have a massive algae attack that will cover every surface of the aquarium just keep the lights up or even increase them if you see no growth!

 

[Julian]

Though it was about time I posted an update.

I figured out that my problems all along were not having enough light, so I set the 2 tiles to 100% and left it for a about 4 weeks. Although the plants were surviving, they weren't really growing so I've added a 3rd tile running at 50% about 2 weeks ago. Since then, the HC has started pearling and seems to be spreading. I can't tell for sure but it looks like it's growing, although some leafs are turning brown which I think is just diatoms. I'm going to up the water changes and give my filter a good clean so hopefully this will help.

I think my flow could be better, I'm using a stainless steel outflow, I think if I were to switch back to the (ugly) spray bar I used to have things would improve. I'm going to stick it out for a while though and see what happens.

 

[Andy Thurston]

Hi Julian, how about some CUC to help with the diatoms, it should go when you have a good healthy plant mass and the tank settles. critters do help but they will need feeding once the algae runs out.
I'm not a big fan of cleaning my filters every week/month, with the oversize filtration most of us use i feel that 3-6 months is more than adequate. I cleaned my filter after 6 months and there was very little mulm in there.

 

[Julian]

Hi Julian, how about some CUC to help with the diatoms, it should go when you have a good healthy plant mass and the tank settles. critters do help but they will need feeding once the algae runs out.
I'm not a big fan of cleaning my filters every week/month, with the oversize filtration most of us use i feel that 3-6 months is more than adequate. I cleaned my filter after 6 months and there was very little mulm in there.

Been thinking about getting some shrimp, they are next on my list actually. I've got 3 ottos and some assassin snails but I could definitely use some more.

 

[aquamania]

Since my post above I reached the same conclusion as you. Despite reading advice to keep lights low my plants were dying because the light was insufficient. I figured that over 4 months I had discounted everything ie ferts, co2, flow, and dissolution so was only left with increasing light.
I ended up supplementing my twin 600s with two t5 39 watts. Since then growth has exploded. I mentioned this on another thread

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/anyone-using-these-without-trouble.30700/page-2#post-443075

I've tried to post an image of my tank but have not been successful.

I'm so glad I took a risk with more light.

 

[Julian]

Since my post above I reached the same conclusion as you. Despite reading advice to keep lights low my plants were dying because the light was insufficient. I figured that over 4 months I had discounted everything ie ferts, co2, flow, and dissolution so was only left with increasing light.
I ended up supplementing my twin 600s with two t5 39 watts. Since then growth has exploded. I mentioned this on another thread

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/anyone-using-these-without-trouble.30700/page-2#post-443075

I've tried to post an image of my tank but have not been successful.

I'm so glad I took a risk with more light.

Nice to hear someone having the same problems! Did you get any issues with algae?

 

[sciencefiction]

The issues with diatoms is unrelated to the level of light. It's because the plants or fitler can't yet cope with the level of ammonia produced in the tank. Giving the filter "a very good" would actually make it worse in the situation because every cleaning of a filter causes a tiny mini-cycle, mostly undetected but enough to cause some diatom outbreak. I always run at least two filters in every tank for that same reason. Unless the filter is clogged with pieces of plants and other large debris, I would not touch it while there's a diatom outbreak.
What would help is some very fast growing plants, such as floaters. I know they can block some light but you can increase it a tad while you have floaters. Otherwise balancing a tank with the species of plants you have it going to be hard, at least at the start.
As for the light, I've been saying for years that I've seen light deficient tanks all over this forum, the reasons of them struggling attributed to everything but light. I found out that in my low tech tanks increasing the light significantly improved the condition of the plants, and the diversity, without causing algae. Decreasing the light simply killed everything bar anubias and crypts, and the crypts aren't at their best either at such low levels. The anubias grew better at higher light too.

 

[aquamania]

I have suffered from bba which took hold prior to increasing the lights and when I had been convinced that my co2 level was the issue. I was in a cycle of pushing the co2 high then having to reduce it when my fish were showing signs of stress. This and the dying plants seemed to be ideal environment for bba.

 

[aquamania]

This is my tank at the moment. You will note an absence of fish. I am ashamed to say I had a one time timer malfunction. Which meant my co2 for one day was on from midnight till 7pm instead of noon till 7. I am only left with some dwarf please, corydoras and a couple of otos. I'm planning on getting a large schoal of chili rasboras.

 

[Julian]

I have suffered from bba which took hold prior to increasing the lights and when I had been convinced that my co2 level was the issue. I was in a cycle of pushing the co2 high then having to reduce it when my fish were showing signs of stress. This and the dying plants seemed to be ideal environment for bba.

Did you manage to cure the BBA? I'm starting to get a little on the substrate and know it will only get worse. I'm dosing liquid carbon and EI, and I'm pretty sure my CO2 is spot on. I'm not really sure what to change apart from lowering the light.

I know I can spot treat it with the carbon which is what I've been doing on the rocks but not really sure what else to do.

 

[aquamania]

My bba was as a result of fluctuating co2 when I was constantly raising and lowering out. I'm fairly confident it wasn't because of light, because when it took hold my lights were low. I have got rid of most using Excel overdose it is very effective. I turned off all equipment get some in a syringe draw some water into the syringe and then blast the problem area. I left for a few mins even turned everything back on.

 

[Julian]

Just another update, things have definitely improved since adding the extra light.

I'm now running all 3 tiles at 100%, previously the middle tile was only at 50% but I figured I'd increase it and see what happens. The HC is looking much better than what it was previously. It's still a bit patchy where the old growth is starting to die off (front left), but the new growth is looking very green and healthy. I've been carefully trying to remove as much of this old, darker growth as I can using a pair of scissors. Once the plants are more established I'll give it a more aggressive trim. I've also added some extra clumps of HC to far right of the tank which has been in for about 2 weeks. Initially the new HC was much brighter than the old, but it has since darkened and started to blend in.

With the extra light, came the algae. The rocks in the picture below were dark green and almost completely covered in BBA. I've found that by dosing liquid carbon via a syringe and adding some shrimp, it keeps the rocks much cleaner and limits the growth of the BBA. I could turn the lights down at this point but I'm reluctant to do so for the sake of the plants.

I may need to turn the lights down eventually because some of the plants are starting to get a little BBA on them which can't be spot treated like the rocks. As you can see from the Staurogyne (closest center) the edges of the leafs are black, which I think is BBA. A lot of the Staurogyne looks like this and has to be trimmed weekly.

 

[Chris Jackson]

Excellent, so the moral is..do not fear the light...er within reason 😉

 

[Julian]

So my tank is doing much better with the extra light, I almost have a complete carpet of HC but it's looking a bit dark in places. I think this is attributed to the same thing that's affecting some leaves on my Staurogyne.

Can anyone help identify what it is? I don't know if it's algae or a deficiency of some sort. Originally I thought it was BBA but I'm not sure.