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idiots guide for me please

Started IE last night and my tank has gone mental think i need to buy more fast growing plants.my anubis and java fern are covered in algae but everything else seems fine.
 
hi hixy,
Exactly what did you do, step by step from start to finish. Exactly what kins of algae is it. Got pictures?

Cheers,
 
hello ceg4048,i did as you said i have done 2 50% water changes in 3 days got dry ferts yesterday and added 1 tsp KNO3, 1/4 tsp of KH2PO4,2 tsp epsom salts and tonight added 1/4 tsp of trace element.doing a 50% water change is no mean feet when have to carry water in buckets from garage ha ha.you said add epsom salts when i change water. is that every time .here are algae pics.the red plant in the middle looks like its grown to inches in a day even though its covered with algae.


algae003.jpg
algae002.jpg
algae001.jpg
 
hixy said:
hello ceg4048,i did as you said i have done 2 50% water changes in 3 days got dry ferts yesterday and added 1 tsp KNO3, 1/4 tsp of KH2PO4,2 tsp epsom salts and tonight added 1/4 tsp of trace element.doing a 50% water change is no mean feet when have to carry water in buckets from garage ha ha.you said add epsom salts when i change water. is that every time .here are algae pics.the red plant in the middle looks like its grown to inches in a day even though its covered with algae.
Click to expand...

Well this is mysterious because that looks like BGA and that could only happen if you have a shortage of nitrate. What have you been dosing over the past couple of weeks prior to getting the ferts yesterday? and especially the 3 days prior when you did the water changes?

Good grief, why are you changing water via buckets from the garage? :shock: Don't you have a garden hose you could just hook up? We really need to understand everything about where the tank is what kind of water you are using (tap or RO?) What you've been doing for nutrients prior to getting the powders, what kind of filtration and substrate you are using etc. There is no way you add nitrate and get BGA the next day. It appears as if the tank had been on the decline for some time before you added the dry powders.

Clean by hand, do another water change and then a 3 day blackout by turning off the lights and covering the tank but continue dosing. The final picture looks like possibly GSA which means low phosphates, so again if you just added it yesterday I'm hard pressed to believe it was anything but a coincidence. Again, the indications are that the tank had been starving for a little bit prior.

Cheers mate,
 
the algae doesnt look to bad today would water changes clear it up.my water goes through a hma filter which removes heavy metals and most other things.like i say things are growing like mad at the moment and trying to talk the misses into covering up my tank for 3 days isnt going to go down well.i did buy some lilly pond plant tablets and put them in the Substrate could that have caused the problem.i will remove plants clean them and carry on with water changes .
 
Hi hixy,
As far as I can tell from what I have read the Heavy Metal Axe filter should have no effect, at least any more than using RO water. Is that why you have to use buckets, because your HMA filter is in the garage? You don't need it you know. Are you using HMA water because of discus? If it's just for the plants just use tap. In any case you are dosing trace metals into the tank so that should not be a factor.

If the blackout is not practical then the only thing you can do in the interim is to lower the lighting perhaps by 30% or so, limit the photoperiod to less than 10 hours, continue to do twice or thrice weekly water changes, and continue to dose. Just before you do the water changes scrub like mad and use a net if you have to to get as much algae mass out of the tank. Dose immediately after the water change. I just want to warn you that it may be a couple weeks before you have it licked but once you do you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

In my opinion, get rid of all pond tablets. :evil: I don't know what's in them but it wouldn't surprise me if there are some ammonia salts mixed in and if that's the case it can make life difficult if you disturb the substrate while you are cleaning and scrubbing.

Cheers mate,
 
Hello mate use hma for my discus which is in garage were the water is warmed up over night.Then as i dont have a pump that would pump the water 60 feet a have to use buckets dont mind. its my only bit of excercise i get nowadays.Thanks for help will let you know how i get on.
 
BGA grows very fast when it gets a hold, but it doesn't spring from nothing overnight. I suspect that it was there before but only became noticeable overnight.

Low nitrates maybe right but IME the presence of BGA is due to poor filtration (this may lead to a drop in nitrates due to the inefficient break down of ammonia), although once it's there it's tricky to get rid of. The only thing that worked for me was continual cleaning and water changes every day for a week and then a 3 day black out followed by another few days of water changes.
 
beeky said:
BGA grows very fast when it gets a hold, but it doesn't spring from nothing overnight. I suspect that it was there before but only became noticeable overnight.

Low nitrates maybe right but IME the presence of BGA is due to poor filtration (this may lead to a drop in nitrates due to the inefficient break down of ammonia), although once it's there it's tricky to get rid of. The only thing that worked for me was continual cleaning and water changes every day for a week and then a 3 day black out followed by another few days of water changes.
Click to expand...


hello beeky got to disagree with the poor filtration statement i have got an ehiem 2080 which is supposed to turn over 1700 litres an hour plus a juwel jumbo internal filter.and all this on a 300 litre tank.

ceg4048 .all the algae has gone and changing 50% water every other day do i need to add epsom salts everytime i do a water change.

thanks hixy
 
Wow hixy, are you lifting 150 kilos of water and carrying it up a 60 feet of stairs every day?? I'm gonna have to petition the Stourbridge council to commission a statue of you and have it placed in the town center. No doubt about that. :shock:

My personal policy is to do a full dosing of all nutrients after all water changes. If you are doing the bucket brigade every day this makes it a bit awkward because the traces are normally dosed on alternate days. If you will continue to do daily water changes then dose the macros (Nitrate, Phosphate) + epsom salts immediately after the change and then wait several hours and dose the traces. You must wait a few hours before dosing the traces (I assume you are using the powdered traces right?) otherwise the traces interact with the phosphate, the Iron becomes insoluble and is lost for a while. If you are using commercial traces then you can dose these traces at the same time.

Glad to hear the tank is on the mend. 😀

Cheers,
 
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