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Low tech, zero skill

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If I clean what I can and add a touch of liquid carbon should it go away or is it a case of hanging in there until I can stick some shrimp and snails in and they'll sort it?
Don't really want to faff with CO2 yet, I don't think I'll win the mrs around to me modifying a fire extinguisher and I've got relatively slow growing plants anyway.
 
😄
mrhoyo said:
If I clean what I can and add a touch of liquid carbon should it go away or is it a case of hanging in there until I can stick some shrimp and snails in and they'll sort it?
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It should clear - brown diatoms occur early on but stop once the tank matures and balances. The algae on the wood is most likely feeding off sugars released from the wood, same as the mould some folks get. So keep dosing and cleaning and steady as she goes.
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,
How pale does the Salvinia look in "real life"? And are the new leaves noticeably paler than the old leaves?

cheers Darrel
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Salvinia is either really green or a bit brown. Any brown are getting removed.
 
Another anubias leaf came off last night just from the flow during a water change. It's not looking good.
First crypt leaf came off too.
There was quite a lot of (I think this it the technical term) cack floating off the substrate when filling which makes me wonder if the algae is partly due to the salvinia which gets blown down and caught on the plants. My thinking is some is decaying down there rather than floating up.
If I'm right then the idea of floaters reducing algae is out the window for me.
 
Floaters are, in my experience, not happy being submerged again and again, and both salvinia and frogbit dies from this in my tank 🙁 I would try to cordon them off from the flow, or cordon the flow from them if thats easier
 
Hufsa said:
Floaters are, in my experience, not happy being submerged again and again, and both salvinia and frogbit dies from this in my tank 🙁 I would try to cordon them off from the flow, or cordon the flow from them if thats easier
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How do I go about wrangling floaters?
 
I agree with @Hufsa. Try to set up your flow to not sink your floaters. I have amazon frog it and both my flow pumps and my spray bae near the surface. The frog it just gets pushed away to front of tank, but doesn’t sink at all.
 
mrhoyo said:
Airline that's how. Ordered some for delivery tomorrow.
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Turns out airline looks incredibly DIY so I ordered a corner holder online. Looks a bit better.

My anubias doesn't seem very well, there must've been 10 leaves come off today. About half were yellowing and the rest had gone to clear / brown mush.
 
Update
I think the anubias is knackered. 10-15 leaves have come off in the last couple of days and, what I'm assuming is the rhizome, is soft and pasty.
Just did a pretty big water change of 50%+.

I'm also getting sick of cleaning algae, so far my original plans to avoid it have failed:
1 relatively low output LED - I'm not sure that's even suiting my plants

Salvinia - it seeks to do what it wants and WAS getting caught underwater which I think caused algae

Anubias on wood - my thinking was having a fairly big plant would help and that it being pre-attached would save me making a mess. I used the wood as an anchor for a lot of moss and ferns.
It looks like the anubias is on death row now so presumably I need to take it out and clean the wood.

No CO2 - the thinking was it would be easier but now I'm dosing liquid carbon to try fighting the algae and TNC to boost the plants

Fishless cycle - I can't add livestock until the plants have grown in but they seem to be slowing, presumably because of the algae. I could really do with some CUC right now!
20200701_120422.jpg20200701_115807.jpg20200701_113645.jpg20200701_113622.jpg
 
Hi all,
mrhoyo said:
I think the anubias is knackered.
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<"It is">.
mrhoyo said:
1 relatively low output LED - I'm not sure that's even suiting my plants
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I don't know how bright this is, but I'd approach this from a different angle. If your plants don't reach <"light compensation point"> they aren't going to grow, but will decline. I use whatever light I have to hand, if it is <"bright light"> I just have more floating plants, they <"aren't CO2 limited"> and are adapted to <"growing in bright conditions">.

Once you have taken light and CO2 out of the equation it only leaves the mineral nutrients. If you get <"good growth of your plants (including algae)">, you know you don't have any fundamental problems with nutrient availability.

cheers Darrel
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all, <"It is">. I don't know how bright this is, but I'd approach this from a different angle. If your plants don't reach <"light compensation point"> they aren't going to grow, but will decline. I use whatever light I have to hand, if it is <"bright light"> I just have more floating plants, they <"aren't CO2 limited"> and are adapted to <"growing in bright conditions">.

Once you have taken light and CO2 out of the equation it only leaves the mineral nutrients. If you get <"good growth of your plants (including algae)">, you know you don't have any fundamental problems with nutrient availability.

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...
Right, what I'm taking from this is:
Anubias has to come out and be replaced
If I'm managing to grow algae that's a good thing
 
Ray said:
If I look back and compare your first photo with the latest one, it seems you’ve had some decent growth from all except the Anubias in the first month?
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I think you're right actually. I've just compared to day 7 and the crypt in the corner is much bigger. The s.repens grew well to start with but seems to have slowed down since algae appeared.
The grass stuff looks ok but that might be because I ended up getting another delivered a couple of weeks ago.
The monte carlo looks a bit pale and seems to be most susceptible to algae.
Maybe I'm getting there.

I can't wait for the carpet to grow in, I'm starting to wish I'd covered the aqua soil with something. It looks like tiny rabbit droppings!
 
Does anyone fancy taking a guess at what my ammonia and nitrate levels are based on the attached? These colour charts aren't fantastic. Pretty certain nitrite is zero.
dKH 1
dGH 4
PH 6.9
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