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Orange staining and surface scum

Anomander

Anomander

Member
Joined
24 Apr 2024
Messages
36
Location
London
Hello all,

I have a five-week old tank with the following setup:
  • 60l
  • 6hrs light (regular 8w LED that came with Ciano Aqua 80)
  • Hard North London water
  • Regarding Ferts, on a weekly basis, I have been half-dosing the following from the start (I planned to increase the following ferts to a full dose from either this week or next):
    • TNC Complete (half-dose according to TNC dosing recommendation);
    • 1g Epsom salts (half-dose relative to a full dose target of 3.5ppm);
    • 0.5ml TNC Iron (half-dose relative to a full dose target of 0.2ppm).
  • Unipac Silver Sand substrate
  • 50% water changes 2-3 times a week for first month, now started weekly 50% water changes (I was away for past week).
  • Two Aquael Mini Pat filters, one in the back corner with a Venturi and duck-bill pointed towards the surface, the other in the opposite corner of the tank to create a circular flow (no venturi or pointing to surface on 2nd filter). Sway on all plants.
  • Planted with various Anubias species, Java Fern, Salvinia Auriculata and Water Sprite. I have air-tubing to create a space for surface agitation and to keep floaters away - this open space is about 30-40% of tank's surface area and is quite choppy.
On the white plastic suction cups and white Venturi tubing I have noticed a bright-ish orange staining (first image - apologies I tried to capture the colour but it might show up as more brown than orange). This has been there for at least two weeks and shows no sign of abating. I also noticed a white filament-type scum on the surface amongst my Salvinia as well as an oily slick (unable to get a decent photo - apologies). All the plants seem to be doing well with new, healthy-green growth (the Sprite and Salvinia are reproducing particularly rapidly) apart from one of the Anubias plants which seems to have melted (second image - I've trimmed the completely brown/dead leaves) - but even this has grown new healthy-green leaves. I've not had any serious issues with algae apart from some brown specks on the various Anubias leaves which I've been rubbing off, as well as some brown algae on the rocks and sand (which has actually decreased over the past week), and a bit of green and brown algae on the glass in a few places.

I was wondering whether there was a link between the orange staining, the melting Anubias, and the surface scum? Is there something I need to adjust, and can I got ahead with increasing my ferts to a full-dose and to start gradually increasing the lighting duration? Many thanks for any help, as always.
 

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The brown algae is diatoms, common in a new tank, and will resolve themselves with a bit more time. Does the orange stain wipe off? It may be the same thing and just a bit more obvious on white.

Scum is probably from the decaying plants, again, probably a new tank issue as they settle into being under water. Breaking the surface with air bubbles or the filter output can help mix it so the filter takes it out or you can skim it off.

It sounds like things are going well though so I wouldn't worry too much about needing to change things until you've had a bit longer for it all to settle.
 
Thanks for your reply - yes the orange residue does rub off - don't know why I didn't think to try that!

Thanks for the reassurance - I think I'm over-worrying as I'm considering introducing livestock in the next few weeks.
 
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