Silicates causing diatoms?

[Goose157]

The tank i has actually been runnning for about five years now....but only planted for about 2 month.......
Cheers

 

[Matty123]

Hi Matt - your advice did help....but i am like you a perfectionist!! Lol....sends me bonkers seeing the brown stuff appearing a little still and i have trying to really get to the bottom of it!!
My tank is a lot better now .... but i feel like like i am just a mistake away from another bad attack so all the info methods i can learn the better....
All the best Chris

Oh that’s a relief! Yeah just keep that tank pristine so to keep ammonia to nearer to zero as possible. The light is the accelerator for the blooms as soon as it’s in contact with the ammonia. Algae spores are present in every tank so think of them as dormant and docile caterpillars but as soon as that caterpillar is exposed to the right nutrients (light in reference to algae) then it turns into a beautiful butterfly and the same sort of scenario happens to the algae spores (when in contact with the right amount of light) you get ‘beautiful’ algae! Keep it clean and light lean


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[Goose157]

Hey mate .... its on the mend but i think after seeing so many awesome tanks on here my humble 20g looks like the poor relation! Lol......
Cheers ...-)

 

[Matty123]

Hey mate .... its on the mend but i think after seeing so many awesome tanks on here my humble 20g looks like the poor relation! Lol......
Cheers ...-)

Evening Goose!

Amano’s tanks had staff working on them 24/7 to keep them looking amazing. George Farmers tanks look stunning with bags of OCD maintenance (worthwhile checking out his vids on YouTube). But there is the balance to all this by letting nature and BAGS of patience take its course... Like women suffer from ‘bum envy’ us aquarists suffer the bottom envy. Talking of bottoms; my tank resembled that of the aftermath of sea bed trawled within an inch of it’s life, it looked truly awful. Without sounding big headed and naive the advise I passed onto you is what I learnt from these helpful chaps on here and it worked! With the advise already stated above you won’t go wrong BUT you have to be patient! Oh and stop looking at pictures on here of others peoples tanks as they’ve obviously been photoshopped!


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[Goose157]

Lol yes deffo too impatient!!!
Cheers
And yes subscribed to George’s channel....(

 

[Matty123]

Lol yes deffo too impatient!!!
Cheers
And yes subscribed to George’s channel....(

I was only jesting about people tanks being photoshopped, just saying as I don’t want to aquarist mafia on my back, the cod father is a force not be reckoned with!

All the best with it and look forward to the fruits of your labour as they will come soon enough


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[ian_m]

If your still early on and nitrates are high, you might not want to add any extra fish.

There are various bacteria bombs that will help speed up the cycling process if nitrates are high.

I assume you mean nitrites ? High nitrates are not a problem for fish, where as nitrites even in low levels are quite toxic to fish.

 

[zozo]

There are various bacteria bombs that will help speed up the cycling process

I remember a Lab test article from a few years back, they tested a range of products claiming to add a bacteria polpulation to jump start a filter or aqaurium what so ever. The freeze dried products performed the worst, it couldn't be determined if they add anything at all.. Followed by the liquid products with the same result and the Gel version performed the best. But bottom line conclusiion, non of them performed good enough to give one the credit of beeing worth using and or buying. In the end there wasn't much significant difference in the test subject without additives vs. the test subjects with additives.

The best bacteria bombs out there are still the plants and the life bacteria already living in and on their roots. Comming for free with it when you buy them. And than a bit more patience if you are doing it without plants.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Are you testing no2 / no3?

I think testing is always <"going to be a divisive issue">, my point of view would be that I would like to know accurate water parameters for the tanks, but even with a lab., and a lot time, it isn't always possible.

For the the nitrite(NO2)/nitrate(NO3) question I think the answer is that you can test fairly accurately for NO2 using semi-quantitative colorimetric methods and the scientific protocol, but that testing for NO3 is a lot more problematic even with lab. grade kit.

This was a major reason for developing the "duckweed index", if you have healthy growing, dark green floating plants you have plenty of nutrients, it is as simple as that. If you want to limit nutrient addition you can use a conductivity datum, and only add nutrients when your floating plants begin to show deficiency symptoms.

Because plants need about x10 more nitrogen (NO3) and potassium (K) than any of the other nutrients, and N and K are mobile within the plants, a small plant with senescent older leaves is very likely to be N and/or K deficient. When you add potassium nitrate (KNO3) you should get a fairly rapid greening, because of their mobile nature.

If your still early on and nitrates are high, you might not want to add any extra fish.

OK, nitrates are the end product of the aerobic nitrification process, they can only be removed by:

• Water changes with water lower in nitrates.
• Plant growth.
• Ion exchange using an anion specific resin.
• Anaerobic denitrification.

Plants are the easiest method, partially because they produce a <"negative feedback loop"> partially because they are <"net oxygen producers"> and partially because they take up all forms of fixed nitrogen and the NH3 and NO2 that doesn't enter microbial filtration doesn't have an oxygen demand.

There are various bacteria bombs that will help speed up the cycling process if nitrates are high.

Again it is an area with much debate, I notice these are often mentioned positively on Koi and Cichlid forums, possibly because these are often kept in tanks without plants and with messy feeding fish.

I think in planted tanks their role is a lot less clear mainly because the microbes they contain (assuming they actually contain some) are probably different from the microbial assemblage that occurs in a planted tank, there is a discussion of this in <"Filter cycling...">.

cheers Darrel