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Superman's 180l Asian Retreat

Re: Superman's First Planted Tank (Now Rescaped 17.08.2008)

aaronnorth said:
saintly said:
looks like bga to me. :?

me too. It could be other factors like dirty filter, low NO3, NH3 spike.

Never heard of the hk/ gh rise though!

I'm trying to remove as much of the melting leaves as I see them to try and limit ammonia spike.
I'm still running my old internal with my new external maybe the internal isn't as efficient as it was before due to the pull of the new one? Did the usual filter maintainence so might see if there's anything i missed
I have increased my dosing since adding the new plants.
 
Re: Superman's First Planted Tank (Now Rescaped 17.08.2008)

ceg4048 said:
Add more NO3 mate. :D

Cheers,

Are you sure? It already has nearly 50ppm NO3 added weekly which IMHO is way excessive for this tank considering it probably has less than 5ppm uptake by the plants. This is even before we take NO3 from the fish into account.

If it keeps coming back a 3 day blackout clears up BGA well. More plant mass is needed to combat algae and make sure that drop checker is a nice green and not blue.

GH/KH is a new one for me. I've never seen it make any difference. BGA sometimes appears after periods of elevated NH3/NH4 and NO2 in the water, normally at startup, and doesn't go away by itself even after everything has settled down and dosing started.

James
 
Re: Superman's First Planted Tank (Now Rescaped 17.08.2008)

BGA is a strange one. I had a bout of it ages ago when my routine maintenance wasn't routine anymore. The filter blocked to a trickle and a couple of weeks later BGA appeared. I probably had quite high nitrate in the tank, but whether it dropped and the ammonia and nitrite went up due to the filter blockage I don't know.

As James says though, even getting back on top of maintenance didn't stop it's spread and I had to siphon it out every day or two for a few weeks and then a complete blackout before I beat it. It's horrible stuff; it made the whole house smell!
 
Re: Superman's First Planted Tank (Now Rescaped 17.08.2008)

I went to the LFS today to get a test for gH, it came out with a reading of 12.

Everythings going well, got a new groth on the crypts I added yesterday. The Anubias is really taking off too.

I'm trying to remove the GSA although it keeps coming back, water change later today I think so will get rid of the new stuff.

Going to treat my fish to a block of bloodworms later today. Also bought some Liquifry #3 as the only remaining Otto fry is growing up.

I was thinking about increasing the the light in the tank by switching on the the second lot of tubes say for an hour but with the GSA I'm thinking that's a bad idea.
 
Re: Superman's First Planted Tank (Now Rescaped 17.08.2008)

What you need is some fast growing stem plants in there, vallis, crypts and anubias just not going to cut it. With all that light now and pressurized CO2 and EI you need more plant mass and something that can grow pretty fast ;)
 
Re: Superman's First Planted Tank (Now Rescaped 17.08.2008)

Hygrophilia Polysterma would look great in that back right corner. Its a rapid grower and great for checking parameter of the tank (top tip from Matt :D).
 
Re: Superman's First Planted Tank (Now Rescaped 17.08.2008)

last night was water change night.
I pulled out the hairgrass and p helferi to gravel vac the BGA out and also replant in smaller clumps. I think this was made things more tidy with the p helferi and the hairgrass has been cut short to encourage new growth.
Just got a co2 fe at lunch from a local guy asmy 500g bottle is quickly running out.

Baby Otto is still doing well and is getting more active with each day. Started feeding it the liquifry no3 now which is the fine powder, along with algae pellets and a few crypt cuttings. Still keeping fingers crossed that it'll grow healthy.

Hopefully the BGA won't return as I've upped the po4 as suggested then I'll start using my four tubes.

Watching the plants pearl at water change was amazing.
 
Re: Superman's First Planted Tank (Now Rescaped 17.08.2008)

aaronnorth said:
when a water change is done, it can bring on false pearling so i have read. It might of been on here somewhere but i dont know the exlplanation!
Happens at all my water changes, if I am not mistaken its something to do with the temperature of the water in the tank reacting with the temp of the water you putting in.
 
Re: Superman's First Planted Tank (Now Rescaped 17.08.2008)

LondonDragon said:
aaronnorth said:
when a water change is done, it can bring on false pearling so i have read. It might of been on here somewhere but i dont know the exlplanation!
Happens at all my water changes, if I am not mistaken its something to do with the temperature of the water in the tank reacting with the temp of the water you putting in.

i cant remember it being that, i am sure it had something to do with O2 being put in the water?
 
Re: Superman's First Planted Tank (Now Rescaped 17.08.2008)

Ah right, still looked impressive!

Came back and lost two of my amano shrimp. The water was hotter than usual at 26C and all the fish were gasping. They're ok now but sad to lose my shrimp. Next time I do a water change, might reduce my co2 injection rate. They were all ok at lunch when I dropped off the fire extinguisher, but when I got home when the lights were on they were all really hot.
 
Re: Superman's Asian Retreat

Quick update...

Outside factors has caused me not to look after the tank as much. I'm rather disappointed that I've let it slide as much as it was looking good and going forward, I got lazy, had other distractions, no energy and no time to do it. I've realised that keeping a good looking tank takes time but not that much if you do put the effort in frequently. It's been a wake up call to me on the tank, even at one point thought about giving up - but that soon went away.

I've had mixed results..
- The hair grass was a right disaster and so has been pulled out
- P Helferi has been replanted as created new shoots
- Crypt Parva is creating new shoots
- Vallis in poor condition if I'm honest, got algae spores all over it and have removed the worst effected leaves but don't want to chop it all down as they'd be none left.
- The white film has returned again (due to my lack of effort no doubt) so will be working to clean that off each night
- My Ottos are still spawning!
- Think there's only one Shrimp left but didn't see where the others have gone
- One Pencil fish just died on water change. No sign of any ill effects.
- The water is always "dusty", the filters are pulling things in, just think thee fluff stays in the water too long. Maybe I need to alter the flow.

To combat the above I plan to
- Get some glosso to replace the hair grass.
- Get some Hygrophila Polysperma.
- Might get some new vallis to replace the stuff I've got.
- Spot treat the algae.
- Looking to increase the water changes to about, two 30%'s each week or so.
- Get back into the good habbits.

No photos at the min as (1) I don't have any batteries for my camera (2) am rather gutted on how bad I've got it. On the positive side of things, I know it can be turned around so will keep going.
 
Re: Superman's Asian Retreat

Hang in there, Kiddo. Don't give up, the choopers will be here anytime :)
Sorry to hear of your algae woes, but keep at it and it'll sort itself (with a little help from you). Hygrophilas are a really good idea. I've grown five different kinds in the past 8 months. Needs to be pruned quite often, though. And lately it just doesn't seem to grown for me any more? I've upped the CO2 and the ferts, but after my last (major) pruning it's just sitting there? I took out all the stems and replanted the tops as they were sending out roots in all directions.
 
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