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Surface agitation and CO2

dougbraz

Member
Joined
3 Nov 2020
Messages
147
Location
São Paulo Brazil
I have a 30 gal low tech jungle style tank. I recently read that increased (water) circulation was good (in general), so I installed a circulation pump to add to my canister filter circulation. I then first heard that surface agitation increase was also beneficial for oxygenation, so pointed the canister filter return more upwards to increase this. Adding Seachem Excel on a daily basis. As the plants steadily grew more, I increased the dosage. I THEN noticed that green hair algae started to appear and after further reading, I saw that apparently the increased surface agitation actually helped speed up co2 dissipation, so I should reduce this surface agitation while still increasing Excel dosage as the plants grew (obviously with a "lower" dosage after pruning). Lighting has been a constant 6 hours a day with an hour before and after to bring the power to 65% or at the end lowering same to zero. pH is a fairly steady 6, water temp about 25ºC.
In another thread here I read that surface agitation should be increased in low tech tanks.
Fair to say, I'm getting confused. Does anyone have any pointers?
 

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Hi all,
I read that surface agitation should be increased in low tech tanks. Fair to say, I'm getting confused. Does anyone have any pointers?
I saw that apparently the increased surface agitation actually helped speed up co2 dissipation, so I should reduce this surface agitation while still increasing Excel dosage as the plants grew
This is only really true if you add pressurised CO2. In that case with increased surface movement you have a <"larger gas exchange surface area"> and more CO2 will be lost to the atmosphere. <"Glutaraldehyde based carbon supplements"> (like Excel) don't ever actually become CO2, so this doesn't apply to them.

In a low tech more surface agitation is likely to <"increase levels of CO2 during photosynthesis">, and increase levels of oxygen during the dark period.

As the plants steadily grew more, I increased the dosage. I THEN noticed that green hair algae started to appear
This just means that conditions (light and nutrients) were suitable for plant growth. The Green Algae are <"physiologically very close"> to all the other green plants.
...........but if you create ideal growing conditions for the plants you want, you also create ideal growing conditions for the ones you don't. All the green plants (those that possess chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b) are identical in terms of their basic photosynthetic physiology. They form a monophyletic clade (<"the Chlorobionta or Viridiplantae">), with a single common ancestor.

The "green plants" are all the plants we want to grow (mosses, ferns and higher plants), plus some we don't, and we call these ones "green algae".......

cheers Darrel
 
Words of wisdom much appreciated Darrel - thank you.
So...reverting to the algae, perhaps an amano shrimp or two would be a good choice - or some nerite snails?
Just to be doubly sure, amanos are caridine shrimps, not neo-caridine, correct?


cheers
 
Algae which settles on plants and hardscapes is more likely to be due to excess organics. This might sound confusing but you can think of it another way: perfect co2 and growing plants do not automatically remove algae.

Increase water changes and cleaning on top of co2 tweaking and you'll eventually get there. Be patient and don't expect overnight results.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
 
Hi all,
perhaps an amano shrimp or two would be a good choice - or some nerite snails?
I haven't kept either Nerite Snails or Amano shrimps, but I think that Nerite shrimps are good for hard surfaces, but not soo much for algae on plants and that Amano shrimps will eat green hair algae, but not Cladophora.

cheers Darrel
 
I have Nerites and other snails and Amanos and other shrimp, they are nice but they don't really clean your tank of algae, you do with manual removal and tweaking the parameters. FYI - the best algae clean-up crew members that I have are 6 Panda Garras in one of my tanks, fun little fish.
 
I have Nerites and other snails and Amanos and other shrimp, they are nice but they don't really clean your tank of algae, you do with manual removal and tweaking the parameters. FYI - the best algae clean-up crew members that I have are 6 Panda Garras in one of my tanks, fun little fish.
6 Panda Garras at 10-12 quid each here stretches the budget a wee bit - but thanks for the info!
 
Be patient
Oh we try, we try! but omigod it can be trying at times! I think one of the biggest problems for a newbie is the excess of (at times even conflicting) information available. You have to recognise that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution and work around it as best you can.
 
This is a Non-CO2 injected tank correct? lowtech?
Way too much light for lowtech tank. Lower lighting to 40% @ 6hrs duration.
What fertilizers are you using?
What is the substrate?
What water change schedule are you doing?
 
6 Panda Garras at 10-12 quid each here stretches the budget a wee bit - but thanks for the info!
Fun fish! Great clean-up crew. When you work on the tank they come and nibble on your skin and tickle you! It freaks one of my employees out but I love it.

P.S. - they are in a large tank.
 
Fun fish! Great clean-up crew. When you work on the tank they come and nibble on your skin and tickle you! It freaks one of my employees out but I love it.

P.S. - they are in a large tank.
hah! like with Siamese algae eaters, they would get too big for my 30-gallon tank quite soon.
 
I believe that SAE's can grow up to 6" which is twice as big as garras. Still, 3" is big for many tanks I have them in an angelfish tank.
 
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I believe that SAE's can grow up to 6" which is twice as big as garras. Still, 3" is big for many tanks I have them in an angelfish tank.
Yup, a bit bigger than I want - already dreading the kissing gouramis growing too big...but thanks for the feedback!
 
A good algae eater that doesn't grow to big are definitely otos. They happily eat algae on plants and hardscape. Only downside to otos is they are very sensitive to temp and water parameter changes, this mainly applies to when introducing them to tank for the first time. Amano shrimp are exactly the same.

My algae crew is currently 5 otos and 6 amano shrimps. Amanos are brilliant foraging creatures and provided you have sufficient numbers with happily clean your tank of most algaes and waste fish foods. Amanos have many names Caridina multidentata or yamato shrimps and sometimes called japonica shrimp.

SAE are great for BBA algae but they grow big.
 
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