John q
Member
Ultimately we have to experiment mate, I'm not the all seeing eye, sauron is the expert in this department 😉
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Unhealthy plants and troublesome algae
- Thread starter calsip
- Start date
🤣 I wasn't expecting you to accurately predict the fluid dynamics of our tank. I'm just not really sure what I'm aiming for when trying these things. Should I be trying to maximise the vertical mixing and not worry about the relatively gently movement in half the tank? Should I be trying to maximise flow around the whole tank and with that can assume there is sufficient vertical mixing?
John q
Member
The
That one.
Great, thank you
simon_the_plant_nerd
Member
Can we all just agree to recommend a wave maker to increase flow, then I can show my wife and she’ll let me buy an AI Nero 3? If everyone could just push that a little bit that would help me enormously. 👍🏻
Bradders
Member
Wavemakers rock!
Not really any change in the Staurogyne Repens after 5 days of epsom salts. Veins might be slightly less prominent on new growth but I'm not sure.
Guess we should try adding some iron. I'm planning to get this FERRILENE PLUS contains iron chelated with EDDHSA, 10 gr, VALAGRO | eBay which is EDDHA in the description and picture, despite the title saying EDDHSA. Is that a good choice? I think our PH peaks somewhere between 7.2 and 7.5.
Had a play with the nutrient calculator. I think we're getting 0.169 ppm / week of Fe from the TNC Complete. Would an additional 0.1 ppm / week from the EDDHSA be reasonable?
Guess we should try adding some iron. I'm planning to get this FERRILENE PLUS contains iron chelated with EDDHSA, 10 gr, VALAGRO | eBay which is EDDHA in the description and picture, despite the title saying EDDHSA. Is that a good choice? I think our PH peaks somewhere between 7.2 and 7.5.
Had a play with the nutrient calculator. I think we're getting 0.169 ppm / week of Fe from the TNC Complete. Would an additional 0.1 ppm / week from the EDDHSA be reasonable?
John q
Member
Honestly don't think you need eddha iron, but your level of thinking is... sound. I'd persist with the magnesium for a few weeks before making any judgement. Having said that adding extra iron should cover all the bases, so why not.
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John q
Member
simon_the_plant_nerd
Member
That’s half the battle. 👍🏻
Just a little update, no major changes…
Plants all growing, much the same as they were up until we first noticed the nutrient deficiencies in the staurogyne repens except that there’s finally been some significant growth in the eleocharis acicularis. Hopefully as this continues the GTA will get pushed out or at least the plants will be rooted strongly enough that we can pull the algae off.
Generally, there seems to be slightly less GTA that the kid is removing but the GDA is back. Ottos completely ignoring it even though it was the first thing they went for when they were added to the tank and the kid is having to actually clean the glass 😱 😄
After a couple of setbacks we finally got some hygrophila polysperma to add temporarily. Was in the post for 5 days and now been in the tank for three days but it looks like there might be new growth on it 🤞 It’s penned in with some foam as it was getting spun about quite wildly in the flow, hitting the glass and wood. Not sure if that was really a problem or if there’s a better way of dealing with it..
Probably won’t be too long before the Rotala H'ra needs trimming again. Won’t be cut right back though and cut stems will be left to float.
Quarantine tank seems to be ready for fish now so will hopefully be getting some more cardinal tetra soon. Think we’ll put our lonely one in with them if they seem OK after a couple of weeks and then add them all into the main tank a couple of months later.
Plants all growing, much the same as they were up until we first noticed the nutrient deficiencies in the staurogyne repens except that there’s finally been some significant growth in the eleocharis acicularis. Hopefully as this continues the GTA will get pushed out or at least the plants will be rooted strongly enough that we can pull the algae off.
Generally, there seems to be slightly less GTA that the kid is removing but the GDA is back. Ottos completely ignoring it even though it was the first thing they went for when they were added to the tank and the kid is having to actually clean the glass 😱 😄
After a couple of setbacks we finally got some hygrophila polysperma to add temporarily. Was in the post for 5 days and now been in the tank for three days but it looks like there might be new growth on it 🤞 It’s penned in with some foam as it was getting spun about quite wildly in the flow, hitting the glass and wood. Not sure if that was really a problem or if there’s a better way of dealing with it..
Probably won’t be too long before the Rotala H'ra needs trimming again. Won’t be cut right back though and cut stems will be left to float.
Quarantine tank seems to be ready for fish now so will hopefully be getting some more cardinal tetra soon. Think we’ll put our lonely one in with them if they seem OK after a couple of weeks and then add them all into the main tank a couple of months later.
You mean the green dust algae?
Lights are at 50% but I’ll turn them down - 35% maybe?
Andy Pierce
Member
I'd guess you can go a little more aggressively with the CO2 based on your drop checker colour. Carpeting plants are tough to make nice. Bubbles immediately after a water change is degassing following the pressure change from mains tap water to ambient atmospheric pressure, so not related to pearling. It does look like a lot of light for not many plants, so you could turn down the light, or get more plants, or both of those.
The light is down to 35% now - will see how that goes and reduce further if needed.
The co2 is being kept well below the safe level so that there’s a bit of a buffer in case of a problem with it. Maybe it’s time for us to be a bit braver with it though..
The co2 is being kept well below the safe level so that there’s a bit of a buffer in case of a problem with it. Maybe it’s time for us to be a bit braver with it though..
John q
Member
Wait a few days if you do decide to adjust it, lowering the light intensity will likely cause less demand for co2 and thus the levels in the tank may well increase slightly.
As an aside it might be worth doubling the magnesium dose if you are still adding ¼ of a teaspoon, try upping it to ½ per water change.
