Tom Raffield
Member
Afternoon everyone,
I have been battling with my tank for almost a year now having moved to my much larger 260L tank (upgrade from a 125L). The first few months were fine but since then it has been a war of attrition with algae. I have tried adjusting my EI dosage, an H2O2 treatment, adding more water circulation pumps and ensuring a high CO2 provision through my pressurised system. Today I returned from a week away with work hoping to see an improvement or as a minimum nothing getting worse but things are going further downhill; I am starting to get quite upset and irritated about it all as I can not see what else I can try. I have attached photos of some of the areas that are being impacted upon - the algae (or cyano) are now appearing on all plants and in increasing quantity on a daily basis! The glass gains green spot algae but in minimal amounts which I scrub off weekly. I should also mention that a month or ago I had to pull up and bin a lot of my backing plant (red in colour) as it appeared to be being 'eaten' by snails (see previous thread); I am planning on pulling up the rest with my next water change.
In an effort to keep things brief, this is a run down of my tank:
Juwel Vision 260L;
Stock Juwel filter (outlet aimed across back of the tank);
Half gravel substrate and half eco-complete;
EI dosing of micro and macro nutrients (25/30ml on alternate days);
40% water change weekly;
CO2 in green on drop checker (on an hour before lights and off an hour before turn off);
Lighting period of 7 hours using stock lighting and no reflectors;
Hydor Koralia circulation pump for 250L+ tank (aimed from rear top left towards front middle);
Second Hydor Koralia pump not currently in use (smaller than the one above).
As mentioned above I have attempted to play with my ferts, circulation H202 and CO2. All may still be wrong but the only thing I have not yet changed is my two light tubes. These are almost a year old and are the tubes the tank came with. I have two new arcadia tubes ready to go and will happily throw them into play (with reflectors) to see if this helps the problem. It is the only element of the tank that has not yet been tweaked. Is a light change likely to help or hinder me at this stage?
And what else can I do? I have almost got to the point where I want to stop CO2 altogether, bin a large chunk of my plants and try and go back to a low tech tank with very limited planting. All the plants in my tank were considered 'easy to grow' with CO2 'not essential' but something is going wrong somewhere!
Any and all advice is appreciated and if required I will try and give more information. Thank you.
I have been battling with my tank for almost a year now having moved to my much larger 260L tank (upgrade from a 125L). The first few months were fine but since then it has been a war of attrition with algae. I have tried adjusting my EI dosage, an H2O2 treatment, adding more water circulation pumps and ensuring a high CO2 provision through my pressurised system. Today I returned from a week away with work hoping to see an improvement or as a minimum nothing getting worse but things are going further downhill; I am starting to get quite upset and irritated about it all as I can not see what else I can try. I have attached photos of some of the areas that are being impacted upon - the algae (or cyano) are now appearing on all plants and in increasing quantity on a daily basis! The glass gains green spot algae but in minimal amounts which I scrub off weekly. I should also mention that a month or ago I had to pull up and bin a lot of my backing plant (red in colour) as it appeared to be being 'eaten' by snails (see previous thread); I am planning on pulling up the rest with my next water change.
In an effort to keep things brief, this is a run down of my tank:
Juwel Vision 260L;
Stock Juwel filter (outlet aimed across back of the tank);
Half gravel substrate and half eco-complete;
EI dosing of micro and macro nutrients (25/30ml on alternate days);
40% water change weekly;
CO2 in green on drop checker (on an hour before lights and off an hour before turn off);
Lighting period of 7 hours using stock lighting and no reflectors;
Hydor Koralia circulation pump for 250L+ tank (aimed from rear top left towards front middle);
Second Hydor Koralia pump not currently in use (smaller than the one above).
As mentioned above I have attempted to play with my ferts, circulation H202 and CO2. All may still be wrong but the only thing I have not yet changed is my two light tubes. These are almost a year old and are the tubes the tank came with. I have two new arcadia tubes ready to go and will happily throw them into play (with reflectors) to see if this helps the problem. It is the only element of the tank that has not yet been tweaked. Is a light change likely to help or hinder me at this stage?
And what else can I do? I have almost got to the point where I want to stop CO2 altogether, bin a large chunk of my plants and try and go back to a low tech tank with very limited planting. All the plants in my tank were considered 'easy to grow' with CO2 'not essential' but something is going wrong somewhere!
Any and all advice is appreciated and if required I will try and give more information. Thank you.
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