Road To Recovery

this might be a silly question but what bio medium do you have in your filter , is it possably coral or lime based, as i have know it happen before.

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The only media that i'm running is the stuff that came with my Eheim - EHFISUBSTRAT and EHFIMECH, dont think that either of these are lime based.

Need to get some stuff done and then I'll change 50% water to see what happens.

50% water change performed and have to take the wife out so i'll retest in about an hour to see where I'm up to! then we start EI......

Add the bicarb at water change, work it out on the calculator as to how much to add, i generally premix it in a small container, maybe the playsand contains crushed seashells or something.

zig said:

Add the bicarb at water change, work it out on the calculator as to how much to add, i generally premix it in a small container, maybe the playsand contains crushed seashells or something.

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Cheers Zig - changed 50% water today and my KH dropped to 2dKH so i guess that it's the Sand that is the culprit, PH was 6.8 a couple of hours after - have been running Co2 at a reduced rate right through now.

Mixed a bicarb solution tonight and added that so my readings are currently KH 6 PH 7, will see how things go and if appropriate will increase the Co2 flow as it's low level at the moment.

Thanks for your input

Ste

Simon,Zig thanks for your input into my setup you have been a great help.

Just to let you know where i'm up to with this because I think i'm finally getting there!

After the bicarb mix was added my KH has reduced to 5dKH and remained stable [Was 6 after adding bicarb] and my PH has reduced slowly to 6.6, since this is giving somewhere in the region of 38ppm Co2 i'll be looking to reduce the output slightly although I wanted to monitor levels for a day or so first. I have also taken the step of adding an air stone via a timer set for lights off period, my theory here and correct me if i'm wrong is that plants are not using Co2 during this time and as such there would be a build up of Co2 which in turn results in a PH swing?
By running an air line I can difuse the Co2 supply via the added surface movement and keep my PH values stable [or let them rise slightly]?

I'm looking to buy a solenoid valve from HERE as they are close by and the price seems pretty good, I'll be fitting this to my JBL kit.

Also started EI this week albeit early days and I have spotted some form of hair nasty but i'm hoping that this will die as I go along - Levels are still low only on day 2 and stated with 0 nitrates

Going in the right direction or fuzzy logic?

Ste

Switch off the airstone an hour or so before lights come back on in the morning (or whenever) to allow the co2 to build back up to 30ppm again, when you get the solenoid up and running you should switch it on an hour before lights on also for the same reason to allow the buildup of co2.

Just keep dosing and keep the co2 at 30ppm throughout the photoperiod and your algae issues will disappear, its early days with the co2 and this will make all the difference in eradicating algae.

zig said:

Switch off the airstone an hour or so before lights come back on in the morning (or whenever) to allow the co2 to build back up to 30ppm again, when you get the solenoid up and running you should switch it on an hour before lights on also for the same reason to allow the buildup of co2.

Just keep dosing and keep the co2 at 30ppm throughout the photoperiod and your algae issues will disappear, its early days with the co2 and this will make all the difference in eradicating algae.

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Cheers zig, it's good to know that i'm moving in the right direction, think I have already got my air timer setup like you have suggested to allow for the build up. As for the solenoid I think that I will be buying that this week as I'm due in Waterford next week for a couple of days and dont want to risk anything going wrong when I'm away.


Ste

Where abouts are you?

zig said:

Where abouts are you?

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Manchester, so it's a flight into the prefab known as Waterford airport

OIC i thought you might be in Ireland, ive never had the pleasure of visiting Waterford airport, didnt know they even had one......enjoy!

Bit of an update!

Finally got my readings turned round to give PH 6.8 KH 6dKH

Managed to do this by adding 2 T spoons of bicarb to up the KH and started to run air into the tank through the night for 10 hrs. Went to buy a solenoid the other day but the only had the Aqua medic pulse unit @ £60+ so needless to say I didn't walk away with one.

Started EI and the plants are using up the Nitrate nicely and the best part is no ****** not going to tempt fate! So with every good time theres always a kick in the teeth round the corner and mine is more than likely going to come next week, I have reason to work away for a couple of days next week and since it's weekend I am due for a water change, this obviously leaves me a bit worried as I will miss a few days of dosing/testing.

Now for the question

I've just dosed to a level of 10 ppm for my Nitrates which the water change will swing round, do I therefore dose back to 10 just before I go away and then top up when I get back [Mon - Thurs] ? I'll also be going to Barcelona on the Sat for a couple of days so Ill need to repeat the process again then!

Cheers

Ste

I'm in Manchester too Ste_J, give me your house keys and I will look after your tank while you are away

I have been reading this thread, I am a bit confused do you actually have plants in the tank right now or just sand and bogwood? Why the dosing?

oldwhitewood said:

I'm in Manchester too Ste_J, give me your house keys and I will look after your tank while you are away

I have been reading this thread, I am a bit confused do you actually have plants in the tank right now or just sand and bogwood? Why the dosing?

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Very kind of you to offer I'm in Denton so I hope it's not too far for you!

Yeah it's planted although not how I would like it to be yet - my lfs's never have any decent plants in them so I need to start buying online.

My tank has gone from this which got horid BBA



To this although the pic really doesn't show it well as I had just removed a plastic mesh bag containing my old filter media



Not sure how I have managed it but I managed to talk the wife into buying me a PSP for christmas - don't even want one but thought i'd she would go for it! Thinking of a new 215L now instead

Thought I'd throw this in as an update.

Having decided not to go for a PSP I instead went for a new tank and after some time spent making mistakes on substrate buying and making a hood I have managed to get things going.

Planting has been thrown in for now whilst I work out what I like and will be very much subject to change as I go. Got some BBA in there and the Platies are starting to annoy me now as they wont stop breeding



Still it's a start and better than getting a PSP Needs a clean as things are still on settle mode and my black background has yet to go on.

Thought I'd drag this up from the past and throw an update in

Today was a good day as I have now rid my tank of the dreaded breeding farm and things are starting to take shape. A few weeks ago I found a decent LFS that would take my unwanted fish, weeks have gone by and several trips to the shop with plastic bags containing platy breeding by the dozen.
A couple of new additions have been made in the form of 5 cories, several shrimp and 10 rummy nose. EI didn't work out as planned due to my high phospate readings from tap and my nitrates have been consistantly high throughout. Now I don't add any PO4 and only small amounts of NO3 at water change and half way through the week, this coupled with trace and Iron seems to be doing the trick.

Since my stock has changed I'm going to start watching the nitrates a bit closer as I have a feeling that the breeding could have been bumping this up but maybe I'm just going made after counting little yellow critters multiply week on week!

A shot of the latest phase



Wouldn't mind creating a low level planting theme and removing the growth from the back - the glosso at the front is filling in nicely so I may well go for more around the sides although I would prefer some HC.


Any suggestions?

Ste

Nice Ste, real nice. I just love tanks like this, the green they 'give off' is just fantastic, like looking at the trees in the rainforest.

Sam