Sophos9 - Planted Tank Journal

Something fishy with this tank?

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I've been reading some interesting articles from Tom Barr. I run a siesta in my lighting period which works for me and algae. I now also understand why this works and what I need to do to get rid!

The comment was on not having enough CO2 saturation to cope with the demand of 10hrs straight photosynthesis therefore the siesta would give the tank a chance to increase CO2 levels before another 5hr photo-period.

Root cause - not enough CO2 and the siesta was covering this fact

So, I notched the CO2 up, monitored closely the PH and am able to go 10hrs straight whilst seeing no noticeable increase in algae growth, plants are pearling like crazy with noticeable increase in growth. I've also adjusted the length of over-run before the solenoid shuts off the CO2... I'm currently running CO2 for 2 hours after lights off then 1 hour before lights on, this is giving me about a PH loss of 0.2 overnight (whilst agitating surface for 4hrs), pretty happy with that!

As always, this is short term observations, will report back on once things have settled

Any Pics or updates...

Look out for a pic coming up within the next day or so.... Have been to algae hell and back, still have a few issues!

sophos9 said:

Look out for a pic coming up within the next day or so.... Have been to algae hell and back, still have a few issues!

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We'll be waiting. I feel your pain. I did a stupid and added some ferts to my 36g. Everything was fine but I was beginning to worry since I hadn't added anything in like 6 months. So I added like Iron and trace and I just figured out why my water is cloudy. you don't dose those at the same time I think. See, that's what happens when you go low-tech for a while, you forget everything you've learned about dosing and you mess up something that wasn't messed up in the first place.

llj

As promised...

I've got dosing, lighting and CO2 sorted and slowly but surly, the algae is leaving. This is the best the tank has ever looked. The staghorn is leaving plants, bishies are all VERY active and happy. I've currenly got an additional Fluval 2 internal filter helping clear up the backlog of crud that the algae left behind! Tank pearls like crazy! I do not measure anything anymore, I dose and change water, have not got a clue what the levels are but I guess that with how the fish and plants are doing, its spot on!

Superb, things seem to be getting back to 'normal'

It looks much better, Sophos. I'm glad things are clearing up.

llj

Thanks for the thumbs up, cant wait until the wisteria growing on the bogwood is clear, that really bugs me... At least I have lost the green dust algae, that stuff was a nightmare - so bad that the entire tank was not visible and it looked totally gross. This week will be the first of a noticeable improvement, good job really as I was about to give up and go marine (which is still on the cards), the fish look so much more active.... Adding the additional filter created a whole new under current and since adding it, the activity of the fish has gone through the roof, they totally love it!! All day everyday they are playing in the current and being blown across the tank

When it comes to removing the additional internal filter, I may replace it with a powerful pump (possibly another eheim), this current does not disturb the surface

sophos9 said:

Thanks for the thumbs up, cant wait until the wisteria growing on the bogwood is clear, that really bugs me... At least I have lost the green dust algae, that stuff was a nightmare - so bad that the entire tank was not visible and it looked totally gross. This week will be the first of a noticeable improvement, good job really as I was about to give up and go marine (which is still on the cards), the fish look so much more active.... Adding the additional filter created a whole new under current and since adding it, the activity of the fish has gone through the roof, they totally love it!! All day everyday they are playing in the current and being blown across the tank

When it comes to removing the additional internal filter, I may replace it with a powerful pump (possibly another eheim), this current does not disturb the surface

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I have found that creating good circulation around the tank prevents a lot of algae forms, which seem to thrive in dead, stagnant water. I often have two filters or over-filter by quite a margin. The only fish that really may not appreciate it are possibly anabantoids and other fish from stagnant water, otherwise most species I've worked with generally appreciate the extra circulation.

Thanks for that, good to get confirmation, will keep it up!

What do you know about circulation? Currently I've got the internal filter on the left hand side about 5inchs from the bottom pushing the water across the tank, the spray bar outlet is about 2inches below the water on the right hand side pushing water across the tank, this causes quite a bit of circulation... What type of circulation is best, is it better for both sources to be pointed at each other to cancel the circulation effect?

'Good' circulation (if you read some of Tom Barr's articles) is considered that which moves CO2 around the tank well without creating enough agitation to drive off loads of CO2 as far as I can tell. The best is if you can blow teeny CO2 bubbles around the entire tank, giving plants a decent supply of CO2 across most or all of its surface area.

nry said:

'Good' circulation (if you read some of Tom Barr's articles) is considered that which moves CO2 around the tank well without creating enough agitation to drive off loads of CO2 as far as I can tell. The best is if you can blow teeny CO2 bubbles around the entire tank, giving plants a decent supply of CO2 across most or all of its surface area.

Click to expand...

Hi mate, already got that going on. Got a 300pa eheim pump over top of the diffuser sucking the diffused CO2 up and sending it diagonally down to the bottom of the tank round the back of the plants to ensure that the CO2 spends the longest time possible in the water. Just looked and the surface is not moving at all!

Can remember someone on here saying not to create a vortex although I cannot remember any more