What substrate did you use Wills? Must say when those two pics appeared on this post I thought I was having a bad dream. Hats off to you for battling through it
Aquascaper 600
- Thread starter Wills
- Start date
No clue on this:
But the tank is looking great - I bet that algae looks cool when it waves in the flow.
But the tank is looking great - I bet that algae looks cool when it waves in the flow.
Wow!
I’ll be honest, that’s what I feared might happen.
The exact same thing happened to me when I set up a high tech C02 tank a few years ago and boom, lots of hair algae type, spent hours removing loads of this stuff from plants and decor etc.
I think it was a combination of lights being too intense and too much C02 despite being slightly less than 1bps.
Am not sure what I can advise for your tank, extremely difficult to pinpoint exactly what is causing that in your tank.
But from sounds of it, your plants doing pretty good under the circumstances so reckon you’ve a decent chance of turning things around
Keep at it mate and hope you’ll find that sweet spot of lights, ferts and C02 that works.
Good luck.
I’ll be honest, that’s what I feared might happen.
The exact same thing happened to me when I set up a high tech C02 tank a few years ago and boom, lots of hair algae type, spent hours removing loads of this stuff from plants and decor etc.
I think it was a combination of lights being too intense and too much C02 despite being slightly less than 1bps.
Am not sure what I can advise for your tank, extremely difficult to pinpoint exactly what is causing that in your tank.
But from sounds of it, your plants doing pretty good under the circumstances so reckon you’ve a decent chance of turning things around
Keep at it mate and hope you’ll find that sweet spot of lights, ferts and C02 that works.
Good luck.
OP
OP
Its got a mix of Tropica Aquarium Soil and Soil Powder (basically same thing), it can leach some ammonia in the first few days but this is part of what I dont understand you can see in this thread it was going well for the first few weeks...
Once I get stuck in you can get the majority of it out, it just disolves as soon as you touch it, some of the longer strands are snapping themselves now its so delicate. I think it started when some of the monte carlo got killed off by other plants. All I get told for brown algae is that it feeds of silicates but I cant see how there are any in the tank? Its been set up since June so would assume if it was being fed by silicates as a by product of all the glass and rubber in the tank it would have disapated by now. Just think I need to try and get it under control and then probably looking at a rescape
might get rid of this wood and go down a rock route.Wills
Oh, that’s sounds like a different algae to what I had, I had to use a old toothbrush and twirl the algae onto bristles and twirl it around and around to pull the algae off the plants etc.
Your algae in that tank sounds much more delicate and hopefully makes it that much easier to eradicate.
Agreed that silica plays a a big part in this and you’d be surprised in how long in takes for this to dissipate but hopefully it won’t be too long now since you’ve had this running a while now. Fingers crossed it’s nearing the end of that cycle of silica going around.
Yep, wood in most high tech co2 tank does seem to do this annoyingly so I agree with you in getting rid of this, at least for now until maybe once the tank has established you can then reintroduce that wood or a new one back into the tank and see what happens.
OP
OP
Its just frustrating that I am essentially looking at growing plants that dont really need Co2... when I wanted to set this tank up I wanted to grow the smaller leaved plants to try and do a proper aquascape but not proving possible. I think I can adapt to this style of tank but dont think it will work with the wood I have now. I can at least tell a few plants that will do well in my tank though so its not fully starting from scratch when I get to that point.
OP
OP
No I have heard of it but not really looked into it. I was hoping I would be able to keep it high tech but with a simple approach - ie just one fertiliser. Do you think it would be worth looking at? I just dont understand how my plants could have started so well and then all of this just fell apart.
Wills
Plenty of resources around and ready made ferts to recipes for making your own. The idea is that you make sure that there is enough of everything the plants need (i.e. too much) and then a massive water change every week so you don't get a dangerous build up. https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/what-you-need-to-know-about-ei-plant-feeding/
But it really is all about maximum plant growth.
But it really is all about maximum plant growth.
OP
OP
Thanks I'll have a read
Do you think something like this could help? Not usually one for adding chemical filtration but feel like it could be a choice - just ordered a silicate test kit to check the levels in my tap water and in the tank as that is the thing that seems to effect this kind of algae the most.
https://www.swelluk.com/jbl-silicatex-rapid-400g/
Wills
Do you think something like this could help? Not usually one for adding chemical filtration but feel like it could be a choice - just ordered a silicate test kit to check the levels in my tap water and in the tank as that is the thing that seems to effect this kind of algae the most.
https://www.swelluk.com/jbl-silicatex-rapid-400g/
Wills
Certainly at least worth a try with that silicate test as might gives you an idea if silica is partly to blame for this algae growth.
EI ferts, useful if you’re missing certain elements of nutrients that certain plants need, fairly complicated but there are guides online that you can use as a template to build up what ei ferts you need for your plants.
I’ve tried this once and plants did seem to respond to this more compared to the usual Tropica ferts I used but be careful not to overload the tank with this as it can also lead to algae growth as well l, lots of research for that.
So for time being I’d recommend sticking with what ferts you are using until this algae issue is sorted THEN have a look at using ei ferts, that way you don’t over complicate things for your battle against the algae.
EI ferts, useful if you’re missing certain elements of nutrients that certain plants need, fairly complicated but there are guides online that you can use as a template to build up what ei ferts you need for your plants.
I’ve tried this once and plants did seem to respond to this more compared to the usual Tropica ferts I used but be careful not to overload the tank with this as it can also lead to algae growth as well l, lots of research for that.
So for time being I’d recommend sticking with what ferts you are using until this algae issue is sorted THEN have a look at using ei ferts, that way you don’t over complicate things for your battle against the algae.
OP
OP
Hmmm so tempted to take that back piece of wood out and rescape the tank.
I’ve been letting the algae grow out as I saw a video from Oliver Knott and he had this kind of algae and left the tank for 9 days then literally just scooped it all out in one go when it had grown into a mass. In doing so the wood at the back has been producing a lot of mould so wondering if that is a source of the problem?
So many of the plants probably won’t recover unless I clean them right up and I’ve learned a lot from this scape.
I’ve discovered that there is very little Co2 reaching the back left corner had my drop checker there for a while and it’s staying blue even when the diffuser is working.
What do you think? New plants clean out the tank go for more aggressive growing plants and those that have done well? Probably more of a jungle style scape to make sure there is more plant mass in there.
I’ve been letting the algae grow out as I saw a video from Oliver Knott and he had this kind of algae and left the tank for 9 days then literally just scooped it all out in one go when it had grown into a mass. In doing so the wood at the back has been producing a lot of mould so wondering if that is a source of the problem?
So many of the plants probably won’t recover unless I clean them right up and I’ve learned a lot from this scape.
I’ve discovered that there is very little Co2 reaching the back left corner had my drop checker there for a while and it’s staying blue even when the diffuser is working.
What do you think? New plants clean out the tank go for more aggressive growing plants and those that have done well? Probably more of a jungle style scape to make sure there is more plant mass in there.
OP
OP
So... I had had enough... I dont know for certain but I strongly feel like the piece of wood that used to be in the back right was contributing to the brown algae issues I was having. It had never stoped producing a white fluffy sort of jelly like substance and it just felt like an obvious candidate for causing issues, if left more than a few days the jelly would consume all the plants around it and the constant scrubbing wasnt doing anything any favours.
I took a trip to Horizon Aquatics, an aquascaping shop in the North East of the UK which is a bit of a trek for me but was worth it. Really great shop that I would recommend to anyone near by. Picked up some more Siamensis 53b, more dwarf hairgrass, Helenthium Tenelum Green, Cardamine Lyrata and some AR mini. The big hard scape change is some Frodo Stone which is a bit of a coveted aqua scaping rock so really happy I have some now. I've opted for a more triangular layout for now, the tank is in a corner of the room and you can see it on the 3/4 angle so think this works well.
I do want to add to this scape over time I have more small branches to add and plant wise Im not sure on the Limnophila so might go back to some original thinking I had for the tank and add some different types of Hydrocotyle, start with the bigger Leucocephala and then add more Tripartita and maybe Verticulata but want to have better plant growing skills first. For now I want to stick to easy plants and ones I have discovered that do well in my tank.
I've bought some Seachem Purigen to add to the tank, it was recommended to me to help remove silicates. I have a silicate test kit on its way so waiting on that before I use the Purigen. For now though, daily water changes to try and keep this all to a minimum but I am expecting it to come back before too long...
Wills
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