Algae

[Zikofski]

okay as promised i have some pictures from my average daily clean and from what is inside my filter bare in mind this is just in a week not a months just 7 days ago i cleaned my filter and its in this state
 
so firstly what i empty out from the tank almost every day some days its less some days its more, this is the plant debris that was floating

 
this is my filter inlet now as you can see plants stick to out side rather than being sucked up so an improvement here (this is back intake)

 
and this is the front intake more debris i guess this filter being open with less plants around can draw in more stuff

 
okay now this is what i all poo corner its a little pack just before the front intake where all the poo and plant debris that sinks kinda sits some may call it a dead spot but for me its kinda good and easy i can see where everything comes and clean this up everyday

 
so all those pictures i clean everyday so that is what had built up since i cleaned those spots the day before now onto the filter that i cleaned last week
 
so opening it up its very brown


this is normal i guess so i'm not worrying about that
 
dont think you can see it in the picture but these are my bio balls and they where dirty covered little bits n stuff, but i did not clean them just laid them out while i emptyied the canister from the top this is tray number 2, tray 1 contains filter floss and carbon tray 2 is just the bio balls

 
this is what was in my filter AFTER the mechanical media and foam pads so this is what my bio balls was sitting in,

 
tray 3 is just 2 foam pads, and tray 4 is a foam pad on top of the ceramic rings as the mechanical media

 
now these are my ceramic rings i usually clean these with normal hosepipe water just blast the hell out of them, they used to be white but now they have gone a wired brown colour i would like to replace them but i think the new ones will just go brown again as they are still doing there job kinda then ye il keep them for now 

 
and so this is the whole contents of water from my first filter
 


 
Very Very murky and dirty this is just in one week, normal? or not normal? please tell me

okay now the second was no better the only difference with the two filters is in the second filter i have the Anti nitrate and phosphate stuff that don't work instead of filter floss but hey it not doing any harm being in so i keep it there
 

 
i think this picture shows the dirty bio balls a bit better.
 

 
this top tray gets horid to 

 
and the water contents of the second filter

 
so again is this normal okay so i have gone out and bought some course filter media and have put that around the inflow pipes to prevent stuff getting in, i shall do the same this sunday and we shall see the difference i am hoping the water will be dirty but almost clear of debris
 
the great thing about the plants covering the pipe now rather than going in as when i do my daily little clean up, i  just turn my filter off for a sec and shake the pipe a a bit and all the stuff falls down so i can suck it up nice and easy where as in the filter i don't see it and it gets left so far my algae is still no more, altho i have moved my wood into a better position and i noticed some BBA on that but i think it was old bba not fresh bba and again my diatoms it seems to be more older stuff than new stuff but hey all this to get a clean tank must help  

 

[SLIM]

sadly i have clown loaches to i am not after getting rid of the algae more of finding the cause so it don't grow back it is all good know how to get rid of it thats easy its understanding what caused it in the first place and to prevent it growing back as once its gone it will always grow back unless you find the root of the problem 
 
but thank you for the info frothhelmet

Well said. The force is strong in this one XD

Brb....

 

[SLIM]

Ok... Filter, totally normal mate cant see anything wrong with this. If you saw inside of mine after 6 months you would have a heart attack lol. Yea so back off on filter cleaning. Plant matter on intake strainer? Again perfectly normal. It may seem alot because a tank of your size would normally have a bigger strainer. Mines like the size of 2 bars of soap back to back lol so doesnt really get clogged.
Floating plant matter is abit excessive tbh, but this could be down to melting plants due to a change in conditions??? Or newly planted plants??? Hard to say on that one without being there myself.

 

[Zikofski]

to be honest in that picture there was a few plants in there that i planted where really small and keep getting uprooted so i decided to just bin them cheers for the feedback tho

 

[SLIM]

to be honest in that picture there was a few plants in there that i planted where really small and keep getting uprooted so i decided to just bin them cheers for the feedback tho

Sure anytime

 

[snazy]

I agree with SLIM. The state of the water and filters is totally normal and as he says, you should see my one
The only problem you have is the big floating bits of plants but that's because they aren't healthy. As soon as you get them going properly there'll be little to none stuck on the intakes, providing you do trim once in a blue moon

 

[Zikofski]

okay cool cheers for the help i notice i think most my problems are to do with new plants and melting and kinda melting of older plants could be to do with the liquid co2 may forget that and go without

 

[Zikofski]

okay is there a link between diatoms and flow? i seem to be getting patches of diatoms on my glass around my DHG i am wondering if the flow is to slow around that point and wondered if i pit my second powerhead in it will help the situation?
 
but putting this powerhead on the right at the bottom so they both create a circle

 

[SLIM]

Dead spots = ammonia pockets so yes

 

[Zikofski]

hm i shall play around tomo then


it is probably what killed my last DHG off by diatoms as the flow was even less than it is now

 

[Zikofski]

well this is interesting i have green spot or green dust algae on of the two

 

[Zikofski]

aah its hard to get a picture but i think i have got one and not sure if it is GDA or GSA if it is anything its more GDA, but ye to the eye it looks green but under the camera it looks a little more brown so maybe its a mix of both GDA and Diatoms
 

 

 

 

[SLIM]

Wow you do get it all lol GDA suggests low co2 and insufficient nutrients.
Its easy to combat tho. Simply clean the inside of your glass once a week with water change to keep on top of it.
To cure it well increase nutrients and co2 depending on your current ppm.
Some people say leave it for 3 weeks then scub it off and it dont come back. Hafta say iv never tried this.

 

[Zikofski]

haha yes i do lol everything even great plant growth, maybe this could have been because of the water change i did at the weekend maybe? there seemed to be a line, where the level was aka above that line no algae below that line algae? this a coincidence? i usually do water changed with light on and off, take the water out with light on and do my stuff, then as i fill it up again light is off, co2 is on depending on what time of day it is i either leave light off for the day or i turn it on after a while
 
now i have cleaned it off did that instantly after i took the pics it wipes of easily no need to scrub or use any force, my co2 levels well say they are green, but with my new diffuser i am using like less than a bubble per min that to me is not normal but ye hey, and my light is still on for 11 hours a day, and well i over dosed my ferts 3x now, added in 100ml today instead of the usual 50ml and the bottle dosage of 33ml so maybe dosing 100ml a day may help things who knows i can try no one knows whats in this neutro+ but il be surprised if its near EI levels so overdosing maybe wise and like many people say it wont hurt just means i run out of the stuff quicker

 

[SLIM]

Exactly. 1 bubble per minute? I assume you mean 1 bubble per second?

Is your drop checker light green or dark green?