Ch4Rlies First High Tech Planted Tank Atttempt!

[daizeUK]

Nasty hair algae!  I had a few strands in my 35L, they grew very quickly but then disappeared very quickly.
 
I found that when I pointed my spray bar downwards the flow wasn't reaching the other end of the tank so beware of that.  Different shape & sized tank so it may work for you.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Looks interesting Ch4rlie! Hope you've conquered the beast!

 
Fingers crossed! Thanks

Nasty hair algae!  I had a few strands in my 35L, they grew very quickly but then disappeared very quickly.
 
I found that when I pointed my spray bar downwards the flow wasn't reaching the other end of the tank so beware of that.  Different shape & sized tank so it may work for you.

 
That encouraging to hear your hair algae disappeared, means theres hope yet for me
 
And that is a good point, I did consider this, kinda hard to tell tbh, will find out soon enough, although can easily change direction of spray bar of needs be.
 
Thanks

 

[TallTree01]

Gross! Hope you can get rid of it Ch4rlie

 

[508]

Hope for the best on your battle against the algae.
 
I hated diatoms and I kept complaining about it, but hey it's mostly gone now!

 

[Ninjouzata]

Good luck Ch4rlie, I'm sure you'll win (eventually)!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Gross! Hope you can get rid of it Ch4rlie

Yup is it gross but at same time, its kinda nice, certainly not something i want in my tank away!
 

Hope for the best on your battle against the algae.

 
I hated diatoms and I kept complaining about it, but hey it's mostly gone now!

 
Yes, know beginning to have an idea of how you felt when you had that diatoms.
Hopefully, like you, i'll get to the stage where i can say, heeey its gone
 

Good luck Ch4rlie, I'm sure you'll win (eventually)!

 
Yeah, eventually being the key word here, no quick fixes i don't think but hope wont get as bad as that pic again.
 
Thanks guys for the encouragement, i WWIIILLLLL win this with a little help from my friends on this forum

 

[Ch4rlie]

Day 5 of daily water changes.
 
This hair algae is VERY persistent, in fact seems to be growing faster than i can remove it every day, also now see few strands of green strand like algae, much harder to remove from plants.
 
Don't think this is working, either the spray bar or co2 is not right or not getting to all areas of tank despite drop checker showing light green / yellow every day.
 
Hmm, ideas or theories?

 

[508]

High phosphates and nitrates? I know my tap water has nearly 35ppm nitrate and you don't live that far so

 

[Ch4rlie]

High phosphates and nitrates? I know my tap water has nearly 35ppm nitrate and you don't live that far so

 
Hmm, I'll test my tap water again, will leave it 24 hours then test tomorrow evening.
 
But last time I tested, usually was abound 20 - 30 ppm.
 
I do have a phosphate test kit, never used it before, so I'll test them both phosphate and nitrate tomorrow and post results.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. The more info i can get, the better.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Have done whole range of water tests.
 
12 gH
 
7 kH
 
(The gH and kH is tap water that was standing 24 hours in a glass)
 
7.4 pH
 
0 Ammonia
 
0 Nitrite
 
80 Nitrate
 
0.5 phosphate
 
The nitrate is high, despite my changing about 70% of water everyday, so presumably this is coming from the substrate.
 
Can anyone offer any opinions or theories on algae issue? light, flow, or co2 etc etc
 
Thanks

 

[Ryan10]

I started running my lights for about 6 hours instead of 8 and that seemed to help.  I kind of don't like recommending duck weed but it can really help with algae.  It grows so fast and takes a lot of the nutrients the algae needs.  It's just not really fun to deal with sometimes.  It's hard to get rid of and grows really fast so you have to remove some almost weekly. 

 

[daizeUK]

The hair algae in my 35L seems to like growing where there is strong flow and high light.  From that I'd say that flow isn't an issue.  I doubt that phosphates or nitrates are your problem.  I'd have to guess at CO2 or light.  I'd suggest reducing light intensity rather than photoperiod if you can, duckweed sounds like a good suggestion to me.  I have it in my 35L too and it seems to help!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hmm, some good suggestions here. 
 
Am fairly happy to hear you think its not a flow problems, rather, its seems to be too much flow that may be a problem.
 
Will turn the filter powerhead down a little bit today to see if this helps at all over th next week or so.
 
Duckweed, hmmm not particularly keen on duckweed, will floating plants like Salvinia Natans do just the job as effectively?
Just the fact it can be difficult to get rid of duckweed when you no longer want this plant puts me off.
 
Do I continue with the daily water changes everyday and no dosages of ferts for another week since there is still a awful lots of hair algae growth. 
 
Or best to stick with the plan of 5ml EI ferts and doing once a week w/c of 50% or thereabouts as suggested earlier on.
 
Ta!

 

[daizeUK]

I suspect that withholding ferts is going to harm plants more than algae.
 
Salvinia Natans is new to me, I've only had mine for a week or so, but I guess you can use any floating plant you like to reduce overhead light.  I prefer duckweed in my 35L simply because of the small size, salvinia obviously has much longer roots but you know more about salvinia than me anyway.
 
If there is no other algae then I'd switch to once a week WC and continue EI dosing.

 

[Mamashack]

I've had salvinia natans in my 60L for quite a while and it's doing a grand job of providing shade for the java fern. The salvinia had gone quite pale before I started dosing with NPK ferts and adding Easy Carbo, but now it's a lovely shade of green again and the java fern has stopped melting. The algae has diminished too so I'm very pleased I took the plunge into dosing the tanks even tho they are considered low tech plants!