i've caught the bug...

[nodding_dino]

persevere with the glosso, looks like your doing a great job...mines started to chuck out lot's of roots now so I'm hoping to see it establish itself properly soon!

(the tweezers are great )

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

nice stuff, i like your tank, seems like it is bigger then 5 gallons.... but it is lookin good, your water should clear soon, since its 5 gallons, i think maybe a week? but i totally recomend a dwarf puffer for that tank, you couldnt fit much fish in there, and could only have maybe a few neon tetras, but dwarf puffers are a excellent choice

i have a heavily planted 10 gallon with 2 dwarf puffers and a Otto they live great together, except the puffers are nippy, you need to understand that puffers need to be studied about before just buying them, they require 5 gallons per puffer, so you could safely house one, plus maybe a otto or two, or some shrimp to keep it tidy... but make sure you study about them becuase they are very sensative to cycled tanks, they need to have a tank totatlly cycled before they can be in it, or they will die, and they only eat live food, and they must have snails in their diet, but they are very fun, and really nice, they always want to see what you are doing so they follow you around the room in there little aquarium.... i recoment them deeply

have fun and post some more picks, like your update if you would like to know more, visit my ten gallon journey thread, and i can help you with your problems you would have with puffers, or any questions, but telling from your signiture you know what youd doing with plants, i wish i could say that about my self..... maybe you could help me with that!? lol

 

[houndour]

arrggggggghhhhhhh!! I can see algae in my new tank.

I had plants in there from algae ridden tank - have now removed them and put back in other tank.

CO2 cannot be to blame I have about 40-48ppm since I've started it. Much easier to get higher levels on a little tank.

I'm worried I havent got any fast growing plants to help fight the algae Oh well I'm going to stick it out.

Other problem is the temperature. its above 30 degrees cos of the light. Don't know what I can do...maybe get a condensation tray? I've turned the heater off completely now so I can see how much the light is playing in heating the water up.

Thanks for the puffer advice, aquatic-Bizkut. I shall be just getting 1 puffer. Or if I do find out in the meantime that this is not suitable then I'll be back to getting 1 male Betta.

I'm cycling at present. Keeping the ammonia at 4ppm a day...generally just adding 1 drop of ammonia a day to keep it at this. No signs of Nitrites yet.

My LFH sells live food...generally Bloodworm and Daphnia. But I would only be able to get this on the weekend as I dont finish work early enough to buy during the week. How long would they last? Will a puffer eat frozen daphnia/bloodworm?

 

[zig]

Sam id stick as many fast growers from your other tank in there as you can, just take cuttings from some of the plants, you can take them out later when it settles a bit more, just let them grow a bit wild for a few weeks and then remove them, but having said that algae is common in new setups, but i think the addition of more fast growing stem plants would really help to even things out a bit, most of the plants you have in there now probably arnt going to grow fast enough initially.

Edit: Ok just read it again, and they are covered in algae from the other tank, mmm maybe not a good idea.

I wonder if any of the other guys with algae free tanks could send you some cuttings from fast growers you wouldnt need that many, just an idea, or if your stuck i will send you some but it will probably just take longer for them to arrive.

But you will probably get a Diatom bloom in the beginning, brown type algae, this is normal and should disappear afte a couple of weeks.

 

[houndour]

I'm going to LFH tomorrow to hopefully buy co2, black background and so I shall get some fast growing plants there. Can't wait another week to order from greenline. I dont have a clue whats fast growing though, so I hope the planted bloke is there, he actually knows what he's talking about...if I see some hygro I'll get that.

Hypothetically, if I get the balance right will my plants ever outgrow the algae and the algae will die off? Or at least to just the type of algae you get on the glass? I can cope with that.

 

[zig]

Most stem plants seen in the lfs are fast growers, usually just cuttings, the hygro would be ideal, i would just stick the plants anywhere for the moment, anywhere you have the space.

Once the fast growers start auctually growing which might take a few days they will be useing up the nutrients quicker than the algae, you should cut down on the micros (liquid ferts) for a few weeks, dose maybe half of what you normally would until you start seeing some growth in the other plants as well (foreground etc) but dose the macros the same as normal, nitrate phosphate etc, apperantly this will help also to cut down the algae in a new setup, but dont be surprised if you see a diatom bloom as well as the existing algae, the diatom bloom should clear up quick enough and hopefully the algae as well with the fast growers in there, it will provide a better balance between the growth of the fast growers and the amount of light and the co2 and thats what you are trying to achieve.

My algae died off once i got the balance correct in my new tank.

In your bigger tank what types of algae have you? are there various types?

If you have bga you may have to do a blackout

 

[houndour]

Most stem plants seen in the lfs are fast growers, usually just cuttings, the hygro would be ideal, i would just stick the plants anywhere for the moment, anywhere you have the space.

Once the fast growers start auctually growing which might take a few days they will be useing up the nutrients quicker than the algae, you should cut down on the micros (liquid ferts) for a few weeks, dose maybe half of what you normally would until you start seeing some growth in the other plants as well (foreground etc) but dose the macros the same as normal, nitrate phosphate etc, apperantly this will help also to cut down the algae in a new setup, but dont be surprised if you see a diatom bloom as well as the existing algae, the diatom bloom should clear up quick enough and hopefully the algae as well with the fast growers in there, it will provide a better balance between the growth of the fast growers and the amount of light and the co2 and thats what you are trying to achieve.

My algae died off once i got the balance correct in my new tank.

In your bigger tank what types of algae have you? are there various types?

[snapback]879112[/snapback]​

If I fill out my 5 gallon...will the over shadowing of the fast growing plants kill off the glosso and baby tears (I cant remember latin name for the life of me)?

I've been scared to say it cos I'm worried someones gonna say "you have to throw everything away, bleach and start again to get rid of it"...I think I have the cyano bacteria algae. I want to cry. It's just so awful. It coats _everything_ like a film. It's even on the surface of the water. And now I've transferred it to my 5 gallon I've had every algae I can think off. I don't seem to be suffering from the black brush algae too much anymore (I just have a bit on my heater. Which I must take out and give a clean. But I preferred that!!! I've had hair algae, but that seems to have died off.

I have a very very fine furry algae that coats all the leaves, but its not noticeable unless your nose is on the glass. It's green. maybe 1-2 mm long. I don't think its the cyano one because I cant brush it off.

 

[houndour]

Woohoo...I have nitrites in my 5 gallon!

started on 13th, and today the 19th I have a reading of 0.5

//edit...and I keep forgetting to say I got my aquascaping kit today the tweezers are great, should make my glosso planting much easier

 

[zig]

Most stem plants seen in the lfs are fast growers, usually just cuttings, the hygro would be ideal, i would just stick the plants anywhere for the moment, anywhere you have the space.

Once the fast growers start auctually growing which might take a few days they will be useing up the nutrients quicker than the algae, you should cut down on the micros (liquid ferts) for a few weeks, dose maybe half of what you normally would until you start seeing some growth in the other plants as well (foreground etc) but dose the macros the same as normal, nitrate phosphate etc, apperantly this will help also to cut down the algae in a new setup, but dont be surprised if you see a diatom bloom as well as the existing algae, the diatom bloom should clear up quick enough and hopefully the algae as well with the fast growers in there, it will provide a better balance between the growth of the fast growers and the amount of light and the co2 and thats what you are trying to achieve.

My algae died off once i got the balance correct in my new tank.

In your bigger tank what types of algae have you? are there various types?

[snapback]879112[/snapback]​

If I fill out my 5 gallon...will the over shadowing of the fast growing plants kill off the glosso and baby tears (I cant remember latin name for the life of me)?

I've been scared to say it cos I'm worried someones gonna say "you have to throw everything away, bleach and start again to get rid of it"...I think I have the cyano bacteria algae. I want to cry. It's just so awful. It coats _everything_ like a film. It's even on the surface of the water. And now I've transferred it to my 5 gallon I've had every algae I can think off. I don't seem to be suffering from the black brush algae too much anymore (I just have a bit on my heater. Which I must take out and give a clean. But I preferred that!!! I've had hair algae, but that seems to have died off.

I have a very very fine furry algae that coats all the leaves, but its not noticeable unless your nose is on the glass. It's green. maybe 1-2 mm long. I don't think its the cyano one because I cant brush it off.

[snapback]879123[/snapback]​

For bga you will have to do a total blackout of the tank for three days, if you like i can give you detailed instructions on how to do it, it works, it will kill the bga.

 

[houndour]

ok? will the other plants die? and do the fish mind? I've read about blackouts...so just have a couple of qs

Do I stop dosing? and stop CO2? And do I just stop these things and completely black out with binliners? Some of my fish are sick at the mo. Should I wait till they are better or...pass away cos I wont be able to monitor them if I have a black out.

 

[zig]

ok? will the other plants die? and do the fish mind? I've read about blackouts...so just have a couple of qs

Do I stop dosing? and stop CO2? And do I just stop these things and completely black out with binliners? Some of my fish are sick at the mo. Should I wait till they are better or...pass away cos I wont be able to monitor them if I have a black out.

[snapback]879160[/snapback]​

hmm forgot about that you better wait, it has to be total blackout, no peeping

Best thing to do is go ahead and get the co2 tomorrow if you can, and you might want to play around with that anyway and get it set up and running, just to have it ready for when the blackout is over, during the blackout your plants will be fine and your fish, you will turn off the co2, and when its over you will do a water change and turn it back on again, so you may as well be ready.

Basically for the blackout you will do a 50% water change, you will remove as much of the bga as you can by hand, you will trim any badly affected plants, you will clean your filter, turn off your co2, and then you will add 10ppm of NO3 to the tank, this is the important bit you add 10ppm of NO3, not 1 or 2ppm to bring your test kit reading up to 10ppm, you add 10ppm, and then you will wrap the tank completely blacking it out for the 3 days, use whatever you can, binliners or anything that is going to be totally light proof.

After the 3 days you will do another 50% water change and dose 10ppm of NO3 back in again and your other normal ferts and switch back on the co2.

To get bga in the first place your NO3 levels must have bottomed out at some stage, this is what triggers it, bga is apperantly present in every tank but low nitrate levels will trigger it, apperantly it is airborne and is present in all our tanks whether we like it or not, but will only show when nitrate levels are very low or have bottomed out.

So to ensure it doesnt reoccur you must make sure that your NO3 levels are allways good or it may come back.

iggy01 may have more info on this if he reads this, he is very good at algae control, but basically the above is how you do it.

So its really up to you when you want to do it, obviously soon, but not with sick fish, so you will probably have to wait until you can treat them.

 

[houndour]

thanks for the advice zig, I appreciate it. I was unable to get the co2 system from LFS, have explained this in the co2 thread. But have one on order

I a couple of plants today for 5 gallon. Whether they are fast growing on not I do not know. the guy in the shop was useless. So I'll id them on that tropica site in a mo.

OK one is 024 Cardamine lyrata which says its a marsh plant but is easy to grow and fast grower, so points for the LFS. The other I cant ID. I'm sure he said it was Echinodorus species. It looks a bit like Echinodorus quadricostatus var. ''magdalenensis'' but the stems are longer.

Oh well, I'll bung them in. see what happens. Also got a condensation tray in the hope of deflecting some heat from the lights (I know it'll stop light from getting through).

 

[nodding_dino]

the Cardamine lyrata does grow very quickly, and with a pretty leaf too...I have some in my tank.

 

[George Farmer]

Bear in mind that Cardamine lyrata prefers lower temps i.e. <24C. I had it for a while but it eventually gave up after a couple months. Temp was 25C.

Should be fine as an initial fast grower though - will soon reach the surface (well it's only 8 inches high!), it will then really grow fast, just ensure it doesn't shade the other plants too much.

BTW if you're interested I have managed to get hold of (not readily available in UK) the antibiotic, Maracyn (Erythromycin). It is great at killing BGA and is completely fish and plant friendly. I've loads of it spare so PM if you're interested.

 

[houndour]

OK, I've added black background, new "fast growing" plants and moved things around so my permanent plants won't get too overshadowed.

Cycle is going brilliantly I keep having to remind myself that it took ages for nitrites to drop last time...so I've still got a way to go.

I've planned my EI dosing. Nitrates were 20ppm 2 days ago, today they are 10. I've been adding micros but not nitrates yet cos I remember during cycling the 20 gallon the nitrates shot sky high, so just gonna test nitrates every other day to keep an eye.

The glosso has been growing roots!! I had to uproot some to squish it over to the right more.

Excuse the thermometer, I've got it there cos I'm always checking it. I'm hoping the condensation tray is working as the temperature after an hour of having the lights back on is 27degrees rather than above 30.

Bear in mind that Cardamine lyrata prefers lower temps i.e. <24C. I had it for a while but it eventually gave up after a couple months. Temp was 25C.

Thanks for the tip. I saw on the tropica description 15 to 24. And that not to exceed 28 degrees for very long

//edit
I forgot to mention I used my new tweezers! They are fantasic Made it _so_ much easier. And I didn't have to get my hands wet (bear in mind my tank is only 8inches high...)