all in one solution for plant: walkthrough for dummies

[kurty]

green spot because you put the tank beside the window. excel only kill algae or other plant in high concentration.

I guess apart from my led light, During the day, light still shine through from windows.

Any good stuff to prevent green spot algae?

[Urban Aquaria]

Excess light and nutrients do tend to encourage green spot algae (GSA)... its one of the types of algae you can't really eliminate totally (especially in planted tanks where ample light is needed to grow plants anyways).

The only tanks that i don't see GSA appearing in are those kept in very low light or no light at all.

For planted tanks, at best with high plant density and a good balance of light, Co2 and nutrients, you can slow down the GSA growth to a stage whereby its not as noticeable and the tank glass only needs to be cleaned every 2-3 months, which would be considered normal for a healthy planted tank (rather than to always have to clean the glass every few days).

You can close or shade the window to reduce the amount of excess light getting to the tank, or reduce the aquarium light in the tank to compensate.

Some people have mentioned dosing additional phosphate fertilizer to reduce and prevent GSA, but that seems to only work for some yet not for others... can try and see if it works for your setup. Though have to be careful as dosing too much phosphates will also lead to other types of algae growth.

Another tool to control GSA is the use of nerite snails, they are one of the few creatures that can help eat GSA off glass the plant leaves. Their efficiency depends on the number of nerite snails working vs the speed of GSA growth.

Using nerite snails is sort of like a double-edged sword though, while they can help to eat GSA, they will usually also lay lots of white eggs everywhere in the tank (which will not hatch in freshwater conditions), the white eggs are very tough and have to be scraped off with a razor. So its a trade-off... unless you are so lucky that all the nerite snails turn out to be males.

[kurty]

Excess light and nutrients do tend to encourage green spot algae (GSA)... its one of the types of algae you can't really eliminate totally (especially in planted tanks where ample light is needed to grow plants anyways).

The only tanks that i don't see GSA appearing in are those kept in very low light or no light at all.

For planted tanks, at best with high plant density and a good balance of light, Co2 and nutrients, you can slow down the GSA growth to a stage whereby its not as noticeable and the tank glass only needs to be cleaned every 2-3 months, which would be considered normal for a healthy planted tank (rather than to always have to clean the glass every few days).

You can close or shade the window to reduce the amount of excess light getting to the tank, or reduce the aquarium light in the tank to compensate.

Some people have mentioned dosing additional phosphate fertilizer to reduce and prevent GSA, but that seems to only work for some yet not for others... can try and see if it works for your setup. Though have to be careful as dosing too much phosphates will also lead to other types of algae growth.

Another tool to control GSA is the use of nerite snails, they are one of the few creatures that can help eat GSA off glass the plant leaves. Their efficiency depends on the number of nerite snails working vs the speed of GSA growth.

Using nerite snails is sort of like a double-edged sword though, while they can help to eat GSA, they will usually also lay lots of white eggs everywhere in the tank (which will not hatch in freshwater conditions), the white eggs are very tough and have to be scraped off with a razor. So its a trade-off... unless you are so lucky that all the nerite snails turn out to be males.

well, it seem like a double edged sword solution..

too little light, the plants won't survive..
too much, GSA will grow.. but i guess i still can live with GSA although they are very very stubborn..

so far, i only use a tooth brush to clean them, still waiting for my magnetic glass cleaner, maybe that will helps..
snails, nah..
i starting to see some ramshorn snails babies in the tanks despite no present of snails..
once they reached adulthood, i will shift them to my shrimp & snail tank..

almost wanted to buy algaexit yesterday but after reading your post..
refrain from the impulse buying..

[Urban Aquaria]

almost wanted to buy algaexit yesterday but after reading your post..
refrain from the impulse buying..

You can actually still get a small 250ml bottle of Algexit to use as part of your tank maintenance activities... the bottle instructions has "preventive" smaller dosage recommendations for tanks with minimal algae issues, as lighter dosages during maintenance can help to inhibit and slow-down the overall growth of various types of green algae too.

[kurty]

You can actually still get a small 250ml bottle of Algexit to use as part of your tank maintenance activities... the bottle instructions has "preventive" smaller dosage recommendations for tanks with minimal algae issues, as lighter dosages during maintenance can help to inhibit and slow-down the overall growth of various types of green algae too.

Haha, Looks like going to spend $13 and another collection to my bottles.

[Urban Aquaria]

Haha, Looks like going to spend $13 and another collection to my bottles.

Yeah, a side-hobby of keeping planted tanks is collecting numerous bottles of stuff... need shelves to display all of them.

[reeshee]

No worries, we all also started off reading tons of forum threads for tips and getting overloaded with information too... but once you try stuff out and experience what works and what doesn't work for your planted tank setups (and fight a few algae battles), you will eventually become expert at it.




I've used the LushGro aqua fertilizer for a brief period of time before when i started in the hobby (was a leftover bottle given by a friend), used it for a few months until the bottle finished and it seemed to worked well. Maybe other LushGro fertilizer users can chime in on their longer term experiences with this fertilizer.

Looking back at the nutrient list at their website, the "aqua" version contains nitrogen and phosphorus along with various trace/micros (although the site also mentioned nitrogen is kept at low concentrations in this formulation)... i guess you can try and see if it works well for your setup. The LushGro micros is only micro/trace nutrients.

Oddly, i don't seem to see any mention of potassium in their formulations, which is usually one of the important macro nutrients that fertilizer brands tend to highlight. Perhaps LushGro has a different way of combining the nutrient mix.

I currently use Tropica Premium (Potassium + Micro/Trace, no nitrogen or phosphate) and Tropica Specialized (contains all nutrients including nitrogen and phosphate). I basically use Premium for tanks with active bio-load and regular feeding, while using Specialized for tanks with plants only and no (or very low) bio-load. Maybe you could also check out and try the Tropica fertilizers too.

Hi UA, may I know where to purchase Tropica fertilisers? I can't find any. Thanks prof.

[Urban Aquaria]

Hi UA, may I know where to purchase Tropica fertilisers? I can't find any. Thanks prof.

You can get them from LFS like C328 or Fishy Business.

Online shops like Fresh N Marine also sell them too.

[reeshee]

You can get them from LFS like C328 or Fishy Business.

Online shops like Fresh N Marine also sell them too.

Oh okay i'll check out the FnM site. By the way, if my tank is moderately planted with low bioload (1 otto fish and 2 cherry shrimps) which of the 2 Tropica fertiliser would you recommend? "Specialised" seems like the right choice to me but the "algae warning" seems scary. In the long run, I do not intend to keep fishes so it makes more sense to go with Specialised yea?

[Urban Aquaria]

Oh okay i'll check out the FnM site. By the way, if my tank is moderately planted with low bioload (1 otto fish and 2 cherry shrimps) which of the 2 Tropica fertiliser would you recommend? "Specialised" seems like the right choice to me but the "algae warning" seems scary. In the long run, I do not intend to keep fishes so it makes more sense to go with Specialised yea?

Well, based on "recommended" usage, with very low bio-load like yours, the Specialized version should fit the tank requirements... but there is a caveat, it also depends on your plant types and density.

If your tank has mainly fast growing plants with ample light and Co2 injection, then the ample nutrients will be taken up effectively and algae issues would be minimal. On the otherhand, if your tank has mainly slower growing plants with less light and/or no Co2 injection, then there may be excessive build up of nutrients which might result in algae issues. It requires abit of trial and error as every tank is different, so you'll just have to adjust the dosages to find the right balance.

In my case, i have both versions and swap between them as required... i use the Premium version by default (as i usually maintain lots of shrimps and otos in my tanks, so they still add up to a relatively moderate bio-load), but when i notice the plant growth slowing down, then i switch to the Specialized version.

[reeshee]

Well, based on "recommended" usage, with very low bio-load like yours, the Specialized version should fit the tank requirements... but there is a caveat, it also depends on your plant types and density.

If your tank has mainly fast growing plants with ample light and Co2 injection, then the ample nutrients will be taken up effectively and algae issues would be minimal. On the otherhand, if your tank has mainly slower growing plants with less light and/or no Co2 injection, then there may be excessive build up of nutrients which might result in algae issues. It requires abit of trial and error as every tank is different, so you'll just have to adjust the dosages to find the right balance.

In my case, i have both versions and swap between them as required... i use the Premium version by default (as i usually maintain lots of shrimps and otos in my tanks, so they still add up to a relatively moderate bio-load), but when i notice the plant growth slowing down, then i switch to the Specialized version.

Thanks for explaining! Noted