Big Bog Wood as centre stage scape

[DeadEnd]

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The substrate used is Seachem fluorite black which is inert but fertilised with lushgro and supplement with existing tank water for phosphate. Did not cover the top as it gets too warm, instead the plants were sprayed with diluted fertiliser many times a day to prevent drying up. 2 x T5 and LED lights were turned on for 11 hours a day and fan will turn on if temp gets too high or puddle of waters are seen.

With my tender loving care , the tank is still in the dry start stage after 2 months . Started with 2 boxes of Monte Carlo, but almost 50% of it melted away in the initial stage. It only start to grow and creep in the past 2 weeks. The mini Christmas moss were tied to the wood at the arch and the rest were just placed on top of the bog wood which has started to attached by itself.

Hoping any gurus here can advise me how can I speed up the Monte Carlo growth so that I can commission the tank earlier without the worry of combating algae at an early stage.

[limz_777]

Trim it and replant

[sherwin]

My mc started submerged from day 1 straight from shop. Never melted and now creeping already

[Urban Aquaria]

Since this is a dry start method, increase light photoperiod to 14 hours, take advantage of the emerged DSM process and boost plant growth with more light.

2 months is quite a long time for DSM and your MC carpet should have been fully grown out by now, it looks like the overall growth rate has probably not been as fast due to the restricted light photoperiod and intensity.

Do note that due to your wood scape layout, it is currently shading a large portion of the MC underneath it (can see from the photos that alot of the base area looks rather dim), so those areas will naturally experience much slower growth than the rest.

An option is to remove the wood and place it in another tank or container to grow out the moss separately, so that all the MC can receive maximum light exposure to grow quickly... otherwise you'll just have to wait longer for those parts to grow out.

[DeadEnd]

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I have flooded the tank for almost a month. For the first few days, the growth was tremendous but seem like it has slowed down to a stop recently.

My 2 feet standard tank setup is as below

Plant: Mini Christmas moss and Monte Carlo
Fauna: 10 x RCS, 10 x Yamato and 7 x nitrite horn snails

I have been dosing with the below fertilizer.
1) Lushgro aqua liquid
2) Lushgro micros liquid
3) Seachem flourish comprehensive
4) Potassium sulphate
5) Calcium nitrate
6) Mono potassium phosphate
7) Bio earth which is a form of Montmorillonite clay (added after water change)
8 ) Magnesium sulphate aka Epsom salt (added a bit once in a while)

Nutrients and setup:
N: 20 to 40ppm
P: 2 to 3 ppm
K: don't know but should be enough as I dose about half teaspoon and supplemented by aqua liquid
Trace: should be enough based on dosing
PH: 6.4
KH: 4kdh
Temp: 27c
Substrate: Seachem fluorite black
CO2: 2bps using reactor for 24hrs, drop checker = light green
Lights: LED at the back and 2 x T5 24w infront (9 hrs daily)
Filter: ehiem 2224 with seachem matrix
WC: 10 to 20% WC alternate days

When I just flooded the tank, it was pearling everywhere and the growth was very fast for the first few days. Then it stopped pearling and started to develop hair algae. I turned down the lights and added yamato shrimps to get rid of the hair algae.

It took me 2 weeks to realized the phosphate has dropped below 0.5ppm. I reset the tank with a 50% water change and maintain the nutrients at the above stated level. Even with the same equipment setup, the Christmas moss and MC are not pearling but only the Oedogonium which has develop recently is pearling and there are also bubbles emerging from inside the substrate. There has been no shrimp death and they are molting successfully. Even the shrimplets is growing well. The water outlet is pointed at an angle to ensure good water flow throughout the tank by observing how the debris flow with the water current.

I have checked up Oedogonium which is due to low CO2 and nutrient but my CO should be enough but still could not figure out what nutrient is lacking. I just want my plants to pearl, MC to grow fast, carpet the whole tank and get rid of the Oedogonium. I know many will say pearling does not means it is a good sign of good health but if it is not pearling how do I know the nutrients are balance and going through a period of fast growth?

I took a picture of the tank on a daily basis for comparison, seem like they have stopped growing recently. Hope any gurus here can advise me what is wrong with the setup and nutrients.

Thanks.

[Urban Aquaria]

Your fertilizer dosing looks very extensive and your Co2 injection seems to be more than sufficient. The lights also seem to be way more than enough too, especially since there is algae growing everywhere and on the tank glass.

If you spot filamentous algae growing rampant amongst the plants and the algae themselves are pearling (but the plants are not), then they are currently outcompeting the plants and using up most of the ample nutrients and light to grow faster than the plants. Best action to take now would be to physically remove as much of the algae as possible and add more shrimps to clear the algae, do not feed the shrimps so that they are hungry enough to eat the algae. To weaken and inhibit the algae growth (so that the shrimps have an easier time clearing them faster), you can consider dosing anti-algae treatment like AlgExit.

Once the algae is minimized and under control, your plants will then get better access to the light and nutrients that you are supplying, then they can start to outcompete the algae.

Do also check that the MC carpet below the driftwood is actually getting access to sufficient light (like what i mentioned in previous post)... it still looks like the wood is overshadowing most of those plants due to the angle of blockage (the bottom areas look rather dim in the photos), which may explain their slow growth even with ample light being used. Adjusting hardscape and plant choices to factor in light access at different areas of a tank is all part of aquascape planning.

In the future, do anti-algae treat and quarantine your new plants beforehand before adding them into your tank, it will save alot of headaches dealing with pest algae that tend to hitchhike in with new plants.

Btw, i have not used Seachem Fluorite substrate before so i'm not familiar with how a planted tank progresses based on that kind of setup along with your combined extensive list of fertilizer used (my successful planted tanks so far mainly use ADA Amazonia aquasoil with only basic all-in-one ferts), so i guess you just have to experiment with your particular setup combos and see what works.

[DeadEnd]

Thanks UA for the reply.

I have off 1 of the T5 tube to lower the light and slow down the algae growth. It is very hard to manually remove the algae without affecting the scape. Is it possible to dose excel to weaken the algae rather than AlgExit which might affect the shrimps? I have not been feeding the shrimps since day one as I think the organic food is better for them. I will only reward them with a small piece of algae pellet if they managed to clear all the filamentous algae which happen once just before I reset the tank.

One thing I don't understand is since the tank has ample nutrients, why the plants are not able to access it? When I reset the tank, there was no filamentous algae except for GDA which I scrubbed most of it away. But there is still no pearling with the complete nutrients.

The lights are placed 1 infront and 1 at the back to cover the MC below the bridge of the bogwood which was not favorably captured by the cam. There is also a cave at the bottom right of the bogwood which I intend to leave it bare.

I always though that algae are air borne and when the condition is right, they will takeover the tank. The plant looks clean of algae and I planted it without quarantine. Was fine in the beginning till the nutrients went out of balance.

The Seachem Fluorite is some sort of clay and inert as well.

[Urban Aquaria]

I have off 1 of the T5 tube to lower the light and slow down the algae growth. It is very hard to manually remove the algae without affecting the scape. Is it possible to dose excel to weaken the algae rather than AlgExit which might affect the shrimps? I have not been feeding the shrimps since day one as I think the organic food is better for them. I will only reward them with a small piece of algae pellet if they managed to clear all the filamentous algae which happen once just before I reset the tank.

One thing I don't understand is since the tank has ample nutrients, why the plants are not able to access it? When I reset the tank, there was no filamentous algae except for GDA which I scrubbed most of it away. But there is still no pearling with the complete nutrients.

Yeah, its a challenge when dealing with algae issues... reducing the light helps to slow down algae growth, but it also slows down plant growth too.

Excel is a good solution to help weaken the algae, though it usually has to be dosed at higher concentrations to see more significant effects (which may affect sensitive livestock or plants). Spot dosing Excel directly on the algae is very effective at killing them, but it also tends to "burn" the surrounding plants too. You can try it out and see if it helps.

So far, i haven't found AlgExit to affect fishes or shrimps (at least at normal dosages) so i would consider it relatively safe for livestock. AlgExit works over an extended period of time though, so its more of a longer term treatment.

Even with ample nutrients, if the plants are at a disadvantage either due to being overshadowed or algae smothering them (which is likely the issue), they also can't utilize the nutrients properly, so you'll have to remove those obstacles to improve their environment and return the advantage back to the plants.

Other than plants, there is also competition for resource between different types of algae too. If a certain type of algae establishes a stronger foothold in the tank, it will grow faster and out-compete the rest, so you will see more of it. When you remove that algae, another type that was lurking around in less noticeable amounts before then takes over and grows rapidly. So if you have various algae species lurking in your tank, they can flare up one after the other as conditions become favorable for them.

I always though that algae are air borne and when the condition is right, they will takeover the tank. The plant looks clean of algae and I planted it without quarantine. Was fine in the beginning till the nutrients went out of balance.

I used to think that algae spores were airborne too (or already present in all our water sources), while that might be the case for certain common algae like diatoms or green spot/green dust algae (every tank i keep encounter those at least once in its lifetime), i've found that other types of pest algae like hair/thread algae or black brush algae are introduced species (they have to hitchhike in with plants or infected tank water first). Simply put, if those pest algae were never introduced into a tank (or killed off before they were introduced), they will not appear at all.

One of the reasons why i think so is because have kept overfed/overstocked tanks which have no Co2 injection and excess light (all the ideal conditions for those types of algae to prosper), yet hair/thread and brush algae never once appeared in those tanks.

[DeadEnd]

After I had turned down the lights, the filamentous algae has receded quite a bit.

I took UA advise and dose 5ml of AlgExit. It is now on the 2 day and I see less bubbles coming out for the substrate. The NO3 and PO4 reading seem to be the same for the past 2 days without any dosing so turn up the CO2 to about 7-8 bps based on 15sec count but the drop checker just remain at light green and the Christmas moss begin to pear like mad.

It may sound like mad to run at 7-8 bps of CO2 on a 2 feet tank and I am very sure that there is no leak on the piping connections as I have wrapped with PTFE tape to ensure a tight fit. The pressure needed to dissolve the CO2 in the Ista reactor is also very minimum. I have also release some gas from the cylinder prior to setup and release the non CO2 air in the reactor upon connection.

I suspect the refill on the cylinder is not of pure CO2 such that I need to run at such high bps. Has anyone encounter such a situation before?

[Urban Aquaria]

Yeah, 7-8 bps is indeed rather high for a 2ft tank using Co2 reactor, that much bps will usually create a large gas pocket in the reactor... i guess you could gradually decrease the injection rate and see if the Co2 levels still maintain at optimal levels.

Just for reference, my 2ft planted tank uses only around 1 bps with Co2 reactor, drop checker stays lime green and plants still pearl.

Do make sure your drop checker reagent is mixed with 4dkh solution (not aquarium water) or using premixed indicator solution, so that the srop checker color readings are correct.

Also check all the connections and tubing with soapy water to make sure there are no leaks, sometimes even with PTFE plumbers tape wrapped around the connection screw threads, there may still be leaks popping out.

Not sure about cylinders filled with non-pure Co2 gas though, you'll probably have to check with the LFS or gas company to find out.

[DeadEnd]

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Thanks to UA for the AlgaExit recommendation. Now no visible algae seen except for some minimal GDA which is easily handle by the nerite snails. CO2 has been tune down to 1bps and WC only when water turned brownish. No systematic dosing method, just monitor to maintain NPK at 20ppm, 20ppm and 2ppm. TDS below 300. The MC is glowing well and infact it had gone through 2 haircut as of today.

The RCS population also exploded and I setup a low tech minimal maintenance tank for the aggressive culling.
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[AQMS]

NIce growth on the wood...awesome!

[wongce]

Nice arch......