Help! Problems after using 72W for 2ft tank

[genes]

Hi all

I have some issues after i changed from 36W to 72W and advice from you guys would very much be appreciated!

1) Green sport algaes on glass wall. More of them now after i changed to 72W. How can i reduce or remove them? I scrapped them off every week when i change water but every week, they just appear on the glass again. Very unsightly...

2) I have reduce lights ON timing from 10 hours to 8 hours now with an hour of "blackout" between the 8 hrs. Is this ok? Should i be reducing the lights hours to 7 hours or lesser? Longer blackouts? I am dosing LushGro Kno3, Kh2Po4 and Nutrafin PlantGro twice weekly. CO2 at 3 bubble per sec.

3) A layer of oil like subtance on the water surface? Is this protein? What is causing this layer of oil? I have never experience this when i was using 36W but after changing to 72W, this oil starts to appear. Can this be harmful to fishes? Recently 1 of my chocolate gouroumi and a veilfin swordtail died for no apparent reason. The day before, they were still hyper active and eating, next morning, they are floating on the surface. Yamatos and cherries were all fine. How can i reduce or remove this oil thingy? dun have a protein skimmer.

Thanks for helping
Regards
Gene

[juggler]

In your case, I think too much light compared to the nutrient uptake.
I can't guarantee if the below will work in your case (it worked in mine), but you can try:
- shorten light hours some more, or
- introduce floating plants to help block excess light. They also grow fast to help take up nutrients.

For the surface scum, fish like swordtails, mollies, guppies can help eat up this oly film.

The fish death - could it be the heat this weekend? Quite warm -- my tank is 2 degress above normal with the fans running. Usually it is 27C or less.

[|squee|]

1) Too much light, since you didn't increase your dosing after you added the light. More light means need for more nutrients. For green spot in particular, increase dosage of KH2PO4.

2) I don't know about the idea of having a break in between the lighting period (some say i'ts good, some say it's bad). Perhaps you might want to bring it to the full 10 hours stretch.

3) The surface scum might have prevented your gouramy from breathing atmospheric oxygen (very remote, but I do know for a fact gouramies and bettas and the like need to breathe atomospheric oxygen to stay alive, even if the water is saturated with dissolved oxygen). Increase surface agitation, or use Juggler's method?

Keep the C02 high in any case.

[PeterGwee]

Since you are doing the EI method, nutrients shouldn't be the issue unless you are dosing on the lean side which is not what the method was about anyway. CO2...did you check what happen to it when you increase the light? Is the CO2 level stable throughout the day? Almost 90% of plant/algae issues come from lack of it.

By the way, why did you increase the light? More light means more uptake and demand on CO2 and nutrients. Less room for error is what you get...Not a wise move imo unless you have a good handle on CO2.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[genes]

I was being advised to get a 72W watts lamp actually by this forum while i was starting out my tank 5mths ago. The article was in the sticky thread too before the revamp. Saying 72W is actually not too much light and allows me to deal with all high light plants. However, due to money constraint, i can only settle for a 36W back then. Glosso could not crawl, riccia never bubbled. So basically, could not get any foreground plants to grow properly with 36W. Thats why i changed to 72W when the opportunity persist. So 72W for a 2ft is actually an overkill now??? oh no.....

But with 72W now, growth is very lush for stem plants and the all the plants and riccia bubbled like crazy during photo period in the early evening. How often should i be dosing now? I am doing dosing 1/8 teaspoon for KNO3 and a rice grain of KH2PO4, 2.5ml of nutrafin plantgro twice a week. So i am suppose to be doseing at higher frequencies now, 3 times a week? Can i do at higher concentrations?

And lastly, whats causing the layer of oil? will get guppies and see if they can clear the mess up. ANd yes, weather was very warm couple of days back, i was shocked when i put my hand into the tank coz it felt warm. Temp was showing close to 30degrees. The norm i have is usually around 26 to 27 degree. But my gut feeling tells me that damn oil layer killed my fishes

Regards
Gene

[Goondoo]

I was being advised to get a 72W watts lamp actually by this forum while i was starting out my tank 5mths ago. The article was in the sticky thread too before the revamp. Saying 72W is actually not too much light and allows me to deal with all high light plants. However, due to money constraint, i can only settle for a 36W back then. Glosso could not crawl, riccia never bubbled. So basically, could not get any foreground plants to grow properly with 36W. Thats why i changed to 72W when the opportunity persist. So 72W for a 2ft is actually an overkill now??? oh no.....

What is the dimension of your tank?

But with 72W now, growth is very lush for stem plants and the all the plants and riccia bubbled like crazy during photo period in the early evening. How often should i be dosing now? I am doing dosing 1/8 teaspoon for KNO3 and a rice grain of KH2PO4, 2.5ml of nutrafin plantgro twice a week. So i am suppose to be doseing at higher frequencies now, 3 times a week? Can i do at higher concentrations?

Personally, I like to know how much ferts are required. I would measure the NO3 once every two to three days during lights off to understand how much NO3 my plants are consuming. From there, I will estimate a proportional ratio of how much I should add everytime after water change using Tom's Estimate Index of Dosing.
I suggest you to do the same. You must understand that it is almost impossible to advise you on how much to add, as different water conditions (temp, KH, PH, CO2 etc), type of plants, size of plants, growth of plants and bioload etc all can affect the fertilizations balance.

And lastly, whats causing the layer of oil? will get guppies and see if they can clear the mess up. ANd yes, weather was very warm couple of days back, i was shocked when i put my hand into the tank coz it felt warm. Temp was showing close to 30degrees. The norm i have is usually around 26 to 27 degree. But my gut feeling tells me that damn oil layer killed my fishes

Regards
Gene

I believed it to be the layer of protein, can't really remember the whole make but definitely it was caused by the photosynthesis process.
You could either get a surface skimmer if you are using the external callister filter, or get some mollies or platies that would feed on them. What some hobbist did was using newpaper spread evenly on the tank to soak up the top layer of protein once every few days.
I do believe that they might cause fatality if your bioload is pretty high or CO2 is turn on 24/7 during the lights off period.

Maybe adding a airstone during lights off will help too.

Hope these helps.

[|squee|]

genes, we reccommended 72W probably because it allows you to keep a wider range of plants. However, more light means more nutrients are needed, since more energy is provided to the plants now. Because there's no nutrient increase for the plants, they do not use the "extra light energy". This "energy" is then utilised by algae, therefore the appearance of algae.

I'd increase the frequency of dosage, or increase the dosage as below:

*This is for reference only from my 2ft tank with 36W, C02*
KNO3 1/4 teaspoon
KH2PO4 a pinch
Traces as and when I feel like it

Dosage on Wednesday and Saturday.

The last time I had 72W, I was dosing daily. Plants grew like mad, algae was nowhere to be seen.

I'm using the EI btw. Hope the above info served as reference.

[PeterGwee]

Personally, I like to know how much ferts are required. I would measure the NO3 once every two to three days during lights off to understand how much NO3 my plants are consuming. From there, I will estimate a proportional ratio of how much I should add everytime after water change using Tom's Estimate Index of Dosing.
I suggest you to do the same. You must understand that it is almost impossible to advise you on how much to add, as different water conditions (temp, KH, PH, CO2 etc), type of plants, size of plants, growth of plants and bioload etc all can affect the fertilizations balance.

Goondoo, the EI method is an ease to use because it negates the need for testing. You can do the test if you wish but that requires good test kits and calibration as well with standard solutions. Excess nutrients does not cause algae...it is a lack of it that does. CO2 is the main issue imo...stability during the photoperiod is what most folks don't have.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[Goondoo]

Goondoo, the EI method is an ease is to use because it negates the need for testing. You can do the test if you wish but that requires good test kits and calibration as well with standard solutions. Excess nutrients does not cause algae...it is a lack of it that does. CO2 is the main issue imo...stability during the photoperiod is what most folks don't have.

Regards
Peter Gwee

Peter,
I believe you might be right, I am not yet a pro anyway . Maybe I not only Kiasu, I Kiasee too, thus adding only required amount. However, too much NO3 might not be advisable to the fishes and shrimps.....

[genes]

MY tank size is 60cm(L)x36cm(H)x30cm(W). I am also growing duckweeds on the top of the water now and my DDs are growing so long till touching the surface thus partially casting a shadow onto the bottom of the tank.