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Thread: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

  1. #41
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

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    Hi Kamran,

    thanks for asking. This is my first planted tank, more like learning on the job.

    most plants managed to survive except S.repens. Looking for plant to replace.

    im getting skilled at removing thread algae, which not a good sign lol!

    Tank just cycled, going to sent in a small group of shrimps soon, wanted to add nerite snail but worried the snail may not survive my water pararmeter

    Ph 5.6 (Co2 period 4.9/5)

    GH 5




    Quote Originally Posted by SantaMonicaHelp View Post
    Sorry to hear about the setback, TTerry. Has your aquascape been doing well otherwise?

    -Kamran

  2. #42
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Week 12 - day 4


    My tank is cycled


    Finally added my cleaning crews! Hope it can help with my thread algae. I have a small patch of BGA on my HC too, i manually remove as much as i can, they are thick and sticky, and have a very strong smell. Hope the cleaning crews will clear it!

    40 x Cherry shrimps with some shrimplets (Hopefully they can adapt, because my shrimp tank's water parameter is towards the hard side)
    6 x Yamato
    4 x Otocinclus


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  3. #43
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    This corner part of my HC was badly affected by thread algae, with my very rough movement, i accidentally lifted this patch of HC 2 weeks ago, they still survive, but just look puffy despite my attempt to push it into the substrate. i notice the underneath potion was browning, So i pull them out, remove those with algae and replanted them.

    Good to know those Rotala Bonsai which i replanted survived!

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  4. #44
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    To battle the algae, i had further lowered my front piece of chihiros A series to level 3, while chihiros RGB (behind) kept at full level.


    Co2 - 1430hrs - 2130 hrs
    lightning - 1530hrs - 2230 hrs

  5. #45
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Quote Originally Posted by TTerry View Post
    Ah! I just recognized your blog name. Im the Terry who got the trimming from you * thanks for the plants
    I see. Haha. So sad seeing all the hygrophila pinatifida melted.

    BTW, the lighting for your tank is very strong! That makes the plants grow so well. On the other hand, algae also has chance to develop. So may be you might dim the RGB light as well? Or just keep one light? If you do that, please do gradually. Sudden change of light, CO2 can cause algae bloom as well.

    Cheers bro!


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  6. #46
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Left 3 stalks haha!

    the RGB is towards low/ med PAR light as compare to A series. 1 set of rgb coverage not enough for my Width of 45cm. I prefer to have more RGB color in my tank, so I dimmed the A Series instead as the front part mostly foreground plant. Yea, I noticed my AR. Mini on the front left grew fast and tall need to do some trimming

    Im considering to change it to 1 set of twinstar S Series. Dont know will it be a bad idea...

    Quote Originally Posted by jackychun View Post
    I see. Haha. So sad seeing all the hygrophila pinatifida melted.

    BTW, the lighting for your tank is very strong! That makes the plants grow so well. On the other hand, algae also has chance to develop. So may be you might dim the RGB light as well? Or just keep one light? If you do that, please do gradually. Sudden change of light, CO2 can cause algae bloom as well.

    Cheers bro!


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    Last edited by TTerry; 14th Oct 2017 at 11:20.

  7. #47
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Just look unsightly to me....

    Quote Originally Posted by SantaMonicaHelp View Post
    What makes thread algae so dangerous to aquascapes? What would happen if it was left uncontrolled?

    -Kamran

  8. #48
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Quote Originally Posted by TTerry View Post
    Left 3 stalks haha!

    the RGB is towards low/ med PAR light as compare to A series. 1 set of rgb coverage not enough for my Width of 45cm. I prefer to have more RGB color in my tank, so I dimmed the A Series instead as the front part mostly foreground plant. Yea, I noticed my AR. Mini on the front left grew fast and tall need to do some trimming

    Im considering to change it to 1 set of twinstar S Series. Dont know will it be a bad idea...
    I am using Twinstar for my small tank and can see it really good for plants and colour rendering is very good. Changing light also need to be careful since it might cause algae, too. Last time I changed from Up Aqua Z series to Chihiros A series then my tank got suffered for some time. So just do it gradually...

    For Hygrophila Pinnatifidas, let me know if you need more, I will spare to you next trimming, of course FOC. Haha. I would like to see how it grows in your beautiful tank.


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  9. #49
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Yes. Bit worried about the high PAR level. Probably need to increase nutrient dosing and co2 rate.

    Sure! Thanks for the trimming

    Quote Originally Posted by jackychun View Post
    I am using Twinstar for my small tank and can see it really good for plants and colour rendering is very good. Changing light also need to be careful since it might cause algae, too. Last time I changed from Up Aqua Z series to Chihiros A series then my tank got suffered for some time. So just do it gradually...

    For Hygrophila Pinnatifidas, let me know if you need more, I will spare to you next trimming, of course FOC. Haha. I would like to see how it grows in your beautiful tank.


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  10. #50
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    I guessed i got my first step wrong. I should had dose excel/ h202 to kill the BGA before removing them, i saw some around the nearby area, i may had spread it to other area.

    I find it difficult to differentiate the orange color of the api no3 test. Not going to manually remove bga at the moment, will increase my nitrate level to see if it improve.

    API Erythromycin*will be last resort.....

  11. #51
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Have you tried lowering your light intensity?

  12. #52
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Quote Originally Posted by kalkwasser View Post
    Have you tried lowering your light intensity?

    Hi, I did. As per jackychun, I took off one set of light fixture...


    1) spot treat h2o2
    2) increase nitrate
    3) I dosed easy life - blue exit
    4) going to increase my water flow

  13. #53
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Quote Originally Posted by TTerry View Post
    Hi, I did. As per jackychun, I took off one set of light fixture...


    1) spot treat h2o2
    2) increase nitrate
    3) I dosed easy life - blue exit
    4) going to increase my water flow
    Here we go the chemical treatment battle! It might take a course of 3-4 weeks to see the difference bro! Cheers! Keep us updated!


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  14. #54
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Quote Originally Posted by SantaMonicaHelp View Post
    It sounds like algae can be quite a pickle at times. Let us know how the new treatment goes.

    -Kamran
    Yes.... so i started off with blue exit which supposed to be the mild treatment compare to others....

  15. #55
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Quote Originally Posted by jackychun View Post
    Here we go the chemical treatment battle! It might take a course of 3-4 weeks to see the difference bro! Cheers! Keep us updated!


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    Yes bro! The instruction is to dose 5 consecutive days, follow by 2 weeks no water change/ top up.. which isnt possible for me... so i overdose the blue exit sightly and will continue to top up water with 1ml of blue exit for the next 2 weeks..

    H2o2 works wonder, next day bga gone... HC also turn light brown. Only concern is those blind spot area, i actually bought api EM, but decided to try blue exit first.

    I was introduce ultralife slime remover, i read it have good review, but seaview only have red slime remover for reef, so i skip...

  16. #56
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    TTerry, sad to hear you're having algae problems. Just a reality check, once they are in your tank esp hair/thread algae and bga, they will always remain in your tank, even if you manage to eradicate them.

    It is just a false sense of accomplishment. From then on, you need to be on the ball in terms of water management, fert dosing and CO2 injection. One slip and these will appear. It will be a burden after a few episodes of outbreak and many will give up.

    I had these issues for 3 years and finally decided to tear down everything, nuke the tank and equipment until no living thing can survive, rescape and when it come to replanting, I adhere to strict quarantine process for plants before adding to substrate. Fish and shrimps also need to go through the quarantine process to prevent alga from the LFS to invade your tank not just parasites. Of course LFS will be happy for you to have these problems.

    Until now, 10 months later, the only algae that I have is the green spot algae. Don't mind that, as a sudden outbreak of GSA only means my pO4 dosing is lacking. It will always go away in 1-2 weeks after increasing PO4 dosage.

    Really enjoying this hobby after the tear down. Just as a escape plan in case those algae outbreak becomes a chore.

  17. #57
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Quote Originally Posted by TTerry View Post
    Yes bro! The instruction is to dose 5 consecutive days, follow by 2 weeks no water change/ top up.. which isnt possible for me... so i overdose the blue exit sightly and will continue to top up water with 1ml of blue exit for the next 2 weeks..

    H2o2 works wonder, next day bga gone... HC also turn light brown. Only concern is those blind spot area, i actually bought api EM, but decided to try blue exit first.

    I was introduce ultralife slime remover, i read it have good review, but seaview only have red slime remover for reef, so i skip...
    Bro, for BGA, H202 is the best as the reaction kills the bga immediately and converts H202 to h20 - which is water. Just do large water change afterwards as the nuked bacteria will add waste in your water column. I usaully do 3 H202 treatments within a day or two of each treatment.

    Tried EM, it's effectiveness will diminish with subsequent outbreak and it's not cheap and it will impact your filter beneficial bacteria. Bought also the slime remover, did not use as I decided to teardown my tank but keep it as a backup that unitl today I have not used or no need use. But like I post earlier, it will come back from time to time based on how diligent you are.

    Mulm at substrate is the cause of my BGA then because of my high tech tank setup and large fish population and my non-existent plant/fish quarantine procedure. Now, my fish population is much less with same setup but regular vacuuming of substrate (1 month once). My tank is carpet full of MC. My algae crew is only oto. No BGA since day 1 with same equipments but new substrate.
    Last edited by greenie; 21st Oct 2017 at 13:36.

  18. #58
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Quote Originally Posted by greenie View Post
    TTerry, sad to hear you're having algae problems. Just a reality check, once they are in your tank esp hair/thread algae and bga, they will always remain in your tank, even if you manage to eradicate them.

    It is just a false sense of accomplishment. From then on, you need to be on the ball in terms of water management, fert dosing and CO2 injection. One slip and these will appear. It will be a burden after a few episodes of outbreak and many will give up.

    I had these issues for 3 years and finally decided to tear down everything, nuke the tank and equipment until no living thing can survive, rescape and when it come to replanting, I adhere to strict quarantine process for plants before adding to substrate. Fish and shrimps also need to go through the quarantine process to prevent alga from the LFS to invade your tank not just parasites. Of course LFS will be happy for you to have these problems.

    Until now, 10 months later, the only algae that I have is the green spot algae. Don't mind that, as a sudden outbreak of GSA only means my pO4 dosing is lacking. It will always go away in 1-2 weeks after increasing PO4 dosage.

    Really enjoying this hobby after the tear down. Just as a escape plan in case those algae outbreak becomes a chore.
    Hi bro, yes. I agreed with you that bga wont be fully eliminate. It's just matter of making the condition good for my plants/ live stock and bad for bga to surface.

    I find all these issues interesting instead of a setback. From planaria/ seed shrimps then bga lol!

    when i first doing dry start, i already notice some of my soil is darker green color but not slimy, i thought was normal. Out of my suspicious, beside those bga, i nuke those soil with h2o2 too, and indeed they disappear too.

    Yes. Quanrantine really test patience. I should do it.

    I did and going to do some changes

    1) I lowered my lighting (monitoring my plants too)
    2) increase my nutrient dosing (i bought dry NKP to lower cost). Only N and K currently. Will wait till my blue exit treatment over/ tank stablize then start to dose P and micros.
    3) im changing filter after the 3 weeks treatment to improve circulation/ dead spot.

    Really dont like the idea of using antibiotic too

    Really good advises from you. Thanks a lot!

  19. #59
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    1 more week to go for my blue exit treatment.... i did a water change with top up of blue exit. Many HC died off due to H2o2 dosing, other plants doing ok. i feel AR. mini quite easy to grow but tropica.com labelled it as "medium", i trimmed quite afew times. Finally added 6 x glowlight danio ( i almost killed them from paraguard dip, next time i should add air stone during treatment)

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  20. #60
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    Re: My first 120L aquascape with dry start HC

    Very good looking tank now bro! Well done!


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