Fert Regime and hair algae

[hongrui]

Size: 2x1x1
Light: 2x36W(PL)
CO2 cylinder, diffuser, 6.5<pH<7, 5<kH<6
Photoperiod: 10hrs, 0730 to 1730hrs
Dechlorinator: Seachem Prime

Fert regime:
mon, wed, fri - 14.5ppm of KNO3 + 1ppm of KHPO4 from stock solutions.
tues, thurs, sat - 5ml flourish
50% water change fornightly on sundays

3" gravel
Plants: Sagittaria subulata, Vallisneria spp, Ceratopteris cornuta
Fauna: 30 x Rasbora maculata
Algae: Green Spot and hair algae

i believe my CO2 levels are enough as my plants and algae pearls after about 3 hours into my photoperiod. and i had initially OD-ed CO2 leading to some gasping among the rasboras before reducing the bubble count slightly.

my tank had just came off a 4 days blackout and i've tried to manually remove as much algae as i can.

is my fert regime sufficient to battle the algae or should i up the NO3 and / or the PO4? another of my worry is i do not know if seachem prime is reducing the amount of NO3 i've added into the tank as it claims to "detoxify nitrates". (i've posted about this in another thread)

thankyou

[PeterGwee]

Size: 2x1x1
Light: 2x36W(PL)
CO2 cylinder, diffuser, 6.5<pH<7, 5<kH<6
Photoperiod: 10hrs, 0730 to 1730hrs
Dechlorinator: Seachem Prime

Fert regime:
mon, wed, fri - 14.5ppm of KNO3 + 1ppm of KHPO4 from stock solutions.
tues, thurs, sat - 5ml flourish
50% water change fornightly on sundays

3" gravel
Plants: Sagittaria subulata, Vallisneria spp, Ceratopteris cornuta
Fauna: 30 x Rasbora maculata
Algae: Green Spot and hair algae

i believe my CO2 levels are enough as my plants and algae pearls after about 3 hours into my photoperiod. and i had initially OD-ed CO2 leading to some gasping among the rasboras before reducing the bubble count slightly.

my tank had just came off a 4 days blackout and i've tried to manually remove as much algae as i can.

is my fert regime sufficient to battle the algae or should i up the NO3 and / or the PO4? another of my worry is i do not know if seachem prime is reducing the amount of NO3 i've added into the tank as it claims to "detoxify nitrates". (i've posted about this in another thread)

thankyou

Its a CO2 issue since you have plenty of nutrients. Do not be over confident on the CO2. It will burn you hard if you do so. Whenever you see a lull in plant growth or algae appearance, react. Get some moderate surface movement going if you have none or too little. Add CO2 only during the photoperiod and make sure your rate is stable once set. Make sure you have high plant biomass and not just a couple of plants here and there (pack them like it is a grown in tank). Up your CO2 a tad only from where your current rate is and then monitor the critter behaviour for the day and then the plants for the week (ala Tom Barr style.. ). Repeat the steps next week till things are looking good with no sign of critter stress. The moderate surface movement will waste some CO2 but will help degas excess CO2 during the night and add O2 if the O2 dips below saturation due to poor plant growth.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[cherabin]

Its a CO2 issue since you have plenty of nutrients. Do not be over confident on the CO2. It will burn you hard if you do so. Whenever you see a lull in plant growth or algae appearance, react. Get some moderate surface movement going if you have none or too little. Add CO2 only during the photoperiod and make sure your rate is stable once set. Make sure you have high plant biomass and not just a couple of plants here and there (pack them like it is a grown in tank). Up your CO2 a tad only from where your current rate is and then monitor the critter behaviour for the day and then the plants for the week (ala Tom Barr style.. ). Repeat the steps next week till things are looking good with no sign of critter stress. The moderate surface movement will waste some CO2 but will help degas excess CO2 during the night and add O2 if the O2 dips below saturation due to poor plant growth.

Regards
Peter Gwee

Good day, Peter. When you are talking about moderate surface movement, does it mean adding a powerhead to aid water circulation about the entire tank?

My filter in/out if located on the same side of my 4' and hence i have this hunch that my algae issues might be due to what you had mentioned.

[PeterGwee]

When you are talking about moderate surface movement, does it mean adding a powerhead to aid water circulation about the entire tank?

Depends on the equipment that you are using (how many filters are you using? Do you have a CO2 reactor inline with the filter?). A 4 feet tank would need good circulation whereas a 2ft won't need alot of circulation to get the CO2 and nutrients to the plants. Generally, spraybar designs are good for big tanks as they distribute flow evenly rather than a single outlet which does not.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[hongrui]

peter, i have 2 fans blowing across the sirface of the tank 24/7 so i guess the surface movement is taken care of.

i'll up my CO2 tomorrow and see how it goes. thanks again

[cherabin]

Depends on the equipment that you are using (how many filters are you using? Do you have a CO2 reactor inline with the filter?). A 4 feet tank would need good circulation whereas a 2ft won't need alot of circulation to get the CO2 and nutrients to the plants. Generally, spraybar designs are good for big tanks as they distribute flow evenly rather than a single outlet which does not.

Regards
Peter Gwee

Many thanks for the advice. I am using a single Eheim 2226 inline with my external CO2 reactor. Had already changed my outlet to a spray bar instead of using a single output. Would it actually enchance water circulation if i were to switch the siting of the outlet to the other side of the tank instead of place it along the same side as my inlet?

Given a choice i would not add an additional powerhead as more equipment naturally means more cluter in the tank

[PeterGwee]

Many thanks for the advice. I am using a single Eheim 2226 inline with my external CO2 reactor. Had already changed my outlet to a spray bar instead of using a single output. Would it actually enchance water circulation if i were to switch the siting of the outlet to the other side of the tank instead of place it along the same side as my inlet?

Given a choice i would not add an additional powerhead as more equipment naturally means more cluter in the tank

The bottom back placement of the spraybar point to the front along the gravel line would be the best placement since the CO2 rich water gets to the stomata which is located under the leaves of plants rather than the top. Just make sure you have some surface movement along with it.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[hongrui]

Up your CO2 a tad only from where your current rate is and then monitor the critter behaviour for the day and then the plants for the week

after increasing my bubble count by 1/2 a bubble over 2 weeks, i've found that the hair algae growth seems more lush now, and the spot algae takes less time to take over the whole of the front of my tank.

i've also noticed some brown algae now growing together with the hairalgae.

am i missing something? like should i have also increased my fert amount?
and how come the brown algae ? they weren't there before and i've got 72w PL over a 2' tank.

[|squee|]

Something seems unbalanced in your tank. Remove the offending algaes and try to stabilise your tank since you mention it's just recovered from a blackout. Brown and hair algae are common in a new tank and this sounds like normal for a tank recovering from a blackout. More plants are probably needed too, unless your tank is covered by 3 of the plants you listed.

[hongrui]

this question may sound silly but what's the procedure to go about stabilising the tank?

should i continue increasing my co2 until the critters show stress and then back off to the last bubble count. followed by slowly increasing the amount of no3 + po4 until the algae goes off?

or should i just keep everything constant and monitor for 2 more weeks?

the plants cover approximately 80% of the gravel and i've changed the diffuser to an internal reactor hoping to increase the efficiency of dissolving the co2.

[PeterGwee]

Hongrui, I'll be less incline to trust your pH test kit (too big of a range I presume..0.5 intervals? Get something that measures in a more narrow range but then again other influences can affect things as well.) and more on plants and algae presence. You have taken care of the nutrients well (maybe a tad too much for the NO3..add more for the PO4..2ppm per dose 3x a week.) and the only thing left is basically CO2 and maintenance.

For the CO2 part, is your rate of dosing consistent or moving about? If you are sure that it is pretty stable once set, you can do the slow increment rate of dosing (sort of EI for CO2 which focus on plants/critter rather than test kits which can be wrong at times.). Note your current rate for your CO2. eg. 1 bubble every 5 seconds...now, increase the rate slowly for the week to around 1 bubble every 2-3 seconds and monitor the critters for the first day and the plants for the week. Make sure you have slight surface movement. Personally, I find movement from fans too much and can cause a lot of CO2 to be lost. Add a tad more the next week and so fore till the critters start act funny and then back off. You can back off the CO2 dosing once you are pretty confident things are going well. (no algae, plants growing well..no punny new growth, stunt tips and etc. No lull in pearling.)

Do the changes slowly and monitor closely or else you will and can kill your critters.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[hongrui]

peter, the rate of co2 injection is pretty constant. like once i set it to run at eg. 1 bubble per second, it'll just run at that rate until the timer turns off the solenoid. without fiddling with the needle valve, there's no change in the injection rate. that's what you're asking, right?

so i'll just have to slowly increase the co2 injection then and conduct EI for co2.

thanks peter and terrence. i guess having/maintaining planted tanks will really help me build some patience.

[wong1979]

No shrimps huh? I feel that the best way would be to get yamato shrimps to deal with them. IMHO, algae are like plants also. You give them more nutrients, ie CO2 and commercialized fert, they bloom. This statement may contradict what many people say, but let's not debate over this

I would reckon at least 20-30 yamatos to see the effect. Note: must be yamato and not cherry, or malayan

My tank was like yours before until I discovered the miracle that yamatos can perform!

[hongrui]

thanks for the advice wong, i was hoping that i could get everything in order without the need of an algae crew. and it seemed that way for 2 months until i got the spot algae and hair algae bloom.

by the way peter, you said i might have too much no3? would it help if i reduce a little while increasing the po4?

i currently add 10ml from my stock solution of no3. 1 ml gives me 1.45ppm,
how many mls/ppm do you think i should add?