Need advice

[Lyne]

Hi! Simon

Ok! My tank size is 4ftx1.5ftx1.5ft. I am totally newbie in planted tank. I have setup the tank abt 3 wks ago. I notice that the tank got lots of green green stuff like algae but it hard to remove i need to u sponge to scrub. and the riccia also turning yellowish...........pls advice what shld i do next??

Btw i have total 150w light......coz b4 i setup the tank i check with Teo from teo plant they told me just put 2 36w light will do.....hiya!!!!

[juggler]

150W for your tanks size sounds good. 2x36W would not be enough for your Riccia.

The green algae at side of tank could be an indication of plants not growing as fast as they should so algae take over for the time being. The new plants take some time to adjust t new environment. Or maybe your tank is not fully planted?

If you want, you can put in some floating plants like Frogbits so it provide some shade and absorb some excess nutrients.

What about the fish load?
CO2 injection?
I presume you have base fertiliser?

[Lyne]

Yup! I have Co2 at 3bps, Fish load abt 40 fishes. yup! I have base fert.

Hmm,,,,plant not fully plant?? i not sure...but it look quite alots of plant, the plants are growing well......except riccia

[Nicky]

I am no expert here but just want to share..

when I started my planted tank in mid-Sept 2002, I took people's advise of planting difformis to absorb the excess nutrient. I have a 4ft tank and have 4x36W light then. Apart from the cloudy water, I do not faced much problem with algae then.

I had more than 20 Yamato and 6 SEA. I did not feed them for the first 7 weeks of startup. I think they survive on eating up whatever thread-algae they can find on my difformis and hairglass.

My difformis did very well initially, later they becomes yellow and developed holes on leaves and I threw them away. But at least no significant algae growth happened.

[juggler]

I saw your other thread and you mention about 20 tetras and 20 oto or something like that. I think that's a rather very small population for your tank size. I suspect your tank don't have enough nitrates from the fish waste to support the plants. Plants turning yellow is a sign of N deficiency.

What you can do it add a more complete liquid fertiliser (not just the trace elements) containing the major nutrients N,P,K. Eg. you can try Dr Mallick's Lushgro Aqua (it has N and K but no P). I am sure there are other brands but I am not sure of their contents.

Feed your fish more frequently as well. Fish food is good source of N and P.

Do you intend to keep more fish in future?

[Nicky]

Thanks for your feedback Juggler.. I hope Lyne will not mind me hijacking his discussion to talk about my tank

Yes, I have problem with my plants now. I feel that problem can be rather complex. Too complex that I think I had better start a new thread later.

BTW, I have plenty of fish-load now. Let me see..
100 Cardinal
50 Rummynose
>300 Malayan (at least that's what I put in. Probably some are already dead)
8 Oto

[Allen_1971]

Lyne,

I agree with Juggler, your fish load is a bit light, and I found that typically Elatine doesn't do well in both N and K limited environments. Where both are abundant, it tend to thrive.

Nicky,

Too high a bioload may not be a good thing... balance is typically what is sought... i.e. a N production from your bioload which roughly matches the N consumption of your plants. Too much or too little is not good.

[Lyne]

Hi! All

Well......any suggestion how many fishload to put in 4ft tank?? Last nite juz add 20pcs neon tetras but morning notice 4 missing *sigh*

As for the fertilizer can get those PMDD from Jason Aqua Nature?? As the tank still new i have not add in any fertilizer yet.

Thanks for all advice....

[PeterGwee]

Commercial fertilizers are better for newbies starting off for a planted tank as often the manufacturer as implemented the room for error kinda thing..PMDD is a bit risky if you do not understand the inter-relationship between what each nutrient composition can do for your plants and do not like to use test kits..its your pick though.. []

If you wanna go the PMDD way..go buy from Dr Mallick as it is cheaper..the address is in the LFS list on the top right hand side...

[juggler]

Dr Mallick's Lushgro Aqua can be quite "complete" as it contains 10 of the 16 elements needed for growth. Other commercial products seldom state their contents so quite hard to compare. I am sure all products work, some better than others. I choose to get the cheapest.

See this thread for the Lushgro Aqua contents.

Cheers!

[PeterGwee]

Hi KF! Using LushGro-Aqua is cheap..no second ways about it...but does lead to other nutrient deficiency because of the high K in it as well as the danger of nitrate poisoning..

KF, do you test for Fe to determine the amount of drops to add or just follow Dr Mallick's instruction? I did ask Dr Mallick about it and he say it is definitely better to use test kits..but the problem is I need to dose more than what he recommend when using Fe as an indicator...kinda puzzled..return to JBL ferropol for the moment..[]

[juggler]

Usually I used the Lushgro Micros. And used Fe level as an indicator or how much to add. So it is like 5 drops daily for my 2.5ft tank.
For Lushgro Aqua, I seldom use it but only for new tank startups. Currently I am just dosing it in a small planted tank w/o measuring anything. I won't used it for tanks with more fish. Too much unneccessary N.

[Lyne]

Hi! Bros

Then what sort of fertiliser should i use for my new planted tank???? []

[PeterGwee]

Lyne...you should try those commercial type of liquid fertilizers first as they are more suitable for beginners or ppl who does not like to do lots of testing with test kits. Examples are JBL ferropol, Dennerle, bioplast ferts and etc.

[sherchoo]

Another brand of fert to look out for is Seachem.

[jacian]

Lyne,

What is the photoperiod for the tank during the first 3 wks? Since you didn't add in any liquid fert, I hope the lights are on not more than 6-8 hrs a day.

For your riccia turning yellow, it is good to start adding some liquid fert.

[Lyne]

Hi! Thanks for all the advice

Will buy the liquid fertiliser this evening.

Yup! I turn on the light abt 10-12hrs. Water temp: 27-28 deg

[Allen_1971]

Lyne, you might wanna cut back your lights till about 8-10 hours... we usually recommend shorter photo-periods for newer tanks.

[jacian]

Usually we do not add liquid fert during the initial setup as the plants have not established. However, it is accompanied by shorter photoperiod (4-8 hrs) and a low fish load.

[Lyne]

Hi! Jaccian & Allen

thanks for yours advice, will cut short to on the light for 4-6hrs.

Hmm!! as for the fert will hold back first.