Tank Dimensions (LxWxH): 2x1x1 feet
Tank Volume (litres or gallons): Approx 57litres
Lighting Intensity(No of Watts) : 36watts x 2 PL
Type of Lighting (FL/PL/MH) : PL
No. of Hours your light is on : 10-14hrs daily
CO2 Injection Rate (bps) : 1bps
Type of CO2 (DIY/Liquid/Tank) : Cylinder
Method of Injection (e.g. Diffusor/Reactor): Spiral Diffuser
Substrate Used : Dennerle crystal quartz
How Thick is your base fert : 1.5cm
How thick is your gravel : 2.5cm
Liquid Fertilizers Used : Dr. Mallick Lushgrow Aqua 5ml weekly, Lushgrow micro 5 drops weekly.
Frequency of fertilization : weekly
Tank Temperature : 26 to 27
Type of Filter (overhead/internal/canister) : canister
Filter media used : biohome, bioglass, cotton
How long has your tank been set up : approx 4mths
Other equipment :
Chemical Properties (Fill what you can)
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Carbonate Hardness (KH): 3dkH
Total Hardness (gH): ?
pH : approx 7
NH4 (ppm): ?
NO2 (ppm): ?
NO3 (ppm): bet. 12.5 to 25 ppm
PO4 (ppm): ?
Fe (ppm): ?
Bioload (Your Fish and Plants)
-approx 20 lamp eye, 3platy, 6 SAE+oto, 6cory, 7 rasbora (just taken out) and several other assorted fish.
-heavily planted with glosso, java moss wall, taiwan moss, and a few other kinds of plants which i don't know the names.
Situation:
Around 3 weeks back ,the tank only faced spot algae problem. However when i changed the spiral diffuser to a ceramic diffuser, my bps was lowered significantly and i wasn't aware of it (since i did not have a bubble counter)
Green hairy algae developed followed by the dark brown/black hair algae soon infested my tank. I've tried to read up about past posts in the forum regarding algae outbreak and also visited websites to understand more. However, it doesnt seem to help alot, hope someone here can address my problem directly, thanks.
Renrub..there is much info to be found here and elsewhere on the web if you look hard enough. Plants need basic stuff like light, CO2 and nutrients (N,P,K,GH(Ca/Mg) and traces). Whenever you have problems, try to look down the line in this way...Light(Enough?), CO2(Enough?), Nitrate(Enough?), Potassium(Enough?), GH(Enough?), Phosphate(Enough?) and finally traces..I'll let you troubleshoot your problems yourself. Learn the hard way and you will remember better. Good luck.
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
any sites to guide me around?
I am not an expert, but I just think that if u cut down the fertiliser and the lights, u will solve the problem. And do u feed yr fish a lot?
This was the thinking we used to follow in the past where the extra nutrients are available for algae.... this prooved to be incorrect and what we believe now is that algae is caused by nutirent imbalance. Do go through the articles here and try to correct your nutrients by dosing whatever your tank is short off.----------------
On 11/21/2003 9:54:00 PM
I am not an expert, but I just think that if u cut down the fertiliser and the lights, u will solve the problem. And do u feed yr fish a lot?
----------------
What you should address first is your CO2 level which I think is really too low at 9ppm. Try getting it up to at least 20ppm. Maybe from there, you could work on your NPK. Might be a tad short at the moment.
u mean to get 20ppm, i shd be bubbling at 2bps? Will it be too much for a 2 feet tank?
Btw I've just started a 3x1.5x2 feet tank, can recommend me how many bps to reach 20-30ppm?
The best way is to adopt the 'trial & error' method. Increase your CO2 injection till you get around pH 6.7. To calculate CO2 level, use Chuck's CO2 Calculator.
one more question, once i've stabilise everything, will the algae die off on its own or do i have to introduce algae eaters to get rid of it?
If you can get the nutrients to balance up, ideally the algae will be gone. At this point, you still can (maybe you should) put in some algae eaters to help out the process.
Given the fact that you have enough algae in your tank to irk you into starting this thread, I suggest that you remove as much as you can manually. Algae eaters can only do that much to control new algae growth (not the mature ones on your leaves, glass, equipment, wood, etc).
ThEoDoRe
Personally, I find your tank pretty heavily loaded with critters especially considering the size of the SAEs when fully grown. Even when everything is back in place, you might still get nasty outbreaks of algae due to the ammonia spikes contributed by the heavily bioload. I would recommend you to drop most of your SAEs...you don't need them when you know how to grow plants.
As for your current algae, what you can do is to remove as much of it as possible followed by a large water change. Correct the CO2 and then think about dosing enough nutrients....Remember, in a high light tank, CO2 is too important overlook...make darn sure it is in good range for the entire photoperiod before even thinking about the nutrients. Your plants are not going to use up much nutrients if you don't correct the CO2.
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
roger, thanks for all the advice.
jus curious..
will a high bioload complement a fertiliser-free regime?
No. High bioload contributes ammonia which is toxic to fishes and algae love it. Unless you want dead fishes and algae farm, I would not go down that line. If you really want a fert-free regime, then do a low light no CO2 tank with low to moderate bioload. You need a thick substrate for that though and no water changes for a couple of months except when doing heavy prunning which is seldom the case. Fish feedings are fertilisers for the plants...Plant variety might be limited for this kind of tanks though.
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
i see.. so high bioload tends to result in algae?
so the only way to balance a high bioload is to have frequent water changes?
Yes, more big water changes are good for such tanks but you might still get occasional algae bloom if things go downhill due to poor maintenance or some reason. A bigger filter might help as well...(converts the ammonia to nitrate faster due to bigger bacteria colony.)
Regards
Peter Gwee
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
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