Foray into planted tanks........again

[teinsports]

Algae manifestation. How to prevent or reduce? Setup is abt 12 days old.

Lighting 6 hrs
Co2 6hrs (activated 1 hr before lights on)
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 0.25
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[Urban Aquaria]

Its quite normal for algae to pop up during the initial cycling period, water parameters are still fluctuating and plant density is low, so algae will tend to have abit more advantage to grow.

Just try to manually clean and remove as much of the visible algae as you can at this moment (including any dead or melting plant leaves). Once the tank is cycled, you can then add in the teams of algae eaters (ie. shrimps, otocinclus, nerite snails etc) which will help to eat up and manage those various types of algae.

[teinsports]

Tks, u r helpful as usual. Do i have to reduce the lighting or co2 in view of the algae?

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[Urban Aquaria]

Tks, u r helpful as usual. Do i have to reduce the lighting or co2 in view of the algae?

At this initial stage of the tank setup, your plants will need ample light, Co2 and nutrients to "turbo boost" their growth, so its best not to reduce those factors (which may stunt the plant growth instead, allowing algae to continue dominating).

If possible, try to add more plants to increase their starting density... the quicker the plants establish and grow out to outcompete the algae, the better.

[teinsports]

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The algae is propagating much faster than my jap hairgrass n mc. Been scrubbing off algae almost everyday.

Water parameters are both 0 for ammonia n nitrite. Abt 20ppm for nitrate.

Been dosing these ferts.
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Am i missing anything here?



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[Urban Aquaria]

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The algae is propagating much faster than my jap hairgrass n mc. Been scrubbing off algae almost everyday.

Water parameters are both 0 for ammonia n nitrite. Abt 20ppm for nitrate.

Been dosing these ferts.
uploadfromtaptalk1434628351181.jpg

Am i missing anything here?

Such algae growth during the initial cycling period is quite normal, and i guess your layout is probably a contributing factor too... considering that your plant density is quite sparse at the moment, lots of light is basically shining directly on the span of bare rock surface area and sand in the front, so it becomes a prime real estate for algae.

Can see the algae pearling nicely, which indicates that those areas are getting an ideal balance of light, nutrients and Co2. The rocks are situated directly in the path of the filter outflow, which are the best places in the entire tank to receive nutrients and Co2, if plants were growing there they would probably be pearling too.

In this scenario, you'll just have to keep using a toothbrush and scrub away the algae as part of regular maintenance (make sure to switch off the filter while doing that and siphon out as much of the scrubbed algae to prevent them spreading around), eventually when the plants grow out more densely and the tank stabilizes, the algae growth should hopefully slow down too.

If the algae issue is really persistent, you could also try anti-algae treatments to help weaken it, like AlgExit. Here is an example: http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...483#post769483

The other alternative is to simply "embrace" the algae... those green algae might turn out to be the green fuzzy type, which are actually quite nice when they coat rocks. Perhaps you could incorporate it in your scape, in lieu of plants, maybe allow the rocks to be covered with a layer of bright green fuzz algae for a unique effect.

[teinsports]

Once again, thanks. Personally, im not too keen in accomodating algae on the rocks as i think it destroys the overall scape. Guess i have to be more hardworking then. The first batch of mc have melted away quite a fair bit, although i do see new sprouts here n there. Is this normal during the stabilisation process ?

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[Clamence]

Hi bro, just an advice from a newbie, i like to use seachem excel for the initial period of about a month for new planted tanks, really helps to control algae. U can even use excel to spot treat areas affected by the algae, turn off filter and spray excel on areas where there is large amount of algae. They should die within the next day or two.

[teinsports]

Thanks Clamence. To be honest, im overwhelmed and quite confused by the variety of liquid ferts that we use for our tanks. With the recommendations on adding liquid ferts, excel n algae control, how can i be assured that there will not be an overdose or even possibly neutralise the effects of each other?

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[Clamence]

Thanks Clamence. To be honest, im overwhelmed and quite confused by the variety of liquid ferts that we use for our tanks. With the recommendations on adding liquid ferts, excel n algae control, how can i be assured that there will not be an overdose or even possibly neutralise the effects of each other?

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I have used excel with liquid fert dosing without much issues and both seem to work fine even when added together on the same day. Im not too sure about algae killing chemicals though, as i have not used them before. You can add the chemicals one in the day and one in the night as a precaution

[Urban Aquaria]

The first batch of mc have melted away quite a fair bit, although i do see new sprouts here n there. Is this normal during the stabilisation process ?

Its common for newly added plants to die back abit during their transition to a new tank environment, more so in tanks that are still cycling as their parameters are still unstable.

Usually its the older/emersed leaves which melt away, while the new healthy submersed leaves grow out to replace them. Having good light, nutrients and Co2 will help speed up this transition and regrowth process.

One important factor is circulation, plants can't move so nutrients and Co2 need to be brought to them... in your layout, the outflow is currently positioned in such a way that it provides more circulation to the bare rocks on the left and across the rocks in the front, which means the algae there are receiving all the good stuff first, whereas the plants behind and on the right side get less circulation.

What you could try is reposition and mount the outflow pipe on the left side, then direct it to circulate water towards the MC that are situated at the right side and back of the tank, that will help to provide those plants with a greater supply of nutrients/Co2 and improve their growth rate.

[teinsports]

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Did a minor rescape to optimise circulation.

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[fstyle28]

This tank will be a looker in no time. nice work.

[teinsports]

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Getting bad to worse.....

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[Clamence]

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Getting bad to worse.....

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Reduce lighting! In fact go one day without light, change large proportion of the water. U might wanna consider getting floating plants to suck up excess nutrients in the initial period until ur nutrient stabilises

[teinsports]

Noted. I have just changed abt 30% of water yesterday. What is the max which i can change?

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[Clamence]

Noted. I have just changed abt 30% of water yesterday. What is the max which i can change?

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For me, i change half the water and off lights for a few days the last time i kena green water. Goes away after that but more sensitive plants may be affected. Also adding fast growing plants or floating plants can speed up the process. No feeding fish also to reduce anymore waste. Usually i notice, if tank has abundant of nutrients, and algae eaters like oto and snail are plenty to prevent algae from growing on surface, it will push the algae to grow in the water columm as those in the water column can survive without being eaten.

[teinsports]

For mine, i believe the main contributing factors are :

1) new tank
2) located in balcony but no direct sun. But the recent scorching weather is not helping the situation
3) Im using the nana uno led 30w x 2 strips but currently i only use 1 x 30w strip for 6 hrs (6pm to 12am) daily.
4) as many have suggested, the nutrients are not absorbed quick enough by the current plants (consisting of mc, jap hairgrass, java fern n nana).

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[teinsports]

Update on my humble tank. Invested in a uv filter to cure the green water. Crystal clear after 2 days. However, algae is still quite active on the tank walls even though i have weekly does of algexit. Water temp has taken a hit from the recent el nino, with temp hitting as high as 32dc. Contemplating on a chiller now. uploadfromtaptalk1437049626657.jpg

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[teinsports]

3mths. The 2 stem plants are growing around 5cm per week. Kinda messy now.
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