Re-Scape or Still Worth Saving?

[klevin]

Hi, this is my sort-of low tech office tank, but turned out to be a wreck after about 3 months

Setup: 5 gallon nano tank (about 4 if you count the substrate and rocks)
Substrate: ADA Amazonia (1yr old from previous setup, same tank), white fine gravel, lava rock chips (to create the slopes, capped with ADA soil)
Lighting: IKEA desk lamp with CFL bulbs, tried 10w-20w philips bulbs
Fertilizer: Flourish Excel 1ml daily
Flora: Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo', Ludwigia sp. 'Super Red', Hygrophilia Polysperma, Limnophilia Sessiliflora/Asian Ambulia
Fauna: 5 neon tetra, 1 otto (all currently re-homed to another tank)
IMG20160305015115.jpg
It's since been plague with (brown/beard algae?) from the start:
1. Brown algae/beard algae(they're dark brown but not the usual soft type that you get at the start of the tank so i guess bba?)
2. Cynobacteria on the sand and front glass on the carpet

I've tried a few methods, removing them manually but they sprang back after a few days, added otto catfish (never touched the brown stuff, so probably not diatoms), dosed liquid co2 excel, decrease lighting (the brown stuffs actually increased with the use of lower wattage bulb), increase lighting (bba/furry thing increased)
Currently i'm trying my last resort of spot treating with h2o2 (hydrogen peroxide) on the cyno and rocks, not much difference tho

So, i'd like to ask the sifus here is this tank still worth saving or better to just scrap it and re-scape and restart? Maybe new substrate and giving it a longer cycling period before adding any fish (i added livestock to this one after about 3 weeks only, a small opaline gourami but soon realized that he's still too big, his poop was everywhere)

Hoping to heard some advice, feel free to point out anything i did wrong

[Urban Aquaria]

Looks like reset and re-scape better... its only a nano tank so very easy to remove the water, dump everything out, clean it up, and start a new scape.

If you want to create a lower maintenance tank setup, just look at which parts of your current setup are causing problems (ie. insufficient filtration/circulation, deadspots, too much light, too many bare areas, too few fast growing plants etc) and re-scape and adjust equipment to solve those issues.

I reset my smaller holding/grow-out tanks like this all the time. After a while it becomes a very quick and easy process.

[klevin]

Thanks UA.

Actually tho, i have no idea what's the problem with this tank especially with the brown fuzzy things that starts to grow on my Hygrophilias. At first i thought it's caused by low flow so i pointed my outflow slightly lower and increased the flow of the filter but still no effect.

IMG20160303162322.jpg
Here's my other tank right next to it, a 10 gallon, same age as this tank, plants used from the same source (my own tub of plants) and algae was minimal. The only thing tho is that this has higher light 36w T5HO and diy co2 plus occasional NPK fert dosing.

Isn't low tech tanks should be low maintenance or have i gotten my facts wrong

[Urban Aquaria]

Yeah, Co2 injection and fertilizer dosing do help to greatly improve and accelerate plant growth. High-tech tanks have those advantages that are lacking in low-tech tanks.

I usually find my high-tech tanks much easier to maintain, the plants grow fast and healthy, while easily out-competing algae. On the other-hand, i have to be alot more careful in controlling the lighting and nutrient levels in my low-tech tanks, otherwise algae tends to take over more easily.

One thing i did learn from keeping stable low-tech tanks, is to use plants which are naturally hardy and low demand. Those higher demand plants (ie. HC, red leaved plants etc) which require more light, Co2 and nutrients would usually tend to grow very slowly or deteriorate in low-tech setups, so they end up rotting and attracting algae instead.

On a side note, as you mentioned using old ADA aquasoil in the tank, maybe most of the main nutrients have been depleted and restricting the plant growth, so that could contribute to the various algae taking advantage of the excess unused light and residual nutrients to grow instead.

Algae can still appear in tanks with plants showing nutrient deficiencies, as algae require less nutrients to grow than plants. A good example is BGA or cyanobacteria, it can fix its own nitrogen, so can appear in tanks with low or even zero nitrate levels.

[BFG]

How old is the light bulb?

[klevin]

Yeah, i've decided to trash this one and start off with a new scape altogether

How old is the light bulb?

This one, no more than a month.

[klevin]

I'd like to ask tho, since i want to reuse this ADA aquasoil, it's kinda mixed in with some ADA Powersand and a bunch of fine gravel. How do you guys separate them?

[fireblade]

maybe you can use a net to separate the fine sand with amazonia, get those net that amazonia cannot pass through but fine sand can..
I will think that the bulb you used is not suitable for plant growth instead it promotes algae growth.. sometimes by changing the light, you will notice that algae gets lesser and plant will overtake the algae.

for the brown algea, get a L001 pleco or those $1.50-$2 leopard pleco, get a small one... they'll finished it in one night.

[klevin]

Thanks guys for the advice. i like what UrbanAquaria said, it's much easier to rescape the whole thing since it's just a nano tank.
I think maybe i'll start a little journal on that tank, which part of the forum should i post?

[Urban Aquaria]

Perhaps can post a tank journal at the Aquascaping section.

[klevin]

Ahhh thanks, I'll do that once I've gotten soon pictures up

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