Help on fixing my planted tank

[greenaqua]

Hi,
I am new to this. Last week I went nuts and decided to go whole hog and build a planted tank in my standard 3 ft tank. I am now fighting an algae problem. It looks like BBA as it is a brown layer on the plant leaves starting from the edge. It hasn't turned black yet. I bought the following:

1. Aquarium fertilizer to lay at the base of the tank. Its a German brand, can't recall the name.
2. Lay on 3-4cm of substrate on top of the fertilizer layer. I am using sea sand from California. Its not sand but very very small stones.
3. CO2 system with glass diffuser bubbling about a bubble per second
4. 2x 36W PL light set about 10CM above surface
5. Tons and tons of plants
6. A dash of Biozyme powder
7. Attached an external filter with soft surface spraying, not hard sprays more like trickles
8. Added 5 capfuls of Sera liquid plant fertiliser (yellow bottle)

I ran it for 24 hours and then added in my fishes (4 angels, 30 tetras, 2 SAE, 6 rosy barbs, 4 corydoras, 3 clown loaches and 3 surviving guppies)

Average temperature is around 30 C.

I guess I over did it, huh? Now I have traces of brown colored algea growth which is starting on the plant leaves. The plants are doing fine, growing leaves and sprounting roots after 3 days but I have not really witnessed any bubbling of oxygen. I keep my light on for 10 hours.

Any help on this? Do I starve the tank for a couple of days? Do I up the CO2? Or do I need more nutrients?

Someone told me I need to bring the temperature down. Is using fans enough or do I need a chiller?

Thanks.

[rocketshrimp]

Your run-in is too short. 24 hours.

Temp too high..IMO.

Too much plants at 1 go.

You should not spray your water...CO2 will be lost.

Too heavy bioload suddenly...(all your fishes etc..)

Suggest that you cut down the lights (photoperiod) and gradually increase them over time.

And fix your CO2 leakage...the trickle thing...

[juggler]

Too much plants at 1 go.

Too much plants at the beginning is good, right?

Anyway, my guess is:
1. new tank syndrome.
2. leakage of base fertiliser from the substrate if the gravel is not covering the base fertiliser properly, causing algae.
3. is the 5 capful of Sera liquid fertilsier according to dosage? or too much?
4. is your standard 3ft tank of size 3'x1.5'x1.5'? then 72W lights is only 1.5W/g, not enough light to see lots of bubbling. Suggest getting another set of 72W lights to bring it close to 3W/g. And with fans to keep temperature down.

Maybe add in some algae eaters like Otos or CAE to help clean up the algae?

Cheers!

[|squee|]

Welcome to this fascinating hobby. To be truely into this hobby, you need to have at least one algae experience

Fret not. Algae in the beginning is normal. The tank is new, it's still stablising, it's still finding it's balance. I hope you have read up as much as you can on planted tanks, because you must understand planted tanks are very complex systems ( much much more than fish-only tanks imho ) so every bit of reading will help you, whether right or wrong.

The algae you have is most like brown algae, some form of diatoms that is very common in a new tank setup. Once your tank stablises, this algae should go away. Your external filter is not even mature yet isn't it?

I'll just give my views on your setup

Your buying and planting of "tons and tons of plants" is actually good. This helps you to stabilise the tank faster (plants are also surfaces for BB to attach too, as well as excellent absorbers of ammonia ), and you'll tend to have fewer startup algae issues.

Your lighting is fine in my opinion. The most important thing is the C02. Using a diffusor for a 3ft tank might not be the best thing you can do, but if you manage to circulate those bubbles around for a bit it might help. For a 3ft tank, I'd generally go with a external reactor to dissolve my C02.

Remove the trickling effect. It's not necessary, but when you're using a diffusor ( which is already inefficient for a 3ft tank, I'd say diffusors are only good for tanks up to 2ft. ) all the C02 dissolved in your water is going to be precious, and the trickling effect will only contribute to removing C02.

Having a high C02 content will be good, it gives you good plant growth, and limits growth of certain algae.

You can keep with your Sera fertilisation, but once your plants really settle in and kick into high gear ( about 3 weeks or so ), you will need better fertilisation. Ask around when the time comes.

And yes, fans or a chiller will be good. Temperature is a contributing factor to plant growth too.

Algae eaters are a big help. Yamato shrimps and Otos for me.

Bear in mind that your mileage may vary. Feel free to ignore parts of the writings above

[PeterGwee]

Several folks suggest that you do not fertilize a new plant tank for the first week/month. My question is **why** not?

I've done it that way for a number of years, I fertilize the first day, sometimes only 1/2 the norm, the plant biomass is low etc and I know the plant's needs are being met.

But I see advice on sites suggesting not to fertilize for the first month etc, Amano included I recall(?).

I see no reason for this. In terms of cycling, very much like the "silent cycling" we see in our tanks with respect to NH4/NO2/NO3, if you add enough plant biomass and plant heavy from the start like all the good advice suggest, then there's no NH4 anyway. Add enough CO2 and that addresses that issue.

So that rules that out.

So unless you assume NO3/PO4/Trace "excesses" etc cause algae in and of themselves, why would this make any difference and wouldn't this help the plants to get on their feet and pump up their reserves better?

Crank the CO2 and nutrients and keep up on water changes etc. Maybe doing 2x a week water changes for the first month seems like a better method and advice to me rather than "starving" plants for a month.

I did not know that starving plants grew any better

I think it gets back to the orginal premise here.
Take care of the plant's needs and you do not have problems.
Why would this be any different at the start?
Seems to be more important actually.

Peat/mulm will take care of the bacteria/substrate, the nutrients/CO2/light will take care of the rest. Adding lots of plants will remove the NH4.

I find this type of advice to contradict with the basic notion that you do not avoid algae by not dosing ferts. This selects for algae, not plants.

Adding more plants, lots of plants at the very start, gives any tank a leg up.
Providing the new plants with good CO2 and nutrients will give them even more of a leg up.

So can someone please explain to me why no ferts or less ferts is somehow preferable in and of itself at the start if the other issues such as enough biomass and mulm etc is added?

Why would this cause algae or be somehow "bad"?

Rotting plant material from new plants will not be that great if you trimmed them, got decent stock, have good CO2 etc.

I think getting the CO2 in good shape is much more important at the start, but excess nutrients(NO3, PO4 etc) are being blamed here and not NH4/poor CO2.

Deficient plant/stunted growth will cause algae.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Well, the following reply from Tom Barr in APD probably states what is necessary and critical in the startup of a new tank. Read it up and follow closely and you should not have much issues.

Regards
Peter Gwee
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[greenaqua]

Thanks for all the advise. I have added fan, removed water spray, upped the CO2. Found out the pH of water only 6.8 so I needed to increase the CO2. Will make other adjustments over next few days.

SOme pics to show the problem I have.

My tank
Algae problem, what type is this?
Plants are flowering.

Thanks.

PS: I have not figured out how to attach pictures with text despite looking at all the FAQs etc so I will leave it as such. Cheers.

[dolphin]

I have this "brown spots" problem too after two weeks. I introduced 2 "golden algae eater" (bought from PM) and all spots gone in 2 days later.

[rocketshrimp]

Can't really see the algae. Looks more like the plant is browning..

Why do you think that you need to up the co2? You can't tell co2 in the water w/o measuring another parameter - kh. With ph and kh, there is some chart somewhere to find out the co2 (http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/kh-ph-co2-chart.html).

6.8 should be fine, unless you have soft water.

Btw...did you drop a ball in the tank?

[juggler]

In the 2nd pic, the plant with some browning don't seem to be aquatic.
You can check this algae article for more pictures and details.
http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm