My algae fight and Ferka journal

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I'm going to maintain a journal of my fight against algae and usage of Ferka fertilisers. This will serve as a reference for me and I hope also as a reference for the rest of you.

Tank stats:

• 2ft standard 16 gallon (56 litres) tank
• 72W PL lighting 10 hours daily
• CO2 through diffusor
• ADA Aquasoil substrate
• Dominant Anubias nana, crypts, HC, Cyperus helferi and moss

Tuesday 30th August 2005

Water change of 70% to remove KNO3 and KH2PO4 addition. Tank has BBA on wood and Cyperus helferi, staghorn algae among HC.

Dosed 2 pumps each of Aquatilizer and Balance-K.
Bubbling at night as usual.

Wednesday 31st August 2005

Dosed one pump each in the morning. BBA and staghorn still present. Slight increase in CO2. Bubbling observed in early evening(5pm).

Thursday 1 September 2005

Dose one pump each in the morning. Came home and found that the staghorn had increased in quantity. I took a toothbrush and brushed them off as best as I could, and shot all present BBA with Seachem Excel.

Bubbling observed in early evening(5pm).

[PeterGwee]

I'm not sure how much of an influence the peat in ADA aquasoil has over your water anymore but you can consider using the pH/KH chart for referrence to check for stability of CO2 content during the photoperiod since most substrate will return the pH to neutral after a month or two. Try to minimize the flux in CO2 from the start to the end and see how things does. You can also check how good of a response time your CO2 system is doing in getting good levels. Try changing water more often like 2x a week and remove the algae.

Regards
Peter Gwee

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Peter, I'll try to do all that you've mentioned. Busy times nowadays Changing water i allright, but the respone time thingy... I've never gotten round to doing it.

I've no choice but to use my diffusor, since I won't risk my DIY external reactor clogging up again. Tell you what, the whole of next week is going to be a free time for me and I'm going to try to take pH and kH values. Any regime to suggest? Something like one hour before CO2 starts, and hourly intervals during the entire photoperiod till one hour after CO2-off? It's gonna be a PITA.

[PeterGwee]

I've no choice but to use my diffusor, since I won't risk my DIY external reactor clogging up again. Tell you what, the whole of next week is going to be a free time for me and I'm going to try to take pH and kH values. Any regime to suggest? Something like one hour before CO2 starts, and hourly intervals during the entire photoperiod till one hour after CO2-off? It's gonna be a PITA.

Check your current pH one hour into the photoperiod assuming you switch on your CO2 along with the lights..mid-day and one hour towards the end. Which is the lowest pH? How much of a difference are you getting? Keep the rate of CO2 you are adding although the diffuser will be a problem due to clogging. Give me the data and I'll try to help you on it.

Regards
Peter Gwee

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My lights turn on at 12pm and end at 10pm. That means take readings at 1pm, 5pm and 9pm? How about kH readings? I'll try to ensure the diffusor remains as static as possible. Won't be changing the bubble rate. Thanks!

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2nd September 2005

Dosed one pump each as usual. Some BBA have turned red, very slight increase in staghorn algae. Crypts are melting old leaves but a number of new leaves are shooting up, probably due to recent addition of Ferka Rosetta. Bubbling as usual at evening.

Tommorrow will be my usual 50% water change. Going to clean out as much algae as I can. Will be starting pH measurements on Monday.

[Goondoo]

I don't know if it would be wise to get a small amount of water from your tank, run them with a air pump for a day or two(to get rid of the CO2). Afterwhich, measure and you should get a relatively accurate reading of your pH without CO2. You should be able to compare it with the pH in your tank to see the difference how much CO2 affect your pH.

2nd September 2005

Dosed one pump each as usual. Some BBA have turned red, very slight increase in staghorn algae. Crypts are melting old leaves but a number of new leaves are shooting up, probably due to recent addition of Ferka Rosetta. Bubbling as usual at evening.

Tommorrow will be my usual 50% water change. Going to clean out as much algae as I can. Will be starting pH measurements on Monday.

[PeterGwee]

I don't know if it would be wise to get a small amount of water from your tank, run them with a air pump for a day or two(to get rid of the CO2). Afterwhich, measure and you should get a relatively accurate reading of your pH without CO2. You should be able to compare it with the pH in your tank to see the difference how much CO2 affect your pH.

pH meters/probes are subjected to errors as well even if well calibrated. (some are plain whacky...imagine two calibrated ones showing different readings ). In the end, presence of algae/plant health are the best test kits. (bioassay). Just trim off all the algae and check the conditions. They should not come back if the conditions are good and you harass them often enough.

Regards
Peter Gwee

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3rd September 2005

Did my weekly 50% water change, scrubbed off BBA as best as I could, trimmed Cyperus helferi (getting new leaves, finally!) and BBA covered old crypts leaves. Cleaned the arcylic surface, and noticed the staghorn had somehow decreased. Added the usual dosage of Balance-K and Aquatilizer, along with one capful of Seachem Excel.

Recent problems have shown up with my espei. Apparently some are getting a fungus infection and I'm dosing M.blue solution at nights. *shrug* yes I know it isn't the best thing to do now since I'm running a sort of experiment with Ferka ferts and dealing with algae here, but I really hate buying new fish.

Billy, I really don't want to go to that trouble. I'm just plain lazy , and I hate taking readings frankly. Peter is right here, plants will always tell me the truth. So far I'm not sure if I'm doing the right things with my tank, but hey it's my journal after all

[PeterGwee]

I'll suggest you drop the lights to about 36w and change the diffuser to that of Tom's DIY internal venturi ones. You won't know how well the Ferka fertilizers are doing if you have the CO2 limiting.

Regards
Peter Gwee

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I had a discussion with Jerome (the mod at AF) and he too told me to reduce my lights.

Ok I'm succumbing to peer pressure. Peter I know it's best for me to change to a proper internal reactor. But right now isn't the best time for me to start experimenting (many many reasons here) so I'll be sticking with my diffusor for a while. CO2 loss is nothing much to me. I just turned off the switch of one of the 36W tubes. It's now on 36W starting from tommorrow.

Hopefully things will turn out better. CO2 is darn high trust me. I saw my fish taking gulps of air at the surface at night. Will be continuing my reports.

[PeterGwee]

Hopefully things will turn out better. CO2 is darn high trust me. I saw my fish taking gulps of air at the surface at night. Will be continuing my reports.

I think your situation has to do with CO2 stability and the range you hit seems quite wide over the entire photoperiod. You might be low for the first few hours and get very high (toxic) towards the ending of the photoperiod. Get some surface movement....gasping fish is bad.

Regards
Peter Gwee

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Surface movement during lights off you mean? Because I have two fans blowing at the water during lights on.

[PeterGwee]

Surface movement during lights off you mean? Because I have two fans blowing at the water during lights on.

My personal experiences tell me that those surface agitation from fans (AC ones I think..not too sure about DC ones though) are too excessive and will cause alot of CO2 to be degassed. Unless you have a very efficient reactor, you cannot make up for the rate that the CO2 is loss. It takes longer for the CO2 to reach equilibrium state where input = uptake (pH remains stable).

Yes, moderate movement (good movement of the surface water) but not a lot though. 24/7..not just in the morning. It helps to degas the excess CO2 during the night if you overdo it and add O2 if plant production is sub standard.

Regards
Peter Gwee

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4th September 2005

After the change to 36W of light (I should add that my lights have always been 8000K, not the usual 6500K), no bubbling was observed in the evenings although dosage and CO2 injection remained the same, along with two capfuls of Seachem Excel.

Added some Taiwan moss to driftwood. The fish aren't gasping/lingering at the surface at night though. Continuing my M.blue medication for the third day so far.

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5th September 2005

Dosed one squirt of Aquatilizer and two doses of Balance-K, along with two capfuls of Seachem Excel. I saw small clusters of bubbles under Cyperus helferi's leaves that were directly under the light, but nothing else.

Good news: The staghorn algae seems to be receding, and no new BBA "plantlets" are observed. Not going to add M.blue medication according to manufacturer's dosage instructions until three days later.

[Panther]

Terrence,

I'm using Ferka as well (balance K and Aquatiliser) in my experimental 2ft. You can see my spec in my 'how to get rid spot algae' thread. The dosing of Ferka pdts do well for the plants as they grow like crazy and start to bubble within half hour of photoperiod.

I reaslise that the spot algae persists and once I lower my lights to now 36W, all my algae problems are solved. Dosing remains the same and plants are still bubbling in half hour. Hope this contributes to your findings....

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Thanks Panther. It seems that we all tend to have too much light than estimated.

Peter... I'm not sure how accurate you want pH readings to be, but I just realised that my pH test kit's range is from 6.0 to 7.6 I took a reading 1 hour into the photoperiod, 6 degrees.

So I'm not sure if I should post up the readings, since 6.0 is the minimum and I've no idea if it's going down to 5 or something. May I know what's the trend you're looking for? A stable value of 6 all the way until the end when there should be a slight increase to maybe 6.5? Perhaps you should note that I'm adding Excel too, not sure if it affects readings.

[PeterGwee]

You would want a narrow range of flux throughout the photoperiod. What I want to know is if what is the pH before the CO2 came on and how long it takes to hit a stable range. What is the KH by the way? A heavy surface turbulence will probably drive out the same amount of CO2 that you are adding. You might want to take note but do strive for some slight movement to degas the excess CO2 (if you overdo it) during night where the O2 is lesser and adds O2 if plant production is poor.

Regards
Peter Gwee

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The hilarious thing is the pH before lights came on was also 6. I think I might have to look into buying a pH probe? =/ kH is 1 or 2, very dangerous I know.