Prevention of Algae: Right from setup

[winston77]

Anyone that has valuable advice on prevention of algae manifesting in new setup?

My plan for the setup as follows:
1. Emersed setup of crypts and jap hairgrass on wet GeX for 4-6 weeks
2. Filled tank with cycled old tank water, and load in plants for 2 weeks
3. Faunas back into tanks

Faunas will be transferred out from current tank into a temporary one, using existing tank water. Then the water will be reused back into the new one.

By the way, its gonna be a Low-Tech setup.

[celticfish]

crypts and hairgrass wont suck up the nutrients.
you need a lot of plant "mass" to not give algae a chance.
consider using stem and floating plants in volume.
once the tank is doing well without algae breakout you can then slowly replace with the plants you want.
steps 2 and 3 you suggest can minimise the chance but will not fully mitigate algae.

i can say this as i tried a crypt only initial setup.
algae only went away went i added much more plant mass.
and mind you i wasnt dosing too!

[winston77]

Does cycled old tank water help to prevent algae?

I have lots of floating plants, n I m counting on them to compete with algae. Perhaps some hornworts as well. Will dump them in once the old tank water goes in...

[celticfish]

i recall a suggestion of plant mass at 30% of volume.
how you measure that? i dont know...
i think it was meant as an eyeball volume.
to err on the side of more is always better.
having "fought" so many time with mr. algae has made the above my "standard" for new setups!

[winston77]

30% of the tank or water volume?

I was actually thinking of occupying more than 1/2 the tank with hornworts, and floating plants at the surface.

[celticfish]

30% of water volume.
but if you're going 50% why not? better!!

[winston77]

Oh yes... is it better to use hornworts as rooted plants, or leave it to float inside the tank?

Any difference in the two methods mentioned above?

[FishFan]

I surmise that by better you mean the nutrient absorbing utility of hornworts? I believe that there is no difference between keeping them rooted and leaving them floating as with most aquatic plants, they don't only absorb nutrients from the base roots.

[PeterGwee]

The main trigger of algae is NH4 (be it from soil or fish waste) and poor plant conditions. Focus on plants (add alot for more uptake....the more plants you add, the more uptake. It doesn't have to be fast growers.) and their demands and you will have less algae issues since NH4 would be uptake rapidly and healthy plants won't be a potential substrate for algae. One other thing is to use low light rather than high light since the demand for CO2 and nutrients would be less critical and you can have more wiggle room. (eg. a tank with 4w/g of PC light might need 30ppm of CO2 and 3x dosing per week to avoid issues whereas a tank with 1.5w/g of NOFL does well with 10-15ppm of CO2 and 1-2x dosing a week. We can still target 30ppm of CO2 with the lower light tank but will have more wiggle room in case the CO2 dips for some reason without limiting the plants as there is room for error which is not the case for the high light tank.) . Think about that....

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[winston77]

Hmm... I am using 2x39 T5HO for this 3ft setup. Wonder if its really too high for a low-tech setup in this case.

I have another spare 2x25 FL, perhaps this can be used?

Tank dimension is 3x1.5x1.5ft.

Winston

[aquarius]

I'm using 2x39 T5HO for my 3ft planted tank with no problems. If you want to use FL, go for 2x30W.

[torque6]

winston,

Growing/cultivating HG in emerse form with light mist is already cycling the tank, its called dry cycling. Read a few articles on some of the benefits. No regular WC/ No algae etc..

I would have gone this method if I have read the article earlier on, seems my current setup has hairgrass planted too deeply in the substract and is facing slow growth.