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Thread: Help needed for my planted tank!!!!

  1. #1
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    Help needed for my planted tank!!!!

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    Hi guys I am facing a very big problem with my tank at home(Bangalore). Will give you a background of the tank, then the Specifications and then the remedies tried till now.

    Tank size- 54”, 24”, 21” that is L,B,H. The tank is about 2 years old, been very well settled. Has gravel and laterite in the substrate. Has been run ever since by MH 150watts, 2 of them. Heavily planted and really good growth till a certain while when it stopped. Co2 supplemented, and adding macro and micro nutrients. Will tel further in detail as to the dosing regime.

    The problem I am facing is of acute Hair Algae, its not the strands but the tufts of hair algae, tried a lot of remedies. First assumption was that the phosphates must have risen and so I tried dosing higher level of nitrates, to induce growth but to no avail. Then, cleaned the filters, vacuumed the gravel thoroughly but still nothing, now that I am back in Glasgow, parents seem to be having a horrid time with it. I had at last suggested them a total blackout of the tank for 4 days, after that the algae did reduce by a big margin but is catching up rapidly. What happened now is that with the tank being blacked out, I lost a good population of my Crypt population. Now I have no clue as to what to do about that also, told dad they will grow back in sometime, maybe they suffered the Melt.

    The dosing regime has been calculated using Chuck Gadd’s calculator and has been fine-tuned over the period of time this tank has been in operation. Lights were replaced just before leaving for Glasgow (that is 1 month back). All the dry compounds that I will be mentioning are added at the weekend with the normal fertilization on weekdays with PMDD and my mixture for adding nitrates (both liquid).

    Dosing Regime:

    • K2SO4- 2.5 TSP- (approx 17.77ppm of potassium)
    • KNO3 - 1tsp – (approx- 9.05ppm nitrates)
    • MgSo4 – 4tsp – (approx- 5.06ppm Magnesium)
    • PMDD- 5ml everyday
    • Nitates liquid- 5ml everyday(adds approx- 0.14ppm nitrates everyday)
    • Dosing of Iron has been stopped for a while now.

    Well one last thing I must tell everyone, maybe this has something to do with the algae(even though I don’t think so, as this component has been a part of my tank for 2 years), well my tank Ph is about 6.8, if the CO2 is switched off, it can rise to 8 in no time, I mean a day or two. The gravel is calcium and shell free so no worries on that front. The water parameters are as below:
    Ph- 8
    GH- 8
    KH-9
    Yes that is really hard water but I have had my tank in superb condition for the past 2 years, this sudden outbreak of algae happened just 2 weeks before I reached home on vacation i.e. about the mid of May the algae started to appear.

    As for the fish load in the tank, I have 50 golden mountain minnows, 10 diamond tetras, about 8 harlequin rasboras, and some other small fish.

    Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

    Regards

    Nikhil Sood

  2. #2
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    Looks to me like you don't add any phosphate to the water. If you're dosing Nitrate and all the micros with CO2 and high light then maybe a lack of Phosphate is causing issues? One part of the plant's needs missing will stop higher plants growing which will allow the algae to grow.

    What is the level of CO2? I know many people say anything over 1 bps is fine, but some people swear by a level of 30ppm measured by a 4dKH drop checker. Maybe more CO2 might help? It may increase the plant growth.

    Do you follow EI methods with a 50% water change or is this a method without the large weekly water changes? If so maybe upping the water changes and halving the doses for a week may help. The plants should have reserves of nutrients that will keep them going whereas the algae hopefully won't have so much!

    Finally what plants are in there? You mentioned Crypts (which will grow back after melting BTW) but have you got any really fast growing stems to soak up all the nutrients? Maybe adding some fast growers, or even fast grwoing floating plants, will help up the plant biomass and reduce the algae?

    Sorry there's no easy answer. Maybe the info over at http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/ might be more help, especially in the algae section?

    Edit: I just looked again and that's a lot of Magnesium you're dosing. Why so much? Especially with your hard water as GH is generally made up of Calcium and Magnesium salts.
    Ed

  3. #3
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    My opinions:
    1) Cut away the leafs of the algae infested plants as well as you can.
    2) Make 50% water change, vacuum the top gravel lightly as you do. Repeat once a week for the next 2~3 weeks.
    3) Insert house plant fertilizer tablets under the roots of all rooted plants. Do this once every 2~3 months.
    4) Increase the CO2 injection till you get PH of about 6.5~7.0. This takes 2~3 days to get it right.
    5) Stop adding KS2O4 and MgSO4. Your water have them already.
    6) Dose all fertilizers once every week is better:
    a) PMDD about 15ml.
    b) Dose KNO3 to get 15ppm
    c) Dose PO4 to get 1ppm

    Once you done the above, the plants should response in about a week's time.

  4. #4
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    3) Insert house plant fertilizer tablets under the roots of all rooted plants. Do this once every 2~3 months.
    What brand of house plant fertilizer tablets do you use, Freddy? Or is it just specifically for aquarium aquatic plants? I was wondering and curious if I could use the generic house plant fertilizer tablets.

  5. #5
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    They are the usual in-house plant fertilizer which contains NPK. Try to look for one that has low PO4 and as many micro nutrient types (like Fe, Mg, etc) as possible.

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