Reply With Quote
How about CO2 level? Any photo? It should be the case unless your plant already with BBA.
Hi Evryone, please help!!!!
Hahah. I have just started my new planted tank and I am dosing using the EI method. Today is the second day and I already start seeing what I think could be BBA!!!! They are very small and covering my plants however when I tried to wipe they started to float. So it's not sticking to the surface.
These are my specifications.
Tank 50 gallon
Light 3W per gallon on for 8 hours
Temp at 25 with chiller
KH 3
PH 6.5
Dosing KNO3 and KH2S04 for 50 gallon 3X weekly
Dosing Trace 10ml and Iron 5ml 3X weekly.
Please tell me what I should do? Should I drop photo hour to 6 now that the plants are not fully growing yet??
I also did not plant the tank fully, maybe ony 1/3 of the tank so should I re calculate and treat it as a 30 gallon tank?
How about CO2 level? Any photo? It should be the case unless your plant already with BBA.
But if my KH is 3 and PH 6.5 then my CO2 should be 28. Which is more than enough right? So would it be my light on hours? How does BBA appear? Is it immediately stuck on the plants? Or would it float about then settle and stick? Cause I am not really sure if it's BBA as it's very very small and it's all over the plant suddenly and when I fan it with my hand, it floated away.
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/doc.../tonealg.shtml
If you read the link above it is contradicting to EI method. It says free CO2 in the water constitutes to BBA. And iron too. Is this correct?
Hi shrimppaste,
Nothing to be alarm of. BBA or other forms of algae does surface during the start. A reason maybe is your plants have not accustom to your tank thus access fert be it from EI dosing or due to new tank substrate, are not optimized. Or like what others had said you introduced BBA to your tank from plants you bought. This access fert will dilute eventually when your plants start to use them course they must have adapted to your tank first, more or less a week later. Like I said nothing to worry about. In fact BBA or maybe other forms of algae are lightly to surface even more in the next few days or a week so don't be alarm when you see BBA increasing, I experienced it. You may start to clear the BBA as and when you can and do that weekly water change. I would also not suggest you introducing any form of algae eating fish at this point though it may be tempting. Try putting in some fast growing plants like hornwort or water sprite to absorb access nutrient while your plants custom to your tank.
You are at the stage thinking that nothing should go wrong when everyone was saying that EI dosing will defer algae problems, but it still struck you and you are reading as much over the net thinking what went wrong. And you derive with explanations by others that contradict to what you or most thought was right, EI dosing. Bro, dont get confused if you have been, I stand firm to EI dosing cause I never had algae issues the week after my tank started. The catch is though EI dosing prevents algae growth, certain amount of light is required to optimized certain plants intake of fert. I shall not confuse you further for now cause you should enjoy your hobby. Maintain what you are doing, KH, pH and CO2 figures are fine and sure enough algae issues will diminish.
Once again, good luck Bro on your planted tank mission.
Ahh,
So as for the photo timing I shall also leave it alone? Cause I have been finding things that could be wrong with my tank. One problem while finding the fault was the flow. I am using Eheim 2028 for my 50 gallon tank and it is running thru a chiller, a CO2 reactor before going back to the tank. So is this killing the flow? Would introducing things like koralia powerhead help? Or is it better to deploy another cannister maybe a smaller one like 3036 or even smaller? And thanks again for answering all my queries.
BBA usually starts to appear when CO2 is low. In the past, I tried to crank up my CO2 and they would disappear. Excel overdosing always done a great job.Originally Posted by shrimppaste
When making water changes, squirt a good amount of Excel directly to BBA. It would start to die off after few days.
Doesn't look like BBA from your description. I used to have something like that too in my newly setups. Looks a bit like fish poo (brownish), they cleared up amazingly fast after I added some yamatos and malaysia shrimps. You might like to try that but do wait for a while more for tank to be cycled.
EI is a new technique, 95% (and dropping) of the information you find in the internet will tell you the opposite.
Normally BBA is due to low CO2. Again check you CO2 level, forget about kH/pH table it does not really work. because the pH that you may sure may not be due to CO2 especially if you are using ADA soil or Gex soil or ketapang leaf or peat, etc. Get drop checker
By the way what soil are you using?
It is hard to imagine BBA comes so early (2nd day) in a newly set up unless your plants already had it with them before you brought them home.
Post a picture of it? May be it is a false alarm.
aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transcience
A drop checker? I am using a tester from Tetra. So what is this drop checker? And I thought i came with he plants too but it was on the glass of the tank.
google it and you should find lots of article on it
http://www.ukaps.org/drop-checker.htm
Hi Shadow,
Ok, say we buy the drop checker. Then where can we get the 4kDH water?
My interest has wandered! Do U?
I think you really need tons of read up.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! TIME TO LAY BACK AND RELAX!
A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step
You can make your self, I believe you already have kH test kit. what you need is just baking soda. get distiled water and add baking soda bit by bit until you get kH=4Hi Shadow,
Ok, say we buy the drop checker. Then where can we get the 4kDH water?
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks