Problems high tech set-up

[jiajuen900]

HI im a new to keeping planted tanks properly....and this forum

I have a cycled high tech set up with pressurised co2 injection

Tank: Length 46cm x brearth 43cm x height 43cm (tank came in set with filter taking up 10cm x 43 x 43cm)

Lighting : Aquazonic Super bright T5 2 16w 12000k bulbs

Fish : 5 black neons, 7 harlequin rasboras, 3 ottos and 3 siamese algae eaters (the harlequins will be replaced by a 4 neon rainbows)

Plants : dwarf hairgrass, some sort of chain sword, a species of vallinsnera and somthing like cabomba

Subtrate : GEX red bag

Water conditions like nitrite and ph stablised.

I have large algae problems with hair algae of all sorts on my hair grass, there is also a brown fuzzy algae thing on my cabomba like plants. I also have spot algae on the aquarium glass. I increased the c02 level and got a c02 diffuser to diffuse it better i got a c02 drop checker yesterday and plan to install it soon.
my plants are also showing deficientcy sign like brown spots and old leaves dieing. Yesterday i spent like S$100 on a full DENNERLE fertilising and water care set..... I did not need the water conditioning part and only found out about it after reaching home.

-Is the fertilising enough? what are the fertilisers will need to buy next time just for fertilising and is there a better cheaper brand?
-Lighting enough? approxamatly 2wpg and is the kelvin okay?
- How to solve my algae problem? Will using DENNERLE ferts and increasing C02 help and is using AZOO algae treatment okay?

Sorry for the many questions and long 'speech' Hope u experienced people can help me

[Wahlin]

How old is your setup ?

[jiajuen900]

Hmm... should be about 2 and a half months. No detectable nitrite on test kit

[Wahlin]

Hmm... should be about 2 and a half months. No detectable nitrite on test kit

Hair algea may be caused by water and filter maintainance. Do frequent water change may help.

Brown algea usually happened to new tank. As your tank gets older, you will see less. Your otos should be able to keep this algea in control. If not try Humble Bee Snail or clean it manually. I usually cycle my tank for 2 months before putting fish.

Measuring with WPG for small tank is quite meaningless so I wouldn't say 2wpg is high. You can go higher if you want. I am putting 72W on a 40L tank (i.e. 6.5WPG) and 144W on a 180L tank (3WPG).

In conclusion, manually remove as much algea as possible and do more frequent water change. Try not to depend too much with chemical when dealing with algea except regular fert dosing.

[jiajuen900]

The tank is approx 36cm high, what amount of light do you think would be enough for my set-up? And should i attempt the chemical treatament as reccomended by LFS?

[Wahlin]

The tank is approx 36cm high, what amount of light do you think would be enough for my set-up? And should i attempt the chemical treatament as reccomended by LFS?

You may want to focus on algea first, light will be secondary. Have you try removing the algea and change water more often ? Say 30% twice a week.

[jiajuen900]

Most of the algae is clinging onto my plants and is difficult to remove. I see defficiency signs in my plants, would fertilising help in clearing the algae? Also if i fertilise i think changing the water that often would not be practical as I am using E15 and V30 from DENNERLE which needs to be added after water changes.... So any other suggestions?

DENNERLE recommends 25% water changes every two weeks

I still am considering wether to try AZOO alage treatment which i have now

Thanks

[Desewer]

dude, did you include any base fertilizers below your gex red bag soil, or did you just use the soil by itself? if your plants have deficiencies, i suspect maybe they're not taking in enough nutrients from the soil. you can try pushing in fertilizer tablets like root monster, to effect this.

on the other hand, your algar outbreak (except brown diatom algae) could be due to insufficient co2? your plants don't have enough co2, hence they can't make food with the nutrients available to them, and hence the algae uses up the nutrients instead. but you have already tried to up your co2 level and increase the efficiency of the dissolve rate, so maybe this isnt the solution either.

maybe too much light? how long are your lights on, every day?

[jiajuen900]

No base ferts. But i thought that if i put ferts into the water column, i dont need root tabs? LFS uncle suggested putting some ADA soil above the GEX, will this help? I'm not sure how much c02 is in the water and got a drop checker, but wont add it until i decide wether to use AZOO algae treatment to clear algae

My light is 32 watts and used to be on for 10 hours strait but i chnaged it to on for 5 hr before turning off 5hours and 5 hours of light again after doing some research

[Desewer]

i think it's your base ferts. i have tried planted setups without any base ferts, and without success. water column dosing is not enough, IMO. maybe that's why your plants aren't doing well despite the addition/increase in co2 levels.

your lights should be fine. i leave mine on for 10hrs daily (12pm-10pm) and my algae is limited to small BBA on wood and leaves, and GSA on the glass. and this algae is very new (BBA). previously my tank didnt even have any other algae except GSA.

[jiajuen900]

will adding ADA soil be enough for now or do i need to use root tabs? If so any brands or types to reccomend ??

[lyan]

Cut down your light to half the amount for few days and c th result. Because is a new setup, fertiliser is stronger, change more water to cut down the fertiliser build up in the water that causes algae boom. U got quite alot of algae cleaner in your tank, i think is enough to clean all in one week. Please do mimimun feeding so that cleaner do the job instead of eating fish food. Best is alternate days.

[jiajuen900]

But i have not really been fertilising, the fert i last used lacked nutrients ... so i have stopped for some time after algae break out

[jiajuen900]

In the end after some thought i used azoo algae treatment. I took out all media, covered the tank with newspaper ( blue green algae growing ) to do black out and dosed the amount reccomended. Lights off and and c02 as well. The intructions say to dose 3 times every two days = 6 days without light, c02 , ferts and filter media. Is this too long or should i double dose and do half the time reccommended? Am i doing too much at once, or can i do all this for half the time reccomended. Also will all this help to 'bomb' the algae?

After most algae are gone. I will immediately provide all the conditions required for the plants. Will provide good lighting high c02 injection without harming fish, coller temperature and better ferts

Before the algae treatment, the ferts i used lacked nutrients, C02 was slightly lower than required, lighting was bad and temperature was about 31 degrees.

Is all this too much?