Need advise on 2ft cube tank

[moss_guy]

Hi everyone i have a 2ft cube that is about 2-3month since setup
My water parameter r :
1) kh 3
2) nh high
3) phosphate high
4) co2 5bps
5) filter eheim 2026
6) na external reactor
7) pl 110w light for 4hr
mh 150w light for remaining 4hr
9) water change every week 20%
10) fertilizer roots monster without base fert. Dr mallick liquid fert dose 2wks once.
11) plants echinorodus, queen of siam, tiger lotus, crypt, spiky moss, amazon sword, 3 colour lotus, us fissiden on driftwood, nana petite, hc, hairgrass, spiky moss wall & sotong plant.
12) fan on 24hr temp of tank 26-28 deg.
13) ocean free aqua-clay.
14) 35pcs cardinal tetra, 5pcs otto, 10pcs harquelin.
What i encounter lately is my driftwood has growth of bba n my glass wall have green spot alage. my echinorodus n leaf plant have green spot n sotong plant have bba too.

Pls help me to solve my green spot n bba they r really a nusinace to my tank.
Thks in advance for the advice.

[juggler]

Why not use 150W for 10 hours? That will give about 2.5W/g.

Are you using Dr Mallick's Lushgro Aqua or Micros? How much are you dosing "two weeks once"? Sounds like not enough.
LushgroAqua is a more complete fertiliser. Micros is trace elements only.
Note that these do not have PO4. You can try adding some PO4 (1ppm per week) to the tank.

[|squee|]

Increased phosphate levels retard growth of green spot algae. I've not seen green spot in any of my tanks when I started dosing phosphorous via potassium phosphate.

Increased CO2 and circulation levels prevent BBA. Read up in the forums regarding this, it's been discussed many times.

[moss_guy]

I thought mh wattage in relation to wpg is different from normal pl. Do u mean that i need to reset everything to zero again like a new tank which i dont want. My nitrate n phosphate r defintely high to the extreme when tested with sera test kit. Thinking of changing more water at one go to reset nitrate n phosphate value to the ideal value. If i dose both of them it will become higher. I have stop dosing with liquid fertilizer, powder nitrate n phosphate for the time being. Thought 150w mh is sufficient for a 2ft cube? Can someone pls give me the link or answer my question. Thks in advance.

[|squee|]

Why are you using PL for 4 hours and then MH for the other 4 hours? PL has a much lower penetration compared to MH and doing it this way seems weird.

You should be doing 50% water changes weekly because you're dosing powder nitrate and phosphate. Otherwise these levels will just build up when you have insufficient plant growth.

Ok let's look at this again:

"2) nh high" means you have measureable ammonia levels. Ammonia levels in any good tank should be zero.

Is your tank heavily planted?

[moss_guy]

Can u define heavily planted. I guess it is heavily planted. But i have forgotten i have not dose powder phosphate n nitrate for a long while. Dosing of liquid fertilizer is also a long while. That mean more than a month or so. Thks for all those who have reply to my post. Mh for 4hrs is because i hve 2 sets of light where i want to fully utilize. lighting my mh 4hrs can rinse the temp to 28deg. easiy. Actually i m trying with mh. Mh is is so hot n bright when doing maintenance like triming plants will use pl to light up the tank instead of mh. So i will do a 50% wc n see how things go about. It is a good idea to change the photo period to the night as it is cooler in the night than the day. Presently my photo period start at 1100 - 1730 is about 7.5hrs. That means when we change water we need to test our water with the various test kit to see what our water parameter is missing n in excess?

[|squee|]

Heavily planted means the substrate area is 70% or more covered with plants for me, and at least 30% of the tank volume. More will be better of course.

I suggest you use MH only. The reason for this is because your tank is a 2ft cube, meaning the height is also 2ft. For PL lights to penetrate to 2ft depth is an impossible task. The plants will also appreciate the constant level of lighting throughout the day. Also, your tank setup will look neater and not so cluttered.

For maintenance, you can pull up the MH lights so that it won't be so hot and dangerous.

Temperature is easily dealt with by installing a fan (which you already have). Hanging the MH lights further away from the water surface helps too.

7.5 hours of light is not really enough imho. Try at least 8 hours. I do not know if changing the photo period to night will help, but you can try. Perhaps start from 2pm to 10pm? Or if you come home later at night, 3pm to 11pm?

We do not need to test our water so much. What I do is that, I ensure that light and CO2 levels are as constant and good as possible, and nutrient levels are good as possible.

You have the Dr Mallick's Lushgro Aqua and Micros fertiliser right? Dose the recommended amount weekly after your 50% water change. If you feel plants can do much better (meaning you see nutrient deficiencies in your plants like yellow new leaves etc) dose twice weekly instead.

Keep CO2 high and constant and water circulation good. Wipe off the green spot and spot-kill the BBA with Seachem Excel shot with a pipette or something.

Your BBA means there is a problem with your CO2, and green spot algae is easily dealt with by dosing KH2PO4, in other words increasing the phosphate level in your tank.

[moss_guy]

Thks for the precious comments squee. I have change 50% of the water & add fertilizer, nitrate & phosphate as recommended. I also took away my 2ft pl light set & set photo period from 1400hr - 2230hr roughly 8.5hrs. Hope that every will be ok as chinese new round the corner. Will monitor my tank & update latest condition of my tank.

[|squee|]

Stock the tank with as many plants as possible too, don't wait for them to grow out.

[moss_guy]

Hi squee thks for the advise have stock up with lots of stem plant.

[moss_guy]

It seems that my tank have lots of brown alage now. I have some otto inside but i dont think they are doing their job. Bba cause is co2 going low so it is inconsistent. After refilling solve the problem. Now bba gone but plant dont seem to do well when feed with so much fertilizer. I am doing 50% water change & dosing of kh, nitrate, phosphate & liquid fertilizer as recommended by Dr Mallick every week. Lighting is 150w mh for 8.5hrs. Only doing well plant is my tiger lotus. A healthy planted tank really need base fertilizer? I really dont what to do. Feel like tearing down the tank & start new tank again but not enough time as chinese new year round the corner. Can the experts help? Thks in advance.

[Ram]

It seems that my tank have lots of brown alage now. I have some otto inside but i dont think they are doing their job. Bba cause is co2 going low so it is inconsistent. After refilling solve the problem. Now bba gone but plant dont seem to do well when feed with so much fertilizer. I am doing 50% water change & dosing of kh, nitrate, phosphate & liquid fertilizer as recommended by Dr Mallick every week. Lighting is 150w mh for 8.5hrs. Only doing well plant is my tiger lotus. A healthy planted tank really need base fertilizer? I really dont what to do. Feel like tearing down the tank & start new tank again but not enough time as chinese new year round the corner. Can the experts help? Thks in advance.

Hi, sorry to hear your problem. I am afraid that your weekly dosing of liquid fertilizer may be excessive. In fact, nutrients are best absorbed by the plants through the root rather than through the leaves. So base fertilizer is better and more stable for the tank set up. Excess liquid fertilizer is counter productive, it promote algae grow as well. And with your 50% water change, some residual fertilizer are wasted too. From my experience, I dose in liquid fertilizer only when the plants show luck of nutrients.
I suggest for the time being, reduce lighting time and don't add fertilizer, introduce few Yamoto and malaya shrimps will help. Just my 2 cents idea.

[moss_guy]

Hi ram thks for the advise will try out your method. Hope i really need not tear down the tank.

[uklau]

In fact, nutrients are best absorbed by the plants through the root rather than through the leaves.

IMHO, this statement is not 100% true. While most aquatic plants prefer root uptake of P, many plants prefer leaf/shoot uptake of K & NH4. Riccia/mosses are a good example.

[grey_fox]

Riccia/mosses have no roots so you can't compare it that way.

[Ram]

Riccia/mosses have no roots so you can't compare it that way.

I agree. Perhaps moss_guy can give us an update on his tank's situation. It is good to share experience here so we can improve our planting skill.

[uklau]

Try to get hold of the above mentioned, where Diana Walstad conducted experiments on this & how she found out that aquatic plants prefer other ways of nutrients uptake (apart of the root uptake).

It is a very interesting book but some may find it boring because it is full of words & lack of colorful photos.

[grey_fox]

I have that book as well.

Point is, plants do take in nutrients both from their root system and through their leaves, however, comparing a plant with a root system and free-floating plants nutrient uptake is different (e.g. riccia/moss), the uptake of nutrients for free-floating plants have to take nutrients from the leaves.

Anyways, thread is getting a little off-topic.

[moss_guy]

Hi everyone out there. Very busy lately so no time to update with the latest condition of my tank. Thanks for all the advise. I have done a re-setting up of my tank with base fertilizer, root monster & a 10l pack of ada africania soil on the top most layer mixed with some ocean free clay. My tank is fine now. Happy new year everyone. Guess at the present moment will not doze liquid fert. Green spot alage & bba are all dead now. Cheers finally I got it right.