First week not so good

[Timothy Tan]

Cutting back the lights now. 4hr/4hrbreak/4hr. Hopefully, it will slow the algae growth enough for the algae eaters to catch up. What can I use to try to get beneficial bacteria to germinate faster?

[blue33]

I guess you have POOR

1) Circulation, bring nutrients to the plant, leaves, wash off NH4, waste etc...
2) CO2, btw plants make up of 40-45% CO2
3) Fertilizer, not enough will kill your plant slowly and they grow funny shape and spindly stem, etc...

causing you to have so much problem, light is not the main issue but around 6-8hrs is good enough. When those are not address, you will tends to have disaster tank.

[Timothy Tan]

Circulation is reasonably good actually. Water flow is decent. I have CO2 at 30ppm. And I am adding ADA Brighty Step 1 every other day. The plants are actually growing, but the algae was growing faster. I am now dosing Nitrogen and Potassium in between Brighty Step 1. Seeing some visible effects on algae since I reduced the light to 4on/4off/4on.

The idea for me now is to slow the algae growth while trying to induce plant growth, and allow the algae eaters to catch up with the algae. Will update after 1 week.

[blue33]

Circulation is reasonably good actually. Water flow is decent. I have CO2 at 30ppm. And I am adding ADA Brighty Step 1 every other day. The plants are actually growing, but the algae was growing faster. I am now dosing Nitrogen and Potassium in between Brighty Step 1. Seeing some visible effects on algae since I reduced the light to 4on/4off/4on.

The idea for me now is to slow the algae growth while trying to induce plant growth, and allow the algae eaters to catch up with the algae. Will update after 1 week.

I'm confuse, are you Syburn or Timothy? Gosh!!!...

[Timothy Tan]

Timothy.. Just joined the board......

[|squee|]

The CO2 is problematic. Your test kits may tell you 30ppm, but it is usually not the case, especially if you are getting algae.

Algae growing faster than your plants means that there aren't enough plants to outcompete algae!

I suggest you keep the lights on 10 hours in one full stretch daily when enough plants are in your tank.

[blue33]

Yeah! Full stretch lighting is better than break off timing. Some plant do take awhile taking in CO2 or your CO2 is not distributing well, also the current flow is not reaching to the plant and nutrients is not distribute to the plant.

[Timothy Tan]

Good idea. I redirected the flow and there should be better distribution of nutrients and CO2. Algae has dropped off dramatically since the 4on/4off/4on. Think the main problem was that the plants were not fully rooted to take advantage of the nutrients in the water, and the algae was. Going to keep this schedule for a week and slowly reduce the blackout period over the next month. And going to throw in some Amano shrimps for cleanup work. Any one know what they are sensitive to? Since I started dosing nitrogen and K, the 6 shrimps seem lethagic, and one of them died this morning.

[blue33]

Good idea. I redirected the flow and there should be better distribution of nutrients and CO2. Algae has dropped off dramatically since the 4on/4off/4on. Think the main problem was that the plants were not fully rooted to take advantage of the nutrients in the water, and the algae was. Going to keep this schedule for a week and slowly reduce the blackout period over the next month. And going to throw in some Amano shrimps for cleanup work. Any one know what they are sensitive to? Since I started dosing nitrogen and K, the 6 shrimps seem lethagic, and one of them died this morning.

Good to heard that it works for you. Any thing that dose too much will kill your critters first. At this time dose enough of nutrients or 70% is good enough.

[jason6142004]

i think 55 watts is just too much for a 1 week tank with so little plants.

[Timothy Tan]

here is a pic of my 3week old tank