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Fusion

Vinkenoog1977 said:
Looking good! As far as the algae in DSM, you need to remove as much water from the tank as you can; I usually make a little dent in my substrate at gthe lowest point, and keep removing water (with a syringe at that point), until the water level is at least 5 mm. below the top of the substrate. As Tom Barr says: they don't call it a dry start for nothing. ;)
Cleaning out the current algae, you could try some diluted liquid CO2 (1-to-8 ratio at least), but avoid spraying any of it on the plants; using a little brush would probably work better. If you have real steady hand, you could try undiluted, but as said, be sure not to get any on your plants, cause they will be sterilised and die off. The safest way would be a toothbrush, elbow grease, and lots of patience, scrubbing it of.
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Just managed to get most of the water out, it had been building up as I sprayed the plants each day. I'll try again tomorrow with a syringe. I think I'll remove the stonee / gravel that has some green algae on it soon as well and give it a good scrub before I start thinking about flooding the tank. I'm sure it'll be easier to get on top of it now than it will once it's full of water.

Al.
 
Greenfinger2 said:
Hi Al,

Lots of info on DSM Great info on when you flood,, Light timing,, C02 , Water changes--- on the last page ;)
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Thanks Roy... I had seen that before I think. Getting to the stage now where I need to start thinking about when to flood the tank. I might be away for a week or so around Easter so might leave it until I get back... But then again I might do it before as well! :)

Al.
 
Just another quick update I could be imagining it, but I'm sure there are some new shoots of Eleocharis popping up here and there.

Eleocharis-sp-mini.jpg
Eleocharis.jpg
Grassy-Slope.jpg
rocky-slope.jpg


Al.
 
banthaman.jm said:
Watching really closely as i think i will use the DSM next time, can't wait to see it flooded.
Jim
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I can't wait either. I'm going away for a week next week though so thought it would be best to wait until after that. I might buy a few more plants on the way back home and then hopefully (fingers crossed) flood it sometime around April 14th. I'll be interested to see how the plants fare once it's been flooded as they seem to be doing quite well at the moment.

Al.
 
Will try to post some photos of the tank now that it's flooded later. But, before I flooded the tank I noticed some new bits of moss / liverwort growing on some of the rocks in the tank. Does anyone know what they are? I'm hoping they'll grow nicely and look good in there, but we'll see as they will no doubt be Welsh species and therefore not used to the tropical temperatures they'll experience in the tank.

Growth-on-the-Rocks.jpg


Thanks,
Al.
 
Things seem OK and the Aquascaping experiment continues. The pump that pumps water up over the top of the LED's is a little bit noisier than I would like but other than that the hardware seems OK and less than a week after flooding things seems to have settled down a little. I did a fairly large water change today so here are some shots straight after that.

First the Full Tank Shot

Full-Tank-Shot.jpg


There's some algae growing on the rocks though, so I'm going to adjust the photo-period fairly significantly. (http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2015/aquascape-update-the-first-week/)

Algae-on-Rocks.jpg


And here are some other shots of the tank and its plants as well.

Echinodous-tenenllus.jpg
Pogostemon.jpg
Right-hand-slope.jpg
Algae-on-Rocks.jpg
 
Hi Justal, I left my tank for about 5-6 weeks to allow it to cycle and then added shrimp and otos. The guy at my LFS said he cycle his tanks with fish and they have always been fine, but i decided to do a fishless cycle. In regards to your lighting how long is the photo period at the moment and are you able to dim your lights?
Jim
 
banthaman.jm said:
Hi Justal, I left my tank for about 5-6 weeks to allow it to cycle and then added shrimp and otos. The guy at my LFS said he cycle his tanks with fish and they have always been fine, but i decided to do a fishless cycle. In regards to your lighting how long is the photo period at the moment and are you able to dim your lights?
Jim
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Photo period during the dry start phase was 10 hours per day I think, but I've cut that down to a short 1.5 hour phase in the morning so that I can take a look in the tank while I'm getting ready for work (5:00-6:30am) and then an evening phase of 3.5 hours 6:30-10:00, so only 5 hours in total, but still the algae seem to be winning.

I added a couple of Amano shrimp to the tank yesterday to see how they get on, if they don't seem to be struggling I'll add some more so that they can battle with the algae to some degree, but what are people recommendations to stop it in its tracks? I can dim the lights - would that be an option? The algae seems to be coating the rock and pebbles, but there is also now some longer filamentous strands coming off some of the rocks, and worse still some coating the Eleocharis. I'll try to take some photos to show you, but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Al.
 
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Some photos....

Algae smothering the Eleocharis
Smother.jpg


Algal Sludge on the pebbles
Sludge.jpg


Filamentous Algae on the Rocks
Filaments.jpg


Strange 'Brown Fuzz' on the Pebbles - This seems to be coating everything, is it coming from the substrate or is it yet another type of algae?
Brown-Fuzz.jpg


Half of the Clean up Crew and first resident :)
Shrimp.jpg


Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Al.
 
Hi Justal, Thanks for the info and light setting. The levels of algae are quite high on the rocks and gravel, some of the thread algae can be removed mechanically (tweezers or toothbrush) but the algae on the Eleocharis is much more difficult. From all of the reading i have done on here as well as my experiences and advise from others i would recommend doing a black out of the tank, the plants will be fine but the algae cannot handle it. Here is a link that i read from ceg:
ceg4048 said:
Hi,
The blackout should knock back the algae quite a bit. Go ahead and do the immediate water change and turn on lights+ CO2 again. The plants need to start production again. Don't forget to dose. I would severely restrict the photoperiod though seeing as that was what got you in trouble in the first place. Even though you are dosing more it takes time for the plants to reconfigure their chemistry to take full advantage of the new dosing scheme. Meanwhile they continue to "bleed" and algae again have an advantage. It's Catch-22 but it has to be done. The frequent water changes help to limit the impact of the "bleeding".

An analogy: If I found you starving in the desert and gave you food and water that would save you that day but it would take a few weeks of feeding before you'd regain your original weight, right? This is the case here. As you continue to physically remove the algae, then also continue to remove ammonia and spores via water changes. Continue to limit the light and to dose. Over the next few weeks you should notice that less and less algae re-grows. This is a signal that the plants are regaining their health. As the plants regain their health they will then start to absorb ammonia instead of ejecting it into the water column.

You've got to think about why algae flourishes in order to avoid massive outbreaks. Too much light, too much ammonia, poor CO2 and poor feeding. That's it for all intents and purposes. Control these four basic factors and you control the outbreaks. Can you see now why I don't agree with stripping the tank and starting all over again? No matter how many times you restart the tank, if you fail to understand the causes you will continue to make the same mistakes you'll have the same troubles. Many people simply throw in the towel and give up because they never learn to perceive algae as a symptom of plant illness. Instead they perceive it as some foreign invader. Algal spores of every type will always be in your tank. Like vultures they wait for ill health or poor water conditions to attack. If we focus on keeping our plants healthy we avoid the conditions that signal them to bloom. Avoid the combination of high lights and ammonia at all cost. Avoid starvation by dosing appropriately. Whenever you see algae your default thinking should be - "plants are starving (NPK)" and/or "too much light" and/or "ammonia breach". If you follow this discipline you will always be able to react properly. On the contrary, if you follow the popular thinking that nutrients cause algae, you'll be doomed... :rolleyes:

Cheers mate.
Click to expand...

I have been dosing Easycarbo to great effect.
Best of luck with the algae and keep us informed on your progress.
Jim
 
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