Can I salvage my diatom covered plants for a new tank ?

[Paul195]

Hi

After making errors along the way on my first tank setup, the tank has been plagued with brown algae for a long time now and a lot of the plants have well established brown algae on the leaves. I am due to start a new tank / setup shortly and would like to try to re-use the plants to keep costs down, but at the same time do not want to jeopardize the aesthetics of the new tank.

I have read posts suggesting that the brown algae will come away just by gently rubbing the leaves with your fingers, but I have tried this in my current setup which didn't shift it - it seems fairly stubborn. Will I ever be able to get the plants free of it and looking clean and new for the new setup, and is there any risk of transferring a new outbreak of brown algae to the new setup ?

Thank you

Paul

 

[Martin in Holland]

If you can't rub them of, it might not be brown algae. You could dump your plants in a dark room for 4 to 5 days, this should take care of your algae.

 

[ceg4048]

As Martin says, if it doesn't rub off then it's probably GSA or something similar which is caused any combination of poor CO2 and poor PO4.

is there any risk of transferring a new outbreak of brown algae to the new setup ?

You need to stop thinking about algae as if it were some kind of infectious disease. Algae spores are always present and blooms occur as a result of the mistakes you make. You can transfer any plants you want but you have to fix the mistakes. Then the plants will recover easily. If you make the same mistakes then they won't recover and you'll have more algal blooms, which would have happened anyway, so i would try to save money by reusing the plants.

Fix your CO2 and PO4, then that will fix the algae.
Here is a demonstration of plants that suffered a GSA algal bloom and then which recovered by fixing the fault.

Cheers,

 

[Paul195]

Thanks guys

I was sure that after loads of research that it was brown diatom algae that I had (perhaps I have many types!), and I thought that might have been due to high silicates in my moler clay substrate, and my tap water has a fairly high phosphate reading from the tap (3.5mg/L according to the test kit) - will these pics make it easier to determine the algae type(s) ?

I recon it could be a combination of 1) not enough circulation 2) not enough C02 3) High phosphates and Silicates. Next tank I have decided to go with re-mineralized RO water, C02 and aim for the 10x turnover.

Paul

 

[ceg4048]

That looks like GSA due to low phosphates and low CO2.
On the rocks looks like possibly BBA due to poor CO2.

RO water will not save you . It will make the conditions worse if you continue to mesmerize yourself by thinking that silicates and PO4 cause algae. The truth is completely the opposite.

PO4 test kits cannot tell you how much PO4 you have. Nutrients don't cause algae. Forget everything your research has told you. It has all been a lie. Do exactly the opposite of what you were told by those websites to do.

Remove the leaves and start a dosing program. See the Tutorial section of the forum for dosing strategies.

Cheers,

 

[Paul195]

Thanks for being direct and to the point. Are my general ideas for my new tank are on track or are they lies?

Good filtration (x10 turnover)
Good circulation
Good substrate
Good C02 levels
Regular dosing (EI)
Regular Water changes
Not too many fish or too much food

When is RO water a good idea ?

 

[Martin in Holland]

RO water is good when your tap water has to much TDS or is very high on GH...(or is you have fish that are sensitive to what ever is in your tap water)....as far as I know.

 

[ceg4048]

Thanks for being direct and to the point. Are my general ideas for my new tank are on track or are they lies?
Good filtration (x10 turnover)
Good circulation
Good substrate
Good C02 levels
Regular dosing (EI)
Regular Water changes
Not too many fish or too much food

Yes these are all excellent ideas. Achieving some of them is the hard part. Good circulation and good CO2 are actually very difficult to achieve.

If you're into breeding exotic soft water species or if your tap is high in pesticides, herbicides or pathogens then RO is worth the trouble - but it's a lot of trouble so you really should have a good reason. For very small tanks it may not be a big deal, but as tank size increases RO processing starts to become a burden because of the large and frequent water change priority.

Cheers,

 

[Paul195]

Thanks, well I know there is a lot of agricultural run off around this area and my GH takes around 15 drops to turn the colour of the test (although it sounds like the test results are prettty inaccurate).

I have ordered a HM TDS-3 meter so I will test and post the results.

P

 

[Paul195]

I have got my TDS meter and the reading in the tank is 298, the water out the tap is 303. How do I know if my water is high in pesticides, herbicides or pathogens ?

 

[nickmcmechan]

I would revisit co2 and circulation before going down that path

 

[ceg4048]

I have got my TDS meter and the reading in the tank is 298, the water out the tap is 303. How do I know if my water is high in pesticides, herbicides or pathogens ?

TDS doesn't tell you anything about that and there is little to no relation between the TDS and those values. The main drivers of TDS are Calcium and other dissolved minerals/nutrients in the source tap water as well as dirt from fish foods and organic waste that accumulate in the tank.

In order to determine what the water contents are you must review the municipal water report, which are normally online. Just google "Name of your town + water report".

You can go to any municipal water/sewer site to see definitions of the hazards as well as the maximum Euro limits. For example Southern Water => http://www.southernwater.co.uk/at-h...-quality/drinking-water-quality-standards.asp
tells you how to identify the hazard based on the chemical or biological name.

As mentioned by nick, there is really very little chance that you have a problem in these areas from municipal water supplies. They are bound by law to treat the water in order to remove dangerous levels of toxic chemicals. These problems are more prevalent in well water, for example which has fewer Quality controls. If you are on well water then you'll have to take a sample to a lab to get an analysis.

You really need to just get on with it and pay attention to the things that really matter=> CO2/flow/distribution.

Here is a tank with god-awful tasting agricultural runoff limestone infested tap water at GH 25 and with TDS of over 650. What's the big deal?

Cheers,

 

[Paul195]

What's the big deal?

Wan't to get it right this time!

pay attention to the things that really matter=> CO2/flow/distribution.

Understood

Here is a tank with god-awful tasting agricultural runoff limestone infested tap water at GH 25 and with TDS of over 650.

Looks awesome