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Journal Bacterial bloom, or clay dust?

agol77

Member
Joined
14 Oct 2013
Messages
68
Hi all

I've recently rejigged my tank, going from a soil based substrate (John Innes under sand), to Tropica Plant Growth Substrate under moler clay. System details:

Tank: 72" (L) x 30" (W) x 24" (D)

Filter: Sump (50" x 24" x 18") with Kaldnes K1 and Japanese matting, powered by Eheim Compact + 5000

Lighting: iQuatics 80w T5 x 3, with tropical bulbs, for 10hrs a day, 8" from water surface

Circulation: Tunze nanostream 6045

Substrate: 12.5 litres of Tropica Plant Growth Substrate, under 80 litres of Kaizen Bonsai moler clay

CO2: No CO2, but I have been dosing liquid carbon daily at recommended dosage

Ferts: I have been dosing 25% of EI using Aquarium Plant Foods micro and macro. I was planning to phase this out once the new plants have settled in and spread roots a bit

Decor: Various bits of wood, including a big 25kg tree stump that I liberated from my local woods. I also have some manzanita branches that I'm soaking outside at the moment, that I'll be adding to make things more interesting in the centre

Plants: I planted heavily with a few species of Echinodorus, lots of Cryptocoryne species, Microsorum and Bolbitis. I also have a house plant growing emersed.

The tank has been up and running for a couple of weeks, and I'm having a couple of issues, and was hoping for some help from the huge pool of experience here.

1) I am having real cloudy water issues, and I can't decide if it's a bacterial bloom, or residual dust from the moler clay. I washed it pretty thoroughly, but it was very dusty to begin with, so it could be that. I've had bacterial blooms in new tanks before, but they've always cleared up after a few days, but this is still going strong after two weeks (maybe it's the added ferts, fuelling it?)

I did a 90% water change a few days ago, which cleared the water for about a day, but then the cloud came back worse, which is what makes me think bacterial bloom.

2) I can't decide if three T5s is too much light for a non CO2 tank. I started with just two, but because the tank is 24" deep and 30" wide, I was worried the spread wasn't enough. After reading LOTS of threads on here about light, I'm thinking two should be plenty, but keep second guessing myself.

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully it makes sense. Thanks for reading, and for your help in advance.

Andrew

Tank after four days, with two T5 tubes

ce84ecac0588c36d5516e84912617fa9.jpg


Tank after two weeks, with three T5 tubes, showing increased clouding and the start of some Crypt melt.

42d1ec94a1a76d27e4a0378b28522ee1.jpg





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Last edited:
Looks great! That tree trunk is especially nice, will be even more beautiful once the ferns start growing on it.

I think 3 x T5 tubes is too much for a non-CO2 tank, unless you have some floating plants to block light.

Personally, I would also dose more nutrients for the epiphytic plants. It's probably a bacterial bloom, you are high-light with no CO2 but you don't have any floating (with access to aerial CO2) or exclusively aquatic plants, so it will take a while for your chosen species to adapt and the tanks water stats to stabilise . I doubt it is residue from the clay after this length of time...but without seeing your sump I cant be sure of it's filtering capabilities.

I bet if you chuck some Salvinia or any other floating plant in there the water will clear up fast. Remove a light tube and add some hornwort, Egeria or similar for the same results if you don't like floating plants :thumbup:.

Even with no changes, I'm sure your tank will end up fine, but with 3 x T5 I guess you will get lots of algae before your current plants grow significantly more.
 
Thanks for the reply.

That's a good shout regarding the floaters. I've used them in this tank before, but kind of gave up on them as they kept disappearing over the weir! There's more decor at the surface now to snag some bits though, so will give it another try. A trip to my lfs today then :)

I'll also go back to two T5s. This hobby often makes me second guess myself like that. Everything I've read and learned tells me that two tubes will be fine, but when I start seeing a bit of Crypt. melt or yellowing sword leaves, I think I need to add more light, even though it's much more likely to be shedding old leaves, or low CO2/nutrients.

I won't embarrass myself by posting a photo of the sump configuration. At the minute, it looks like a snow globe, as I'm playing with the K1 in a few different chambers, to see which one it prefers.

Basically, I'm trying to achieve a densely planted jungle, that will develop slowly over a period of years, with some emergent growth, so will dial the lighting back, add some floaters, and chill the hell out a bit!

Oh, and here's a photo of the top of the tree trunk, poking out of the water. When I cleaned it, I left some moss on there that was growing happily, and it still seems reasonably happy (alive), if not confused about now living indoors.

d8284db6bfc78ca9a149eba1da0e4b2f.jpg



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This has happened to me.

Low tech juwel 125
Lighting - 2 x 28 watt t8's
substrate - westland aquatic compost

My water seems to be clearing now that I'm seeing the plants are really start to grow. But then I also have a swarm of daphnia not sure if they affect this clouding.
 
BTW your tank looks awesome I cant wait to see it all grown in!
 
Cheers Dan. My water has finally cleared today, so I'm pretty pleased! I followed the advice; reduced my lighting, and added some floating plants (floating pennywort from an old wildlife pond at work), and it seems to have worked.

I've just changed my light tubes today, from old iQuatics tropical tubes, to 1x Sylvania Grolux and 1x Narva Bio Vital from http://www.cp-lighting.co.uk, so it'll be interesting to see if this has any effect. I'm loving the new look though, and will post some new photos soon.

How are you getting on with the soil? I used John Innes with aquatic compost for a couple of years, and I always had tannin stained water, which drove me mad after a while.


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what depths did you use on your substrate?

I used 1.5 inch of john innes on the cube I had.

second time around i used westland aquatic compost, at 1 inch. i also added clay into it this time. The westland aquatic compost was where i witnessed the fungus/bacti rising from the gravel.
 
I probably had about 2" of John Innes and Verve aquatic compost, but because of the size of the tank, I think I put about 75litres of it in there, so that could have been the problem. Even after 18 months, I could do a 50% WC, and then within five days the water would be yellow again. The plants likes it though!

Are you doing a journal for yours?


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