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A Few Problems I would like to sort.

Christian Walker

Christian Walker

Member
Joined
17 Jul 2013
Messages
125
Im running a 240L tank with a low % of plants at the moment, as totally low tech. No nutrients, no CO2 or liquid carbon, no fancy substrate. Lighting is 1 x 39w T5 which is on for 6 hours a day. Filtration is an eheim 2178 (not set to full flow) and a Rena XP2. I would estimate water volume turnover to be around 4 to 5 times per hour and flow in the tank is enough to make all he plants sway. I have two problems;

1) My bolbitis heudolotyl and also anubias are getting this brown dusty algae on them, so is my lighting STILL too much ?

2) My nymphea plant leaves are growing and there is holes in them and the stems seem to disintegrate and detach very easily indicating the plant is weak. I am assuming this is because it wants CO2 or carbon in some form and is not getting it ? What is the solution as I hoped to leave this low tech.
 
Im concerned about feeding ferts though as I have read that they increase TDS and i have south american soft water plecos in the tank.
 
Christian Walker said:
Im concerned about feeding ferts though as I have read that they increase TDS and i have south american soft water plecos in the tank.
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It doesn't have to be a lot, just a splash after a water change
 
Hi all,
Yo-han said:
There is low tech and starving your plants and hoping for a miracle. You already know the answer to your question. Start fertilizing (still low tech) or starve your plants (low tech) ugly looking, lots of algae, high maintenance
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I agree with "Yo-han".
Christian Walker said:
Im concerned about feeding ferts though as I have read that they increase TDS and i have south american soft water plecos in the tank.
Click to expand...
darren636 said:
it doesn't have to be a lot, just a splash after a water change
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Like Darren says it only need a little bit.

You can think about EI as a full on attempt to grow Tomatoes with loads of light and nutrients (including CO2), but what you want is fertiliser regime adjusted for slow growing plants like Ferns, Orchids or Bromeliads, where you just need to keep them ticking over. What you want is "slow growth", not "no growth".

I keep Apistogramma, Corydoras, Otocinclus, Hypancistrus, Ancistrus etc in planted rain-water tanks, using a quick and dirty KISS technique (the "Duckweed Index") as a fertilising method. <Low maintainence, long term sustrate | UK Aquatic Plant Society>.

cheers Darrel
 
Thanks Darrel. Just ive been told by a lot of people that the L number plecs I want to keep must have low tds. So thats why i was worried about causing an increase to it.
 
Hi all,
Christian Walker said:
Just ive been told by a lot of people that the L number plecs I want to keep must have low tds.
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I like low conductivity water as well. Which L. numbers have you got in mind? Ancistrus ranunculus, L183 etc need soft water <The White Seam Bristlenoses • Catfishology • Shane's World • PlanetCatfish>, but the small addition of salts from the fertiliser isn't going to make any practical difference.

The real problem is that "high TDS" means different things dependent upon how the water became high in dissolved salts (really we measure TDS as conductivity, but I'll pick 400 ppm TDS) could be because you have very clean, highly oxygenated, but hard water with a lot of TDS (and dKH, dGH) from dissolved calcium carbonate, this would be good for lake Tanganyika cichlids, but not for L numbers.

In an alternative scenario the water might be organically polluted with lots NO3- (from the oxidation of NH3), because there aren't any plants in the tank and not enough water volume is being changed. In this case unsuitable for most fish and definitely for most L numbers. This last scenario is also where "high NO3 levels are toxic" comes from. They are only "toxic" when they are the "smoking gun" from the oxidation of NH3 and NO2. You can prove this because the toxicity of NO3 disappears when you add it from a chemical salt (KNO3 etc).

I wrote an article for L number keepers (presently at "Plecoplanet") which looks at ways of maintaining water quality for more demanding rheophilic plecs. <plecoplanet: Aeration and dissolved oxygen in the aquarium>.

Also have a look at this thread from "Apistogramma forums" <ok | Apistogramma.com>, it is worth a read.

cheers Darrel
 
Thanks Darrel. That went a bit over my head but I will digest it when Im not half asleep tomorrow and read the links you gave me. My water actually has 250tds, having just checked with a tds pen (as far as that can be trusted). My water is indeed hard, I think 122mg/l CaCO3 (if thats the right formula). Again, not that I trust test kits, but having been given one, I used it and it says my GH is about 7 and KH is about 7 too. Im thinking of using RO to some extent or another, but thats another subject I dont know enough about to know what to do, LOL. Currently I have 1 x L264 and 1 x L010a. Will be adding to that in the future. L340's, L200/L128, L014 possibly.... that sort of fish anyway :)
 
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