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A New Start - continued progress

I've never heard of pre-soaking a diffuser - I've always just put them straight in. I've tried two Do!Aqua ones in the past, and some cheaper options. All of them have been OK.

I'll leave the new diffuser sitting in the tank today, and connect it up tonight to check it again. Thanks for the suggestion.

I left the DOOA diffuser to soak for 24 hours, and tried it again this morning, leaving it to run for a couple of hours.
It's far inferior to my previous Do!Aqua diffuser, non-branded glass diffuser and even the airstone. It's noisy and unusable, so I have switched back to the airstone permanently. I will not be using the DOOA diffuser an anymore. I'm a big ADA fan, but it's not a good product. I'm glad it's not so expensive here in Japan.
 
Quick 'Day 19' update of the tank. The moss and HC seem to be settling down OK now. I've trimmed the Hydrocotyle twice already. It may need some drastic cutting back before long. Also, I made a cardboard frame for taking full-tank photos, and tried it out today for some update pics. This is when I wish I had a budget that could include opti-white glass!

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Long lens
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Wider lens
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Pearling
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So we're nearly four weeks in now, and I've started to see a little BBA and possible green beard algae. I'm attributing this to CO2 issues at the moment, as I know I've been struggling to keep the injection stable with the Do!Aqua reg. Whatever I did, it always crept back up to 1bps. I would then put it back down to one bubble per 2 or 3 seconds, so I've probably caused some instability.

I've since added another needle valve and tuned it to one bubble every 2 seconds or so. It seems a little more stable now, but I will need to keep an eye on it.

I've been searching for a source of liquid carbon too, but I can't find any in Japan. Even drop checkers are hard to come by, so I haven't been measuring my CO2. People don't seem to use them here, but it would be possible to order one if I wanted ADA. HK brands are an option too, but take a month or so to arrive.
 
Stunning aquascape with super healthy plants.
Cheerio,
 
I decided to give it a good trim today as the moss was about due, and the rear stems were approaching the top. I hacked back the Hydrocotyle, too, in hopes that it won't take over. I took off the Anubias leaves with the worst BBA, too. The HC is looking a little bit sad underneath, so I've bumped up the CO2 ever so slightly. Starting to see the Crypts poking through for the first time, now, too.

I've also dropped the lighting 5% or so (a guess) in an attempt to stop this BBA.

Still continuing with daily 60-70% water changes and dosing 4 hours before lights on. With today's trim, that brings it up to two 60% water changes and two rounds of dosing today.

Before the trim
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After the trim
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As always, any advice and suggestions welcome.
 
I like the plantation and the lower part of the scape.

The tree might be tweaked to look more like an real one by adding branches like that (if you still got some hardscape);

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Thanks for the idea :) I still have some bits of wood, so I'll dig them out and have a look.

Right now, though, I'm really struggling with this BBA. It's growing fast and taking over the hardscape, Anubias and Moss. Also, The HC seems to be turning white and melting. There are diatoms forming too, now.

I added a second filter today to increase the flow a bit. I'm not sure what is causing these problems at the moment, but a little extra circulation can't help.

Currently at:
Daily 60% water changes 3 hours before lights on
CO2 1bps
N+P ADA Special Lights 2ml daily
K+Micros Do!Aqua Be Green 1ml + CO2 Supermarket powder mix 1ml.
7 hours of lighting
 
Why so many water change?

BBA don’t like high co2, if Cuba is melting that is probably due to lack of co2 where the Cuba grows, so yeah, check the flow.

I would stop wc and just dose K for 2-3 weeks. Do just one 50-60% per week during that time and see

cheers
 
Thanks - the reason was that mostly you read the more water changes the better, especially in the initial stages. It gets a bit of an oily layer on the surface too, so I suck that out.

I’ll hold off for a bit, then, and see how that goes.

I wonder, too, if I’m actually over-dosing. I tried a forum search, but are there negative effects from over-dosing?
 
The speed of deterioration is now so quick that I don't think it will last more than a few days. The trimmed stems are just dying, the HC is melting and the moss/Anubias is just being overtaken by BBA. I don't understand why - the same thing happened last time. I can't see what I'm doing wrong.

In just a day, the diatoms have totally covered the sand and most plants. In about 4 days, it's gone from looking healthy (with a little BBA) to being almost beyond rescue.

I'm thinking about scrapping it and starting again (again), but it'll just happen again next time because I don't see where the problem is.
 
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@igorisujin,
Please don’t give up.
Perhaps you did too many and too large water changes for too long that stripped off the nutrients from the water column. There was no surplus so to speak for plants to utilize. It’s alright to do daily WC but the way I see it they should be no more than 5-10% of the total volume with the weekly one at 50%.

But the most obvious issue is the Co2.
You’ve got to make that work. BBA is mostly (Or almost always) from fluctuating levels of Co2.
HC will melt from low co2.

Most people have enough light over their tanks;
Ferts are easy as well. Plants usually tell you when they’re hungry.
But get co2 wrong, especially with light on the higher side and it’s all downhill from there on....
I hope you can get this tank back on track.
Good luck to you!
 
Agreed, it has to be co2 in your case. :)

spot dosing bba with liquid carbon helps, diatoms are easily cleaned by shrimps and snails, good luck ;)
 
As advised by CookieS, use liquid carbon to spot-treat the BBA.

Excel works great, or 10% hydrogen peroxide.

Method: Use a syringe to uptake ‘payload’, bring it underwater as close to BBA. Release. Ahhhhhhhh. Watch them BBA turn colour.

Take some pics with your awesome camera for us here while doing so :)
 
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