Algae - co2 and fluval F&p 2.0

[Sammy I]

Hello i'm new to this forum but have been ghosting for years.

I have been battling algae for a while and i'm starting to give up, its not bad but very fustrating trying to balance everything. mainly on the annubias and some buce, but also some bba on the tips of my tall cryps and they started melting. I only spot dose excel as it tends to melt my val and crypts.

My tank specs;
Fluval roma 125
Fluval 306 filter (cleaned monthly)
Co2 art dual regulator setup + Bubblecounter
Ceramic neo diffuser
Aps surface skimmer (top left facing right)
Small powerhead (bottom left hand corner facing right)
Spray bar (top right facing left)


Moderately planted with fairly low light plants (java fern, lots of crypts, hygrophillia, couple bucephalandra, annubias nana petite, regular annubias and some valisnaria. I dose a capful of aquascaper complete a day, and maybe 2 capfuls of api leafzone a week if i see any yellowing, follwing up with a 50/60% water change everyweek

Live stock includes:
4 albino cory
1 juli cory
10 pentazona barbs
10 ember tetra
7 cardinal tetra
4 ammano shrimps
5 tangerine tiger shimp

Tank water chemistry:
ph 7.6~
Kh 12
gh 19
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate high (in tap water + ferts)

Co2 injection 2 bps
Starts 2.5 hours before lights on
Stops 1hour before lights off, drop checker is green the whole time.

Fluval 2.0, 40% intensity 40% blue
Lights on 1.30pm ramp up to 40% by 2pm, ramp down to 0% at 8-8.30pm. i cant go above 40% intensity or i get lots of BBA. Also the tank recieves no natural light at all.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

 

[Jayefc1]

2 caps how much is that and how many litres is your tank

 

[Sammy I]

My tank is 125l, a capful of
Aquascaper fertiliser is 13/14ml, instructions say for highlight/plant mass 5ml per 50l per day
I use api leafzone 2x a week Cap of api leafzone is 10ml, instructions say 15ml a week but its probably useless in a co2 setup , i see it as an iron boost and use it if i feel it needs it.

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

I don't use co2 but conscious you don't seem to have got to the bottom of this so here goes... 40% of a Fluval 2.0 doesn't seem much light at all for a high tech set up. I therefore suspect your nutrients are too high. You mention that nitrates are very high. Do they increase significantly over the week between water changes? If so you may well be dosing too much. Hopefully my post will get others to chime in... like I say co2 enriched tanks are not my specialty!!

 

[Sammy I]

Thanks, i have played about with intensity and photoperiod and seems to get bba on the edges of leaves such as my java ferns and tall crypts if i go above 40% white and blue intensity and a lot of diatoms or brown algae on my annubias.

My fluval roma 125l is 45cm/18" high, from other posts on the internet the fluval 2.0 at 100% intensity is about 85par at the substrate which is considered high light? So at 40% i would have about 34par at the substrate, which i generally have slow growing plants so i thought this would be an acceptable level.

The plants include:
Valisnaria
Annubias
Annubias nana petite
Bucephalandra wavy green
Bucephalandra theia
Bucephalandra deep purple
Big bush of java attached to wood and lava rock
Hygrophillia costata
Hygrophillia polysperma
Pogostemon hellferi
cryptocoryne legroi
Cryptocoryne nevelli
Cryptocoryne parva
Cryptocoryne undulata
Cryptocoryne balanse

I live in Hertfordshire and we have very hard water, that also has high nitrates and do 60% wc every weekend, maybe i should do a couple more water changes this week to reset my parameters even more?

Thanks

 

[Zeus.]

Fluval roma 125
Fluval 306 filter and Small powerhead

So the 306 should have enough output to make the x10 output to tank size ratio but what media do you have in your filter ?

Co2 injection 2 bps
Starts 2.5 hours before lights on
Stops 1hour before lights off, drop checker is green the whole time.

Have you done a pH profile?

 

[Sammy I]

In my filter I have the 4 course sponges, the 2 fine sponges and the other two compartments have one layer of the fluval bio max in there with the holes facing up and down. I also have a power head and aps surface skimmer/power head so i deffo have decent surface movement, flow and mixing water at different levels, all my plants sway and can see co2 reaching them.

I think ive narrowed the problem down, my drop checker was giving me a false reading as co2 was being pushed towards it making it greeny/yellow. I've put it in a new location, under my spray bar where the least amount of flow and co2 would be. So ive pushed the co2 to 4bps over the last week and the drop checker is lime green when the lights go on and stays that way the whole time and fish are alright too. So im going to keep with it, add in more plants this week and do some more excel spot treatment and see how it goes.

Am i right about my 40% light intensity at 18" would be around 34 at the bottom of the tank. But obviously the par would be more in the 50 range as i have like 2 inches of soil/gravel and then i have to consider how tall the plants are too? So i'd guess about 50 par

My ph after gassing out the co2 with airpump for 3 hours, it is around 8-8.2, and at my original 2bps when lights on it was going down to 7.6, now with 4 bps it goes down to 7.2 and fish seem to be good.

Thanks

 

[Matty123]

Hello,

Have things now improved?

Kind regards
Matt


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[Sammy I]

Yes i would say they have. I did a massive filter clean and added a prefilter sponge to my intake to keep things cleaner and easier to clean.

I started off by trimming any leaves with any sort of algae then added more plants so basically doubling plant mass.

I added more valisnaria because they are fast growing and they are starting to grow after the initial melt. I also added more crypt nevelli and the more demanding pogostemon stellatus.

I upped my co2 to 5bps, and lighting to 50% but kept dosing the same, its been a nearly 2 weeks and i'm seeing good growth and no new bba/staghorn.

I plan to up the lighting every 2 weeks by 10% until i see a little more pearling and am confident theres minimal algae.

Thanks, will update soon. I think my main problem was too little co2 and drop checker was in the wrong spot giving me high readings

 

[Matty123]

Oh Excellent Sammy, your tank looks great!


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[Sammy I]

Thanks a lot! It's taken forever but finally im beginning to find a balance. I'll post another update soon hopefully by then my valisnaria will be growing well and fast.