Garuf said:
Ok so lets bullet point this.
- cut down light : unfortunately this is impossible the 36 watt is the only light I have.
- 2 x 80% wc may prove impractical with college but I'll endeavour to do them.
- move up a bracket in the dosing - easily done, what you you recommend dosing wise?
-more filtration - if I don't will the 2213 I'll get a tetratec ex700.
-3 day black out : where does this fit in? sorry being a bit stupid
Hi,
Sorry, my mistake - I didn't choreograph all the suggestions:
1. Sod's law - this is THE most important factor. I'm on thin ice here because lighting isn't my specialty but I believe that even though your ballast output is 36 watts it can drive a lower wattage lamp without blowing it to bits. If it's a CF socket, all the lamps, regardless of wattage rating fit (4 pin Euro-socket right?) Just to test this I inserted a 24 watt lamp into a 55 watt ballast and it was fine - and it wasn't any brighter than if it were plugged into a 24 watt ballast. I don't know what the long term effect is though..
2. Physical removal should be performed as quickly as humanly possible. Get as much as you can out of the tank but try NOT to disturb the substrate if you can't do the water change immediately thereafter.
3. 80% water change should be performed immediately after physical removal. You must get ammonia, spores and remnants out of the tank or life is more difficult.
4. After water change dose immediately (double your dosage) and perform a 3 day blackout. Blackout means BLACKout. Do not let one photon of light into the tank. Use black plastic bin liners if necessary. Shut down CO2 (and lights obviously

) The second dose if possible should be done at night (if it can be done - if not, leave it).
5. 80% Water change at the end of blackout. This is important because dead things killed by the blackout like spores and leaves generate ammonia if left in the tank. Dose (double) after water change:!:
6. I'm not familiar with the tetratec. It should be fine if it's got similar media volume and similar pump output as the Eheim. The idea is to get enough bacteria built up (takes a few weeks) to handle NH4.
This is the standard triage for algae attacks. Keep it up for the next few weeks and you should see a decline in algae and more importantly an increase in plant health. Remove algae and infected leaves as quickly as possible. It is definitely possible to find a dosing scheme to allow you to run the 36 watts CF but I honestly don't know what that is right now. Use James 20-40G dosing to start off with and see how the tank responds in 3 weeks. Remember you can always go higher. It's when you go lower than you should that you run into trouble.
Cheers,