Badjester1
New Member
Hi,
I'm after some advice on what I assume to be diatoms aka brown algae (I know it's not technically an algae.) So my plants were doing absolutely amazing a few weeks ago, yes they are in sand but I use TNC plugs, TNC Complete and they were beautifully green and growing well. Then I had a burst of what I think were pond snails and they started munching on the plants. Mostly the Salvinia and unbelievably annihilated the Salvinia in a matter of days! So I popped 4 assassin's in and they've cleared the pond snails. There's still tiny little snails I believe to be ramshorns that are no bother at all. They're too small to damage plants and seem to eat micro particles of whatever. Anyway when the Salvinia was mostly annihilated I also cut back a lot of the plants as it was getting a bit like a jungle. I also removed damaged leaves from the snails. Still plenty of plants and still heavily planted. However this is where things have started to go wrong. The brown quickly started to cover the highest parts of the tank including leaves like in the photo. attached.
At first I thought too much light what with cutting back etc. Cut the story short... I've searched and searched online for the best course of action and as usual there seems to be a divide. Some suggest lights minimal or even off. Then some advise (which I actually agree with) that you need the plants to out compete the brown algae/diatoms. They're not going to do that very well if I turn the lights off surely? My lights are only on full for 6 hours a day with and hour sunset and sunrise either side. So at the minute my Aquasky lights are as follows... Red 85% Green 75% Blue 15% and White 80% and that's from listening to Bentley Pascoe on YouTube about settings for a tank like mine (Fluval Roma 240.) So basically what I'm wanting to ask is this... Am I right to keep the lights like that and just continue to dose the ferts as normal? I assumed the diatoms are more towards the top as they're always going to prefer the highest light source they can get? I have a strong feeling the Salvinia was doing a fantastic job of gobbling up any excess nutrients as they really did cover a lot of the surface. I was always having to take some out. Or am I doing it all wrong and should I be turning lights down or even off? As I previously said if I do that then the plants won't out compete for the nutrients? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm tearing my hair out as it's not going away!
I'm after some advice on what I assume to be diatoms aka brown algae (I know it's not technically an algae.) So my plants were doing absolutely amazing a few weeks ago, yes they are in sand but I use TNC plugs, TNC Complete and they were beautifully green and growing well. Then I had a burst of what I think were pond snails and they started munching on the plants. Mostly the Salvinia and unbelievably annihilated the Salvinia in a matter of days! So I popped 4 assassin's in and they've cleared the pond snails. There's still tiny little snails I believe to be ramshorns that are no bother at all. They're too small to damage plants and seem to eat micro particles of whatever. Anyway when the Salvinia was mostly annihilated I also cut back a lot of the plants as it was getting a bit like a jungle. I also removed damaged leaves from the snails. Still plenty of plants and still heavily planted. However this is where things have started to go wrong. The brown quickly started to cover the highest parts of the tank including leaves like in the photo. attached.
At first I thought too much light what with cutting back etc. Cut the story short... I've searched and searched online for the best course of action and as usual there seems to be a divide. Some suggest lights minimal or even off. Then some advise (which I actually agree with) that you need the plants to out compete the brown algae/diatoms. They're not going to do that very well if I turn the lights off surely? My lights are only on full for 6 hours a day with and hour sunset and sunrise either side. So at the minute my Aquasky lights are as follows... Red 85% Green 75% Blue 15% and White 80% and that's from listening to Bentley Pascoe on YouTube about settings for a tank like mine (Fluval Roma 240.) So basically what I'm wanting to ask is this... Am I right to keep the lights like that and just continue to dose the ferts as normal? I assumed the diatoms are more towards the top as they're always going to prefer the highest light source they can get? I have a strong feeling the Salvinia was doing a fantastic job of gobbling up any excess nutrients as they really did cover a lot of the surface. I was always having to take some out. Or am I doing it all wrong and should I be turning lights down or even off? As I previously said if I do that then the plants won't out compete for the nutrients? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm tearing my hair out as it's not going away!