My 109 litre tank has been running for about 3 months now and in the past few weeks been noticing black beard algae on the carpet plants and also some spots of algae on the glass around the carpet plant area including behind the neo co2 diffuser.
I did a test this morning with results below;
GH 120
KH 120 - 180
pH 7.0 - 7.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 160
This reveals I do have quite a high level of ammonia and I can only think of plant debris as I am yet to introduce fish. I also realised a few weeks ago I shouldn't have been cleaning the external filter media with tap water (I've been doing this every forthnite) so perhaps the bacteria hasn't been given a chance to mature as a result.
Lighting - twinstar 600 with dimmer (I have turned down the intensity by about 25%) - on timer for 6 hours
Filter - eheim pro 4 250
CO2 - on timer for 7 hours. unstable through the day, drop checker changes to blue by the following morning.
Weekly 50% water changes
One thing I have noticed is the rotala green in the corner of the tank is doing great as I re-planted densely while the other stem plants at the back are also doing great. The problem area is the foreground, the carpet plants are going yellow and I can see the bba is stunting their growth.
Advice on how I can solve this algae problem will be very much welcome please.
Sorry for the long essay just a passionate hobbyist.
I did a test this morning with results below;
GH 120
KH 120 - 180
pH 7.0 - 7.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 160
This reveals I do have quite a high level of ammonia and I can only think of plant debris as I am yet to introduce fish. I also realised a few weeks ago I shouldn't have been cleaning the external filter media with tap water (I've been doing this every forthnite) so perhaps the bacteria hasn't been given a chance to mature as a result.
Lighting - twinstar 600 with dimmer (I have turned down the intensity by about 25%) - on timer for 6 hours
Filter - eheim pro 4 250
CO2 - on timer for 7 hours. unstable through the day, drop checker changes to blue by the following morning.
Weekly 50% water changes
One thing I have noticed is the rotala green in the corner of the tank is doing great as I re-planted densely while the other stem plants at the back are also doing great. The problem area is the foreground, the carpet plants are going yellow and I can see the bba is stunting their growth.
Advice on how I can solve this algae problem will be very much welcome please.
Sorry for the long essay just a passionate hobbyist.