Aleman
Member
I'm currently holding my own in my battle with the dreaded BGM (Blue Green Menace - aka cyanobacter), but the battle lines have been pretty static for a few weeks.
1. Size of tank in litres. Nominally 305L, but after losses due to substrate and hardscape it holds 240L
2. Age of the set - up. Flooded the tank in mid Jan 2022 (IIRC) after allowing the carpeting plants a dry start period
3. Filtration. Internal "Sump" type driven by a Sicce Syncra Silent 2.0 pump (2350L/Hr). Return via a spray bar
4. Lighting and duration. Two Dennerle Trocal LED 120 Units with a SuperFish 74 On FULL for 6 hours with a 2 hour ramp up and down (sort off)
5. Substrate. Lava Rock, Neutral gravel, capped with sand. 3Kg of Bioplast Terramineral as nutrient.
6. Co2 dosing or Non-dosing. CO2 injected with a CO2 Art Elite SE reg controlled by JBL Proflora pH Touch controller, pH set to 6.15 with a 0.1 hysteresis. Diffused using a 20" Cerges reactor. ... Some bubbles still get through to tanks, which is good as I can see flow to all parts of tank.
7. Fertilizers used & Ratios. EI Full using potassium nitrate, di potassium phosphate, and magnesium sulphate split into 14 doses over 7 days. Micros CSM+B, plus Fe EDTA
8. Water change regime and type. 50% weekly using RO water ... remineralised to 1KH and 2GH using Aqua Source GH/KH UP balancer
9. Plant list + When planted. Monte Carlo, S. Repens, lillaeopsis brazillensis, Eleocharis "mini" Dry start November 2021. Sagitaria subulata, M. mattogrossesense, E. reni, E hormanii L repens "super red" Mid January 22
10. Inhabitants. Currently 25 Bleeding Heart Tetras, 3 (was 9) Otocinclus, Amano shrimp (was 20, but who knows ), 2 King Koopa snails.
11. Full tank shot & Surface Image.
The Clean Up Crew have pretty much dealt with the normal algae, and after reading a couple of threads here, I suspect if it was the toxicity of the BGA that did for my otos . I've got a variety of forms, from the usual Blue Green, to Black, and even brown/red. I've had some success at keeping it in check using Blue Green Stain remover, but it keeps coming back. The moss on the back wall is full of black slime, the moss on the wood brown, and the montecarlo blue green, particularly on the glass. I've been lax in getting rid of the detritus, which probably doesn't help matters. To this end I've temporarily installed a SunSun HW3000 filter full of fine foam, filter woll and floss to act as a vaccum cleaner and I stir up the detritus manually. I'm also hoping it will keep the algae in check as it has a built in UV lamp so should prevent any cells in the water column from reproducing.
BG stain remover is a stop gap while I find out a real solution. Reading @jaypeecee's thread was interesting as it threw out some well known causes, and then @Dr Mike Oxgreen added some posts there which started me thinking.
1. Flow ... Its possible I have low flow in parts of the tank
2. Maintenance ... Yeah, this was a problem, but I'm hoping to have made that simple now, and at the moment it should have helped the flow problem.
3. Low/Unstable CO2 Levels ... Unlikely as it's controlled by the pH Touch controller within +- 0.1 units of the pH determined by the KH.
4. Light too much / too high ... could be, but lets leave that as set at the moment, as I am having issues with growing red plants, and really want the Myriophyllum to grow as fast as it should do.
5. Nutrients ... could be a problem as I've only really started EI in the last 4 weeks, having fallen foul of 30 year old knowledge that nitrate and phosphate are bad, so wasn't adding nutrients on a regular basis.
At my last water change the parameters were measured, using JBL test kits
Ammonia <0.05
Nitrite < 0.025
Nitrate 5
Iron 1.5
potassium 25
phosphate 2.4
These levels have been pretty much constant over the last couple of weeks, So my Nitrate is low, but it looks as though the plants are using what I'm adding which is sufficient for the plant mass currently, especially combined with that produced by the fish. One think @Dr Mike Oxgreen mentioned was that the nitrate to phosphate ratio was important, not just "low nitrate", mine is 2:1 and Mike says he has trouble with BGA if his drops below 5 to 1. As today is "Water Change Day" I'm thinking of adding 30ppm of ammonium nitrate, 4.62g (in addition to carrying on with my standard nutrient doses) This would take the NO3 to PO4 ratio up to 10 to 1, which would hopefully be maintained, if it drops quickly then that has to be an indication that I'm underdosing nitrate ... yes?
Anyone got any other suggestions or think that this is a bad idea?
1. Size of tank in litres. Nominally 305L, but after losses due to substrate and hardscape it holds 240L
2. Age of the set - up. Flooded the tank in mid Jan 2022 (IIRC) after allowing the carpeting plants a dry start period
3. Filtration. Internal "Sump" type driven by a Sicce Syncra Silent 2.0 pump (2350L/Hr). Return via a spray bar
4. Lighting and duration. Two Dennerle Trocal LED 120 Units with a SuperFish 74 On FULL for 6 hours with a 2 hour ramp up and down (sort off)
5. Substrate. Lava Rock, Neutral gravel, capped with sand. 3Kg of Bioplast Terramineral as nutrient.
6. Co2 dosing or Non-dosing. CO2 injected with a CO2 Art Elite SE reg controlled by JBL Proflora pH Touch controller, pH set to 6.15 with a 0.1 hysteresis. Diffused using a 20" Cerges reactor. ... Some bubbles still get through to tanks, which is good as I can see flow to all parts of tank.
7. Fertilizers used & Ratios. EI Full using potassium nitrate, di potassium phosphate, and magnesium sulphate split into 14 doses over 7 days. Micros CSM+B, plus Fe EDTA
8. Water change regime and type. 50% weekly using RO water ... remineralised to 1KH and 2GH using Aqua Source GH/KH UP balancer
9. Plant list + When planted. Monte Carlo, S. Repens, lillaeopsis brazillensis, Eleocharis "mini" Dry start November 2021. Sagitaria subulata, M. mattogrossesense, E. reni, E hormanii L repens "super red" Mid January 22
10. Inhabitants. Currently 25 Bleeding Heart Tetras, 3 (was 9) Otocinclus, Amano shrimp (was 20, but who knows ), 2 King Koopa snails.
11. Full tank shot & Surface Image.
The Clean Up Crew have pretty much dealt with the normal algae, and after reading a couple of threads here, I suspect if it was the toxicity of the BGA that did for my otos . I've got a variety of forms, from the usual Blue Green, to Black, and even brown/red. I've had some success at keeping it in check using Blue Green Stain remover, but it keeps coming back. The moss on the back wall is full of black slime, the moss on the wood brown, and the montecarlo blue green, particularly on the glass. I've been lax in getting rid of the detritus, which probably doesn't help matters. To this end I've temporarily installed a SunSun HW3000 filter full of fine foam, filter woll and floss to act as a vaccum cleaner and I stir up the detritus manually. I'm also hoping it will keep the algae in check as it has a built in UV lamp so should prevent any cells in the water column from reproducing.
BG stain remover is a stop gap while I find out a real solution. Reading @jaypeecee's thread was interesting as it threw out some well known causes, and then @Dr Mike Oxgreen added some posts there which started me thinking.
1. Flow ... Its possible I have low flow in parts of the tank
2. Maintenance ... Yeah, this was a problem, but I'm hoping to have made that simple now, and at the moment it should have helped the flow problem.
3. Low/Unstable CO2 Levels ... Unlikely as it's controlled by the pH Touch controller within +- 0.1 units of the pH determined by the KH.
4. Light too much / too high ... could be, but lets leave that as set at the moment, as I am having issues with growing red plants, and really want the Myriophyllum to grow as fast as it should do.
5. Nutrients ... could be a problem as I've only really started EI in the last 4 weeks, having fallen foul of 30 year old knowledge that nitrate and phosphate are bad, so wasn't adding nutrients on a regular basis.
At my last water change the parameters were measured, using JBL test kits
Ammonia <0.05
Nitrite < 0.025
Nitrate 5
Iron 1.5
potassium 25
phosphate 2.4
These levels have been pretty much constant over the last couple of weeks, So my Nitrate is low, but it looks as though the plants are using what I'm adding which is sufficient for the plant mass currently, especially combined with that produced by the fish. One think @Dr Mike Oxgreen mentioned was that the nitrate to phosphate ratio was important, not just "low nitrate", mine is 2:1 and Mike says he has trouble with BGA if his drops below 5 to 1. As today is "Water Change Day" I'm thinking of adding 30ppm of ammonium nitrate, 4.62g (in addition to carrying on with my standard nutrient doses) This would take the NO3 to PO4 ratio up to 10 to 1, which would hopefully be maintained, if it drops quickly then that has to be an indication that I'm underdosing nitrate ... yes?
Anyone got any other suggestions or think that this is a bad idea?