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HC Cuba - not doing well

mjw1476

Member
Joined
24 Dec 2008
Messages
56
i got some HC Cuba last week thats covered about 60% of the open floor. it seemed to perk up once i put it in the tank. ive got constantly runinng pressurised co2 thats always reading green with the drop checker and 4dkh solution. im also dosing with EI salts and have 2 t5s on for 11 hrs a day. just started getting a flourish of algae which looks horrid and have introduced snails somewhere along the line which im a bit pissed about! think i need to reduce the 11hrs but is there anything im doing wrong? im currently using a fluval 205 with the outlet half way down to increase flow over the smaller plants. can anyone advise to how to rectify it or anything i can change coz really dont want to loose this as it takes ages to get and costs more than your average plant,
cheers

Matt
 
Well, if you're dosing EI then the only factors left are CO2 and flow. A green dropchecker may not be good enough for this plant. It really likes CO2 and comits Hara-Kiri if it is dissatisfied with the levels. Lowering the lighting will help.

Too many people are under the illusion that they must have megawattage to grow HC when the real difficulty with this plant is poor CO2. The more light you use the more CO2 you must pump into the system.

You can try dosing with Excel/Easycarbo to supplement the CO2.

Having said this though you should identify the algae type as it will confirm what element is missing. If it's hair algae then this corroborates poor CO2. if it's another type then we'll need more data to confirm the cause.

Cheers,
 
How deep is your tank? I struggled to grow it in deeper water (my tank is 2' deep).

I can't remember who it was, but someone put their spray bars at the back of the tank, which pushed the water to the front glass and down into the carpet - they were growing a very effective carpet in a deep tank. Doing that, made sure the carpet got adequate nutrients and CO2.
 
hellohefalump said:
How deep is your tank? I struggled to grow it in deeper water (my tank is 2' deep).

i grew hc in my rean @ 70 cm deep and the lighting another 10cm above that so 80cm+ in depth. running just 2 54w t5s. sounds like a lot but the height diminished the power.

i think like ceg suggests co2 is crucial for hc IME and quite heavy dosing.
 
thanks for the help, the tank is a juwel rio 180 so only 18" max from lights to the bottom of the tank. ive got it setup so that the outflow from the fluval 205 is halway down on the left hand side with the co2 diffuser on the right and quite low. the bubbles are flowing slanted and the java moss is getting blown all over the place in the wood behind it. is there any way to check if the flow is adequate over the carpet plant. i havent got any large plants in there, only the dwarf hairgrass at the back which has started to shoot out runners but isnt growing very high after initially loosing about an inch off the top. im getting the crusting algae on the side of the tank which the otos have a munch on but no where near keep it clear, also the java moss and the wood have developed long stringy algae that grows amazingly quickly and the wood has a very thick short fur like algae on it so im assuming there is quite an imbalance but cant quite work out what.
the two t5s are 54w and are on for around 11hrs,i only have 15 crdinals and a shoal of otos so the waste build up shouldnt be too high.
any suggestions?
cheers,

matt
 
Well 11 hours is a long photoperiod for starters. Cut it to 8 hours as you are having algae issues as it will reduce their growth.

What water change regime are you using? As soon as you get some algae or something's not looking too good my first step is to do a 50% water change and if problems persist then do them every day or two until things are under control. This will solve 90% of problems IME!

I'd also move the drop checker down to near the HC so that you can monitor the CO2 levels down there where you need it.

Have you only got the HC and hairgrass in the tank? If so you don't really have much plant mass to grow and utilise the nutrients you have in there! I'd stick some fast growing stem plants at the back to get everything going. These can then be removed once the tank stablises.
 
ive got some java moss on the sides which seems to be doing very well, growing constantly but is now covered in algae. i left the tank over the weekend in the hands of my mother for 4 days whcih was a mistake. i came back to find it covered in algae. there seems to be many types, im not brilliant at identifyong any types, dont know if theres any other threads to help with that. all the java moss is covered in long stringy algae, the wood is coated in this short furry like algae and the sides of the tank is coated in an encrusting like algae, ive got 12 otos at the mo and 20 shrimp on order to help but the otos dont do anything!i was dosing with EI salts but stopped over the weekend for 4/5 days bu the co2 has been running constantly with light green on the drop checker.

also have i set up my drop checker wrong - just used 4dkh solution and hagen ph low range, do i need to put RO water in with it?

i was reading something from clive about the spray bars, is it worth while in a rio 180 with only a fluval 205, also should i get a powerhead or a whole new filter to go alongside my current 1? if it is should i place the spray bar at the top or bottom of the tank?

cheers

Matt
 
Hi Matt,
You really need to learn to identify the algae. The type of algae tells you what the problem is. Have you checked JamesC's Algae Guide ? There is a strong possibility that flow rate and distribution patters are an issue but really, you need to identify the algae.

Cheers,
 
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