My 240L Tank

[andyniceday]

Tank specifications - 240l
Lighting - 2x54w T5 - 7 hours (with 2 hour burst of 4x54w T5 in the middle)
CO2 - Pressurised FE, 4 bps - drop checker showing correct colour yellow/green all over the tank, on 2 hours before lights, off 1 hour before lights out.
Filtration - ext filter 1000l/h, full length spray bar distributing CO2 using 3000l/h powerhead

Fertilisation routine - 500ml pre mixed bottles (pretty sure im being more than generous with the ferts?)
15 teaspoons KNO3 + 8 teaspoons KH2PO4 - Dose 60ml - Mon, Wed, Fri
9 Teaspoons traces - Dose 60ml - Tue Thurs

Ive just re-done this tank after messing around learning about high-tech tanks for around a year or so.
So everything was already cycled etc, the substrate is the existing one which is black unipac sand with unipac fine gravel over the top.

It has been running for a couple of weeks now, and although im getting decent growth and everything is pearling quite nicely, there are a couple of issues!

Im not quite sure what kind of algae this is but its appearing all over the tank. On the wood and really badly in clumps on the gravel. Even in areas of especially fast water movement.

The Limnophila Aromatica is shooting up quite fast, but hopefully you can see from the pictures that all the leaves within a couple of inches of the gravel have gone brown.

There is also some kind of film on the water surface which was impossible to photograph.

Im starting to think that the substrate might be going all rank underneath with it being 12-18 months old and has seen a load of mess due to my learning curve! that could be causing a constant leech of ammonia? Im at a bit of a loss as something is obviously fairly wrong here. My co2 distribution seems ok, everything is moving around with a rated 4000l/h of flow, i think my ferts are ok?

Would definately appreciate some pointers!

 

[Radik]

I am not sure but seems pretty heavy fert dozing for very tiny few plants. Also 4x54W heavy light for 2 hours what for? Again few plants. Effectively you are growing algae and not plants.

I think you have to find balance between ferts and light to amount of plants you currently have. Either you get more plants if budget allows or then balance it out.

 

[ceg4048]

Hi,
As mentioned, there is too much light at this stage. The white material is fungus which can be easily wiped off. You also have GSA on the glass which is either poor PO4 or Poor CO2 or poor flow. Your PO4 dosing seems pretty good, so it's either CO2 or flow. If you've eliminated flow as an issue then it must be CO2.

It's hard to tell from the photos whether the browning of the leaves is diatomic algae or GSA. If it wipes off easily then it's diatoms which is directly related to light intensity. If it doesn't wipe off easily then it's the same GSA as you see on the glass.

I can't tell on that gravel shot whether that's Rhizo, or Clado, but again, if the nutrient dosing is high and you're sure that the flow is good then it can only be CO2. Turning down the intensity will help fix this, and you might want to see if an injection rate increase is possible without harming the fish.

Cheers,

 

[andyniceday]

Thanks for your replies.

I am starting with a fresh substrate in a couple of days to freshen it up. I will reduce lighting to 2x54w for 6 hours only. I am getting rid of the fish for now so will up the co2 so the drop checker is a good yellow. Also the plant mass will be around double what i currently have.

Will see how i get on!

 

[andyniceday]

So i put fresh gravel in, banging loads of c02 in so the drop checker is permanently yellow, reduced lighting to 6 hours of 2x54W T5 and added some more plants. everything is growing quite nicely, no algae at all really. BUT once again i have this fungus problem! Its on the wood and the plants but brushes off quite easily, hopefully the pics will show it. Whats causing this fungus?