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My first ever aquarium. Juwel Rio 180l

Happy Easter everyone. Hope you and yours are having a relaxing weekend.

Just thought I would update my journal after a few weeks of observation.

Ok I have issues. ;):)


Approximately 50% of my carpet of Eleocharis sp. 'mini' has a dark green short hairy algae growing on it. I am wondering if I should ditch this and pull it up? The carpet of Hemianthus callitrichoides appears to be unaffected.

I am also seeing the same on the edges on of my Cryptocornyne and on the edges of Microsorum.

Now, I am assuming it is down to not enough CO2. I have this internal conflict which my LFS said they do 1 bubble every 3 seconds. However I don't believe that to be correct in my tank as at that rate I dont see much pearling. My double DC shows green blue at that rate. I believe it to be more inline with 1-2bps and having the DDC at a green/yellow.

So my plan of action is:-
  1. Increase the frequency of water changes to 2 times a week (1 x 50% and 1 x 30-40%)
  2. Increase the CO2 to be 2bps
  3. Keep the EI dosing going as per normal.
  4. Reduce the photo period from 6-4hrs
  5. Trim back some of the larger leaves of the Microsorum
And watch what happens.

Why the Algae?
What has caused the issues I hear you ask? A combo of things I guessing.

Clearly from reading the posts and advice on this forum, algae is mostly linked to variable CO2, light and flow.

Flow
In my tank I am not sure about flow as the problem has taken 9 months to manifest from tank inception so if flow was an issue I would expect to have seen it earlier. Ok yes I am using the standard Juwel kit filter with an outlet and no spray bar etc.

Light
Occasionally the lights have come on without CO2 when people have been viewing the house (house move), or I have not turned the CO2 on before lights on.

Also I have had a few weeks where the water change has slipped to day 8-9

I will post a picture once lights come on later this evening.

R
 
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Photos of algae.

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Looks like the problem that i used to occasionally get in my Rio, reminds me of staghorn.
TBH the jewel outlet's aren't great at getting flow down to the substrate.
My other problem was that i got a lax with the filter maintenance, how often do you clean it out?
Not sure i've been much help, but at least the thread got bumped
 
RolyMo, this is absolutely one of the best journals I have ever red. I just wish every-single-starting hobbyist would read this! You have done that what too many are afraid to do: ask help when having something weird or problematic going on. You have got plenty of awesome information and all of us could have seen how things change and how the tank progress from day to day achieving its balance. Sometimes by trial and error, but thats how we learn thou sometimes it IS frustrating. Good luck with your beautiful tank, greetings to your daughters (we have four kids aged 6-15 and they just love all kind of tanks and fish!) and keep going stong, mate! Oh, and thank you for sharing this, keep us updated!
 
Thanks Ravenswing. Although not in same league as the pro aquascapers on the forum, their journals serve as an inspiration for me. To learn the art of equilibrium in the tank and then put my mind to designing a proper aquascape.
At this point I am following the advice of Clive and using my eyes and no test kits to try and understand what is going on in the tank.
Thanks for the greetings for the daughters, they like the fish, but have lost the initial interest of feeding them regularly. That might have been something to do with me disallowing them to put "Glow in the dark" shells in the tank. But they still like to stare at the fish, look for the shrimp and count the snails. They also thoroughly enjoy the LFS, and seeing all the funnily looking fish. Problem is they keep wanting the marine fish, and have set expectations of 2 years before I get that!

Best of luck.
R
 
Weekly might not be needed.
For me, it's about keeping down the amount of organic waste that can accumulate.
 
Half term for the girls and I had the day off. Decided that we would take a trip to the LFS to look at a replacement guppy for daughter #1 who's white and yellow one died. Of course daughter #2 did not want to be left out and wanted a guppy.

Was very amusing to see the assistant trying his best to get the exact fish that both daughters had identified that they must have and had already named.

I also managed to walk out with a couple of normal Rams. Not a fish I would have shot for. But the assistant said they would be fine in my largely docile planted tank. Got 1 female and 1 male.

Did the usual 1hr acclimatisation and left lights off for a couple of hours.

They seemed to all be fine.
Pleased so far.
R


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By way of an update. I am still in the battle against the "Dark Green Algae".
I have up'd the CO2 bubble count and to rule out any CO2 inconsistency I just leave the CO2 on 24hrs.
I have slightly angled the outlet from the built in filter down instead of up, but still to create a slight movement on the surface.
I have trimmed some of the affected leaves and trimmed down some of the non affect leaves as part of the weekly routine.
I have cleaned the insides of the filter, the outlet pipe and the plastic cage thing that holds the filter sponge.
I have switched chlorinators from Tetra Aquasafe to Seachem Prime and replaced the old Seachem Purigen (just incase the Tetra Aquasafe had rendered the Purigen useless, there is another posting about coating of chlorinators affecting Purigen) with new Purigen.
Lights are on from 18:00 to 22:00.
EI Dosing

I have just started to up the frequency of water changes to two a week. 1x 80% water change and 1x 30-40%.

On last nights 80% water change I decided to remove the Microsorum on the bogwood to easily trim the affected leaves and low and behold I noticed underneath a large area of (i'm guessing) waste, which had built up. Could this be contributing to water quality and thus algae issues.

After removing the bogwood a shrimp of which I thought I had lost all of made itself appear. Most surprised. 1 lonely Armano shrimp.
So I hoovered up all the waste and thoroughly shook the other plants and hoovered up any other waste.
I will report back with any news if the algae abates.
R
 
Hi Rolymo,
This is a CO2 problem because I can see in the second photo that you're getting translucency in the leaves as well as the BBA (or what appears to be BBA although it could be staghorn).

If you are at the limit of your gas injection rate then you'll have to think about adding daily liquid carbon to supplement, but you need to remove the algae that is there.

Cheers,
 
Touching wood. I appear to be battling against the Algae.

Having removed some of the leaves with the algae on, given the grass a trim, and 1 x 50%+ and 1 x <50% water changes per week and a slight increase in CO2 appears to be making a difference.

Also making the switch to the Seachem Prime appears to make sure that the Seachem Purigen is working better than when using the Tetra Aquasafe, although how much is down to mentally telling myself that versus what I have seen over the past 3 weeks I am not sure.

I feel like I am coming out the other side of an interesting lesson in keeping all aspects of the water column is good condition. Although it is still nerve racking by not using any measurements when most people around are using measuring tools etc.

I did loose an Otto last week, but no other fish appear to be suffering so assuming it was bad luck on that particular Otto.
 
Sounds good RolyMo, pleased your winning :)
 
Thanks Ady34
Went to a new LFS, ok not so local, a good 25 miles away in Romsey. Big centre, but lots of their tanks seemed to be suffering from a few algae problems.

Anyway bought some Algae wafers for the shrimp and Ottos. Popped one in this evening and all the fish went nuts for it. For 1.5 hours it was a feeding frenzy.

Thought the tablets would only be appetising for the shrimp and ottos. But oh no.
R


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I had an interesting day today.
I decided that with a recent pre-loaded credit card which I won in a quiz (nothing much $40) I would go to the lfs of any standard near me (still a 25min drive) and buy some new plants and replace some of the scraggy ones where the leaves were eaten and they had white tendrils trailing down from the stems.

In the end I thought I would try my hand at some advanced plants, and managed to get some Rotala Wallichii and some Rotala macrandra, both from the Tropica with range the latter in a 1-2-Grow pot.

Interestingly in a discussion with the LFS I explained that all had been going well for 6 months and then I appeared to get the dark green algae in the pictures above, and put it down to a mix of flow, fluctuating CO2. Explained that I thought the flow seemed ok CO2 was now stabilising and that I was doing was doing regular water changes. 50% and 20% every week.

The suggestion from the LFS was perhaps the nitrate levels were spiking can causing the dark green algae and that the water changes should only be 25%/week. Explained that I was doing my mix my own ferts, which they immediately thought was potential risk as if there was nitrate in mix that could have triggered algae

Their other suggestion was to potentially switch to RO water to help reduce the issues with nitrate etc. Which I have been interested in looking at due to the hard water in the Portsmouth area. But I could not quite get my head around the £3/week price tag of getting 25ltrs of RO water.

Anyway, bottom line I respect this particular lfs, they stock some lovely fish and have some great tanks and stock some of the nicer brands ADA etc. But it seems to go against what I was learning on this forum.

Very confused. So I pacified myself by planting the new plants tonight and will ponder the science of actually having Potassium Nitrate in my Macro EI solution versus the TPN+.
R
 
Before anyone comments, I have made a judgement call on the ferts I will continue the EI doing regime despite LFS saying NO3 and PO4 will trigger algae. I have just re read the algae article and am happy that it is proven not to trigger algae.

R


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