I have a 200l well planted tank which has (or had) had been running pretty well for a year or so now. Substrate is Akadama with JBL Aquabasis Plus below. Pressurised CO2 and EI dosing. Filtration 10x (rated) plus 2 Koralis. Lighting is about 1.8 wpg. Filters cleaned regularly, substrate vacuumed weekly etc. along with 50% water change
The problems seem to have started following a quite large rescape which disturbed the JBL Aquabasis somewhat and I got a lot of rhizo. I did 50-80% water changes twice a week for a few weeks and also did a 4 day blackout. The rhizo seems to have almost gone but I now seem to have more serious problems. Even with weekly vacuuming I have what I can only describe as a brown dust/layer growing/appearing on top of the substrate and also the substrate I can see at the front seems to be going black below surface level. My water is also not crystal clear as it normally is and there is a slight brown "dust like" covering on the water surface, not really scum, more dust like.
This has all happened very rapidly, not gradually and even with meticulous and regular cleaning is gradually getting worse. Fish don't seem to be affected , my amanos are fine also. My plants show new "clean" growth at top, but below that seem to be very much covered in what looks like brown algae, but not convinced it is in fact brown algae.
Not sure what to try now, perhaps will need to completely strip down and start again?? - Any ideas please? Not sure how to post a photo but have tried? The first photo shows the black below substrate and the second pic shows the brown "stuff" spreading rapidly on top of substrate. I know it looks a complete mess and it annoys me so much, its normally spotlessly clean with plants growing well!! In fact I've been removing and throwing away the more delicate plants as I cant keep them clean. http://imageshack.us/f/88/p1000178po.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/600/p1000179m.jpg/
The problems seem to have started following a quite large rescape which disturbed the JBL Aquabasis somewhat and I got a lot of rhizo. I did 50-80% water changes twice a week for a few weeks and also did a 4 day blackout. The rhizo seems to have almost gone but I now seem to have more serious problems. Even with weekly vacuuming I have what I can only describe as a brown dust/layer growing/appearing on top of the substrate and also the substrate I can see at the front seems to be going black below surface level. My water is also not crystal clear as it normally is and there is a slight brown "dust like" covering on the water surface, not really scum, more dust like.
This has all happened very rapidly, not gradually and even with meticulous and regular cleaning is gradually getting worse. Fish don't seem to be affected , my amanos are fine also. My plants show new "clean" growth at top, but below that seem to be very much covered in what looks like brown algae, but not convinced it is in fact brown algae.
Not sure what to try now, perhaps will need to completely strip down and start again?? - Any ideas please? Not sure how to post a photo but have tried? The first photo shows the black below substrate and the second pic shows the brown "stuff" spreading rapidly on top of substrate. I know it looks a complete mess and it annoys me so much, its normally spotlessly clean with plants growing well!! In fact I've been removing and throwing away the more delicate plants as I cant keep them clean. http://imageshack.us/f/88/p1000178po.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/600/p1000179m.jpg/