Bertie
Member
- Joined
- 18 Apr 2013
- Messages
- 489
I know, and I am sorry, but I am determined to solve my Algae Problem. Which I think is either a form of GSA or brown Diatom, although I am leaning more and more to Diatom, as I can wipe it from the couple of rocks affected with my thumb/fingers. The leaves however do rub off but not easily, and me being a clumsy bugger, I easily damage the leaves, so it is easier to trim them in the first place. Incidentally, I get very little algae on the glass.
This is all the information that I can remember and sorry if it ends up being a long post.
I have a Rio 180L tank with 2 x 45w T5 tubes.
I had a major change in July of this year starting with a clean out and adding 4 Bags of Eco Complete.
I have 3 NuWave circ pumps and a full length spraybar along the back wall and initially an Eheim Pro 3 250 Filter and the pumps were running nearly full blast. I was adding a standard recipe EI dose to which I doubled the PO4, which according to the calculator on James Planted Tank equates to 4.09 ppm of phosphate. I also added 3ml daily of Liquid Carbon.
I changed the Filter for an APS 2000 on the 10th October (to which I added the media from my Eheim) and I had to change from a UP Inline Atomizer, as the hose size on the APS was too large (although I did try,and failed to make a bypass). So I changed to two 65mm Bazooka diffusers (which do emit really small bubbles).
I was able to turn the three Circualtion pumps down to 800lph each. The flow and distribution does look really good and every single plant has good movement and the bubbles do go down the front glass and towards the back and up and around again.
At this time I re-blocked one of my T5 tubes by the reversing of a reflector and lights on for 6 hrs per day.
I then did a 3 day tank blackout, ending on the 24th October, which did not appear to do very much.
After the tank blackout I started dosing 9ml of liquid carbon daily.
I have high alkalinity in our mains water and with the addition of CO2 from an FE my ph is dropping by .6 to .7 by lights on and stays stable at that. The CO2 comes on 2 1/2 hrs before lights on and goes off 1 hr before lights off.
Now since the tank blackout the algae/diatoms have got worse again.
If this IS Diatoms am I just best to leave it takes its course or is there something else that I can do.
I seem to have spent a large amount of money and a great amount of time trying to solve this problem and as my wife points out, the idea of getting an Aquarium(and the reason she allowed me to have one) was to take some stress out of my life, and have a relaxing hobby
But, as she has pointed out to me, that in the year I have had the tank I have been more stressed than ever and I am certainly not relaxed.
I fervently hope that I can solve this but if not, this is possibly my last word on the subject.
This is all the information that I can remember and sorry if it ends up being a long post.
I have a Rio 180L tank with 2 x 45w T5 tubes.
I had a major change in July of this year starting with a clean out and adding 4 Bags of Eco Complete.
I have 3 NuWave circ pumps and a full length spraybar along the back wall and initially an Eheim Pro 3 250 Filter and the pumps were running nearly full blast. I was adding a standard recipe EI dose to which I doubled the PO4, which according to the calculator on James Planted Tank equates to 4.09 ppm of phosphate. I also added 3ml daily of Liquid Carbon.
I changed the Filter for an APS 2000 on the 10th October (to which I added the media from my Eheim) and I had to change from a UP Inline Atomizer, as the hose size on the APS was too large (although I did try,and failed to make a bypass). So I changed to two 65mm Bazooka diffusers (which do emit really small bubbles).
I was able to turn the three Circualtion pumps down to 800lph each. The flow and distribution does look really good and every single plant has good movement and the bubbles do go down the front glass and towards the back and up and around again.
At this time I re-blocked one of my T5 tubes by the reversing of a reflector and lights on for 6 hrs per day.
I then did a 3 day tank blackout, ending on the 24th October, which did not appear to do very much.
After the tank blackout I started dosing 9ml of liquid carbon daily.
I have high alkalinity in our mains water and with the addition of CO2 from an FE my ph is dropping by .6 to .7 by lights on and stays stable at that. The CO2 comes on 2 1/2 hrs before lights on and goes off 1 hr before lights off.
Now since the tank blackout the algae/diatoms have got worse again.
If this IS Diatoms am I just best to leave it takes its course or is there something else that I can do.
I seem to have spent a large amount of money and a great amount of time trying to solve this problem and as my wife points out, the idea of getting an Aquarium(and the reason she allowed me to have one) was to take some stress out of my life, and have a relaxing hobby
But, as she has pointed out to me, that in the year I have had the tank I have been more stressed than ever and I am certainly not relaxed.I fervently hope that I can solve this but if not, this is possibly my last word on the subject.
