NeilW
Member
My beautifully laid plans are all going to pot
Over the past fews months I have been desperately wrestling with staghorn, BGA and surface scum in my poor battered nano. After valiantly fighting off the algae with copious dosing I am still left with the surface scum, but finally the penny has dropped ... all of these problems have circulation/flow/distribution at their heart.
Recently I have been heavily dosing EasyCarbo which has helped alleviate the situation by directly killing algae, but without proper circulation this has only worked as a controlling measure rather then a fix. My original intention was also to run without a carbon source which I know can be done, so in an ideal world I would like to stop altogether
My filter is well up to the job (rated at 500lph in a 17 litre tank) so the finger of blame for the lack in distribution is pointed squarely at the beast of a rock that is the focus of my 'scape and dominates the tank. I could put it all down to some bad rock placement/rock choice and rip the whole lot out and start again, but I really like the tank as it is and would like to find a way of fixing my problems and learning in the process. I think there must be a way round it as Amano makes use of big rocks in his NA gallery nanos too.
Which leaves my only option to fix the flow with either a new placement of the inflow/outflow, a new better design of inflow lily pipe, add a strategically placed spraybar, or other ingenious solution.
This is my current setup where the water comes in from the lily at the back, hits the front glass and then is returned to the filter on the left (Sorry I labelled the outflow as 'in' - its too late at night, I'm sure you get the idea )
-As you can see this leaves a big dead spot behind the big rock where there is no flow, so no even distribution of nutrients etc etc.
Ideally I would like to make the gear that I've got to work properly, so any direction in better placement would be greatly appreciated. I want to preserve the clean look of the equipment in the tank (or lack of it) but if I run out of options I was thinking I could try and DIY a clear acrylic spray bar to stick to the right wall of the tank? Another option was to split the outflow into two lily pipes, or is this a crazy idea?
Any suggestions appreciated, I'm completely open to ideas.
Over the past fews months I have been desperately wrestling with staghorn, BGA and surface scum in my poor battered nano. After valiantly fighting off the algae with copious dosing I am still left with the surface scum, but finally the penny has dropped ... all of these problems have circulation/flow/distribution at their heart.
Recently I have been heavily dosing EasyCarbo which has helped alleviate the situation by directly killing algae, but without proper circulation this has only worked as a controlling measure rather then a fix. My original intention was also to run without a carbon source which I know can be done, so in an ideal world I would like to stop altogether
My filter is well up to the job (rated at 500lph in a 17 litre tank) so the finger of blame for the lack in distribution is pointed squarely at the beast of a rock that is the focus of my 'scape and dominates the tank. I could put it all down to some bad rock placement/rock choice and rip the whole lot out and start again, but I really like the tank as it is and would like to find a way of fixing my problems and learning in the process. I think there must be a way round it as Amano makes use of big rocks in his NA gallery nanos too.
Which leaves my only option to fix the flow with either a new placement of the inflow/outflow, a new better design of inflow lily pipe, add a strategically placed spraybar, or other ingenious solution.
This is my current setup where the water comes in from the lily at the back, hits the front glass and then is returned to the filter on the left (Sorry I labelled the outflow as 'in' - its too late at night, I'm sure you get the idea )
-As you can see this leaves a big dead spot behind the big rock where there is no flow, so no even distribution of nutrients etc etc.
Ideally I would like to make the gear that I've got to work properly, so any direction in better placement would be greatly appreciated. I want to preserve the clean look of the equipment in the tank (or lack of it) but if I run out of options I was thinking I could try and DIY a clear acrylic spray bar to stick to the right wall of the tank? Another option was to split the outflow into two lily pipes, or is this a crazy idea?
Any suggestions appreciated, I'm completely open to ideas.