Fisher2007
Member
Hi All
Looking for a bit of advice on how to eradicate staghorn algae from my new tank, as it's starting to take hold and I'm getting a bit worried it is going to take over
So - the basics/background;
- Tanks is approx. 8 weeks old now - see link to thread I set up originally https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/first-proper-scape.58843/
- Tank itself was custom built and is braceless, optiwhite,1450mm long by 450mm tall by 420mm wide - approx. 220 litres
- Tank has 2 x glass cover lids (I don't want the evaporation issues I've had with prior tanks). The lids are 4mm glass and are not tight fitting. A gap of approx 5mm all the way round plus a big cut out (triangle 100mm x 100mm) in the back corners for the inlets/outlets) and slightly small at the front for feeding
- Filteration = 2 x Oase Biomaster 350 Thermo's. Filter media in each is the standard prefilters (washed weekly in tap water), one coarse blue sponge, one orange sponge, a small bag of Eheim matrix (tennis ball size) and 100 grams purigen. Sponges cleaned in tank water every 2-3 weeks. Purigen changed/recharged once since the tank was set up. Eheim matrix was from my prior tank which had been running for over 4 years with no signs of staghorn, ever, so was mature. If the Oase site is right each filter is 1100 lph, so circa 10 x turnover although I appreciate the flow will be reduced some by media and head height
- Heating - via the above set at 22-23 degrees (which I'm confident is correct as I have 2 x thermometers of difference makes)
- Glass lily pipes either end (one set for each filter). One of the outtakes (back to the filter) has a surface skimmer. One lily pipe points towards the front centre of the tank and the other to the front rear of the tank, to create a circular flow
- CO2 is via a fire extinguisher and CO2 pro SE regulator and bubble counter along with an inline diffuser. Bubble rate is too fast for me to count. Drop checker is definitely green before the lights are on, as CO2 comes on 2 hours before the lights and then off 1 hour before lights go off
- Lighting is a Twinstar 1200 which is now set at 100%. On full power from 4pm to 10pm (6 hours) and either side 45 minutes of ramp up/down from 0%. The light I started at 5 hours and 50% (with same ramp either side) and have increased intensity by 10% per week (roughly) since the tank was started
- Aquascape is approx. 30kgs of dark mini landscape rock from Aquarium Gardens along with 1 and a half bags of probidio soil. Outside of that there is just some ADA sand and some cosmetic slate chips
- Plants - tank was heavily planted from the start (wet start) all plants were from Aquarium Gardens - if I remember right there is buce (red and green), anubias, trident fern, narrow leaf java, limnophilia, ludwigia, rotala green, rotala orange juice, numerous varieties of crypts and Christmas moss. In the last few days I've also added some hydrocotyle japan to try and get something in there which is growing quick to combat algae. Ludwigia and rotalal I've trimmed a couple of times as stems hit the surface
- Twinstar Yotta+ - recently added following advice from Aquarium Gardens to try and help re the algae and the oxygenation levels in the tank (not that I noticed any problems as such). This has been running about a week
- Stocking is 40 espei rasbora (tiny young ones), 12 CPD's, 15 blue eye yellow tail rainbows, 30 amano shrimp, 30-40 cherry shrimp, 10 nerite snails and 8 otos. Amano's and nerites were added after 2 weeks, cherries in two batches at weeks 3 and 4, 20 espei's initially at week 5 and the remaining fish week 6/7. Feeding is pretty light. I'm using mainly pellets stuck to the glass at the moment (whole one, one day and half the next). Shrimp/otos are getting a slice of courgette once a week
- Water changes I've been religious with, as per instructions from Aquarium Gardens. 50% every other day first 2 weeks, 50% every 3 days third week, 50% every 4 days week four and then moved to weekly water changes since (50% each time)
- Dosing - TNC carbon 5ml per day and TNC complete 20ml per day (both without fail). Seachem prime is used for water changes
- Algae outside of the staghorn is minimal. I had some diatoms for the first couple of weeks but the amano's and nerite's took care of that. I'm barely needing to even clean the glass. Staghorn started to show itself about 2-3 weeks ago, and I manually removed it. Since then it's been getting worse and I've been spot dosing with the TNC carbon each day over the last week (not dosing any more just the same amount as I'd dose daily as per the above but directed at the algae). Spot dosing is working a bit but the algae isn't dying as quick as I'd thought or hoped - do I need to use Seachem Flourish instead? The staghorn started on the trident fern but is now starting to pop up all over the place
- Testing - I'm going to be honest and say I've done none at all. Tests kits are notoriously inaccurate and given I've kept fish for years I didn't feel the need. I've also read on here many don't test or even recommend it
Think that's all, other than to say I'm not new to fish keeping but am new to true planted aquariums and the use of CO2 in planted aquariums. I've kept fish for 30 years (tropicals, coldwater, ponds and until a few years ago marines for about 10 years (culminating in a 1000 litre SPS reef system)). Last 4-5 years have been two low tech basic planted systems for ease
If anyone could offer any advice, tips, what to do, I'd really appreciate it. Some pics attached taken post a water change yesterday evening (so some of the bubbles on the plants you can see is as a result of that, rather than pearling). Which reminds me, I'm yet to see true pearling, like I see in other tanks - maybe an indication of something? I do get some though
Cheers
Looking for a bit of advice on how to eradicate staghorn algae from my new tank, as it's starting to take hold and I'm getting a bit worried it is going to take over
So - the basics/background;
- Tanks is approx. 8 weeks old now - see link to thread I set up originally https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/first-proper-scape.58843/
- Tank itself was custom built and is braceless, optiwhite,1450mm long by 450mm tall by 420mm wide - approx. 220 litres
- Tank has 2 x glass cover lids (I don't want the evaporation issues I've had with prior tanks). The lids are 4mm glass and are not tight fitting. A gap of approx 5mm all the way round plus a big cut out (triangle 100mm x 100mm) in the back corners for the inlets/outlets) and slightly small at the front for feeding
- Filteration = 2 x Oase Biomaster 350 Thermo's. Filter media in each is the standard prefilters (washed weekly in tap water), one coarse blue sponge, one orange sponge, a small bag of Eheim matrix (tennis ball size) and 100 grams purigen. Sponges cleaned in tank water every 2-3 weeks. Purigen changed/recharged once since the tank was set up. Eheim matrix was from my prior tank which had been running for over 4 years with no signs of staghorn, ever, so was mature. If the Oase site is right each filter is 1100 lph, so circa 10 x turnover although I appreciate the flow will be reduced some by media and head height
- Heating - via the above set at 22-23 degrees (which I'm confident is correct as I have 2 x thermometers of difference makes)
- Glass lily pipes either end (one set for each filter). One of the outtakes (back to the filter) has a surface skimmer. One lily pipe points towards the front centre of the tank and the other to the front rear of the tank, to create a circular flow
- CO2 is via a fire extinguisher and CO2 pro SE regulator and bubble counter along with an inline diffuser. Bubble rate is too fast for me to count. Drop checker is definitely green before the lights are on, as CO2 comes on 2 hours before the lights and then off 1 hour before lights go off
- Lighting is a Twinstar 1200 which is now set at 100%. On full power from 4pm to 10pm (6 hours) and either side 45 minutes of ramp up/down from 0%. The light I started at 5 hours and 50% (with same ramp either side) and have increased intensity by 10% per week (roughly) since the tank was started
- Aquascape is approx. 30kgs of dark mini landscape rock from Aquarium Gardens along with 1 and a half bags of probidio soil. Outside of that there is just some ADA sand and some cosmetic slate chips
- Plants - tank was heavily planted from the start (wet start) all plants were from Aquarium Gardens - if I remember right there is buce (red and green), anubias, trident fern, narrow leaf java, limnophilia, ludwigia, rotala green, rotala orange juice, numerous varieties of crypts and Christmas moss. In the last few days I've also added some hydrocotyle japan to try and get something in there which is growing quick to combat algae. Ludwigia and rotalal I've trimmed a couple of times as stems hit the surface
- Twinstar Yotta+ - recently added following advice from Aquarium Gardens to try and help re the algae and the oxygenation levels in the tank (not that I noticed any problems as such). This has been running about a week
- Stocking is 40 espei rasbora (tiny young ones), 12 CPD's, 15 blue eye yellow tail rainbows, 30 amano shrimp, 30-40 cherry shrimp, 10 nerite snails and 8 otos. Amano's and nerites were added after 2 weeks, cherries in two batches at weeks 3 and 4, 20 espei's initially at week 5 and the remaining fish week 6/7. Feeding is pretty light. I'm using mainly pellets stuck to the glass at the moment (whole one, one day and half the next). Shrimp/otos are getting a slice of courgette once a week
- Water changes I've been religious with, as per instructions from Aquarium Gardens. 50% every other day first 2 weeks, 50% every 3 days third week, 50% every 4 days week four and then moved to weekly water changes since (50% each time)
- Dosing - TNC carbon 5ml per day and TNC complete 20ml per day (both without fail). Seachem prime is used for water changes
- Algae outside of the staghorn is minimal. I had some diatoms for the first couple of weeks but the amano's and nerite's took care of that. I'm barely needing to even clean the glass. Staghorn started to show itself about 2-3 weeks ago, and I manually removed it. Since then it's been getting worse and I've been spot dosing with the TNC carbon each day over the last week (not dosing any more just the same amount as I'd dose daily as per the above but directed at the algae). Spot dosing is working a bit but the algae isn't dying as quick as I'd thought or hoped - do I need to use Seachem Flourish instead? The staghorn started on the trident fern but is now starting to pop up all over the place
- Testing - I'm going to be honest and say I've done none at all. Tests kits are notoriously inaccurate and given I've kept fish for years I didn't feel the need. I've also read on here many don't test or even recommend it
Think that's all, other than to say I'm not new to fish keeping but am new to true planted aquariums and the use of CO2 in planted aquariums. I've kept fish for 30 years (tropicals, coldwater, ponds and until a few years ago marines for about 10 years (culminating in a 1000 litre SPS reef system)). Last 4-5 years have been two low tech basic planted systems for ease
If anyone could offer any advice, tips, what to do, I'd really appreciate it. Some pics attached taken post a water change yesterday evening (so some of the bubbles on the plants you can see is as a result of that, rather than pearling). Which reminds me, I'm yet to see true pearling, like I see in other tanks - maybe an indication of something? I do get some though
Cheers
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