• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Struggling despite easy plants and flooding with co2

Sdogg

Member
Joined
16 Jan 2021
Messages
41
Location
Hampshire
Hi everyone

I would like some feedback or reassurance regarding my setup. I'm starting to get algae and what I consider to be poor growth, despite using all easy category plants, low lighting and what I consider to be excessive amounts of co2.
PXL_20210116_164118093.jpg

Setup -
Juwel Rio 125
Stock 22w LEDs. 6 hours duration. To me this is low light
Internal pump upgraded to 1000lph
Biohome filter media
Fluval co2 diffuser placed inside filter, co2 art system, 40psi, 4ish bubbles per sec. Start 4 hours before lights on, end 2 hours before lights off. Bubble counter is difficult to read, looks greenish at lights on, fish seem fine.
Aquasoil powder, 8ml (4 pumps) TNC complete daily
70%ish water change, filter sponges cleaned, glass scraped etc etc weekly
10 rasboras, 13 tetras, 2 snails, 10ish cherry shrimp

Tank has been going for about 2 months now, I used to have slow growing crypts with a co2 flipper ladder but nothing was happening so I changed it to the current setup about 2 weeks ago.

Siamensis 53b, loebelia cardinalis, s repens and especially lilaeopsis brasiliensis are developing brown algae. The lilaeopsis especially looks like it just coated in a brown film

Am I doing the right thing by having all this co2? The levels feel excessive to me, as you can see by the all the bubbles, and with it starting 4 hours before lights on. My personal preference is a clear tank (I hate mist) but I've made the sacrifice to try and get growth that at least resembles what the YouTubers seem to get when they effortlessly throw a tank together and it just grows.

If I'm struggling with all this co2 how on earth do you make a non co2 tank lol?

Cheers guys
 
I'd say you are probably getting diatoms in what is basically a new set up. That's pretty normal. The plant health looks fairly good.

I'd expect it to take about 6 weeks for the tank to establish and settle, providing nothing goes off track.

Your routine looks ok to me. You are dosing 4.5 times the suggested dose of TNC I think. Is that deliberate?
 
I don't know much but your growth looks pretty good to me. There are some yellow leaves on your staurogyne by the look of things, no doubt someone clever will come and tell you why.

I could be talking out of my bum but it sounds like you're putting a tonne of fertiliser in there (doesn't it say 1ml per 10l for week for low tech and then something about double that for high? I.e. 25ml a week vs your 56) so my thinking is low light + high CO2 + high nutrients means there's excess that the plants can't use due to lack of light so algae comes along to help eat all the goodness.
 
Hi, nice looking tank 😃

yes looks like diatom algae, rub it off at water change time.

id suggest turning the outlet upwards a bit, maybe 45 degrees, get a nice surface ripple to add oxygen. Do they do a spray bar for the Juwel filter? If so that may be worth getting. I’ve found diatoms hate oxygen rich water. Either that or your filter will love it and help get rid of the algae.

drop checker looks a bit dark and plants in foreground look like they are growing without co2, either that or getting used to being underwater. Won’t know for another month or 2,

floating plants will help with dapple the light.

22-23 degrees temp.

Shrimp will help massively, amanos and cherries.

carpet looks a little thin. You could always add more (but this is just a comment).

Cheers


S.
 
Thanks for the fast replies everyone.

I will re-assess my fert dosage, perhaps I'll halve it. I was under the impression dosing more than the plants need wasn't a bad thing though ie. Luxury uptake?

I pointed the outlet downward to minimise degassing of co2 since I was having trouble getting a green drop checker.

The lilaeopsis are from various sources, some 1-2 grow, some from different batches of pots, hence the uneven look. Obviously still adapting.

Again thanks for the feedback, it put me at ease a bit, I'm sure I'll get used to the bubbles, I'll just stick it out with the co2....

👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
 
I will re-assess my fert dosage, perhaps I'll halve it. I was under the impression dosing more than the plants need wasn't a bad thing though ie. Luxury uptake?

Wee bit of a fraught topic. For me, when a tank is starting out I dont dose as heavily. Once everything is growing I up the dosage.

There are a range of views on this though.
 
If you don’t like the bubbles, get an inline CO2 atomizer and that should make them much smaller than a diffuser and more efficient.
I'm using the stock Juwel internal filter with a diffuser inside the biomedia compartment. That's as close to an in-line I can get with my current setup 😁
 
UPDATE - 1 week later

So, I halved the fert dose to 2 pumps daily. Tuned the co2 to get as close to light green as possible in the 4 hours before lights on.

Well the tank still has lots of brown in it. I don't expect the diatoms to go away overnight, I am being patient but a new issue has appeared.

Most of the S repens are losing leaves.
PXL_20210123_150805954.jpg

If I look hard, there does appear to be new shoots appearing (maybe) at the nodes where leaves have been lost. Is it adapting? Should I be worried?

When I get home from work, the filter inlet is partially blocked by all the shed leaves.

Thanks everyone
 
Last edited:
Back
Top