reefaddict
New Member
Tank: ADA 45P, 38 litres
Age: 9 months
Filtration; Dennerle Scaper’s flow, 360 l/h filled with Seachem matrix; EHEIM surface skimmer for additional flow and to remove surface scum.
Lighting: Chihiros WRGB2 @ 50% for 8 hours, gives a PAR reading of 100 micromoles on the carpet
Substrate: ADA Amazonia light
CO2: pressurized, kept stable at around 30 mg/L during lighting period
Ferts: I dose daily for a weekly total of 14,5 ppm NO3-, 1,46 ppm PO4- and 6,11 ppm K+; I dose micros accordingly; this regime keeps pretty stable levels of around 4 ppm NO3-, 0,5 ppm of PO4- and 5 ppm of K+. Mg is kept stable at 10 ppm.
WC: 50% weekly with remineralized RO water keeping same stable conductivity of around 300 microS in the tank
Plants: from day 1: Myriophyllum mattogrossense, Anubias barteri "nana", Hygrophila pinnatifida, Bolbitis heudelotii, Hemianthus callitrichoides “Cuba”, Althernathera reineckii “mini”, Hydrocotyle tripartita “Japan”, Rotala wallichii, Staurogyne repens, Murdannia keisak.
Inhabitants: 7 Danio margaritatus, 1 Otocinclus, 2-3 Amano shrimps.
Water parameters: temp. 24°C, GH 7, KH 4, pH ranging from 7 early morning to 6,6 during daylight.
I’m struggling with staghorn algae since Christmas. They grow on older leaves of lower growing plants, while fast growing stem plants seems unaffected. I’ve found different opinions on several forums and internet sites. Apparently, there’s a consensus on an ammonia spikes as possible cause of the infestation, and, in fact, some amano shrimp is missing, probably because of too much micros fertilization. A well-know german producer of ferts thinks that an excessive amount of iron is to blame, but after a couple of 50% WC with a pause in my micros regime, I saw no results but an apparently better growth of staghorn!
Here is what I did :
- Thinking to the event of an ammonium/ammonia spike I carefully serviced my filter and all the pipes restoring maximum flow;
- I kept my macros regime constant (plant growth seems pretty good as usual), but I reduced my micros to half the usual dose; I see no apparent sign of iron or other micros deficiency.
- I’ve been monitoring my CO2 levels during 24h with a pH meter: I’m pretty confident about CO2 levels during daylight being at around 30 ppm; apparently, I don’t have much degassing during the night; I tried to use the surface skimmer more frequently to help degassing and improve oxygen levels at night;
I never mentioned glutaraldehyde or H2O2 as a remedy: I don’t want to use strong chemicals without addressing the cause. I just tried once to lightly spray some excel on Bolbitis leaves and this is the result:
Any suggestions?