The Gate to Elysium - TMC Signature 600 Scape

[aquascape1987]

Long time since I did an update on this, but thought I’d share the results of lockdown and furlough on my tank.

Had a lot of trouble getting this tank balanced, but finally in the last couple of months I got on top of it with some major changes and upgrades

 

[aquascape1987]

January 2020: Major algae

Added some Siamese algae eaters which took care of this, but I ended up with a patchwork quilt of a carpet leftover after the diatoms had finally gone. I also lost quite a lot of my mid ground plants as well.

Around 6 weeks ago, I upgraded my system by adding an additional Eheim pro 4 250 Thermo filter (each filter with its own co2 diffuser) and changed to spraybars on the back wall. This massively increased my turnover to around 20x and improved the distribution of flow and Co2 around the tank.

I replanted the gaps left in my scape from the outbreak and switched from dry EI ferts (well my attempt at least ) to TNC complete. I also added root tabs. I’m still tweaking CO2, but feel that I’ve got it to a pretty good sweet spot already.

March 2020

And now, 6 weeks on, just waiting for the Rotala Hra I’ve just planted to grow and colour up in the background

 

[Deano3]

Wow what a turn around, how did you get that bad algae did you leave tank for a good while woth zero maintenance ? Just curious.

The colour of the latest picture is amazing tank looks super healthy.

Dean

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[aquascape1987]

Thanks Dean. No believe it or not, the diatoms just kind of came all of a sudden and took over within a matter of about 5 days. I was maintaining the tank as normal, although since I’ve got back on track I have actually tightened up my maintenance schedule, specifically concentrating now on keeping the filters pristinely clean. It was virtually impossible to remove the brown fuzzy stuff from the carpet and the stem plants without uprooting and damaging them, which is where the algae eaters paid dividends.

I never positively identified exactly what caused the issue, but the combination of adding the extra filter, the spray bars, changing the ferts and fine tuning the CO2 as well as the algae eaters resolved the problems.

 

[Deano3]

Thanks Dean. No believe it or not, the diatoms just kind of came all of a sudden and took over within a matter of about 5 days. I was maintaining the tank as normal, although since I’ve got back on track I have actually tightened up my maintenance schedule, specifically concentrating now on keeping the filters pristinely clean. It was virtually impossible to remove the brown fuzzy stuff from the carpet and the stem plants without uprooting and damaging them, which is where the algae eaters paid dividends.

I never positively identified exactly what caused the issue, but the combination of adding the extra filter, the spray bars, changing the ferts and fine tuning the CO2 as well as the algae eaters resolved the problems.

Good to hear least its sorted maybe a fluctuation of some sort who knows and i am the same i clean my oase pre filter ever maintainence session so ever 5 days or so i clean glass and rocks and quick wave around tank and pre filter clean then done nice and quick.

Dean

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