During my re-scape setup, I reused my extremely mature canister filter and media and added a new clay-based substrate. Dialing in the Co2 and balancing liquid ferts, while tuning the lighting and all was looking good within a few days i.e. plants showing new growth and generally pearling - I had no heater at the time and the water temperature was ~20degC ambient.
I then added a heater set to 22degC but it seems that this would increase the water temperature to anything between 23-25degC - not very accurate I know and probably because it's a cheap 200w heater in a 155L tank. The next day, I had an attack of brown algae/diatoms, certain plants started melting (especially the AR) and within a few more days, the brown algae went crazy and all healthy plants stopped pearling! I'm still addressing and slowly winning the brown algae fight with bi-daily 50% water changes and leaning out the dosing regime until the plants really take hold and recover. I noticed that when I was changing the water, the temp would drop drastically back to around 17-18degC, and then the next day it was back to 23-24degC due to the heater. Noticing this swing in temperature, I turned off the heater and carried on with my bi-daily 50% water changes, and now with a much more stable lower temperature, all the plants are getting new growth, pearling and the brown algae is receding even further - this is within 24 hours! The ambient temperature of the tank is much more stable and seemingly a better-balanced environment at 20degC.
I'm now a little worried about my livestock, 4 Otto's, 2 Angels and 12 Black Neons. They are feeding great, still really colourful and seemingly unbothered by the 20degC water temperature, yet all the advice online is for the water to be between 22-26degC. Should I be worried - or is this one of those "it's always been recommended so must be true" folklores? There are a number of recent statements from professional aquascapers stating they don't use a heater at all and often keep their scapes with tropical fish at the low end of the temperature spectrum, some also mentioning 20degC temps being perfectly fine, this also goes hand-in-hand with Tom Barr also reporting that the difference in gaseous retention in the water column is huge over the 10degC data-points we tend to keep our tanks at. I also once kept an aquascape at 28degC with blue neon tetra and German blue rams and was constantly in battle with BBA, green spot, string algae, and then finally Cyanobacteria which caused me to tear down the tank. GreenAqua recently laughed at someone trying to keep a scape at a temp upwards of 26degC because they feel you must be fighting a losing battle from the start.
Any thoughts? I'm inclined to give it a week to see what changes unfold.
I then added a heater set to 22degC but it seems that this would increase the water temperature to anything between 23-25degC - not very accurate I know and probably because it's a cheap 200w heater in a 155L tank. The next day, I had an attack of brown algae/diatoms, certain plants started melting (especially the AR) and within a few more days, the brown algae went crazy and all healthy plants stopped pearling! I'm still addressing and slowly winning the brown algae fight with bi-daily 50% water changes and leaning out the dosing regime until the plants really take hold and recover. I noticed that when I was changing the water, the temp would drop drastically back to around 17-18degC, and then the next day it was back to 23-24degC due to the heater. Noticing this swing in temperature, I turned off the heater and carried on with my bi-daily 50% water changes, and now with a much more stable lower temperature, all the plants are getting new growth, pearling and the brown algae is receding even further - this is within 24 hours! The ambient temperature of the tank is much more stable and seemingly a better-balanced environment at 20degC.
I'm now a little worried about my livestock, 4 Otto's, 2 Angels and 12 Black Neons. They are feeding great, still really colourful and seemingly unbothered by the 20degC water temperature, yet all the advice online is for the water to be between 22-26degC. Should I be worried - or is this one of those "it's always been recommended so must be true" folklores? There are a number of recent statements from professional aquascapers stating they don't use a heater at all and often keep their scapes with tropical fish at the low end of the temperature spectrum, some also mentioning 20degC temps being perfectly fine, this also goes hand-in-hand with Tom Barr also reporting that the difference in gaseous retention in the water column is huge over the 10degC data-points we tend to keep our tanks at. I also once kept an aquascape at 28degC with blue neon tetra and German blue rams and was constantly in battle with BBA, green spot, string algae, and then finally Cyanobacteria which caused me to tear down the tank. GreenAqua recently laughed at someone trying to keep a scape at a temp upwards of 26degC because they feel you must be fighting a losing battle from the start.
Any thoughts? I'm inclined to give it a week to see what changes unfold.