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What would you do?

Aeropars

Member
Joined
9 Jul 2007
Messages
818
Location
Leicester
Hi Guys,

Hope everyone is well!

Im writing out of a little bit of desperation as after nearly 5 years in fishkeeping I still cant get my tank right and I struggle to grow some typs of plants and keep algae at bay. I'll give a detailed run through of what i'm running and the problems I'm having. I'm after setup suggestions, investment suggestions and any other suggestions to help my experience.

The tank: 180l Juwel Rio
Lighting - 4 x T8 for 9 hours per day
Filtration: Eheim Pro 2 (850lph) Tetratec Ex1200 (1200lph) koralia powerhead (1000lph). Both filters have spray bar outlets
CO2: 5kg FE with JBL regulator using an Aquamas inline reactor
Dosing: EI as per theplantedtank.co.uk

Configuration is as follows:
TT EX1200 has the inline reactor on its outlet going to the left of the tank. The inlet is on the left.
Eheim has outlet on the right of the tank with the inlet on the left.
This is done so that the enheim, which does not have a CO2 input to it, pulls in CO2 rich water and outputs it to the other side of the tank.
Both spraybars point forward to the front of the tank. The koralia blows form left to right.

Problems:
I seem to hit an equilibrium with the external reactor. I can't put any more CO2 in because the filter isn't putting enough water through it and I quickly get a large gas buildup. I can only see a more powerful filter being the answer to this but I'm open to suggestions.
I'm growing most plants OK but older parts of the stem plants have the leafs die off and I have been told this is down to CO2/flow issues.
Algae, mostly BBA at the moment, is also an issue. I'm getting some SEA's to help with this but I'd like to be able to have a clean tank without the need for a clean-up crew!

Based on this, if there was something you could change, what would it be? Investments have to be kept to a minimum.

All help is greatly apreciated!
 
Minimize the water surface agitation and try to keep your co2 at the bottom of the tank not pulling it from there back to the surface, pointing your outlets slightly down-ward should do the trick.

Cheers,
Mike
 
Hi mate, sorry to hear of your problems.

To start i'd check that you are definitely dosing the correct amount of the required nutrients.

What is your WC schedule? in this kind of situation i'd be inclined to at least two 50% changes per week.

Next i'd swap out your reactor for an atomiser style diffuser. Check the colour of your drop checker whilst the reactor is in there, then swap the reactor for an atomiser. Do not touch the needle valve and see if the colour in the drop checker changes. if it goes yellower then the reactor isn't doing a good job.

You have plenty of flow in there so that shouldn't be an issue.

I can't think of much else, if i do i'll let you know.

Good luck mate.
 
What I did on my tank was to get one of these cheap reactors from ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CO2-Diffuse-React ... 562ca0f5cf

Then got a acrylic pipe and placed it on the output of the reactor. The outlet of the filter goes on top and the CO2 enriched water gets all over the tank from the bottom up, where usually CO2 comes from on lakes and rivers.
 
Cheers Dan,

AndyH suggest an atomiser type diffuser so maybe I'll give that a go. I've not been on for a while but I gather that people are very happy with their results using them.

I don't think i have any problem with the amount of flow, but maybe the configuration/placement of the inlets and outlets to ensure theres no dead spots.

As far as dosing goes, i'm following this to the letter:
Macro Solution
33g Potassium Nitrate
7.2g Potassium Phosphate
250ml Water

Trace Mix Solution
10g Chelated Trace Element Mix (7% Fe, 1.3% B, 2% Mn, 0.06% Mo, 0.4% Zn, 0.1% Cu)
250 ml Water
0.5 ml Normal Hydrochloric Acid

I have no idea how some of the guys on here work out the PPM's from this so I just trust this is correct. If not then let me know.

Lee
 
Maybe, remove one tube, increase water changes (either frequency or volume or both) and swap to a inline atomiser.
Not only will this lower the co2 demand but you'll be able to get much more co2 into the tank because you'll have bubbles of "pure" co2 available to the plants rather than the lower levels of that in solution. Give it a couple of months like this and then see where it takes you. I'd suggest it's only a matter of fine tuning rather than a complete rethink of things at this junction, increased dosing might also be an idea.
A bit of a longshot, but how old are your tubes?
 
The tubes are little over a year old i think. I'm not sure i can remove one tube. I think the lamp starter requires the 2 tubes to be connected for it to work.

Anyone have any thoughts on the position of my outlets to ensure the CO2 from the one filter is dispersed all over the tank?
 
just a thought so don't know if it will work.
maybe put your spraybars in the middle/back with the non co2 one slightly higher.
then move you DC around and see if theres any improvement.
or even a longer spraybar.
 
I did think about a longer bar but as it stands the bars from the two filters stretch the length of the tank so thought this would be ideal for even flow around the tank. I just cant seem to see the best way of doing it, especially with the Koralia.

Perhaps ditching the spray bars is a good idea and then routing the flow around the the tank in a whirlpool fashon might be better suited?
 
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