Hi All,
Pretty new here so apologies if i have infringed upon any rules! (i dont think i have!)
I have been keeping fish for around 2 years now, and i have a long serving 100l (working volume) Conditioned tap water tank, which has been chugging along just fine for the majority of those 2 years.
About a month ago i started a new tank, and i was experimenting with R/O, a colleague of mine had spoken about it a lot, and says he has had no problems with it in his years of using it. I thought i would give it a go, its a 60l (working volume) tank with 100% remineralised RO. To begin with all that was in the tank was some well soaked Bog wood (soaked for about 3 days, replacing the water each day) i also have a number of plants, i have an (as of yet) unknown grass, Twisted Vallis, Java Fern, Dwarf Baby tears and 6 Moss Balls.
These plants were put in in stages (as and when i found some i liked the look of really)
The first intwhere the moss balls and the grass - everything was fine in the tank...
Then a day or two later the vallis - Everything was fine...
A Week later The Java Fern was added - everything is still fine...
another week later i added the dwarf baby tears, 2 days later i had a massive hair algae outbreak!
The tank had no fish in, so i had been trying to make the conditions for the plants as optimal as possible so that they would establish themselves before adding in fish. i had been supplementing CO2, adding in Ferropol (Daily Iron fertiliser Supplement) As well as this i have fertilizing stubstrate and when the plants went in i placed Ferrotabs under the roots. as well as weekly fertilizing.
Since putting in the baby tears i seem to have gained the algae, so i guess i had some hitch-hiking spores or something on that plant, however the bog wood is covered!
The Equipment i have is:
Filtration:
1100lph (running at 2/3 power) Canister filter with built in 5W UV Sterliser
100lph Internal (used while Canister was out of action)
Lighting:
1 24W T5 Daylight bulb (serra)
1 24W T5 PLant Bulb (Arcadia)
Heating:
200W Inline Heater
Other:
Tetra CO2 Diffuser w/Spray Can
The Canister wasnt hooked up until after the algae appeared (i had problems sourcing the RO and getting the #40## thing to siphon!).
The Lights were on for around 12 hours a day.
what i have done to try and control it is:
Shorten the time the lights are on (down to 8 hours) ,
Stop Fertilizing,
Frequent Water Changes (10% every other day),
Added Red Cherry Shrimp,
Pulled it out by the handfull.
Thats my bag of tricks empty now! I really dont want to have to dismantle the tank and scrub everything clean, it took me forever to get it how i liked it. And i would rather not use medications as they could harm the shrimp/other fish i add in the future.
The tank is (rather unhelpfully) opposite a window, but for the last week i have had the curtains drawn in the room to block out any light that may be causing this. Yet it is still growing! It has just started to spread to my other plants (which are starting to struggle wihtout the fertiliser additives i think)
ANY advice would be greatly recieved, Thank you.
Chris.
P.S Very sorry if this i hard to follow, i have tried to explain everythign in as much detail as possible.
Pretty new here so apologies if i have infringed upon any rules! (i dont think i have!)
I have been keeping fish for around 2 years now, and i have a long serving 100l (working volume) Conditioned tap water tank, which has been chugging along just fine for the majority of those 2 years.
About a month ago i started a new tank, and i was experimenting with R/O, a colleague of mine had spoken about it a lot, and says he has had no problems with it in his years of using it. I thought i would give it a go, its a 60l (working volume) tank with 100% remineralised RO. To begin with all that was in the tank was some well soaked Bog wood (soaked for about 3 days, replacing the water each day) i also have a number of plants, i have an (as of yet) unknown grass, Twisted Vallis, Java Fern, Dwarf Baby tears and 6 Moss Balls.
These plants were put in in stages (as and when i found some i liked the look of really)
The first intwhere the moss balls and the grass - everything was fine in the tank...
Then a day or two later the vallis - Everything was fine...
A Week later The Java Fern was added - everything is still fine...
another week later i added the dwarf baby tears, 2 days later i had a massive hair algae outbreak!
The tank had no fish in, so i had been trying to make the conditions for the plants as optimal as possible so that they would establish themselves before adding in fish. i had been supplementing CO2, adding in Ferropol (Daily Iron fertiliser Supplement) As well as this i have fertilizing stubstrate and when the plants went in i placed Ferrotabs under the roots. as well as weekly fertilizing.
Since putting in the baby tears i seem to have gained the algae, so i guess i had some hitch-hiking spores or something on that plant, however the bog wood is covered!
The Equipment i have is:
Filtration:
1100lph (running at 2/3 power) Canister filter with built in 5W UV Sterliser
100lph Internal (used while Canister was out of action)
Lighting:
1 24W T5 Daylight bulb (serra)
1 24W T5 PLant Bulb (Arcadia)
Heating:
200W Inline Heater
Other:
Tetra CO2 Diffuser w/Spray Can
The Canister wasnt hooked up until after the algae appeared (i had problems sourcing the RO and getting the #40## thing to siphon!).
The Lights were on for around 12 hours a day.
what i have done to try and control it is:
Shorten the time the lights are on (down to 8 hours) ,
Stop Fertilizing,
Frequent Water Changes (10% every other day),
Added Red Cherry Shrimp,
Pulled it out by the handfull.
Thats my bag of tricks empty now! I really dont want to have to dismantle the tank and scrub everything clean, it took me forever to get it how i liked it. And i would rather not use medications as they could harm the shrimp/other fish i add in the future.
The tank is (rather unhelpfully) opposite a window, but for the last week i have had the curtains drawn in the room to block out any light that may be causing this. Yet it is still growing! It has just started to spread to my other plants (which are starting to struggle wihtout the fertiliser additives i think)
ANY advice would be greatly recieved, Thank you.
Chris.
P.S Very sorry if this i hard to follow, i have tried to explain everythign in as much detail as possible.