60cm Planted Tank

[MoreCoffee]

Moody:
Thanks .... I'm away on holiday in another week, I'm going to leave the tank as it is until I get back.
Then I'm going to do a bit of work on it. There are a couple of things that I might change or try to improve on, the moss being one of them. I'll still be using moss, but I have some much better/greener moss I can use.

.......it would be nice to see a posy shot with all your equipment removed etc.

Yeah, nice idea, but have you seen my photography skills.


Hunterm8:

Whats your view on the aquaone euroview tank you have there! I was considering getting one and would appreciate your view.

The tank was a free replacement from Aqua One for a different model that they no longer make (Cracked tank), that tank suffered a crack for no real reason. Aqua one said it could have been a flaw in the tank (apparently they'd had a few), so gave me this one as a replacement.

To be quite honest, I probably wouldn't have gone out and bought one, but I have found no real problems with it. I think it's the problems with the previous tank cracking that have put me off.
But overall, It's not turned out too bad. Fairly cheap and I've seen lots worse for the price.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Well, I've finally got around to doing something about the ugly intake and outflow in this tank.

Last night I got some of these from Ebay Glass Filter Pipes I've been talking to the seller to see if he could get some and watching his items for sale list for the last few days as I knew they were coming up They also seem to have a decent selection of Co2 glassware

However I've noticed they've already put the price up by since I got some last night, but I still think his current price looks pretty good as it includes both glass inflow & outflow pipes.

I'm not expecting ADA quality .... but they'll be a huge improvement on the current fittings I'm using.
Hopefully they'll turn up in one piece.

I'm on holiday next week so will fit them when I get back and also do a bit of a rework, including the P. helferi in the foreground. Then I'll update with some pics

 

[lljdma06]

It's always annoying when aquarium hardware mars our aquascapes. Half the time is spent figuring out new ways to cover tubes and bubble counters. Glad you could find a solution. The cheapest solution for me is still a well-placed plant. Have a great Holiday!

llj

 

[catfish_mad]

Stunning tank mate wish i had the time and money to do one

 

[MoreCoffee]

Catfish_mad: Many thanks for the comments.


All:

Got back last night from a weeks holiday in Cyprus to find the tank is now suffering from some algae problems, the tank isn't overrun with the stuff, but will need to be dealt with quickly if I'm to stop them getting worse

Whilst away a family member was looking after the tank for the week I was away.
Before leaving the tank was cleaner, plants trimmed and a 50% water change doneThe lights and Co2 were all on timers, the ADA ferts were easy enough (3 squirts on the plunger each day) and I had the food put into measured amounts (feeding lighter than normal), labelled with when to feed.

Apart from the lighting this all seems to have gone well.

The problem was with the timer for the lights ..... it failed (not something you can really plan for).
This was noticed and the lights turned on/off manually, however the lighting period was at best erratic !
Some days the lights were on for only 6 hours, others it was probably 15+ hours per day !!

Basically the tank is now suffering from some BGA (at least 5 or 6 spots), BBA (only noticable on the P. helferi) and some bits of Thread algae !

This all seems to have become noticable in only a week ! Makes me wonder if there were some small amount in there before I left that had not managed to get a foothold and get established.
I had some BBA a few weeks ago on the Lilaeopsis that was removed and not seen since. Not seen any Thread algae since the very early days, when the moss was struggling to get established. Never seem BGA in the tank before, and want to kill this off as quickly as possible.

I need to get on top of this quickly .... my plan is
> Do a full set of water readings. Particularly checking NO3, PO4 & CO2 levels
> Manually remove as much algae & algae damaged plants as possible.
> Do a 50% water change.

I dont intend to up the CO2 (currently at 2bps) until I've done the water checks and have an idea of the levels.

One other thing, me going away coincided with a change in ferts from ADA step1 to ADA step 2.
Current ferts are ADA step2 (daily), ADA brighty K (daily) and Tropcia Plant Nutrition (5ml twice per week).

I had considered including a 2 or 3 day blackout, but not sure I need it at this stage, the alage is present, but not out of control.

............... Any advice very welcome !

On a brighter note..... the plants (apart from the algae), fish and shrimp all seem fine.
The U. graminifolia has really taken off in the past week and has formed a full, thick carpet. There is one very small patch of BGA on it, but other than that it is algae free.

The P. helferi has continued growing, but has been hit by BBA. I think I'll remove all the P. Helferi and get the U. graminifolia to cover the whole of the foreground/right side of the tank.

The glass intake and outflow pipes I ordered from Ebay have turned up undamaged (they were really well packed)

Glass Pipework - Not a very clear pic

...........these will be added to the tank once the algae is under control. I'm not expecting the same sort of flow dynamics as the ADA pipes, but they should do a better job than the default Fluval pipes and will certainly look far better.

Cheers
Al

Assistance on clearing the algae very welcome ... I'll be starting to tackle it later today !

 

[George Farmer]

Hi Al,

Sorry about your algae woes. One downside to running a high-tech - holidays!

Personally I would consider a 3 day blackout to nip your BGA in the bud. It spreads quick if left unchecked, believe me on that!

After the 3 days your other algae should be weakened enough to allow for easy treatment. Excel on the BBA, regular CO2, lighting etc. on the thread and it should disappear.

Glassware looks tip top!

Good luck mate.

 

[lljdma06]

Oh no! Algae! In IL, I hated going on vacation, tanks would be a mess when I returned. Not so with my lower light tanks in Miami, FL. Hope you solve your algae issues soon.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Hi Al,

Sorry about your algae woes. One downside to running a high-tech - holidays!

Personally I would consider a 3 day blackout to nip your BGA in the bud. It spreads quick if left unchecked, believe me on that!

After the 3 days your other algae should be weakened enough to allow for easy treatment. Excel on the BBA, regular CO2, lighting etc. on the thread and it should disappear.

Glassware looks tip top!

Good luck mate.

Thanks George,

I think I'll take your advice on the blackout, never needed to do one before and I've never had a tank that has suffered from BGA in any quantity before and want to ensure I get rid of it as quickly as possible.

I've removed as much of the algae growth as I could, without disturbing the plants too much and done a partial water change. I've remove a large amount of moss from the bogwood as it had hair algae in it and the moss was going to be removed anyway. The remainder of the plants have been left untouched.

Now I'll cut off the CO2 and lighting, stop the ferts and blackout the tank for the next 2 or 3 days.
Then wait and see what the result is.

I took a set of water readings before doing the water change ... the results were as follows:

NH3/NH4 = 0
NO2 = 0
NO3 = 12.5
PH = 7.0
KH = 11
CO2 = 33ppm - Using Chuck's calc and the above PH/KH values
PO4 = LOW - Hard to tell with the test kit, but certainly below 0.5

Once the blackout is over, I think I'll need to address the PO4 and NO3 levels as they seem a bit low ! (especially the PO4)

Cheers
Al

 

[zig]

Remove the thread algae asap, cut, chop, remove, whatever, when it creeps in its v difficult to remove without a total stripdown. Good luck.

 

[Themuleous]

I found thread algae was a delicious treat for a bunch load of shrimp

 

[MoreCoffee]

Zig & Sam, thanks for the replies.

The tank is now in a total blackout to try hit the BGA.
I think I got most of the thread/hair algae out manually. It turned out it was pretty much confined to the moss.

Once the blackout has run it's course I'll do another manual algae removal and a water change, then I'll restart the ferts concentrate on getting the CO2 back up into the 30's. Hopefully with a stable photo period things should be much better.

I'm still planning on removing the P helferi and letting the U graminifolia spread out .... it looks really good when it's formed a nice thick carpet.

Cheers
Al

 

[Themuleous]

Just out of interest how big does the U Gram get? In the Oliver Knott scape that uses it, its seems quite tall?

Sam