Algal Rollercoaster Ride

[SuperColey1]

The only thing that I can think of which caused the algae was the disruption to the gravel due to uprooting the 2 x limnophila. There was an aweful lot of detritus and muck that came from in between it's branches and roots and all the water went cloudy.

Yep always do a water change after disturbing the substrate. Nothing to do with what you can see really. More to do with what you can't i.e. ammonia.

If stagnant water is where detritus and smell builds up then I'm quite sure that after the uprooting of those plants, the entire substrate and decor had those conditions as the detritus (and god knows what else) that was contained in between the plant branches/roots was spread all over the tank. In other words, the effects of a 'deadspot' (i.e. build of detritus and nitrogen) were being transported across the tank due to the uprooting of those plants (which contained deadspots, hence the reason for the BGA on the plants).

There will always be some areas where detritus collects. It can't all be held in the water until the filter 'consumes' it. In most tanks the current will push it round and it ends up on the sybstrate where plant mass or hardscape is. No problem with that. Shouldn't really collect on the plants too much though. Give the water a stir close to these during water changes to get the detritus to move. No problem with it being on the substrate once plants are well established. It will rot down into the substrate and then the plants of course will use it.

Well I've now started to experience the re-growth of a white fluff substance (previously thought it was red brush algae as mentioned in my first post) on my glass. It particularly starts to grow after a waterchange is conducted and seems to like growing on top of the green-spot algae. Unfortunately, it's also growing on two of my plants and it's impossible to remove so it looks like I'm going to have to heavily trim the affected plants.

Mark. Is there any chance of agood photo of this stuff. Not to sound bolshy but previous pics are a little blurry and unfocused. I would be interested to see what this white stuff looks like.

AC

 

[mark4785]

Thanks for your input again SuperColey1.

Yep always do a water change after disturbing the substrate. Nothing to do with what you can see really. More to do with what you can't i.e. ammonia.

What percentage of water should I remove and if I remove it on the day in which micro-nutrients are due to be dosed, should I turn it into a macro-nutrient dosing day since I will have removed my macro-nutrients in doing a waterchange?

Mark. Is there any chance of agood photo of this stuff. Not to sound bolshy but previous pics are a little blurry and unfocused. I would be interested to see what this white stuff looks like.

I will try and get a good shot. I thought that I may not have got any input to this thread for a couple of days so earlier I went ahead and scrubbed all of the glass without taking any pictures. I remember removing white tuffs and other pieces that looked like dust that had a tinge of green; my honest opinion is that the dust and tuffs are white and another algae is simply growing underneath it which is giving it it's tinge. For this reason, I don't think I've got green-dust algae.

There are some other areas of the tank where it is growing so I'll get a picture of it ASAP.

Thanks,

Mark.

 

[SuperColey1]

What percentage of water should I remove and if I remove it on the day in which micro-nutrients are due to be dosed, should I turn it into a macro-nutrient dosing day since I will have removed my macro-nutrients in doing a waterchange?

Lol 20% is fine and don't worry about changing your days or adding more. Just continuw on as if you hadn't done the water change. We're OD'ing remember. Adding excess. There will be anough in the 80 easily.

I will try and get a good shot. I thought that I may not have got any input to this thread for a couple of days so earlier I went ahead and scrubbed all of the glass without taking any pictures. I remember removing white tuffs and other pieces that looked like dust that had a tinge of green; my honest opinion is that the dust and tuffs are white and another algae is simply growing underneath it which is giving it it's tinge. For this reason, I don't think I've got green-dust algae.

Lol again I would assume it is GDA and then maybe you are getting calcium deposits sticking to it???

There are some other areas of the tank where it is growing so I'll get a picture of it ASAP.

Don't try and get too close or macro on it. Take it at the best resolution you can from a distance you can get good focus and the just trim the photo. May take several attempts at different distances and then choose the most in focus/clear one. So start a foot away and then move back a few inches each time then assess them when you get them on the PC/Mac

When you trim it make sure you trim it to whatever the max size is of your image host. If your image host only accepts 80 x 600 and your trimmed pic is bigger then it will reduce the clarity when resizing it.

If you want to resize the pics (after trimming) there is a program I use called 'Fastone Photo Resizer'. Its pretty basic but easy to use and pretty good. One handy feature (especially withe my website in mind) is that if I get a picture and tell it to resize it 100% (no change in size) it will reduce the size of the file substantially and therefore it loads quicker

This method is much easier for most of us than trying to use the macro function on point and shoots cameras. I would leave the macros to Mark (Saintly) I can't ever get a decent macro shot with my new one nor my old one (which was supposedly better)

Oh.. Just to add. Don't use the zoom either

AC

 

[mark4785]

Here are the pictures as promised:


White tuffs/String Algae

Green spot algae

BGA

Unidentified algae

Also, is this print out (sourced from the internet) correct?

Mark.

 

[SuperColey1]

I think that most of the algae is staghorn. Even the white thready stuff. Thats a CO2 problem.

The green on the glass is GDA.

Are the white spots on the glass the algae you were questioning or is that one dirty piece of glass

That chart is on the right lines although a little simplified.

Like I said months ago with the GDA on the glas, let it run its cycle. It will look disgusting after a few weeks but will die off, then you remove it and suck it up then you never see it again

With the staghorn, I know you have enough flow in there. I would try moving some buts around. Doesn't help how you've added so much to get that flow. You can get great flow for a tenner these days with a unit smaller than a credit card

Anyways I would try moving some things around and if you are using a glass CO2 diffuser watching where the bubbles are going. Keep altering the outlets and inlets positions and comparing to see where best they would be positioned to keep the CO2 up.

Hard for me to say really. If it was I you know I would've put the Cayman straight on ebay and not boutght a number of items extra.

If you want to replace one of the bulky internal filters search for a Resun2000. They are like a mini Koralia. About £11 delivered and tiny. Then Point it at those plants affected in the centre of the tank

AC

 

[lljdma06]

Do you have a full tank shot?? Just curious...

Liz

 

[JoshuaA]

I had a staghorn infestation recently after my CO2 bottle ran dry and it took a week to get it replaced, finally when I got it back I had knocked the solenoid valve and had to "guess" where it was last set at. Needless to say when I came back a week later from university I found my tank was covered in staghorn.

I performed a massive water removal, mixed up a double dose of EasyCarbo + 10ml of water put it in a plant squirter and went to town on the algae. Let it soak whilst I was cleaning my filter out, give that a good clean. Filled the tank back up and made sure I had the CO2 set properly.

By the end of the night some of the staghorn had gone pink (according to Tom Barr it is algae being stressed) once the CO2 had kicked in and the circulation was correct it near enough all died off in a week. Unfortunately I now have a crapton of fluff algae which is down to excess nutrients apparently though my Amazon swords are acting as if there isn't enough nutrients for them.

 

[mark4785]

With the staghorn, I know you have enough flow in there. I would try moving some buts around. Doesn't help how you've added so much to get that flow. You can get great flow for a tenner these days with a unit smaller than a credit card

Sorry, what do you mean by 'try moving some buts around'?

Anyways I would try moving some things around and if you are using a glass CO2 diffuser watching where the bubbles are going. Keep altering the outlets and inlets positions and comparing to see where best they would be positioned to keep the CO2 up.

I use a Dennerle mini-flipper which means they get diffused as they travel gradually upwards through a series of tubes. My c02 reading, according to my drop-checker, is always lime by the time the lights come on. Sometimes it goes really high and shows bits of yellow but this doesn't impact on the fish in anyway because there is a lot of surface agitation bringing oxygen in.

Hard for me to say really. If it was I you know I would've put the Cayman straight on ebay and not boutght a number of items extra.

I chose to add more items because, as I've said before, the cayman filter is wired into one plug along with 2 other appliances (the heater and lights). I don't know of anyone a part from yourself who would be willing to separate the cayman from this electrical set-up.

If you want to replace one of the bulky internal filters search for a Resun2000. They are like a mini Koralia. About £11 delivered and tiny. Then Point it at those plants affected in the centre of the tank

Thanks for the suggestion. I think however that I'd prefer the bulky filter I have because it offers a 2000 LPH flow rate and the UV light is brilliant at killing algae, especially that green dust algae, which otherwise would only be removed by W/C's.

Are the white spots on the glass the algae you were questioning or is that one dirty piece of glass

They are just water droplets lol. The white bits most resembled dust and they appear straight after my 50% W/C which I conduct every sunday.

I had a staghorn infestation recently after my CO2 bottle ran dry and it took a week to get it replaced, finally when I got it back I had knocked the solenoid valve and had to "guess" where it was last set at. Needless to say when I came back a week later from university I found my tank was covered in staghorn.

Thats interesting because about 3 weeks ago, my Dennerle c02 cylinder ran out of c02 very prematurely (it usually lasts for 4 months, but this cylinder lasted for only 1 month) and it took me 24 hours to accept that it was empty as I couldn't believe the variation in the life cycle of it compared to the previous cylinder which lasted 3-4 times as long. Maybe that induced the growth of staghorn. I can't say anything other than this induced it because I don't have a c02 issue.

Do you have a full tank shot?? Just curious...

No, but I can get one?

 

[JoshuaA]

If you have staghorn, which one of the previous pictures suggests you have. The white/green hairy algae, it is normally always down to a C02 issue. I account it happening to me because of a CO2 issue and it was solved by correcting the CO2. Ensuring the CO2 is as evenly distributed across the tank and the frequency of it is on and off is kept as ideal as possible. Once the CO2 is solved staghorn really does die back within a week. Easycarbo or Excel will help a lot. Try placing the drop checker in a place where staghorn is growing you will probably find it will come back with an odd result perhaps remain bluish the entire night.

"moving things around" normally means moving anything that might break up flow. For example if you have an over grown amazon swords disrupting flow it's best either reposition it or remove some leaves etc.

 

[lljdma06]

Do you have a full tank shot?? Just curious...

No, but I can get one?

Then get one... A full tank shot would benefit me.

 

[mark4785]

The white/green hairy algae, it is normally always down to a C02 issue.

An algae ID print out (displayed on first page of this thread) states hair algae is caused by "excess nutrients/sillicates". SuperColey seemed to generally concur with what it was saying. Problem is, what nutrient do I decrease?

As requested, here's a shot of the planted tank:

Unfortunately, there are a lot of bulky appliances and broad wires that get in the way. The tank lid isn't designed to allow so many wires to enter the aquarium so the lid is often hard to completely shut. Some wires are hanging out of the lid (where all the wiring resides for lighting etc) because Cayman decided they'd use excess wiring that is impossible to keep bundled up in the lid so it often goes under the water surface.

Note that my Limnophila is yellowish towards the middle as I've only just moved my Bacopa's away from it. Hopefully the yellow will disappear soon.

Also, the only plant I have which is suffering from BGA is my eleocharis parvula:

I'm going to get rid of the huge powerhead (shown on the right in the pic above) and put two Koralia 900 LPH units in, one will direct flow to the Eleocharis presuming it's still alive by then.

Lastly, just thought i'd show my quarantine tank which houses a shoal of Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish. Somebody suggested I put my sole female DNR with a few others so I transferred her from the planted tank to the quarantine.

Mark.

 

[ian]

An algae ID print out (displayed on first page of this thread) states hair algae is caused by "excess nutrients/sillicates". SuperColey seemed to generally concur with what it was saying. Problem is, what nutrient do I decrease?

Hair algae isn't caused by excess nutrients, algae full stop isn't caused by excess nutrients. This is a given...it's caused by ammonia spikes, low CO2, Low nutrients.

Where is your C02 diffuser?

 

[mark4785]

Hair algae isn't caused by excess nutrients, algae full stop isn't caused by excess nutrients. This is a given...it's caused by ammonia spikes, low CO2, Low nutrients.

Oh ok. Are you refering to microscopic ammonia spikes? My rams would be near dead if it was a test kit visible spike.

Where is your C02 diffuser?

Its in the centre of the tank on the back pane of glass.

It looks like this:

 

[ian]

yes, it's normally small spike that aren't picked up on test kits. Have you thought about a glass diffuser? Its more visible then to where your C02 is being diffused around the tank. I know your drop checker is @ lime green, but i really can't understand why you continue to have all of these problems. I'm also seeing the bottom of your stem plants aren't looking to healthy, are they still in pots or rings?

 

[lljdma06]

Thanks, Mark for the full tank shot...

Now, I can see that you are not very densly planted at all. At least not what I would consider densly planted. Lots of bare substrate.

Your stems are also too clumped together. If they are squished like that, the bottom parts of the stems die and you have ammonia spikes. I'd separate to individual stems and replant. Trim the stems from the bottom and keep only the healthy portions. The anubia in the foreground, is that in the substrate? I can't tell for certain.

I see white roots and new growth in the Eleocharis, so it'll survive. You'll need to split the plant and remove the algae. The plant should be planted in much smaller clumps than that. I've received Eleocharis in worse condition in the post, stuck it in a tub outside and that still grew well in my last 8g scape.

For all the fancy stuff you are doing, I'd increase your plant mass, especially since this tank is not old.