Aquatopia - 6x2x2 Low-Med Light, High Tech Nature Aquarium

[MattW]

I do need to test my water, to be honest. The tank in question would be considered "overstocked" but I do have a high plant load and a filter that can run tanks twice the size. I have also increased the water change percentage to around 45-50% (weekly) now, compared to 30%.

Your tank is a lot higher tech than mine! I can only adjust the intensity and not the colouration, sadly, and I don't run Co2 apart from the liquid carbon dosing.

 

[Aquatopia]

I do need to test my water, to be honest. The tank in question would be considered "overstocked" but I do have a high plant load and a filter that can run tanks twice the size. I have also increased the water change percentage to around 45-50% (weekly) now, compared to 30%.

Your tank is a lot higher tech than mine! I can only adjust the intensity and not the colouration, sadly, and I don't run Co2 apart from the liquid carbon dosing.

How much liquid carbon are you dosing?

 

[MattW]

How much liquid carbon are you dosing?

I believe it's around 6ml every couple of days. I only started the dosing 2 weeks back, so there hasn't been much noticeable difference apart from a couple of plants getting a reddish hue.

 

[Aquatopia]

I actually just realised that the lighting level when using an adjustable RGB LED light, like the Fluval Plant 4.0's that I use, is more complex to work out than I first thought earlier.

The reason being that the number of LEDs per colour varies, so the total light strength is not equally shared across the colours.

In the Fluval Plant 4.0 46w, which are what I have, the LEDs are as follows:

56 Warm white
21 Daylight
133 Cool white
30 Blue
12 Pink

Giving a total of 252 LEDs.

This means that each of the colours is only responsible for these percentages of the total amount of light:

22.2% Warm white
8.3% Daylight
52.8% Cool white
11.9% Blue
4.8% Pink

My lighting % in the app was set to:

0% Warm white
40% Daylight
100% Cool white
100% Blue
100% Pink

Which brings my percentage of the total amount of light under each colour to:

0% Warm white
3.3% Daylight
52.8% Cool white
11.9% Blue
4.8% Pink

Which gives me a total of 72.8% of the total amount of light possible.

I have now reduced the lighting in the app to:

0% Warm white
40% Daylight
60% Cool white
60% Blue
60% Pink

Which brings my percentage of the total amount of light under each colour to:

0% Warm white
3.3% Daylight
31.7% Cool white
7.1% Blue
2.9% Pink

Which now gives me a total of 45.0% of the total amount of light possible.

So it turns out I actually turned the lights down from 72.8% to 45.0%.

 

[Aquatopia]

After trying to clean the algae off the wood/plants today I'm convinced it's not hair algae. It's thick and fibrous and grey and it does not come off with brushing and you can't pull it off with a toothbrush. The only way I could get it off the wood was to grab it between my fingers and pull it off and when I did that I could feel the strands in my fingers (hair algae just feels slimy). I pulled some of it off the wood but I couldn't off the leaves as it would pull the leaves off or pull the plants off the wood. I don't have the energy to pull it all off the wood so I had to leave a lot of it. I may end up having to replace plants that are covered in it.

I'm now pretty sure it's Staghorn algae. The filters are pretty clean, the majority of the detritus is caught by the prefilter with 45 ppi sponges, which is cleaned every week. The flow in the tank is about as high as the fish can cope with, so it's definitely not low flow. There are no dead spots, food and detritus doesn't get to stay anywhere, it all gets lifted with the high flow. You can see it when you feed daphnia or other small food, the snowstorm of food in the tank lets you see exactly what's happening with your flow and the flow in the tank is everywhere.

Ammonia has gone, so has Nitrite, Nitrates are only about 5.

I have noticed it is only in the top half of the tank and doesn't go right to the sides, so it is not growing where the light and flow are less. Which suggests to me it is either light and/or high flow which is enabling it to grow. I'm not even sure that it is still growing any more. It may well be dead now.

I see some people say Staghorn algae turns white when it's dead and others saying it turns red when it's dead. It is a grey/white so not sure. I'll have to see what happens this week, see if it comes back more/spreads.

Low/fluctuating CO2 could be a possible cause in my case. I've had it low and have been slowly increasing it. I started at 4 bps and am now at 10 bps.

After further discussions elsewhere I've decided to go ahead and dose liquid carbon (Glutaraldehyde) as it's one more way to probaby get rid of the algae and we're running out of options.

I've just ordered some and another dosing pump.

 

[Aquatopia]

Some pics from this week:

 

[Aquatopia]

More...

There's been quite a few new additions this week - snails, shrimp and fish. The Staghorn algae has gotten much worse. I'm hoping the Amano shrimps and Panda Garra can make an impact on it now, maybe along with the Glutaraldehyde dosing as well I might be able to see it decline soon.

As of last night I have lost at least 3 of the Panda Garra. Their bodies just came up with the flow and landed on the wood at the right side. All 3 were small and skinny, I'm thinking they have been dead for a day or so and probably didn't last long. The other Panda Garras have been feeding well and have filled out and actually grown noticably, so I think these 3 just didn't survive long after being added. Maybe these fish can also be like Otocinclus and don't recover well from being underfed? I'm keeping an eye on the others but they all seem healthy, active and are feeding greedily but I've only been able to count 7 of them, though that doesn't mean anything as they are often within the hardscape and go in and out of it like yoyo's, so it is unlikely I will see all of them out at once.

For anyone who has kept the Roseline Sharks/Denisons Barbs before - are they normally quite nervous when young? They seem to be the most reluctant fish to come out of the hardscape so far and the first to dash back into it when I go near the tank. At first I only saw 1 to 3 of them out at a time, they have gotten better but it is a rare event (maybe once a day at feeding) that I can count all 7 of them out and more often than not I can rarely count more than 4 or 5 of them out at the moment. Hopefully it continues to improve as they settle in more. They are definitely starting to fill out now!

This weeks update video:

 

[Aquatopia]

Additional note on the CO2 - I've just checked and after turning the CO2 up to 10 bps a couple of days ago the pH drop the first day was 0.68, which equates to around 23 ppm CO2. Yesterday though the drop was only 0.48 which equates to around 15 ppm CO2. I think the bigger drop on the first day was because the CO2 was only increased after the pH high overnight which made the drop more overall that day, then the next night the pH didn't go quite as high and so the drop yesterday was much less. I'm not sure yet but it appears that the CO2 at 10 bps is not giving me any more of a drop in pH than it was at 6 bps. I did notice yesterday that bubbles were coming from the filter outlet so I am guessing that the CO2 reactor is not able to dissolve that much CO2? ...and the rest of the CO2 that is getting blown into the tank is just not getting dissolved properly.

I'm going to watch the pH again today and see if it does the same and if it does then I'm going to turn the CO2 back down to 6 bps and see what happens then with the pH. If it still stays about the same then there is no point injecting any more than that. It seems like I would need a second CO2 reactor to inject more than around 6 bps.

 

[Aquatopia]

I got the Gluteraldehyde and the dosing pump today and started dosing the Gluteraldehyde.

I started on a high-ish dose, going for 2.66 ml per 50 litres.

680 litres divided by 50 = 13.6

13.6 multiplied by 2.66 = 36.1

I rounded it down to 36 ml.

No signs of any distress or any issues with anything. No signs of the algae dying yet either. I'll keep you updated.

 

[Aquatopia]

This week has been challenging for me, to say the least. I am struggling to deal with everything, physically. I have a bad back, bad hip, bad knees, bad ankles and bad joints in both hands/arms so I've been in quite a lot of pain. Mostly from damage to the joints and osteoarthritis. In all honesty I'm beginning to despair and find myself wishing I had never started the aquarium.

Every day for the past few days both of the filters have had air collecting in them, especially the one on the right side, that one has been full of air.

I've literally had to lie on the floor rocking the filter back and forth and letting the air get disspelled, again and again, for about 15-20 minutes at a time. A couple of hours later it's the same again. At the same time the CO2 reactor, which is at that side, is also having air build up in the top of that so that has to have the release valve opened so that can be drained of air as well, every time.

Everything is well connected, hoses are all clamped.

The only thing I could think of is that the air pump, which is on during the night, is creating micro bubbles in the water which are then collecting in the filters. Not sure why it would be worse on the right filter - maybe because the air stone is closer to the inlet at that side so bubbles are getting sucked in more?

Anyway, I've turned the air pump off for now to see if that helps. I'll have to see how it is tomorrow.

There has been no change in the staghorn algae yet. The Glutaraldehyde has been turned up, in fact from today it is now at the maximum recommended level of 4ml per 50 litres of water. We'll see how it goes over the next 2 days then on Sunday when I do my water change I'm going to try and remove as much as I can and spray the hardscape and plants that have it with Hydrogen peroxide.

I can also fog any bits that are left underwater with Hydrogen peroxide.

Hopefully that will then make a dent in the staghorn algae.

 

[MattW]

Sorry to hear about the issues you are facing currently. It's a shame how much impact things like that have on day-to-day activities inlcuding our aquariums.

A quick thought on your Staghorn algae issue. I wonder if the root cause may not be one of the more common ones, like lighting, Co2, etc. I'm taking a shot in the dark here and wondering if the wood is the cause of the Staghorn. Since the wood is decaying now, you will have quite a lot of decaying material/nutrients accumulating and being used up by anything and everything in the tank, including alage. Of course, you know your tank better than anyone else, so there is a high chance it's something else, but it could be a possibility. Ive just found that the tanks I set up with wood seem to have more issues than without

Also, do you have any terrestrial plants like peace lilies or pothos that could be used in the tank? I know they aren't the main things we associate aquariums with, but they have worked wonders for me in newer setups, especially in regard to balancing things out. Another would be floaters, but it's clear that your filter outflows put floating plants out of the equation

 

[Aquatopia]

Sorry to hear about the issues you are facing currently. It's a shame how much impact things like that have on day-to-day activities inlcuding our aquariums.

A quick thought on your Staghorn algae issue. I wonder if the root cause may not be one of the more common ones, like lighting, Co2, etc. I'm taking a shot in the dark here and wondering if the wood is the cause of the Staghorn. Since the wood is decaying now, you will have quite a lot of decaying material/nutrients accumulating and being used up by anything and everything in the tank, including alage. Of course, you know your tank better than anyone else, so there is a high chance it's something else, but it could be a possibility. Ive just found that the tanks I set up with wood seem to have more issues than without

Also, do you have any terrestrial plants like peace lilies or pothos that could be used in the tank? I know they aren't the main things we associate aquariums with, but they have worked wonders for me in newer setups, especially in regard to balancing things out. Another would be floaters, but it's clear that your filter outflows put floating plants out of the equation

Thanks. The tank has cover glass and a closed hood.

 

[MuddyWaters]

It's thick and fibrous and grey and it does not come off with brushing and you can't pull it off with a toothbrush.

That sounds like black beard algae to me. I fight it constantly. The only thing I've found to effectively kill it is Hydrogen Peroxide, dosed locally using a pipette. I do it when I change water. I dose it while the water is low, let the tank sit with no flow for 15 minutes (you'll see tons of bubbles) and then fill it back up. The Hydrogen Peroxide breaks down to water and oxygen.

Warning, though- don't let it sit too long in a tank with low water before filling it back up. It'll break down quick if the tank is warm and there's light, but I found out recently that it'll kill fish if you get distracted and leave it without re-filling the tank for a few hours. I found an issue with my CO2 regulator and spent 3 hours working on it before I remembered I had not filled the tank. Two days later I had 11 dead fish. I tested everything and the only thing I can think of is the longer than usual exposure to Hydrogen peroxide. I've done some stupid stuff, but that one sucked.

EDIT- after seeing your video and some pictures, that's not black beard algae. I don't think I've had staghorn before, but if it's like black beard, man I feel for you. Beautiful setup regardless! Jealous of all that space!!

 

[Aquatopia]

Because the CO2 Reactor seems unable to dissolve more than around 4-5 bps CO2 (when used with the Oase BioMaster 600 Thermo filter) without filling up with CO2 anyway (likely because of not enough flow) I'm now injecting just 4 bps of CO2 24/7. This is a very low level for this size tank and it shouldn't be an issue if I run it at that level 24/7, especially with the level of flow I have providing aeration at the surface. Of course, I will be keeping an eye on the pH.

 

[Gertrudae]

Hope you get better soon!