Correct Plant Tubes

[elmo666]

Hi everyone. Firstly, thanks for looking. I'm currently locking horns with bba and black stringy algae. Its a new tank, less than 3 months old. All was well initially, and I had no problems in the tank from which everything was moved across from. Now, I'm epileptic, nothing to do with the algae lol, and as a result have chronic memory issues. I vaguely remember discussing the tubes on the new aqua one tank with my mate at the lfs, I'm sure we were going to change them to specific plant tubes. They weren't in stock, I forgot, its never been done. Checked them tonight, the brand is Anubias, t5, one is red light, one white light. Could these be a cause of my algae issues? Tank had loads of flow throughout all areas, good co2 level, lights on 8hrs a day, as is co2, 2hrs before lights. Tbh I'm baffled by it and hope my forgetfulness in not changing the tubes could be the root of the problem. Thanks

 

[Mamashack]

Hopefully someone who has more knowledge of CO2 and lighting can offer some help and you manage to get to the bottom of your algae problems.

 

[DrRob]

Unlikely to be the tubes. I tend to use standard daylight tubes, they're far cheaper. If you're getting bba it's either too much lighting power, too long a photoperiod, or the CO2 distribution isn't as good as you thought it was.

 

[elmo666]

Thanks Dr. Rob. Lets look at each in turn. A little unsure what you mean by lighting power? The tubes are the t5's supplied with the tank, tho I did add reflectors. My lighting time is 8hrs, do you think this may be too long? Now, as for my co2, I used to have it being taken into the uplift of my external in an attempt to aid absorption through a longer contact time. When I upped the co2it caused gurgling in the filter and sudden discharges of lots of co2. I've made a few posts regarding this bba problem. Most of the advice was to up co2, as I did, and ensure plenty of circulation. So, I installed an inline diffuser on the return, through a spray angled down and against the back glass. It has the effect of pushing the fine mist into the plants as it bounces of the glass. I tried pointing it straight into the centre of the plants mid tank but its far too strong, it comes from an eheim pro3 350. I have two of these. The return on the second splits through an eheim uv, these outlets serve one end of the tank, moving water downwards that end. I have a tunze pump the other end serving a denitrate filter, 200lph measured on the return, this goes through the plants. I also have a small eheim pump, 400lph, low level across the rear of the tank. An eheim surface skimmer mid tank completes the set up. Surface ripple is minimal, all plants are moving nicely and the co2 mist can be seen moving across the tank. I can observe pearling from quite a few plants. I dose Aquagro nutrafeed once a week as per instructions. I've kind of fine tuned all the returns to ensure even flow through the plants without too much to upset the discus. I am open to any advice or suggestions.

 

[DrRob]

Then it may well simply be the reflectors, or the photoperiod. I run 6 hours with two T5's on a similar sized tank, without reflectors.

 

[elmo666]

Ok sir, nothing to lose by cutting it back and taking the reflectors off. The rear of the lids are white anyway. I just worked out I have 0.35 watts per litre. I'll let you know how I get on........I've read bba can take a long time to get rid off. I'm really miffed as I spent a long time going through the tropica catalogue choosing my plants carefully so they all have the same requirements. Spent over £150, so to see them covered in this stuff is soul destroying. By far the worst affected are my anubias up on my bogwood, maybe they needed shade.....

 

[DrRob]

anubius tend to the slow growing (although they can get some serious growth going once they get established), and that lends itself to getting algae all over their leaves.
 
Floating plants can also help in this situation. I was struggling with a low tech with a stock light on it until the frogbit took off and it's a jungle in there now, despite being fairly dark.

 

[elmo666]

Thanks. I'll try some, see how it goes.