Firstly I'll state there is no problem dosing Easycarbo on top of CO2 injection. As it is liquid C and not CO2 it will no make the CO2 levels unstable. They are 2 different things.
It is more of a waste issue and something that should be short term until the CO2 is sorted out. Easylife are selling product if they say you should be adding it as well as CO2 but it will not hurt. So it won't harm the tank but you shouldn't need to be adding both.
I don't really have the time to be mixing powders, it sounds like a messy job which requires certain ratios of substance.
Mixing dry ferts is quicker than going to the shop for a bottled product. Takes me all of 10 minutes and the bottles (1 macro and 1 trace) will last me longer than the bottled product (circa 2 months) making 1 hour a year. Not a case of Ratios, there are several component powders, then you can use either a 'herb/jewellery' scale or a proper measuring spoon(s) and make up your mix with DI water. Pretty simple stuff.
Are there any EDTA and DTPA chelating agents out there already premixed into a fert product? As you mentioned earlier in the post, EasyLife are secretive about what they include in their products so maybe I should invest in fertilisers from a more open and honest company. I'd be willing to give TPN+ another go but I'd really like to know if there is another highly respected product out there which contains a chelate which will last longer in the water column.
TPN/TPN+ and Seachem are the only ones I suggest. They are the only ones (in single bottles) that seem to understand the 'phosphates DO NOT cause algae' philosophy rather than pandering to myths. Easylife and others DO understand but supply all their products in several bottles which makes dosing more of a pain than TPN+ or dry ferts in solution.
I have some bad news to tell regarding my aquarium. The cyanobacteria is back; I've had to shake every single plant in the aquarium to remove sheets of it contained on every single root and leaf. Tonnes of it went down the sink. I've now blacked out the aquarium again, and intend to keep it that way until Saturday afternoon, not only because I'm getting sick to death of the problem, but, yes, it will hopefully kill off the cyanobacteria as well.
I said it would. You can kill it off but the 'encouraging' conditions need to be addressed to stop it from re-occurring.
1. Lack of flow (and the lack of 02 that comes with it) - I've installed a Hydor Koralia Nano 900 powerhead, but cyanobacteria is still growing.
Flow is important but it needs to be in conjunction with the nutrients being correct. Being able to distribute the goods well is great IF the goods are there to be distributed.
Overabundance of nutrients - phosphate 1.0 - 1.5 ppm, Nitrate 20 ppm, Iron 0.2 ppm (probably not very representative of the actual concentration) + other nutrients.
Forget the word 'overabundance' That is what one of the key problems is. You are way below what I dose. All of these can be increased without fear. 20ppm Nitrate should be OK however many will already have 20ppm in their tap water and still dose on top. The ranges above should however be enough for you if the readings are correct.
3. Dirty substrate - It appears clean, there is no 'smoke effect' when I apply the gravel vac to my substrate which usually is an indicator that it's dirty. Despite being clean, cyanobacteria is growing on the sand particles.
I have no idea on this one. I do not gravel vac at all. My water changes are performed by removing my external filter hoses and emptying water out that way. Substrate does not get touched.
4. Lack of Nitrate - I increased the concentration to 20ppm. Still not enough?
Possibility if the test kit is not giving correct readings.
5. "Plant growth problem" - A person named 'plantbrain' in
this thread states plant growth problems are the main cause of algae problems. Why then do I have cyanobacteria when 75% of my plants are growing well.
'Plantbrain' is Tom Barr. He is the man you should listen to. The problem here is you are taking the statement on algae but applying it to a bacteria. Cyanobacteria
IS NOT an algae.
I've seen many planted aquarium videos online and it became apparent that their plants do not contain algae, nor does the glass or substrate. There must be something fundamentally wrong with either my filter system (not the best in the world it would seem) or I must not be good at knowing how much nutrients my plants need. I've found that when it comes to nutrient-dosing, it seems like a guessing game; should it be?
One problem is that you see the 'ideal' in photos and videos. I may show you a picture of a perfect algae free tank and you say 'how does he do that'. You have no way of knowing if I spent an hour cleaning algae and Cyano etc prior to taking photos or videos. So whilst admiring the pictures and videos take their 'algae free' appearance with a pinch of salt. There are some who claim to have algae free tanks who are putting in hours of cleaning work
(Not me or Plantbrain or Ianho)
Stick to the reality of getting it right behind the scenes. Much better to spend the time at the beginning, learn the system, get it right and then spend the rest of you life saying 'In the end it was quite simple'
That filter is not cutting the mustard. I would suggest it's capacity is half what it neeeds to be. Not even up to scratch in terms of turnover as the Fluval Internals. A 125ltr Fluval tank would come with a 700lph or higher internal filter.
The turnover not only means better flow but it also means it draws more of the dirty water through eavery hour and therefore removes more detritus. It will also keep more of the dirt from hitting the substrate. The filter
MAY be the cause of many of your problems however I am hesitant to state this as fact as it may not be and also you may still have other isues which after changing filter you may think 'I have the problem still so it was not the filter'.
I'll list all of my aquarium details in the hope that somebody can tell me what they would do or what they would do differently if they owned this particular tank in terms of providing plants their required nutrients, in the correct chelated form and in a way which will not encourage any form of algae growth.
Forget the chelates. We have gotten off track in this thread. I started talking about Chelates when you were putting up Fe test readings to explain that the reading is not overly useful in that it could either show iron as present when it is not available or it can show iron as zero when in fact it is there but in unreadable form.
Tank capacity: About 110 Litres.
About? What volume did it say on the box? Go by that. If it said 125 litres then go by that and not try and figure out water volumes and hardscape displacements etc.
Filter system: Cayman 05 internal filter.
I would put this on ebay and replace either with a higher turnover/capacity internal like a Fluval 3+/4+ or an external filter with a turnover of 700lph or more.
The water parameters are fine but I wonder about the Ph. Is 7.4 with CO2 addition? Does that mean your tap water is circa 8 or does it mean that the CO2 is not working very well?
WOW you do a lot of work on this tank. I do 1 x 50% water change a week with no gravel vac. My filter and pipes are cleaned once a month and I dose from 2 bottles daily. It doesn't need to be so hard to have 'algae free' tanks with 'gin' clear water.
Dennerle Comfort-Line CO2 Professional system set to release 1 bubble of c02 every 4 seconds
This is very low for your size tank and lighting hence why you are needing the Easycarbo. I would be in the 2-3 bubbes per second region if it were me and that would be with perfect flow and diffusion. I would increase this via the needle valve incrementally per day watching the drop checker until you get a stable light green at lights on every day. This may well account for the Ph reading being higher than I expected.
Be careful though and increase by small amounts daily to reassure yourself and to not risk gassing the fish.
Fish feeding isn't a problem. Overfeed, underfeed shouldn't be a 'real' problem. I overfeed a lot with no consequence other than more snails.
In essence I think you could do with more filtration if only to remove more detritus from the tank water. Will also boost flow too.
On Nutrients I think you are working very hard with all those bottles and testing etc. Life should be easy and dry ferts are just that. Similar to TPN+ where you just dose 1 bottle.
This game isn't about ratios and measuring and testing. That is for those who want to get into the science, dial into the exact needs and uptakes etc. Dose more than you need and then water change to remove some of the excess/ammonia. Continue that and you can forget about nutrient defficiency being the cause of anything and concentrate on other things like circulation and CO2 which are the cause of 95% of algae problems. A high percentage of those who dose excess still have these problems because they fail to get the CO2/circulation right. They often think it is good and blame excess nutrient or insufficient nutrient. They are in nearly all cases not getting the CO2 right for the 'system' they have.
Now a little re-assurance. If I post a picture or video it will look perfectly 'algae free'. In essence it is but there is no such thing as an 'algae free' tank. There is such a thing as a minimal algae tank.
So when you get close up to my tank and see what you can't see in photos or videos there are little bits of GSA on a few Anubias leaves (not all.) There are small amounts of BBA on wood etc. Very very minimal and not noticeable unless you look really hard but it is still there.
That is the goal. Not to eradicate algae completely because that will not happen. It is to make it unnoticeable. Minimise it.
AC
/www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/2768-Chelated-vs-non-chelated-iron
